S. menel n. “the heavens, firmament, region of the stars” (Category: Sky, Heavens)
A word for the “the heavens, firmament, region of the stars”, a loan word from Quenya (MR/387; RGEO/64). See the entry on Q. menel and √MENEL for further details.
Conceptual Development: This word began to appear as an element in Sindarin in late Lord of the Rings drafts (SD/45) and drafts of Lord of the Rings appendices (PM/130) from the early 1950s. In the Sindarin prayer Ae Adar Nín from the mid-to-late 1950s, Tolkien used Menel for “Heaven” as in ae Adar nín i vi Menel “our Father who [art] in Heaven” (VT44/21), but this seems not to be the proper Elvish usage, so could perhaps be considered a Mannish misconception (or Tolkienish vacillation on the meaning of the word). Elsewhere Tolkien only used S. menel for “the heavens”, such as in o menel aglar elenath “from heaven [the firmanent] on high the glory of the starry host” from the A Elbereth Gilthoniel poem (LotR/238, 1028; RGEO/63-64). Note that menel did not appear in the earliest drafts of Elbereth Gilthoniel from the 1940s (RS/394).
References ✧ LB/354; LotR/238, 729; MR/387; PE17/24; RGEO/63-64; VT44/23
Glosses
Elements
| √MEN | “go, move, proceed (in any direction); make for, go towards; have as object, (in)tend; direction, object, point moved toward; region” | ✧ RGEO/64 |
| √EL | “lo, behold; star” | ✧ RGEO/64 |
Element In
Cognates
Derivations