Q. alcar i Ataren ar i Yondon ar i Airefëan “glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit”
The first line of Alcar i Ataren, Tolkien’s translation of the Gloria Patri prayer. The first word is alcar “glory” followed by dative clauses: i Ataren “for the Father” (atar¹ dative), ar i Yondon “and for the Son” (yondo dative), ar i Airefean “and for the Holy Spirit” (Airefëa dative).
Decomposition: Broken into its constituent elements, this phrase would be:
alcar i Atar-en ar i Yondo-n ar i Aire-fea-n = “*glory [be] Father-to and the Son-to and the holy-spirit-to”
Conceptual Development: Before airefean, Tolkien first wrote and rejected faire aistan, the first word meaning “spirit” and the second a dative form of the adjective aista “holy”.
Reference ✧ VT43/36 ✧ Alcar i ataren ar i yondon ar i {faire aistan >>} airefean
Elements
| alcar | “glory, splendour, radiance, brilliance” | ✧ VT43/37 | |
| i¹ | “the” | ✧ VT43/37; VT43/37; VT43/37 | |
| atar¹ | “father” | dative | ✧ VT43/37 (ataren) |
| ar | “and” | ✧ VT43/36 | |
| i¹ | “the” | ✧ VT43/37; VT43/37; VT43/37 | |
| yondo | “son, boy” | dative | ✧ VT43/37 (yondon) |
| i¹ | “the” | ✧ VT43/37; VT43/37; VT43/37 | |
| Airefëa | “Holy Spirit” | dative | ✧ VT43/37 (airefean) |
| fairë | “spirit (disembodied), phantom; †radiance” | ✧ VT43/37 | |
| aista | “*holy” | dative | ✧ VT43/37 (aistan) |
Element In