Q. alcar i Ataren ar i Yondon ar i Airefëan “glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit”

Q. alcar i Ataren ar i Yondon ar i Airefëan “glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit”

Alcar i Ataren [Next Phrase >]


The first line of Alcar i Ataren, Tolkien’s translation of the Gloria Patri prayer. The first word is alcar “glory” followed by dative clauses: i Ataren “for the Father” (atar¹ dative), ar i Yondon “and for the Son” (yondo dative), ar i Airefean “and for the Holy Spirit” (Airefëa dative).

Decomposition: Broken into its constituent elements, this phrase would be:

alcar i Atar-en ar i Yondo-n ar i Aire-fea-n = “*glory [be] Father-to and the Son-to and the holy-spirit-to”

Conceptual Development: Before airefean, Tolkien first wrote and rejected faire aistan, the first word meaning “spirit” and the second a dative form of the adjective aista “holy”.

Reference ✧ VT43/36 ✧ Alcar i ataren ar i yondon ar i {faire aistan >>} airefean

Elements

alcar “glory, splendour, radiance, brilliance” ✧ VT43/37
“the” ✧ VT43/37; VT43/37; VT43/37
atar¹ “father” dative ✧ VT43/37 (ataren)
ar “and” ✧ VT43/36
“the” ✧ VT43/37; VT43/37; VT43/37
yondo “son, boy” dative ✧ VT43/37 (yondon)
“the” ✧ VT43/37; VT43/37; VT43/37
Airefëa “Holy Spirit” dative ✧ VT43/37 (airefean)
fairë “spirit (disembodied), phantom; †radiance” ✧ VT43/37
aista “*holy” dative ✧ VT43/37 (aistan)

Element In