Our Father
by Ryszard Derdzinski

 

After the publication of J.R.R Tolkien's Quenya translation of Our Father (in Quenya Átaremma) in Vinyar Tengwar #43 I present my Sindarin "translation" of this prayer which is based on Tolkien's text. Compare it with my Ave Maria in Sindarin. Language used here is the Sindarin dialect of Imladris. It is interesting to compare the following text with Attolma - the same prayer translated into Quenya by Patrick Wynne and Carl F. Hostetter - first published in Vinyar Tengwar #32, p. 6.

I want to thank David Salo, Helge Fauskanger, Edward Kloczko and Didier Willis for their help in composing this prayer. The text is followed by a glossary with some linguistic explanations.

 

If you want to hear me reading this text download the sound file in WinZip format (298 KB). And here you will find a beautiful tengwar calligraphy of this prayer by D. Andriës.

Ádarem egor aerlinn na-Eru Phainadar

 

Ádarem i ne menel,
aer ess lîn aen,
árdh lîn tolo,
iest lîn aen
ne menel a ned amar.

 

Si anno i mast vîn órui ammen
ah ammen aranno raegath vîn
be arannam an raegdain vîn,
ah ú-dogo na-vael ammen
dan leithio ammen ed ulug!

 

Amen.
 

 

Glossary:

 

Line 1

 

Ádarem
'Oh Father our'. Invocative form with the vocative particle a, like in A Elbereth Gilthoniel. A Adar gives Ádar. Adarem 'our Father' derives from Sindarin [S] adar 'father' (< *atar < ATA-, see: I 352, LR 349) and from a possesive suffix *-em 'our', deducted after attested forms lammen 'my tongue' (S 363) and guren 'my heart' (VT 41, p. 15). Cf. Átaremma in VT #43.

 

i
'who'. Relative pronoun, see: Dor Firn-i-Guinar (S 367).

 

ne menel
'in heaven'. Noldorin-Quenya loan-word: menel 'firmament, high heavens' (< Q men + el).The form ne menel is modelled after attested Sindarin ned Echuir *'in Spring' (SD 135) without mutation of initial  m- > v-.

 

Line 2

 

aer
'holy'. Adj. *aer 'holy' like in S aerlinn 'hymn, holy song' (R 62, PM 363).

 

ess lîn
'your name'. Form *ess comes from ES- 'indicate, name' (LR 356). The possessive courteous pronoun *lîn was adviced to me by Helge K. Fauskanger.

 

aen
'let it be! be!'. A probable (and again controversive) form of the 'to be' Sindarin imperative. See estathar aen (SD 129, VT 31).

 

Line 3

 

árdh lîn
'Your Kingdom'. The noun ardh 'realm' (< 3AR- 'possess' in LR 360) and an elision: a ardh tolo > árdh tolo - a being a vocative particle. For lîn see ess above.

 

tolo
'come'. Imperative of a possible verb form *tol- 'come' (< TUL- 'come, approach' in LR 395). Maybe better would be here another, attested verb anglenna- 'approach' (SD 129).
 

Line 4

 

iest lîn
'your will'. Compare Noldorin [N] iest 'wish' (< YES- 'desire' - LR 400). For lîn see ess above.

 

Line 5

 

a
'and'. < *AS- 'with'. See ah in Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth (MR 303). Conj. ah was used before vowels. Before consonants it was reduced to a.

 

ned amar
'on the earth'. See amar 'earth' (< MBAR- 'dwell' in LR 372). See ne menel.

 

Line 6

 

Si
'today' (I 406, LB 354).

 

anno
'give'. Imperative of anna- 'give' (< ANA1- 'to, towards' in LR 348).

 

i mass vîn
'our bread'. 'Bread' is in S *bass (< MBAS- in LR 372). It undergoes the soft mutation after the article i, and so: bast > mast. For vîn see above. Cf. massamma 'our bread' in VT #43.

 

órui
'common, daily'. Adjective form of the noun aur 'day' + -ui. In this position au becomes a monophtong o, ó. Maybe it should be ilórui as in P. Wynne's and C.F. Hostetter's Attolma where we can see Q form ilyaurea from ilya 'all, the whole' (LR 361) and *aurea 'of a day' (S 190).

 

ammen
'for us'. See ammen (LotR, LB 354).

 

Line 7

 

ah
'and'. < *AS- 'with'. Conj. ah was used before vowels. See a above.

 

aranno
'forgive'. Verb *arann- was modelled by me after English for-give (See VT #32, p. 8): ar- (< AR2-) + anna- (See anno).

 

raegath
'sins'. Noun *raeg 'evil' was reconstructed after N rhoeg 'wrong' (LR 383). Here with the collective plural ending -ath. See R 66.

 

Line 8

 

be
'as, like'. Very hypothetical after Q ve 'as'.

 

arannam
'we forgive'. See aranno + 1st pers. sg ending -m, as in avam 'we won't' (WJ 371).

 

an raegdain
'to wrong-doers'. See raegath. The noun *raegdan (pl. *raegdain) I recondtructed by adding -dan 'doer' (as in círdan, celerdain, mírdain) to raeg. This form was corrected thanks to Helge Fauskanger.

 

Line 9

 

ú-dogo
'do not lead'. Negative by adding prefix ú- (like in ú-chebin 'I have not kept' in III 307). Soft mutation of t- > d- in the verb *tog- 'draw, bring' (< TUK- 'draw, bring' - LR 395) like in ú-chebin from *hebin 'I keep'.

 

na-vael
'into the lust'. See mael 'lust' + mutation after na- 'towards' (< MIL-IK- LR 373).

 

Line 10

 

dan
'but'. Hypothetical reconstruction after Q nan 'but' (LR 375) < Old Q? *ná, nán < NDAN- 'back'.

 

leithio
'release'. Imperative of leithia- 'release' (< LEK- 'loose, release' - LR 368).

 

ed ulug
'from evil'. Lit. 'from ill fate', Prep. ed means 'out, out of' (WJ 367) < ET- 'forth, out' (LR 356). The word *ulug, reconstructed by me from Quenya [Q] ulcu and this from Q adj. ulca 'bad' (SD 68, 72) could be replaced by úmarth (S 238), like in earlier versions of this text. The form ulug was advised to me by Didier Willis and Helge Fauskanger.

 

Amen
Loan-word from Hebrew, where it means 'indeed'.
 

 

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