Aia María [Next Phrase >]

The first line of Aia María, Tolkien’s translation of the Ave Maria prayer. The first word Aia is a variant of aiya “hail”, followed by a Quenyarized form of “Mary”: María. The third word quanta is attested elsewhere with the meaning “full, filled” (PE17/68). The last word Eruanno is a compound of Eru “God” and anna “gift”, in the genitive, so that quanta Eruanno literally means “*full of God’s gift”.

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

Aia María quanta Eru-ann(a)-o = “*Hail Mary full God-gift-of”

Conceptual Development: This phrase was quite similar in earlier versions of this prayer, but the earlier versions used erulissenen instead of Eruanno. This word is a compound of Eru “God” and lissë² “grace”, in the instrumental, so that quanta erulissenen literally means “*filled by God’s grace”.