Hringa hlaford

The rings verse in old englisc.

Þri hringas for þæm ælf·cyningum under wolcnum

Seofon for þæm dweorh·hlafordum on hira stan·heallum

Nigon for deadlic mannum fæge forþfaranum

An for þeam deorc·hlafordum on his deorc·cynestole

On lande Mordores hwær sceada ahildaþ

An hring hiere ealle to rædenne; an hring hie to findenne

An hring hiere ealle to bringenne; ond on deorcnese hie to bindenne

On lande Mordores hwær sceada ahildaþ

Notes

The following changes were based on suggestions from Dewey Notlow on alt.language.latin:

Moved pronouns before inflected infinitives. Originally:

An hring to rædenne hiere ealle; an hring to findenne hie

An hring to bringenne hiere ealle; ond on deorcnese to bindenne hie
Replaced my original “of Mordor” with a genitive: “Mordores”.
Suggested “deadlic” for mortal. (I’d not found a word for it & had left it out.) Also, “fæge” for “doomed”. (I’d used “demed”.)

On “demed” for “doomed”: If the weak verb “déman” (to judge, to deem) were a strong verb, then its past participle would be “*dómen”, which is similar to the noun “dóm” (judgement, doom). “*Dómen”, if it existed, would be a nice echo of the original “doomed”.

Alex Bolton on the Old_English list pointed out that “Mordor” means “black land”. Based on his observation, I could have said:

On blæc·lande hwær sceada ahildaþ.

I am wondering why I used “for” instead of the dative case.