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The 4th phrase of the Lament of Akallabêth (SD/247). One major conceptual change from earlier versions was that the subject of the sentence was plural Bârim an-Adûn (“Lords of the West”) instead of the earlier singular Bârun an-Adûn (“Lord of the West”). It seems that Tolkien decided that the drowning of Númenor was attributed to all of the Valar rather than just Manwë. A similar change from singular to plural was made in the corresponding Quenya sentence: herunūmen >> númeheruvi.

The subject Bârim of this sentence is the subjective plural of bâr “lord”. It is modified by the adjectival phrase an-Adûn “of the West”, with the genitive prefix an- “of” added to the noun adûn. The verb has the 3rd-plural suffix yu- “they”. In the grammatical rules of Lowdham’s Report this makes the subject emphatic, with a meaning more like “It was the Lords of the West who broke the Earth...” (SD/429).

The verb form rahtam is the aorist tense of rahat- “to break” with the verb plural suffix -m. The object of the sentence, dâira “Earth”, is in the normal-case.

The base sentence is modified by the prepositional phrase sâibêth-mâ Êruvô “with assent from Eru”. The combination sâibêth-mâ is the word sâibêth “assent” and the prepositional suffix -mâ “with”. The final word Êruvô is the name Êru and the prepositional suffix -ô “of”, with the usual glide-consonant [w] (which was sometimes written “v” as mentioned on SD/434) between the u and the following suffix.

The second draft of the 4th phrase of the Lament of Akallabêth (SD/312). The key difference between it and final version is that its subject is singular (Manwë only) rather than plural (all of the Valar). Thus, it uses the singular subjective Bârun rather than the later plural Bârim and the pronoun suffix u- “he” instead of later yu- “they”. In this version, Tolkien initially wrote a past tense form of the verb rahhata before replacing it with the aorist form rahta used in the final version.

[< Previous Phrase] Lament of Akallabêth (first draft) [Next Phrase >]

The first draft of the 4th phrase of the Lament of Akallabêth (SD/311). It differs considerably from the final version:

• The subject is singular “Lord” rather than plural “Lords”, as is the case with the second draft as well.
• The adjectival phrase adūnō “of the West” uses the draft-genitive case instead of the later genitive prefix an-.
• The verb form is rakkhatū, perhaps the draft past tense of an early version rakhat- of the verb rahat-. It later changed >> urahhata >> urahta >> yurahta. It is glossed “broke asunder” rather than simply “broke” as in later versions.
• The word for “Earth” is kamāt rather than later dâira.
• In the final phrase sōbēthumā eruvō “assent-with of God”, the two words are likely declined into the draft-instrumental and draft-genitive cases, respectively.