valacirca

proper name. Sickle of the Valar

A constellation of seven stars (S/48), the Elvish version of the constellation of the Great Bear (SI/Valacirca), known as the Big Dipper by Americans or the Plough in Britain. It is a compound of Vala and the noun circa “sickle”.

Conceptual Development: A constellation of Seven Stars is mentioned in the earliest Lost Tales (LT1/114). In the Qenya Lexicon, the name ᴱQ. Telpea Kalka “✱Silvern Sickle” is given to the Great Bear (QL/47). The name “Sickle of the Gods" for this constellation emerged in Silmarillion drafts from the 1930s (LR/212), and its Quenya name ᴹQ. Valakirka appears in The Etymologies from the same period (Ety/KIRIK). The Quenya name Valacirca did not appear in the tales themselves until Silmarillion revisions from the 1950s-60s (MR/71).

Valacirca

sickle of the gods

Valacirca noun "Sickle of the Gods", a name of the Great Bear (Big Dipper) constellation (SA:val-, MR:388, KIRIK, OT/OTOS/OTOK)