Tolkien Gateway


(Redirected from Heaven)

Menel was an Elvish (both Quenya and Sindarin) name for the regions of air above Arda, a name which is generally meant as "firmament, heaven" or "the heavens".[1] Sometimes the word is simply synonymous with the sky, but in other uses it is meant as a more sublime reference to the domain of the stars and heavenly bodies.

Menel is a physical place, although arguably a sacred one as it is the location of the stars.


[edit] Etymology

The word is understood as men "towards" + el "star" meaning "the Direction of the Stars".[2]

The loremaster Quennar is attributed as having devised the word Menel ("heavens, firmament").[3]

[edit] Examples

Menel is seen in numerous personal and place-names, including Meneltarma (the "Pillar of Heaven"), Meneldil, Tar-Meneldur, Armenelos and Meneldor.

It also appears in A Elbereth Gilthoniel "o menel aglar elenath" ("from the glories of the star-host of heaven").[4]

Sam used it in his invocation from Cirith Ungol: "o menel palan-diriel" ("from heaven gazing afar").[5]

[edit] Derivatives

It already existed in Avarin[source?], and survived as such in Adûnaic minal.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  2. J.R.R. Tolkien, Donald Swann, The Road Goes Ever On, "A Elbereth Gilthoniel", p. 72
Middle-earth Cosmology