Relative Quenya Names

This in Aulë's Second Life In-box:

hello

I think you are the language expert in Tirion and I was wondering if you could tell me the correct forms of address for family members as my friend and I are playing aunt and neice. Do you know what the Quenya elvish for these are?

Also mother, father, brother, sister, and if possible, grandparents?

We've been using English terms, but they jar a bit in Tirion. I think the Quenya would be more resonant :)

Thankyou!
Iminwiel

Allasár, Mellonin! (Blessings, girlfriend!)

My favorite source for researching such questions is the website Ardalambion

In the downloaded Quenya files, I use "find" to locate my words of interest:
~~aunt.... not found ...
~~niece... not found ....
Failing there, I look up related words and educe the words we want: aunt = parent's sister. niece = siblings's daughter
~~PARENT #nostar (pl nostari) or ontan (pl ontani) ; also father ontaro; mother: ontarë or ontari .
~~'s is possesive: -rya (possessive suffix, e.g. aratarya "her sublimity". for all genders . words ending in a consonant take the shorter form -ya, e.g. talya “his foot”,
~~SISTER nésa (þ; older form néþa), colloquially also nettë (probably netti-); also "sister" seler (Þ) (pl. selli), onómë, onónë; SISTER (usually not of bloodkinship) osellë (Þ)

so,
~~AUNT: parent's sister: nostar+rya+nésa, shortens to nénostárya. less formal: nettë-ontar-rya, shortens to nettontarya. even shorter, "nettarya".

That is still a bit of a un-resonant mouthful. Maybe something prettier will show up with more searching.

~~sibling... not found. But I have sister, so.
~~BROTHER háno, colloquial hanno . also toron (pl. torni) (= natural brother); cf. otorno "sworn brother, associate".
~~DAUGHTER selyë; also yendë, yen, yeldë, suffixes: –iel (e.g. Uinéniel "daughter of Uinen") obsolete: -wen, -yel.

so
~~NIECE is either sister's daughter: nésiel, nettiel , seleriel or onómiel .... or brother's daughter: hanniel, hánoyel, toroniel
Noldor elves in our early RP age would use archaic forms.: néþyel ( Néthyel) or toroniel. I like those.

You can easily find the other words in the pages above, except for grandparent:
~~ Grand not found except grandchild. After poking around, I find.
~~DOUBLE (prob. adj) atwa, tanta; DOUBLE (vb) tatya- (repeat). (Note: tatya also means "second".) –AT(AT), TATA

This "tatya" is especially apt: the First of the Noldor clan to awaken was named Tata. Then consider AUNT in spanish or french is tanta or tante.

So
~~GRANDMOTHER: tatya-amillië -> tatamillië.
and
~~AUNT = grandmother's daughter: tantamilier. Even simpler:
~~AUNT = second mama: tatyamil.

That resonates.

Love, Arth.

the Naming of Elves

JRRT's elves, according to the notes Christopher Tolkien compiled into a collection called "the Ring of Morgoth", always have at least three names. There is some ceremony about the essë "naming" of High Elves.

1. the public essi ("father-name") is given at birth. Usually the son's name takes after the father and the daughter's name takes after the mother. The father announces it to the extended family and thus the world. The first Noldo king Finwë named his first-born son "Curufinwë" after himself [curu- "skill" + fin "nimble, clever" + -wë "man"]

2. the given-names, most prominent and earliest of these is the amilessë ("mother-name"), based on sight, insight or foresight. These might be public or private, but have more to do with character than family. Finwë's same eldest son was mother-named by Miriel as "Fëanáro" [ fëa "spirit" + nár "flame" + -o masculine]. This, later translated into the Middle-Earth elvish language Sindarin, become "Fëanor". In SL's Arda, that same character as gathered a few of these informal names, "Mundotarië" [nose-high for "Arrogant one"] among them.

