ᴱQ. silmeráno tindon “shining in the silver moon”
The twelfth phrase of the first version of the Oilima Markirya poem (MC/220). Its first word is the genitive form of silmerána “gleaming moon” followed by the aorist 3rd-plural masculine form of the verb tini- “to shine, gleam”. The subject of this phrase is actually ondolin “rocks” appearing in the previous phrase, with the genitive silmeráno giving the context in which the rocks shine. A more literal translation would be “*of the gleaming moon they shine”.
Decomposition: Broken into its constituent elements, this phrase would be:
silme-rán-o tin-don = “*gleaming-moon-of shine-they”
Conceptual Development: This phrase appeared in the fourth draft of this poem as no silmerána tindon, with no “under” serving the same role as the genitive (OM1d: PE16/62), hence “*under the gleaming moon they shine”. Tolkien switched to the final form of the phrase in the sixth draft (OM1f: PE16/74).
References ✧ MC/220; PE16/62, 72, 74
Glosses
Variations
Elements
silmerána | “gleaming moon, silver moon” | genitive | ✧ MC/220 (Silmeráno); PE16/62; PE16/72 (silmeraana); PE16/74 (silmeráno) |
tini- | “to gleam, shine as a star” | aorist 3rd-pl-masc | ✧ MC/220 (tindon); PE16/62 (tindon); PE16/72 (tindon); PE16/74 (tindon) |
nu | “under” | ✧ PE16/62 (no); PE16/72 (no); PE16/74 (no) |
Element In