Eldamo : Early Quenya : ilwe

ᴱQ. ilwe n. “sky, heavens” (Category: Sky, Heavens)

⚠️ᴱQ. ilwë, n. “sky, heavens” (Category: Sky, Heavens): Q. menel “the heavens, firmament, sky”

A noun in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s described as “sky, heavens, the blue air that is about the stars, the middle layers”, derived from the root ᴱ√ILU “ether, the slender airs among the stars” (QL/42). Hence it was above the lower airs (where people breathed) and below the upper airs (outer space); this arrangement of lower, middle, upper airs is one that Tolkien eventually abandoned in his later writings.

References ✧ GL/50; LBI/Ilwë; LT1/85, 127; LT1A/Ilwë, Vilna; LT1I/Ilwë; LT2I/Ilwë; PME/42; QL/42; SMI/Ilwë

Glosses

“Middle Air” ✧ LT1I/Ilwë
“middle air that flows among the stars” ✧ LBI/Ilwë
“sky, heavens” ✧ LT1A/Ilwë; QL/42
“the middle air among the stars” ✧ LT1A/Vilna

Variations

ilwe ✧ GL/50; LBI/Ilwë; LT1/85; LT1/127; LT1A/Ilwë; LT1A/Vilna; LT1I/Ilwë; LT2I/Ilwë; PME/42; QL/42; SMI/Ilwë

ilu has in this context the sense of ilwë “the middle air among the stars” ✧ LT1A/Vilna

Inflections

ilwe-

stem

✧ QL/42

Element In

ᴱQ. ilweran(ta) “bridge of heaven, rainbow” ✧ LT1A/Ilweran (Ilweran); QL/42 (ilweran)

Cognates

G. ilwint “sky, heavens; (lit.) face of god” ✧ GL/50; LT1A/Ilwë

Derivations

< ᴱ√ILU “ether, the slender airs among the stars” ✧ QL/42

Phonetic Developments

ᴱ√ILU > ilwe

[iluē] > [ilue] > [ilwe]

✧ QL/42