3. the epessë ("after-name" or honorific) is a self-chosen name taken at a time of childhood and again infrequently when the elf deems it suitable, usually at times of life changing importance as assumption of a throne or staggering loss. Again these might be public or private, but the first chosen-name is taken and kept private (but not secret) to family when the child has mastered language. That same elf likely kept his own chosen names to himself, since I find no record of it. In SL's Arda, though, that character answers to 'mela' [beloved] from Nerdael (and no one else) and the name of the SL account, "Tlaloc"

Another example of naming is Gil-galad ("Star of Radiance"), which was the mother-name of the last High King of the Noldor. His father-name was Rodnor. Upon becoming king he was given the epessë Ereinion ("Scion of Kings") and called Ereinion Gil-gilad.

In role-play, then, Elves have at least three names: an everyday name from the father about the family, a personal name from the mother about the appearance, and one too private to be uttered out loud. The name players choose for the character can be be assigned to one of the three major sources: father, mother (and other seers) and self for family, appearance, or something ineffable [too private, large or sacred to be said aloud], thus attributed to a childhood source.

Substitute "elf" for "cat" below, and T.S Eliot echoes J.R.R. Tolkien:

The Naming of Cats
- T.S. Eliot
(from "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats")

The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter,
It isn't just one of your holiday games;
You may think at first I'm as mad as a hatter
When I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.
First of all, there's the name that the family use daily,
Such as Peter, Augustus, Alonzo or James,
Such as Victor or Jonathan, George or Bill Bailey -
All of them sensible everyday names.
There are fancier names if you think they sound sweeter,
Some for the gentlemen, some for the dames:
Such as Plato, Admetus, Electra, Demeter -
But all of them sensible everyday names.
But I tell you, a cat needs a name that's particular,
A name that's peculiar, and more dignified,
Else how can he keep his tail perpendicular,
Or spread out his whiskers, or cherish his pride?
Of names of this kind, I can give you a quorum,
Such as Munkustrap, Quaxo, or Coricopat,
Such as Bombalurina, or else Jellylorum -
Names that never belong to more than one cat.
But above and beyond there's still one name left over,
And that is the name that you never will guess;
The name that no human research can discover -
But THE CAT HIMSELF KNOWS, and will never confess.
When you notice a cat in profound meditation,
The reason, I tell you, is always the same:
His mind is engaged in a rapt contemplation
Of the thought, of the thought, of the thought of his name:
His ineffable effable
Effanineffable
Deep and inscrutable singular Name.

Childhood of the Children of Ilúvatar

JRR Tolkien's Silmarillion uses the word "child" hundreds of times, more than "honor", "pain", "life" or "death".

"the Children of Ilúvatar are Elves and Men, the Firstborn and the Followers. And amid all the splendours of the World, its vast halls and spaces, and its wheeling fires, Ilúvatar chose a place for their habitation in the Deeps of Time and in the midst of the innumerable stars."

J. R. R. Tolkien, Ainulindalë

From the Christopher Tolkiens' collection of his fathers unpublished drafts called "Morgoth's Ring" comes "OF THE VALAR AT ITS MAKING", Aelfwine's (narrator's) Preamble:

"The Eldar grew in bodily form slower than Men, but in mind more swiftly. They learned to speak before they were one year old; and in the same time they learned to walk and to dance, for their wills came soon to the mastery of their bodies. Nonetheless, there was less difference between the two Kindred's, Elves and Men, in early youth; and a man who watched elf-children at play might well have believed that they were the children of Men, of some fair and happy people. For in their early days elf-children delighted still in the world about them, and the fire of their spirit had not consumed them and the burden of memory was still light upon them.

Despite the similarities or appearance, Men find elf-children strange: too verbal, too sage, too graceful. The chapter immediately goes on to mention small limbs and stature, skill in words and grace in motion. At the end of the third year, Men outstrip the Elves in stature, while elves "lingered in the first spring of childhood". By age 20, elves appear no more than 7. They attain full stature and shape between age 50 and age 100.

