Select Elvish Words: 14.73 Year

14.73 Year

Q. coranar (coranár-) n. “[sidereal] year, (lit.) sun-round”

A word for a “year” in The Lord of the Rings appendices, a combination of √KOR “round” and Anar “Sun” so more literally “sun-round” (LotR/1107). Its plural form coranári appeared in drafts to the appendices, giving it a stem form of coranár-.

Tolkien specified that a coranar was a year “when considered more or less astronomically”, so likely referred to the period of time when the world rotated around the Sun relative to the fixed stars, which more technically is a sidereal year. It was contrasted with löa which is a year when “the seasonal changes in vegetation were considered”, which is more technically a tropical year. The two periods are very close, but not exactly the same due to the precision of the equinoxes. The Elves were likely aware of this distinction due to their long lives and attention to the stars, but in ordinary use the coranar and löa are basically the same.

Q. haranyë n. “century (100 years)”

A word for a Númenórean century of 100 years (LotR/1108), contrasted with yén which is an Elvish century of 144 years.

Conceptual Development: Drafts of The Lord of the Rings appendices instead had ᴹQ. quantiën “full year” for 100 years, and in that document a yén was also 100 years (PM/126). In The Etymologies of the 1930s, a qantien (= qanta “full” + yén “year”) was the name of the last day of the year, because in that document a yén was an ordinary solar year (Ety/YEN). In Tolkien’s later writings, the last day of the year was Mettarë (LotR/1108-9).

Q. löa n. “(seasonal) year, (lit.) (time of) growth, blooming”

The usual word for a “(seasonal) year” as a period of 365 days reflecting the turn of the seasons (LotR/1107; UT/327; MR/471). An Elvish löa begins in the spring (LotR/1107; PE17/159). It refers to the year “when the seasonal changes in vegetation were considered” (LotR/1107) may be contrasted with a coranar “sun-round” which is year in the astronomical terms. More accurately it means a “(time of) growth, blooming”, and is derived from the root √LAW “flourish [of plants]” (PM/126; PE17/159; VT42/10).

A löa may also be contrasted with a yén, which is an Elvish long year of 144 years. For an Elf, a single solar year would not be a great length of time, and the age of an Elf is only measured in löa during childhood. An adult Elf (of a few centuries in age) would count their age in yén, and when saying “for years” in the sense of “for a long time”, an Elf would say ýeni instead of löar.

Conceptual Development: In the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s, ᴱQ. loa was derived from the early root ᴱ√LAWA also having to do with the growth of plants, but it meant “life” and was an alternate name of ᴱQ. Vána (QL/52). Its use for “year” did not emerge until notes from 1948 in words like elloa “next year” and nóloa “yesteryear” (PE22/124). See the entry for yén for earlier words that meant “(solar) year”.

Q. yén n. “Elvish long year (144 solar years)”

An Elvish “long year”, equivalent to 144 solar years (LotR/1107; PE17/62), more or less an Elvish century. Technically a yén is 52,596 days (LotR/1107), since the average length of a years is 365.25 days. It is the usual way of measuring the age of Elvish adults (NM/84-85). Given the long lifespan of Elves, a solar year (löa) is not really a great deal of time, so when an Elf wants to say “for years” meaning “a long time”, they use yéni as in the Namárië poem: yéni únótimë ve rámar aldaron “long years numberless as the wings of trees” (LotR/377).

Conceptual Development: This word first appeared in The Etymologies of the 1930s under the root ᴹ√YEN “year”, but in that document referred to an ordinary solar year (Ety/YEN). Sometime around 1948 Tolkien introduced the word löa for a solar year (PE22/124), and in drafts of the The Lord of the Rings appendices lengthened a yén to 100 years (PM/126) and then later 144 years given the Elves fondness for numbers divisible by six and twelve. Tolkien briefly used yén for an ordinary year in the first draft of the Löa Yucainen poem from 1958, but soon revised it to löa (CPT/1296-1298).

In Tolkien’s earliest writings, the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s had ᴱQ. lúmen “year” under the early root ᴱ√LUHU having to do with time (QL/56) and ᴱQ. rin (rind-) “year, circle” under the early root ᴱ√RINI having to do with circles (QL/80). The contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s gave ᴱQ. latta as the cognate of G. lath “year” (GL/53).

