Early Quenya
talainen tinwelindon
with wings like stars
Element in
Elements
Word Gloss tala “sail” tinwe “star” Variations
- alainen tinwelindon ✧ PE16/062
- äläinen tinvelindon ✧ PE16/072
- {álainen >>} talainen tinwelindon ✧ PE16/074
Beware, older languages below! The languages below were invented during Tolkien's earlier period and should be used with caution. Remember to never, ever mix words from different languages!
The fourth phrase of the first version of the Oilima Markirya poem (MC/220). The first word is the instrumental form talainen of the noun tala “sail”, followed by the adverbial plural form tinwelindon of the noun tinwe “star”.
Decomposition: Broken into its constituent elements, this phrase would be:
> tala-inen tinwe-li-ndon = “✱sail-with star-(plural)-like”
Conceptual Development: This phrase did not appear until the fourth draft of the poem (OM1d: PE16/62); earlier drafts used the unrelated phrase kirilde tinwelinqe (OM1a-c: PE16/56-7, 60). In the revised phrase, Tolkien first used alainen, the instrumental of otherwise-unattested ala “wing”. He changed it to tala in the sixth draft, and the associated Glossary Commentary made its meaning “sail” clear (OM1f: PE16/74-5). Tolkien did not alter the translation of the entire phrase, in which the word “wing” was presumably poetic license.