Glǽmscrafu - Namárië

     ⸱	Ai! laurië lantar lassi súrinen,	Ah! like gold fall the leaves in the wind,
     	yéni únótimë ve rámar aldaron!	long years numberless as the wings of trees!
    	Yéni ve lintë yuldar avánier	The long years have passed like swift draughts
  	mi oromardi lissë-miruvóreva	of the sweet mead in lofty halls beyond the West,
 ⸱  	Andúnë pella, Vardo tellumar	beneath the blue vaults of Varda
     	nu luini yassen tintilar i eleni	wherein the stars tremble
 :	ómaryo airetári-lírinen.	in the song of her voice, holy and queenly.

      	Sí man i yulma nin enquantuva?	Who now shall refill the cup for me?

    	An sí Tintallë Varda Oiolossëo	For now the Kindler, Varda, the Queen of Stars,
    	ve fanyar máryat Elentári ortanë	from Mount Everwhite has uplifted her hands like clouds,
    	ar ilyë tier undulávë lumbulë	and all paths are drowned deep in shadow;
   	ar sindanóriello caita mornië	and out of a grey country darkness
   ⸱  	i falmalinnar imbë met, ar hísië	lies on the foaming waves between us, and mist
   :	untúpa Calaciryo míri oialë.	covers the jewels of Calacirya for ever.
  ⸱  ⸱  	Sí vanwa ná, Rómello vanwa, Valimar!	Now lost, lost for those from the East is Valimar!

     	Namárië! Nai hiruvalyë Valimar!	Farewell! Maybe thou shalt find Valimar.
     	Nai elyë hiruva! Namárië!	Maybe even thou shalt find it. Farewell!

Commentary

Namárië “Farewell” is doubtless the best known Quenya text. It is a lament sung by Galadriel on her boat of the Silverlode, while Frodo is leaving Lothlórien with the Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, book II, chapter 8). Tolkien left a detailed analysis thereof in The Road Goes Ever On, especially about pronunciation and intonation. The poem there bears a subtitle: Altariello Nainië Lóriendessë “Galadriel’s Lament in Lórien”.

The English text is Tolkien’s own prose translation in The Road Goes Ever On, nearly identical to the one seen in The Lord of the Rings.

The text is transcribed in tengwar or “letters of Fëanor” according to the classical mode for Quenya described by Tolkien in the Appendix E to The Lord of the Rings and used for instance by the Namarië manuscript in The Road Goes Ever On p. 65. We made use of Johan Winge’s typeface Tengwar Annatar. Open this mode in Glaemscribe