lasto

imp

v. imp. of lasta-give ear, listen. fennas nogothrim lasto beth lammen 'doorway of the Dwarf-folk listen to the words of my tongue'. >> lasta-

lasto

verb. listen!

lasto

interjection. listen, *hark

lasta-

verb. listen

_ v. _listen, give ear. Q. lasta-. >> lasto

lasta-

verb. to listen, give ear

lasta-

verb. to listen

si loth a galadh lasto dîn

*here flower and tree listen [in] silence

The third phrase of Lúthien’s Song (LB/354). Three translations of this phrase are:

• Patrick Wynne: “✱Here/now let flower and tree listen in silence/below” (NTTLS/11)

• David Salo: “✱now flower and tree, listen silent” (GS/211)

• Bertrand Bellet and Benjamin Babut: “✱then flower and tree, listen in silence” (GTLC)

The first word si resembles the Sindarin word sí “here”, though that word usually appears with a long vowel. All of Wynne, Salo, Bellet and Babut suggested instead that it might in this particular case be used temporally like its Quenya cognate Q. sí “now”. However, in notes published after all of their analyses, Tolkien stated that S. sí only meant “here”, and used hí for “now” (PE17/27). I think it is safer to assume that si means “here”.

The second word is loth “flower” joined by the conjunction a “and” to galadh “tree”. The fifth word lasto is the imperative form of the verb lasta- “to listen”. The last word is probably the noun dîn “silence”, though Wynne suggested it might be some form of di “beneath” (NTTLS/9).

fennas nogothrim, lasto beth lammen

doorway of the Dwarf-folk listen to the word of my tongue

lasta

listen

lasta- (i lasta, i lastar),

lasta

listen

(i lasta, i lastar)

avgaro

prefix. imp

pref. & v. imp. do not do it!

cuio

verb. imp

v. imp. live. Cuio i Pheriain anann 'May the Halflings live long'.

edro

verb. imp

v. imp. of edra-open. annon edhellen edro hi ammen! 'Elvish gate open now for us'. >> edra-

eglerio

verb. imp

v. imp. glorify.

lathra-

verb. to listen in, eavesdrop

lathrada-

verb. to listen in, eavesdrop

minno

verb. imp

v. imp. of minna- enter. Pedo mellon a minno! 'Say friend and enter'. >> minna-

pedo

verb. imp

v. imp. of ped- say. Pedo mellon a minno! 'Say friend and enter'. >> ped-

tíro

verb. imp

_ v. imp. _look. >> tíria, tirith

lathra

listen in

(eavesdrop) (i lathra, i lathrar), also lathrada (i lathrada, i lathradar)

las

root. listen

This root did not appear as the basis of “listen” words until The Etymologies of the 1930s, where Tolkien gave ᴹ√LAS “listen” as opposed to ᴹ√LAS “leaf” (Ety/LAS¹, LAS²). One of its derivatives was N. lhewig “ear” (from fossilized dual lhaw). Tolkien apparently wanted to retain this form in his later writings after deciding that initial l was no longer unvoiced in Sindarin, so he coined a variant s-fortified root √SLAS “ear” from which it could still be derived (PE17/62, PE17/77). The unfortified root √LAS “listen” continued to appear, however (PE17/46; PE19/101), as indicated by imperative S. lasto “listen” (LotR/307). Tolkien did speculate that the roots √LAS¹ “leaf” and √LAS² “listen” might ultimately be related, probably because of the similarity of the shape of Elvish ears and the leaves of trees:

> lasse “leaf” (S las); pl. lassi (S lais). It is only applied to certain kinds of leaves, especially those of trees, and would not e.g. be used of leaf of a hyacinth (linque). It is thus possibly related to √LAS “listen”, and S-LAS stem of Elvish words for “ear”: Q hlas, dual hlaru. Sindarin dual lhaw, singular lheweg (PE17/62).

A similar notion appeared in The Etymologies: “Some think this [ᴹ√LAS¹ ‘leaf’] is related to the next [ᴹ√LAS² ‘listen’] and ✱lassē ‘ear’. The Quendian ears were more pointed and leaf-shaped than [?human]” (Ety/LAS¹).

lasta-

verb. listen

lasta- vb. "listen", also lasta adj. "listening, hearing" (LAS2, PE17:56); cf. adj. asalastë (*aþa-) adj. "easily heard" (PE17:148)

lasta-

verb. to listen, to listen; [ᴹQ.] to hear

lhathra-

verb. to listen in, eavesdrop

lhathrada-

verb. to listen in, eavesdrop