Q. a Aina Neldië Eru Er órava (o)messë “Holy Trinity, one God, have mercy on us”

Q. a Aina Neldië Eru Er órava (o)messë “Holy Trinity, one God, have mercy on us”

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The ninth line of Tolkien’s Quenya translation of the Litany of Loreto prayer (VT44/12). The first word is the vocative a “O” followed by aina Neldië = “holy Trinity”. The fourth word Eru is Tolkien’s usual Quenya name for God. The fifth word is er “one”, emphasizing the one-ness of the Trinity. The phrase órava (o)messe “have mercy on us” was abbreviated o.o. in the original, but presumably was the same as in earlier lines of the prayer; see the entry for the first line for discussion.

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

a Aina Neldië Eru Er órava (o)me-sse = “*o Holy Trinity, God one have-mercy us-on”

Conceptual Development: Tolkien first wrote an adjectival form Erea before changing it to Er as a way of emphasizing the one-ness of the Trinity (VT44/17).

Reference ✧ VT44/12 ✧ A Aina Neldie Eru {Erea >>} Er órava (o)messe “Holy Trinity, one God, have mercy on us”

Elements

“O, Oh” ✧ VT44/15
aina “holy, revered, numinous” ✧ VT44/17
Neldië “*Trinity” ✧ VT44/17
Eru “The One, God” ✧ VT44/17
er “one, alone” ✧ VT44/17
órava- “*to have mercy” aorist ✧ VT44/14
me “us (exclusive)” locative ✧ VT44/15 ((o)messe)

Element In