Let's learn Quenya on the Downs

[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by Alassë Estel

Right then.

After taking into account everything you noted, my second answer is:

"And he went beyond, and there was yellow light, and fire within, and the evening meal ready, and a youth waited."

It certainly makes more sense now, though I still find that I cannot place the quote. Perhaps it is from Frodo and Sam's stay at Henneth Annûn? Or maybe it is from Pippin's experience in Minas Tirith, the youth being Bergil. At any rate, I feel that the translation is closer.

Pretty close! Here's the actual quote:

Originally Posted by RotK

But Sam turned to Bywater, and so came back up the Hill, as day was ending once more. And he went on, and there was yellow light, and fire within; and the evening meal was ready, and he was expected. And Rose drew him in, and set him in his chair, and put little Elanor upon his lap.

He drew a deep breath. ‘Well, I’m back,’ he said.

(Yet another instance of Rosie's prophetic talent, by the way; she knew when he was coming back from the Quest, too.)

I couldn't find a good word for "onwards"; as he's travelling past the point last described, I settled on "beyond". And the "was" is pretty optional, so I skipped it.

That last clause was a real problem though, wasn't it?

ar nésë horina

ar is obvious, it's just an "and".

nésë was a bad choice on my part: it's an attested form for "he was" (see here, about halfway down the table) but it collides with too many other words. I could have used náne+s, but it would have been simpler just to use the emphatic pronoun isse and leave the "was" out entirely.

horina is the passive participle of hora-, to wait for (yes, a middle Quenya form). The participles give me a bit of a headache, but I think the difference is that an active participle is the state you're in when you're doing the verb ("A waiting wife"), while the passive participle is the state you're in when it's being done to you ("an awaited husband"). It's difficult in English, because the active participle looks and often acts identically to the present tense: "an eating man" is just a man who is eating, right? But no, that's a completely different grammatical form that just happens to look the same.

Anyway, that's my rant on participles. Over to you!

hS