Fanalosse

(Snow-white)
2012 version

Translated by Findegil / Björn Fromén

This is a translation of the song “Snow-white!” (LR 1 III), adapted to fit the tune of the 15th century hymn Alta Trinita Beata. In the process an invocation and an echoing line have been added to each stanza.

A Fanalosse! Heri silma!
Tári Eari pella Númenye!
Calina men i ranyar
aldarembina mi ambar sina!
Fanalosse, a Varda Elentári,
Calina mí aldarembin’ ambar!

A Tintalle! Elentári!
Silit hendulya, calta súlelya.
Laitale lyen lirimme
earon pella hairanóriesse.
Laitalelya, a Varda Elentári,
sís lirimme hairanóriesse.

A eleni yar rende márya
sílala i Yénesse Alanarya,
telpelossenen losta
calima mí súrimar sí le cenimme.
Fanalosse, a Varda Elentári,
telpelosse calima cenimme.

A Elentári! a Tintalle!
Sinome nu i aldali haiya
men enyalie lemya
silmelyo or i Eari Númenye.
Enyalimme, a Varda Elentári,
silme or i Eari Númenye.

Notes

Fanalosse “Snow-white”, shortened from *Fana Oiolosse ‘bright angelic figure ever white as snow’, Sindarin Fanuilos (R, p. 66)
silma ‘crystal white, clear’ (PE 17, p.23)
Eari pella Númenye ‘beyond Western Seas’; for the word order, cf. tellumar nu luini (“Namárie”)
calina ‘(spiritual) light’, cf. coacalina “light of the house” = ‘indwelling spirit’ (MR, p. 250)
men dative ‘to us’
i *ranyar ‘who wander’
sina mi ‘in this’
*alda-rembin-a ‘tree-mesh-ed’ (PE 17, p.26)

*hendu-lya dual of natural pairs ‘thy (pair of) eyes’; silit hendulya ‘thy eyes shine clear’
calta ‘shines bright’
súle ‘spiritual breath’ (PE 17, p.124)
earon ‘[the] ocean’ (PE 17, p.27)
*haira-nórie-sse ‘in a far land’, cf sinda-nórie-llo ‘out of a grey country’ (“Namárie”)
laitale ‘praising, praises’
*lyen dative ‘to thee’
*liri-mme ‘we sing’
sís ‘here’ (VT 49, p.18)

*yar plural of the relative pronoun ya- ‘which, that’
rende past tense ‘sowed’ (“The Etymologies”, s.v. RED-)
*sílala present participle of sil-; márya sílala ‘her shining hand’
*al-anar-ya ‘sunless’ (lit. ‘not-sunn-y’); i Yénesse Alanarya ‘in the Sunless Year’
*telpe-losse- ‘silver blossom’
*súri-mar ‘wind-home, land of winds’, cf. Old Norse vindheimr, a kenning for the sky
*ceni-mme ‘we see’

(In a less poetic word order lines 15-16 would run: Sí le cenimme mí súrimar losta calima telpelossenen ‘now we see you in the land of winds flourish with bright silver blossom’)

i *aldali ‘the many trees’
haiya adverb ‘far [from thee]’
lemya ‘remains’; men lemya enyalie silmelyo ‘for us remains the remembrance of thy starlight’
*enyali-mme ‘we recall, we remember’

teithant Findegil, o Mellonath Daeron