poldórea

adjective. strong, strong-bodied, strong, strong-bodied, [ᴱQ.] muscular, powerful

A word appearing in The Etymologies of the 1930s as an unglossed adjective form of ᴹQ. poldore under the root ᴹ√POL(OD) “physically strong” (Ety/POL). In the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s Tolkien translated ᴱQ. poldōrea as “muscular” under the early root ᴱ√POLO “have strength” (QL/75) and in Early Qenya Word-lists of the 1920s it was translated as “️powerful” (PE16/137). In the Quenya Verbal System (QVS) of 1948 Tolkien used this word in two phrases: ᴹQ. mólome mára poldóreain “hard work (is) good for the strong-bodied” and ᴹQ. ha mólome a·ndake poldórear “it is hard work to kill the strong” (PE22/123 note #130). The section where these two phrases appeared was rejected, but this rejection had to do with a change in the verb “to be” and not this adjective for “strong”.

The most notable use of this adjective was as a sobriquet for Tulkas dating all the way back to the 1910s, which Tolkien translated as “Strong One” (SM/79) or “Valiant” (LR/206). This sobriquet survived until Silmarillion drafts of the 1950s, where Tolkien revised it to Astaldo “Valiant” (MR/149). Despite this change, I think poldórea might be retained for “strong of body, muscular”, since √POL continued to appear in Tolkien’s writings in connection to physical ability.

poldórea

masculine name. Strong One, Valiant