Anglenna i·Durufui

By Findegil / Björn Fromén

A translation into Sindarin of the first stanza of the Swedish Christmas carol När det lider mot jul (“As Yule is drawing near”, lyrics by Jeanna Oterdahl, music by Ruben Liljefors).

Min elenath síla elvennui vîr,
orthannen vi menel Amrûn,
gil díriel ardhon di·ndagor a glam
trí meneg ah ad meneg în.
Ir gwathren i aur, ir i·geven nu loss,
anglenna i·ngil hen a lacha ví morn,
orven tann i bêd: hi tôl gael Durufui.

Det strålar en stjärna förunderligt blid,
i öster på himlen hon står.
Hon lyst över världenes oro och strid
i nära två tusende år.
När dagen blir mörk och när snön faller vit,
då skrider hon närmre, då kommer hon hit,
och då vet man att snart är det jul.

Notes on the translation

Min elenath síla elvennui vîr ‘among the stars shines a wondrous jewel’: min ‘between’, here *‘among’, cf. the Q counterpart imbe, which has both meanings; *elvennui ‘wondrous’, Sindarization of the Early Noldorin elvennai (PE 13, p.143)
orthannen vi menel Amrûn ‘raised in the heavens of the East’: orthannen* past participle of ortha- ‘raise’
gil díriel ardhon di·ndagor a glam ‘a star that has beheld a world under battle and uproar’: ardhon ‘world’ (PM, p.348); di ‘under, in the shadow of’ (L 211)
trí meneg ah ad meneg în ‘through two thousand years’: #meneg ‘1000’, isolated from Menegroth ‘the Thousand Caves’ (WJ, p.415); meneg ah ad meneg ‘a thousand and again a thousand’
Ir gwathren i aur, ir i·geven nu loss ‘when the day [is] dim, when the earth [lies] under snow’
anglenna i·ngil hen a lacha ví morn ‘this star approaches and flames in the dark’: i – hen ‘this’ (PE 17, p.44)
orven tann i bêd ‘[being] over us a sign that says’: *orven from or ‘over’ + men ‘us’, modelled on ammen ‘for us, of us’; #tann ‘sign’, isolated from Tengyl (MR, p.385)
hi tôl gael Durufui ‘now comes the glimmering Yule night’: Durufui Goldogrin for ‘Yule night, Log-night’ (BLT I, p.270), here used as a lenited form of the Sindarization *Turufui