Valinórenna

(Celebrķan’s Farewell to Elrond)
2012 version

By Björn Fromén

'[In Third Age 2509] Celebrían, wife of Elrond, journeys to Lórien to visit Galadriel, her mother; but she is taken by Orcs in the passes of the mountains. She is rescued by Elrond and his sons, but after fear and torment she is no longer willing to remain in Middle-earth, and she departs to the Grey Havens and sails over Sea.' (The Peoples of Middle-earth, pp.235-236)

Envinyatalye nainala, melda aran
órenyo, feanyasse i lumna móre!
Ai nwalmi úquétime nu hísitildi
                          unquis, cilyassen!

Ai anga umbarwa, rúnyanen uruite!
Osse tyarinwa lá polin auroita,
auroitanes oio Endornilmenya
                          linte ve fanyar!

Súlenya lapsar i lómea Valo
lumbuler; vanwa nin i Laureanóre
sí, yasse quantaner nu malinorni
                          vilya lindinyar.

Man nin entinta sinome eldion silme?
Man nin enanta cále Anáro sina?
Lá Lóriendeva Heri, ar laume
                          Vilyatur, elye!

Ni, sauramaite rimbeo poldiénen
nutinwa, nolwelya entunce cuilenna
ar ilye lívi auhortane harwanye
                          et hroanyallo;

mal or feanya alantie oioquelle.
Quostala rancoryallon lauvan lehta
mí Endormardi, yassen nin calanna
                          lá entulesse.

An súrinen utúlie Númello
ninna Tintalleo lissómalinde,
ar falmar caituvar únótime imbe
                          vet, Elennóna!

Sí cestuvan i ciryaron falasse;
tás úruva naicenya ear-hwestainen
autuva ar Ulmo pantuva nin tie
                          Valinórenna.

A Nenya-tári . . . Undómiel Eldaliéva . . .
i ónoni. . . anwa Andúneo nu menel
encenuvanyet? Arata nin tope
                          illion umbar . . .

Nó elye hilyuva, sin quete órenya,
íre Eldaloaron metta lauva haira.
Nai eldi Vardo siluvar lúmenna
                          enomentienquo!

Sí lá nin sére, venno, nu tópanqua:
óma Esteva ni yála Earello pella . . .
Namárie, Eldatan . . . hiruvan tie
                          Valinórenna!

Literal translation

Lamenting you renew, beloved lord
of my heart, in my spirit the heavy darkness.
Ah! torments unspeakable under [the] misty peaks
                          in caves, in gorges!

Ah! fatal steel, hot with red flame!
The horror caused I cannot chase away
[but] it chased away for ever my love for Middle-earth
                          like swift clouds.

[At] my soul are licking the dark Angel's
shadows; lost to me is the Sun-golden land
now, where under golden trees
                          my songs filled [the] air.

Who rekindles for me here the light of the stars?
Who gives back to me the light of this Sun?
Not the Lady of Lórien, nor [lit.: and not]
                          even you, master of Vilya!

Me [who had been] tied by the force of a foul-handed
horde, your secret lore brought back to life,
and banished all wounding sicknesses
                          out of my body;

but over my spirit has fallen an eternal fading.
From its stifling embrace I shall not be free
in the halls of Middle-earth, where for me
                          there is no return into light.

For in the wind from the West has come
to me Star-kindler's sweet-voice[d] song,
and [so] waves shall [soon] lie countless between
                          us two, o Star-begotten!

Now I will seek the strand of the ships;
there my burning pain will vanish in [the] sea-breezes
and Ulmo will open for me a path
                          to Valinor.

O Nenya's Queen . . . o Evenstar of [the] Elven people . . .
the twins . . . under the sky of the True West
shall I [ever] see them again? A Higher Power hides from me [lit.: for me]
                          the fate of them all . . .

But you will follow, so says my heart,
when the end of the Elven-years in Middle-earth will be no [longer] distant.*
May Varda's stars [then] shine upon the hour
                          of our reunion!

Now is for me no rest, husband, under our roof:
Este's voice summons me from beyond the Sea . . .
Farewell, Elf-Man . . . I will find a path
                          to Valinor!

* ‘For after the destruction of the Ruling Ring the Three Rings of the Eldar lost their virtue. Then Elrond prepared at last to depart from Middle-earth and follow Celebrían.’ (The Peoples of Middle-earth, p.243)

Notes

*tyarinwa and *nutinwa past participles passive of tyar- ‘cause’ and nut- ‘tie, bind’ (cf. karinwa from kar- ‘do’, PE 17, p.68)

*auroita- ‘chase away’, *auhorta- ‘send away, banish’ from au- ‘away, off’ (WJ, p.365; Etym. ROY1-, KHOR-)

*Endor-nilme ‘devotion to, love for Middle-earth’

eldi- plural of elen, ‘star’ (WJ, p.362)

*ni accusative ‘me’, ninna allative ‘to me’ (PE 17, p.147)

*poldie ‘strength, force’, noun derived from polda ‘big, strong’ (PE 17, p.115)

*harwanye plural of *harw-an-ya ‘wound-giv-ing’ (cf. saucarya ‘evil-doing’, PE 17, p.68)

quosta- ‘choke’ (QL)

lauva future ‘will not be’ (VT 49, p.13)

*illion genitive of *illi ‘they all, all of them’

teithant Findegil, o Mellonath Daeron

Previous versions of this poem were published in Palantíren 3 (1973), An Introduction to Elvish, and Quettar 45 (1993).