N. edinar n. “anniversary day”

A word for “anniversary day” in The Etymologies of the 1930s, a combination of N. ad- “again”, N. în “year”, and N. ar “day”, derived from primitive ᴹ✶atyēnar (Ety/YEN).

Neo-Sindarin: For purposes of Neo-Sindarin, many writers update this word to ᴺS. edinor to be better compatible with the later word S. aur for “day”, as suggested in Hiswelókë’s Sindarin Dictionary (HSD).

Conceptual Development: The Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s had G. rain “anniversary, year complete” (GL/64), perhaps based on the early root ᴱ√RINI having to do with circles.

N. ennin n. “Valian year, *(lit.) long year”

A word for a “Valian year” in The Etymologies of the 1930s, a combination of ann “long” and în “year” so more literally “*long year” (Ety/YEN).

Neo-Sindarin: The length of a Valian year varied in Tolkien’s writing, but was generally about 10 normal years in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. Since the concept of a Valian year is of little consequence to the culture of the Sindar as Tolkien imagined them in the 1950s and 60s, I tend to interpret ennin as an “Elvish long year” of 144 normal years, which in Quenya is expressed by Q. yén. See the entry for S. în for further discussion.

N. idhrin n. “year, *(lit.) year-circle”

A word appearing as N. iðrin “year” in The Etymologies of the 1930s derived from primitive ᴹ✶ı̯en-rinde as a combination of în “year” and rhinn “circle” (Ety/RIN, YEN), where the combination [nr] became [ðr] and the final nd > nn > n.

Neo-Sindarin: Many Neo-Sindarin writers update this word to ᴺS. idhrinn as suggested in Hiswelókë’s Sindarin Dictionary (HSD), since two-syllable words in Sindarin often retain final nn rather than reducing it to single n.

S. în n. “year”

A Sindarin word for “year”, derived from the primitive root ᴹ√YEN¹ of similar meaning, with its vowel sound the result of a long [ē] becoming [ī].

Conceptual Development: The word în first appeared in The Etymologies from the 1930s with the gloss and derivation given above. It did not directly appear in Tolkien’s later writings, but was an element in several later words such as S. ínias “annals” and S. ifant “aged” (lit. “year full”). Furthermore, its Quenya cognate yén did reappear in the Lord of the Rings appendices.

In The Etymologies, both N. în and ᴹQ. yén were glossed “year”, and there were other words for longer periods of time, such as ᴹQ. qantien “century, (lit.) full year” and N. anrand “cycle, age”. In the Lord of the Rings and other later writings, Tolkien changed the meaning of Q. yén to an “Elvish long year” or “Elvish century” of 144 years. It is possible that S. în also changed to this meaning, but we have no direct confirmation of this.

The Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s had two different words for “year”: G. fann “a year” (GL/34) and G. lath “a year” (GL/53), the latter with a difficult-to-read Qenya cognate ᴱQ. latta.

Neo-Sindarin: Many Neo-Sindarin writers continue to use în with the sense “year” (that is, a solar year of 365 days). I prefer to assume that ancient *yēn was simply a Primitive Elvish word for a great length of time when the world had no sun and moon. As such, I assume its meaning diverged in Quenya and Sindarin, with Quenya yén being used for the “long year” in the Uttermost West, but being used for a solar year among the Sindar. I use [N.] ennin “long year” as the (Neo) Sindarin equivalent of Q. yén.

If you assume S. în has the same meaning as Q. yén (= 144 years), you might instead use a neologism for a solar year, such as ᴺS. lóran or ᴺS. coranor.

N. penninar n. “full year (last day of year)”

The word penninar for the last day of year appeared in The Etymologies of the 1930s, a combination of N. pant “full”, N. în “year”, and N. ar “day” (Ety/YEN), more literally “full year [day]”.

Neo-Sindarin: For purposes of Neo-Sindarin, many writers update this word to ᴺS. penninor “full year (last day of year), *new year’s eve” to be better compatible with the later word S. aur for “day”, as suggested in Hiswelókë’s Sindarin Dictionary (HSD).