lanta

fall

lanta (1) noun "a fall" (DAT/DANT (TALÁT) ), also lantë.

lanta-

verb. to fall, to fall; [ᴱQ.] to drop

The Quenya verb for “to fall”, dating all the way back to the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s, though in that document it had the form ᴱQ. lant- and the additional gloss “drop” (QL/51). In the Qenya Lexicon it was derived from the early root ᴱ√LANTAN [LṆTṆ], but in The Etymologies of the 1930s Tolkien changed the root {ᴹ√LANTA >>} ᴹ√DA(N)T “fall down” as the basis for ᴹQ. lanta- “to fall” (Ety/DAT; EtyAC/LANTA). Q. lanta- “fall” appeared regularly in Tolkien’s later writings as well (MC/222; PE17/62; VT49/47), most notably in the Namárië poem in its first phrase: ai! laurië lantar lassi súrinen “ah! like gold fall the leaves in the wind” (LotR/377).

The word lanta was occasionally used as a noun for “a fall”; see that entry for discussion.

Neo-Quenya: In Tolkien’s later writings, lanta- was used only for intransitive “fall”. However, we have no Quenya verbs for transitive “drop” other than 1910s ᴱQ. lant-, so I would assume that lanta- can be used this way as well for purposes of Neo-Quenya (QL/51). For example, lantan “I fall” vs. lantan i macil “I drop [make fall] the sword”.

lanta-

fall

lanta- (2) "fall" (DAT/DANT (TALÁT), Narqelion, VT45:26, VT49:54); lantar aorist tense pl. (Nam, RGEO:66); pl. pa.t. lantaner "fell" (pl.) (SD:246); lantier "they fell", a plural past tense of lanta- "fall" occurring in LR:47; read probably lantaner in LotR-style Quenya, as in SD:246. Also sg. lantië "fell" (LR:56); read likewise *lantanë? (The forms in -ier, -ië seem to be properly perfects.) Future tense lantuva, VT49:47. Participle lantala "falling" (with locative ending: lantalassë) in Markirya.

lanta-mindon

fallen-towers

lanta-mindon Qenya pl. noun "fallen-towers"; inflected compound lanta-ránar "in falling-moon" (with pre-classical locative -r) (MC:214; these forms are "Qenya")

lantë

fall

#lantë (1) noun "fall" in Noldolantë, q.v. Also lanta.

lantë

noun. fall

A noun for “fall” appearing as an element of the title Noldolantë “Fall of the Noldor” (S/87).

Neo-Quenya: The word lasse-lanta “leaf-fall” (LotR/1107) indicates the noun for “a fall” should be lanta, which is also how the noun appears in The Etymologies of the 1930s (Ety/DAT). However, there is an alternate form lassewinta “leaf fall” in drafts of the Lord of the Rings appendices (PM/376) where the second element seems to be the infinitive of the verb winta-, so perhaps lasselanta also includes the infinitive of the verb lanta- “to fall”.

The form lantë more strongly resembles other Quenya nouns, which more often end in -e rather than -a. As such, I prefer lantë over lanta as the independent noun for “a fall”.

lantar

fall

-r plural ending used on verbs with a plural subject (VT49:48, 50, 51), e.g. lantar "fall" in Namárië (with the plural subject lassi "leaves"), or unduláver as the pl. form of undulávë "licked down, covered" (PE17:72). The ending is sometimes missing where we might expect it; for instance, the verb tarnë "stood" has multiple subjects and yet does not appear as *tarner in PE17:71.

isilmë lantalassë

in the moon falling

The ninteenth line of the Markirya poem (MC/222). The first word is isilmë “moonlight” followed by the active-participle (“-ing”) of the verb lanta- “to fall” with the locative suffix -ssë (“in”), which modifies the entire phrase, as suggested by Helge Fauskanger (AL/Markirya).

