Bloggus Sum

I don't have my copy of the Silmarillion with me, so I'm going to be working with random passages I've dug up on the internet. Plus, isolated chunks are less intimidating than starting chapter one, page one, verse one: Creation of the Universe, like I did first time.

Silmarillion:
"Hail Eärendil, of mariners most renowned, the looked for that cometh at unawares, the longed for that cometh beyond hope! Hail Eärendil, bearer of the light before the Sun and Moon! Splendour of the Children of Earth, star in the darkness, jewel in the sunset, radiant in the morning!" -Eönwë to Eärendil upon his arrival in Valinor

Or, to put it in plain English: The hardest part of Latin translation is actually working out what the author is trying to say. It's no use just translating the words, you've got to translate the meaning. I make it something like this:

Hail Earendil, most renowned of mariners, who comes unawares
Having been looked for, who comes beyond hope
Having been longed for.
Hail Earendil,
Bearer of the light before the Sun adn moon,
Splendor of the Childen of earth,
Star in the darkness,
Jewel in the sunset,
Raidiant in the morning

Latin: Ave Earendil, praeclarissimus nautarum, qui quaestus inopinato cupitus desperatus spes venit! Ave Earendil, baiulus lucis ante solemque lunam, splendour liberorum terrestris, stella in tenebris, gemma in solis occasis, splendidus mane.

Edit: if you check the comments, you'll see someone has pointed out a major error in my latin - I've forgotten to put Earendil in the vocative - all the description which comes after is in the nominative instead. I'm also interested that their suggested translation repeats the "qui", which is something I'd wondered about myself, seeing as skipping it would be natural in English - but you never know with foreign idioms. And finally, noticing that spes is female, not male, and that it should be "desperata" not "desperatus", and the whole thing should be in the ablative anyway. Ah well. That's what this is about: learning more Latin. I therefore offer a revised translation:

Ave Earendil, praeclarissime nautarum, qui quaeste inopinato qui cupite spe desperata venit. Ave Earendil, baiule lucis ante solemque lunam, splendour liberorum terrestris, stella in tenebris, gemma in solis occasis, splendide mane.

Does that sound better?

Notes: This took a good hour at least, maybe longer. But I'm satisfied with the result. I do have my doubts about the qui clause, however - specifically my use of participles. "Earendil" is just Earendil for now. According to wikipedia, the best source I could find on the matter, latinisation of names can either be a sheer treating the foreign name as latin, or a translation of its meaning. It strikes me it's best to use one rule for the whole book, but until I pick one I'm going with leaving names as they are. Incidentally, Ear-endil is "Sea lover", so for a latin version I'd have to crush amans maris into a sensible name.

What I've learnt:

Tenebrae - fpl - "darkness"
Gemma - f - jewel
Inopinato - adverb - unawares, unexpected
Solis occasus - m - sunset
Solis ortus - m -sunrise
Baiulus - m - bearer
Spes - f - hope

All perfect participles are passive, except (ironically, irritatingly), deponants which are active second declension vocatives take -e!

All comments, criticisms and corrections are welcomed