Q. ortírielyanna rucimmë, Aina Eruontari “we fly to thy patronage, O holy Mother of God”
The first line of Ortírielyanna, Tolkien’s translation of the Sub Tuum Praesidium prayer. The first word Ortírielyanna “to thy patronage” is 2nd-person-polite (-lya¹ “thy”) ablative (-nna “to”) form of ortírië “patronage”. The second word rucimmë “we fly” is the 1st-person-plural-exclusive inflection (-mmë² “we”) of the verb ruc- “flee”. The third word is aina “holy” and the last word is Eruontari, a name of Mary as the genetrix (female begetter) of the Son of God.
Decomposition: Broken into its constituent elements, this phrase would be:
ortírie-lya-nna ruci-mme, Aina Eru-ontari = “*patronage-thy-to flee-we, Holy God-genetrix”.
Conceptual Development: The first word was initially written Ortírielyanne (with final e instead of a), but Wynne, Smith and Hostetter suggested this is probably a slip (VT44/5). The third word was initially written Aini >> Aina. Tolkien considered several different Quenya translations for “Mother of God”; ignoring incomplete forms, the development was Eruamillë >> Eruontarië >> Eruontari.
Reference ✧ VT44/5 ✧ {Ortírielyanne >>} Ortírielyanna rucimme, {Aini >>} Aina {Eruamille >> Eruontarie >>} Eruontari “we fly to thy patronage, O holy Mother of God”
Elements
| #ortírië | “*patronage, (lit.) watching over (from above)” | 2nd-sg-polite-poss allative | ✧ VT44/7 (Ortírielyanna) |
| #ruc- | “to feel fear or horror; *to flee (to)” | aorist 1st-pl-exclusive | ✧ VT44/7 (rucimme) |
| aina | “holy, revered, numinous” | ✧ VT44/7 | |
| Eruontarië | “*Mother of God, (lit.) God-genetrix” | ✧ VT44/7 (Eruontari) |
Element In