Decomposition: Broken into its constituent elements, this phrase would be:

> isilmë lanta-la-ssë = “✱moonlight fall-ing-in”

lasselanta

leaf-fall = autumn

lasselanta noun "leaf-fall = Autumn" (DAT/DANT, LAS1, Narqelion, LT1:254; "lasse-lanta" in VT45:24, but again lasselanta in VT45:26)

lasselanta

noun. (late) autumn, (lit.) leaf-fall, (late) autumn, (lit.) leaf-fall; [ᴹQ.] October

(taure)lanta

noun. clearing, open space in the forest

A neologism for “clearing, open space in the forest” coined by Luinyelle posted on 2025-05-09 in the Vinyë Lambengolmor Discord Server (VLDS), a combination of taurë “forest” and lanta, the Quenya equivalent of [N.] lhant “clearing in the forest”.

lant

noun. fall

lant

fall

_(noun) _1) #lant (pl. laint, coll. pl. lannath). This is apparently a Quenya borrowing, dant being the native Sindarin word. Note: a homophone means ”clearing in forest”. 2) pend (i bend, o phend; construct pen) (declivity), pl. pind (i phind), coll. pl. pennath. 3)

lant

fall

(pl. laint, coll. pl. lannath). This is apparently a Quenya borrowing, dant being the native Sindarin word. Note: a homophone means ”clearing in forest”. 2) pend (i bend, o phend; construct pen) (declivity), pl. pind (i phind), coll. pl. pennath. 3)

danna-

verb. to fall

A Sindarin verb for “fall” in Notes on Galadriel’s Song (NGS) from the late 1950s or early 1960s, cognate to Q. lanta- and derived from √DAN-TA (PE17/62). Elsewhere the root for “fall down” was √DAT (VT47/29; VT48/24; Ety/DAT), so √DAN-TA was probably a nasal-infixed variant of the root; compare ᴹ√DAT vs. ᴹ√DANT from The Etymologies of the 1930s (Ety/DAT). In Sindarin, medial ancient nt became nn, so ✱danta- > S. danna-.

Conceptual Development: The Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s had G. {lanta- >>} lantha- “fall onto, settle on, alight” (GL/52). It had a past form lantathi with a light pencil stroke through it indicating was thus tentatively rejected. This Gnomish verb is clearly cognate to ᴱQ. lant- “drop, fall” from the contemporaneous Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s under the early root ᴱ√LANTAN [LṆTṆ] (QL/51).

The Etymologies of the 1930s had the root {ᴹ√LANT >>} ᴹ√DAT or ᴹ√DANT “fall down” (Ety/DAT, TALÁT; EtyAC/LANTA). Under the entry for ᴹ√DAT, Tolkien had N. dant- “to fall” with passive participle dannen “fallen” (Ety/DAT). Likely N. dant- was a stem form which would become dann- when inflected, since in Noldorin of the 1930s and 40s ancient medial nt also became nn, as it did in Sindarin.

danna

fall

_ v. _fall. Q. lanta-.

danna-

verb. to fall

Written dant- in the Etymologies

dant

noun. fall

danna

fall

(verb) ?danna- (i dhanna, i nannar), pa.t. dant, past participle ("fallen") dannen, pl. dennin.

danna

fall

(i dhanna, i nannar), pa.t. dant, past participle ("fallen") dannen, pl. dennin.

dant

fall, falling

(i dhant) (autumn), pl. daint (i naint), also (and maybe particularly when the meaning is "autumn") dannas (i dhannas), pl. dannais (i nannais) (PM:135)

dath

steep fall

(i dhath) (hole, pit, abyss), pl. daith (i naith) (VT45:8).

dû

nightfall

(i dhû) (night, dusk, late evening, darkness), pl. dui (i nui) (SD:302)

lanthir

waterfall

(no distinct pl. form). Coll. pl. lanthiriath.

lasbelin

noun. leaf-fall, autumn

dant-

verb. to fall

lhasbelin

noun. leaf-fall, autumn

dant-

verb. to fall

Written dant- in the Etymologies

dot

root. drop, fall