Namárië

Galadriel's lament. The longest Quenya text in The Lord of the Rings. Walk through it morpheme by morpheme.

This is Altariello Nainië Lóriendessë — "Galadriel's Lament in Lórien." Tolkien published a detailed interlinear commentary in The Road Goes Ever On (1967). It is the capstone of his Quenya: every grammatical feature you've learned appears here.

Tap any word to see its pieces. Everything you built in 100 and 200 is here, alive in poetry.

Ah! Like gold fall the leaves in the wind

Tap a word above to see its morphemes.

What to notice

ómaryo

óma (voice) + -rya (her) + -o (genitive). One word where English needs four.

súrinen

súre (wind) + -nen (instrumental). Not "in the wind" — "by-wind-means." The grammar carries the causation.

aldaron

alda (tree) + -r (plural) + -on (genitive). You built this exact form in 100.

Rómello

Rómen (East) + -llo (ablative). Valimar is lost from the perspective of those in Middle-earth. The ablative carries exile.

Namárië

ná (be) + márië (goodness). Two pieces. Be well.