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The second line of Tolkien’s Quenya translation of the Litany of Loreto prayer (VT44/12). The first word is the vocative a “O” followed by a Quenyarization of the name of Christ: Hrísto. The phrase órava ómessë “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 Hrísto órava (o)me-sse = “*o Christ have-mercy us-on”

Conceptual Development: Tolkien first wrote Elpino as the translation of Christ (VT44/15-6). He revised this to an incomplete form Hiris before settling on Hrísto (VT44/16). As in the first line, Tolkien first used the dative ómen for “on us” before revising it to the locative ómesse (VT44/12, notes on line 2).