Nieninque

1921 poem by J.R.R. Tolkien

Nieninque is a poem that was written by J.R.R. Tolkien around 26 June and 2 July in 1955.

Poem
QuenyaTranslation
Norolinda pirukendëa
lende tanna Nielikkilis,
sana wende nieninquëa
yan i wilyar antar miquelis
I·oromandi tanna lende
ar wingildi wilwarindie
losselie telerinwa:
táli lantalasselingie.
Running lightly, on the points of her toes
thither came little Niéle,
that maiden like a snowdrop
to whom the air gives kisses.
The mountain-dweller came thither
and the foam-fays like butterflies
the white people of the shores of Elfland,
with feet like the music of falling leaves.
Background

Sometime in or before 1921, Tolkien wrote the earliest Qenya draft of the poem Nieninqe which would later be placed in an envelope postmarked with the date 5 October of 1921 and labeled "Elfin poems" or "Elfin Poems" on the back. Tolkien subsequently created three more versions between 1921 and 1931, each sequentially having "only small changes" from the previous versions.

Tolkien may have written the fourth version of the poem, now titled Nieninque, in the autumn of 1931 before 29 November when Tolkien delivered his lecture A Secret Vice.

In 1983, Nieninque was posthumously published by Christopher Tolkien in The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays.

In 2024, Nieninque was reprinted as entry 65 in The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien.

Referencias

1. Esta ficha se ha importado inicialmente de TolkienGateway.net el día 28/05/2026.

Colaboran en la Tolkienpedia