Paganistan: Notes from the Secret Commonwealth
In Which One Midwest Man-in-Black Confers, Converses & Otherwise Hob-Nobs with his Fellow Hob-Men (& -Women) Concerning the Sundry Ways of the Famed but Ill-Starred Tribe of Witches.
Elvish Spring
Our Equinox ritual is punctuated multiple times by call-and-response acclamations of Spring in many different languages, including (if you can believe it) Old English and Akkadian.
This year, we had a request for one in Elvish. Well, what's the point of ritual if you can't play a little?
Though not myself a Sindarin-speaker, I do (as my friend Magenta puts it) have contacts in the Realm.
So for those who wish to welcome Spring in the Fair Tongue, here you go.
Si cuielen i Híril o Coi! Ele, si cuielen!
See-kwee-ELL-en ee HEER-il oh koi. EY-ley see-kwee-ELL-en!
Lit. “The Lady of Life is living again!” “Behold: She is living again!”
i Híril = the Lady (hír = lord + il = feminine ending)
o coi = of life
cui = to live
-iel = participial ending
-en = again (suffix)
si = now
ele = behold (This word bears a particularly mythic resonance, having been the first word spoken by the Quendi [elves, lit. “speakers”] after their coming into being.)
Well folks, fun's fun, but—I'm sorry—as long as I'm alive, there will be absolutely NO KLINGON in this ritual! Really, one has to draw the line somewhere.
Elvish is pretty—cloyingly so, in my opinion—but, I must say, I do like the English version better. Surely anyone who loves the Goddess will recognize its truth.
The Lady of Life is living again!
My friends, in our day we are privileged to witness one of the most significant events in the history of Western religion: the Return of the Goddess.
Behold, she is living again!
Above: Vesemir, Between Autumn and Winter
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