valimar

place name. Dwelling of the Valar

City of the Valar within Aman (S/38), a compound of Vali, an archaic plural of Vala, and már “home” (SA/val, bar). It also appeared in the shorter form Valmar, which was used more frequently in The Silmarillion. The long form Valimar was used in Galadriel’s Namárië poem (LotR/377), where it was equated to the whole of the land of Valinórë.

Conceptual Development: The name ᴱQ. Valmar appears in the earliest Lost Tales with essentially the same form and meaning (LT1/74), and ᴹQ. Valmar appeared in Silmarillion drafts from the 1930s (SM/12, 80; LR/111, 209). The form ᴹQ. Valimar first appeared in drafts of the Namárië poem from the 1940s (TI/285).

vala

noun. (Angelic) Power, ‘God’, Authority, (Angelic) Power, Authority, God

Valarindi

offspring of the valar, their children begotten in arda

Valarindi pl. noun "offspring of the Valar, their children begotten in Arda" (sg. #Valarindë). (MR:49). Compare indi.

valar ar maiar fantaner nassentar fanainen ve quenderinwe coar ar larmar

Valar and Maiar cloaked their true-being in veils, like to Elvish bodies and raiment

valar valuvar

the will of the Valar will be done

Valandor

the land of the valar

Valandor place-name "the land of the Valar", confused with and replaced by Valinórë "the people of the Valar", short form Valinor (SA:dôr, Silm)

valandor Archaic

place name. Land of the Valar

An archaic name for Valinórë (SA/dôr, PE17/26), a compound of Vala and the suffix -ndor “land”.

vala-

verb. to have [divine] power

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).

lambë valarinwa

Language of the Valar

lan i valaron arcanwar tauvar

*while the thrones of the Valar endure

nasser ar cenime cantar valaron ar maiaron

The Natures and Visible Shapes of the Valar and Maiar

oromë valaron minya omennë ye eldar

Orome first of (the) Valar met the Elves

valinórë

place name. Land of the Valar

Land of the Valar within Aman (S/37), a compound of Vali, an archaic plural of Vala, and nórë “land” (SA/val, dôr). It usually appeared in the shorter form Valinor. In older Quenya, this name would have meant “Valian folk”, but it was blended with archaic Valandor to get its current meaning (PE17/20, SA/dôr).

Conceptual Development: The name ᴱQ. Valinor appears in the earliest Lost Tales with essentially the same form and meaning (LT1/70), and its long form Valinōre appeared in the Qenya Lexicon (QL/66). The name ᴹQ. Valinor appeared in Silmarillion drafts from the 1930s (SM/12, 80; LR/110, 205), and in The Etymologies it already had the same derivation as given above (Ety/BAL, NDOR).

In the earlier stages, the name Aman had not yet been invented, so Valinor referred to the entire land of the West, not just the land of the Valar within it.

See ✶Bali(a)nōrē for a discussion of its complex etymology.

Oromë

the eldar now take the name to singify 'horn-blowing' or 'horn-blower', but to the valar it had no such meaning

Oromë noun name of a Vala, adopted and adapted from Valarin. Observes Pengolodh, "the Eldar now take the name to singify 'horn-blowing' or 'horn-blower', but to the Valar it had no such meaning" (WJ:400-401, cf. SA:rom and ROM, TÁWAR in Etym, VT14:5). Genitive Oromëo and possessive Oroméva in WJ:368. _._Loose compound Oromë róma "an Oromë horn", sc. "one of Orome's horns (if he had more than one)" (WJ:368). A deleted entry in the Etymologies cited the name as Orómë with a long middle vowel (VT45:15). Oromendil, masc. name *"Friend of Oromë" (UT:210)

Valaquenta

account of the valar

Valaquenta noun "Account of the Valar" (SA:val-). See quenta.

Valinor

the land (or people) of the valar

Valinor place-name "the land (or people) of the Valar", *"Vali-land" (Vali = Valar), land of the Gods in the West (BAL, NDOR); cf. Valandor. Full form Valinórë (BAL; Vali-nórëunder NDOR).Said to be "the true Eldarin name of Aman", the latter name being explained as a borrowing from Valarin in some versions of the linguistic scenario (VT49:26). In the early "Qenya Lexicon", Valinor, Valinórë is glossed "Asgard", the name of the city of the gods in Norse mythology (LT1:272). It seems that in such more restricted use, Valinor is not the entire Blessed Realm but rather the specific region beyond the Pelóri where (most of) the Valar dwelt, with Val(i)mar as the chief city. Thus it is said of Eärendil that he "went into Valinor and to the halls of Valimar" only after he had already left his ship and ventured as far as Tirion (Silmarillion, chapter 24). Possessive Valinóreva in Nurtalë Valinóreva, the "Hiding of Valinor", the possessive case here assuming the function of object genitive (Silm); genitive Valinórëo in Yénië Valinórëo "Annals of Valinor" (MR:200; the last word was changed from Valinóren, Tolkien revising the genitive ending from -n to -o)

