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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 tala² “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 ala² “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.