Glǽmscrafu - Ae Adar nín

     	Ae Adar nín i vi Menel	Our Father, who art in Heaven,
    	no aer i eneth lín	hallowed be Thy Name.
   	tolo i arnad lín	Thy Kingdom come,
    	caro den i innas lin	Thy Will be done,
     :	bo Ceven sui vi Menel.	on Earth, as it is in Heaven.
     	Anno ammen sír imbas ilaurui vín	Give us this day our daily bread,
     	ar díheno ammen i úgerth vin	and forgive us our trespasses,
         ⸱:⸱	sui mín i gohenam di ai gerir úgerth ammen.	as we forgive those who trespass against us.

Commentary

In the 50s, Tolkien made this translation of the Pater noster into Sindarin, that was published and commented in Vinyar Tengwar n° 44.

Facing it is the corresponding part of the traditional English version from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, still used by the Catholic Church – with the final doxology not included, but used afterwards as a liturgical element during the Mass. This must have been the version familiar to Tolkien.

The Sindarin text’s meaning is very close. In particular, the word úgerth used in the fifth petition refers to bad deeds, trespasses, following the gospel of Luke – whereas other versions rather follow the gospel of Matthew and use wordings like: “Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.”

The text is transcribed in tengwar or “letters of Fëanor” according to the mode of Beleriand created by Tolkien and illustrated for instance by the Moria gate inscription in The Lord of the Rings, book II, chapter 4. We made use of Måns Björkman Berg’s typeface Tengwar Parmaite. Open this mode in Glaemscribe

References

࿔ Vinyar Tengwar: The journal of the Elvish Linguistic Fellowship, a Special Interest Group of the Mythopoeic Society. Edited by Carl F. Hostetter. Crofton (Maryland): 1988- . ISSN 1054-7606. 🌍 The Elvish Linguistic Fellowship.

The works of John Ronald Reuel and Christopher Tolkien are under the copyright of their authors and/or rights holders, including their publishers and the Tolkien Estate.
Quotations from other authors, editors and translators mentioned in the bibliography are under the copyright of their publishers, except for those whose copyright term has ended.