indi

offspring of the valar

indi pl. noun, apparently a name of Men, hardly valid in Tolkien's later Quenya (LT2:343). Compare, however, the final element of Valarindi "Offspring of the Valar", suggesting that #indi can be used for "offspring" (the Quenya word is apparently plural). It may be that in Valarindi, a h has dropped out following r, and that the independent word would be *hindi (as a variant of -hín, -híni "children").

limpë

(wine), drink of the valar

limpë noun "(wine), drink of the Valar" (LIP), cf. the early "Qenya" gloss"drink of the fairies" (LT1:258)

máhan

proper name. one of the eight chiefs of the Valar

A title for the chiefs of the Valar, equivalent to Aratar (WJ/399). It was an adaptation of the Valarin word māχanāz “authority” (WJ/402), as opposed to Aratar which was a translation of that Valarin word.

mánë

spirit that has gone to the valar or to erumáni

mánë noun "a spirit that has gone to the Valar or to Erumáni" (LT1:260)

númenyaron

of the lords [valar] of the west

númenyaron inflected adj. used as noun?, a word occurring in a phrase from an earlier version of Fíriel's Song, Valion númenyaron, "of the Lords [Valar] of the West". But númenyaron cannot simply mean "of the West"; it seems to be the plural genitive of númenya "western", hence literally *"of the western (things, persons, realms)" or "of the Westerners".

valaina

of or belonging to the valar, divine

valaina adj. "of or belonging to the Valar, divine" (BAL)

valandil

masculine name. Lover of the Valar

The first lord of Andúnië (LotR/1035) and the third king of Arnor (LotR/1038). This name is a compound of Vala and the suffix -(n)dil “-friend” (Let/386).

Conceptual Development: In the early stories of the Fall of Númenor, the name ᴹQ. Valandil was given to the brother or father of Elendil (LR/33, 60) and in Lord of the Rings drafts from the 1940s it was sometimes used as the name of Elendil himself (RS/169, 270-1). In these early writings, this name was glossed “God-friend” (LR/60), and it also appeared in The Etymologies of the 1930s under the root ᴹ√N(D)IL with the gloss “Godwine” (EtyAC/NIL).

valaquenta

proper name. Account of the Valar

Name of the second section of the Silmarillion (S/25-32), a compound of Vala and quenta “account” (SA/val, quen).

balannor

place name. Land of the Valar

Sindarin cognate of Q. Valinórë (PE17/26), a compound of BAL “power” (basis for S. Balan “Vala”) with S. dôr “land”.

Conceptual Development: The first cognates of ᴱQ. Valinor appeared in the Gnomish Lexicon from the 1910s: (rejected) G. Dor Banion and G. Gwalien (GL/21, LT2A/Valar). In The Etymologies of the 1930s, the cognate was N. Balannor (Ety/BAL), and this is the source of the derivation given above.

In a letter from 1972, Tolkien stated that Belain (plural of Balan) was not a word in Sindarin (Let/427). Furthermore, in Silmarillion revisions from the 1950s-60s, he changed the Sindarin name for the “Annals of Valinor” from N. Inias Valannor to S. Ínias Dor-Rodyn (MR/200). It is possible that Tolkien decided that the normal Sindarin word for the Vala was S. Rodon, so that S. Dor-Rodyn was the equivalent of Valinor.

Balannor

'the Land of the Valar'

topon. 'the Land of the Valar'. Q. Valandor.

dor-rodyn

place name. *Land of the Valar

A Sindarin name for Q. Valinórë (MR/200). This name is a combination of dôr “land” and the plural Rodyn of Rodon “Vala”, also seen in the Sindarin name for the last day of the Elvish week: Rodyn (LotR/1110). This name may have replaced the earlier name Balannor; see that entry for discussion.

avar

noun. the Avari, Elves who refused the invitation of the Valar

This plural name was known to the loremasters, but went out of daily use at the time of the Exile

orbelain

noun. sixth day of the week, day of the Powers or Valar

orbelain

noun. *Day of the Valar, Friday

arvelain

noun. *Day of the Valar