In the body of translations of Catholic Prayers into Quenya that Tolkien made in the 1950s, there are several tries with the opening verse of the Glory to God. Arden Smith published these fragments in Vinyar Tengwar n° 44 and attempted to reconstruct a “final” version that we give here.

The translation comes from the Modern English text of the prayer, which is sung during traditional Roman Catholic masses. A more literal translation of the Quenya text would give “Glory to God in the high-heaven and on earth peace to the children”. This is a reference to the Eruhíni “Children of God”, the collective denomination in Tolkien’s legendarium for the Elves and Men, because they were created by the One God Eru Ilúvatar all by himself.

The text is transcribed in tengwar or “letters of Fëanor” according to the classical mode for Quenya described by Tolkien in the Appendix E to The Lord of the Rings and used for instance by the Namarië manuscript in The Road Goes Ever On p. 65. We made use of Johan Winge’s typeface Tengwar Annatar.  Open this mode in Glaemscribe