Nieninque

Poems by J.R.R. Tolkien
Nieninque
Poem Information
Other names	Nieninqe
Written	Before 5 October of 1921
Revised	Between 1921 and 1931, Before 29 November of 1931, Around 26 June and 2 July in 1955
Published	The Monsters and the Critics, and Other Essays, Parma Eldalamberon 16, Arda Philology 5, A Secret Vice: Tolkien on Invented Languages, The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien
Subject(s)	Niéle

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

Poem

Quenya	Translation
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.