Eldamo : Sindarin : penna-

S. penna- v. “to come down (in a slant), fall” (Category: to Fall)

S. penna-, v. “to come down (in a slant), fall” (Category: to Fall)

A word appearing in the phrase silivren penna míriel within the A Elbereth Gilthoniel prayer from The Lord of the Rings (LotR/238). In The Road Goes Ever On (RGEO) from 1967, Tolkien loosely translated this phrase as “from glittering crystal slanting falls with light like jewels” and more exactly as “(white) glittering slants-down sparkling like jewels” (RGEO/63-64). In various private notes, Tolkien specified that penna- was a verb meaning “come down” or “come down in a slant, fall” derived from the root √PED “fall in steep slant, incline, slope” (PE17/24, 173).

References ✧ LotR/238; PE17/24, 173; RGEO/63-64

Glosses

“come down” ✧ PE17/24
“come down in a slant, fall” ✧ PE17/173

Variations

penna ✧ PE17/24; PE17/173; PE17/24 (†penna)

ped- “fall in steep slant, incline, slope” vs. penna “come down in a slant, fall” ✧ PE17/173

Inflections

penna	present		✧ LotR/238
penna	present	“slanting falls”	✧ RGEO/63
penna	present	“slants-down”	✧ RGEO/64
penna	present 3rd-sg		✧ PE17/24

Element In

S. silivren penna míriel “from glittering crystal slanting falls with light like jewels” ✧ LotR/238; PE17/20; RGEO/63; RGEO/64

Cognates

Q. penda- “to slope, incline” ✧ PE17/173

Derivations

< √PED “slope, slant down” ✧ PE17/173

Phonetic Developments

√PED > penna

[penda-] > [penna-]

✧ PE17/173