ëa

1 sometimes "eä" vb. "is" CO, in a more absolute sense "exists", VT39:7/VT49:28-29 than the copula ná. Eä "it is" VT39:6 or "let it be". The verb is also used in connection with prepositional phrases denoting a position, as in the relative sentences i or ilyë mahalmar ëa “who is above all thrones” CO and i ëa han ëa *“who is beyond the universe of Eä” VT43:14. Eä is said to the be “present & aorist” tense VT49:29. The past tense of ëa is engë VT43:38, VT49:29; Tolkien struck out the form ëanë, VT49:30, the historically correct perfect should be éyë, but the analogical form engië was more common; the future tense is euva VT49:29. See also ëala. – Eä is also used as a noun denoting "All Creation", the universe WJ:402; Letters:284, footnote, but this term for the universe "was not held to include souls? and spirits" VT39:20; contrast ilu. One version of Tolkien's Quenya Lord's Prayer includes the words i ëa han ëa, taken to mean "who is beyond Eä" VT43:14. Tolkien noted that ëa “properly cannot be used of God since ëa refers only to all things created by Eru directly or mediately”, hence he deleted the example Eru ëa *”God exists” VT49:28, 36. However, ëa is indeed used of Eru in CO i Eru i or ilyë mahalmar uëa/u “the One who uis/u above all thrones” as well as in various Átaremma versions see VT49:36, so such a distinction may belong to the refined language of the “loremasters” rather than to everyday useage. 3 "eagle" LT1:251, LT2:338, a “Qenya” word apparently superseded by soron, sornë in Tolkien's later forms of Quenya.