Q. a Aina Fairë, Eru órava (o)messë “God, the Holy Spirit, have mercy on us”
The eighth line of Tolkien’s Quenya translation of the Litany of Loreto prayer (VT44/12). The first word is the vocative a “O” followed by aina fairë = “holy spirit”. The fourth word Eru is Tolkien’s usual Quenya name for God. The phrase órava (o)messe “have mercy on us” is essentially the same as in the first line; see that entry for discussion.
Decomposition: Broken into its constituent elements, this phrase would be:
a Aina Fairë, Eru órava (o)me-sse = “*o Holy Spirit, God have-mercy us-on”
Conceptual Development: As in the first line, Tolkien first used the dative ómen for “on us” before revising it to the locative (o)messe (VT44/12, notes on line 8).
Reference ✧ VT44/12 ✧ A Aina Faire, Eru órava {ómen >>} (o)messe “God, the Holy Spirit, have mercy on us”
Elements
a¹ | “O, Oh” | ✧ VT44/15 | |
aina | “holy, revered, numinous” | ✧ VT44/17 | |
fairë | “spirit (disembodied), phantom; †radiance” | ✧ VT44/17 | |
Eru | “The One, God” | ✧ VT44/17 | |
órava- | “*to have mercy” | aorist | ✧ VT44/14 |
me | “us (exclusive)” | locative | ✧ VT44/15 ((o)messe) |
Element In