Q. a Aina Fairë, Eru órava (o)messë “God, the Holy Spirit, have mercy on us”

Q. a Aina Fairë, Eru órava (o)messë “God, the Holy Spirit, have mercy on us”

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The eighth line of Tolkien’s Quenya translation of the Litany of Loreto prayer (VT44/12). The first word is the vocative a “O” followed by aina fairë = “holy spirit”. The fourth word Eru is Tolkien’s usual Quenya name for God. The phrase órava (o)messe “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 Aina Fairë, Eru órava (o)me-sse = “*o Holy Spirit, God have-mercy us-on”

Conceptual Development: As in the first line, Tolkien first used the dative ómen for “on us” before revising it to the locative (o)messe (VT44/12, notes on line 8).

Reference ✧ VT44/12 ✧ A Aina Faire, Eru órava {ómen >>} (o)messe “God, the Holy Spirit, have mercy on us”

Elements

“O, Oh” ✧ VT44/15
aina “holy, revered, numinous” ✧ VT44/17
fairë “spirit (disembodied), phantom; †radiance” ✧ VT44/17
Eru “The One, God” ✧ VT44/17
órava- “*to have mercy” aorist ✧ VT44/14
me “us (exclusive)” locative ✧ VT44/15 ((o)messe)

Element In