One oddity here is that few of us role-players are old enough to easily be anything but a very young elf, causing an odd gap between what experiential wisdom we are capable of as players and what we should be playing. However, there is a nice ameliorating factor to that in this particular "Age of the Two Trees" RP:

"For Elves and Men are the Children; and since they [the Ainur] understood not fully that theme by which they entered in the Music none of the Ainur dared to add anything to their fashion. For which reason the Valar are to these kindreds rather their elders and their chieftains than their masters;

This nicely lays out the role of Ainur compared to Elves: guides, not masters; kindred, not elders. I've described it as "Regents for the children of the King, raising the children to take on ruler-ship at maturity." JRRT has this to say on that:

"if ever in their dealings wth Elves and Men, the Ainur have endeavored to force them when they would not be guided, this has seldom turned to good, howsoever good their intent.

In a way JRRT is making a rule about education and child-rearing: "Force, when it happens, fails." It goes to back to RP when you are playing a "mature, full grown elf", in this age of the Trees, the race of elves is still in childhood and developing, giving all us RP'ers under the average ave of 75, (this only aged enough to play a young elf) the modifier of elven RACIAL immaturity, making our ages just about right to be elf children or grown elves in the child hood of the race.

From the Christopher Tolkiens' collection of his fathers unpublished drafts called "Morgoth's Ring" comes these bits of Ainulindalë version C:

"Then Ilúvatar spake, and he said: "Behold I love the world, and it is a mansion for Eldar (Elves) and Atani (Men). But the Elves shall be the fairest of earthly creatures, and they shall have and shall conceive more beauty than all my children, and they shall have greater bliss in this world."

"Dying [Eldar] are gathered in the halls of Mandos in Valinor, whence they often return and are reborn in their children."

And from the Ainulindalë version D:

"For Elves and Men are the Children; and since they understood not fully that theme by which they entered in the Music none of the Ainur dared to add anything to their fashion. For which reason the Valar are to these kindreds rather their elders and their chieftains than their masters; and if ever in their dealings with Elves and Men, the Ainur have endeavored to force them when they would not be guided, this has seldom turned to good, howsoever good their intent. The dealings of the Ainur have been mostly with the Elves, for Ilúvatar made the Eldar more like in nature to the Ainur, though less in might and stature, whereas to Men he gave strange gifts."

In JRRT's early drafts, we find a discarded word: "Valarindi" with fragments describing them as the children of the Valar, begotten of their love after their entry into Ea in Arda and numbered among the Maiar. They are the elder children of the World, and though their being began within Ea, yet they are of the race of the Ainur, who were before the world, and they have power and rank below that of the Valar only." This concept of ainu children was struck out of every later draft and is utterly unmentioned in the published Silmarillion except for one story. So if it's true that ainu can breed among themselves, it's hidden.

Children in Tirion

Wedded couples might choose one another early in youth, even as children, and the betrothal awaited the judgements of the parents.

"A year passes between the begetting and the birth of an elf-child, so that the days of both are the same or nearly so, and it is the day of begetting that is remembered year by year. For the most part, these days come in the Spring."

Childbearing is uncommon late in an elf's life. While elves do not apparently age, their energies do dwindle, and childbearing takes a great toll on the mother. This early marriage period is called 'days of the children' and is a merry part of life. To avoid the drama of single-parent-hood, the elves would bear children only in days of happiness and peace if they could.

There were seldom more than four elf-children in any one house, and only once more than six. "Their [elvish] families, or houses, were held together by love and deep feeling of kinship in mind and body; and the children needed little governing or teaching". Linguistically, elves said not "I have three children", but "three children have been added unto me", of "are with me", or "are in my house"

Physically, children naturally resemble their parents, but not necessarily spiritually. The child's fea is not derived from the parent's, but is newly made or newly re-born, according to JRRT.

After bearing Feanor, Miriel simply gave up living. "All my strength has gone into him," she claimed, then she gave up living to rest in Lorien. Morgoth's Ring has a full chapter of the Valar debating and arguing at great lengths over this act and what to do about it, since Finwë himself had moaned "Is there no healing in Valinor?"

It was Nienna who spoke the most tellingly and eloquently, I think, even though she disagreed with Aulë thus:

"the Children are not mighty: in life they are little and can effect little; and they are young and they know Time only. Their minds are as the hands of their babes, little in grasp and even that grasp is yet unfilled. How shall they perceive the ends of deed, or forgo their desires which arise from their very nature, the indwelling spirit in the body, which is their right condition?"

She went on longer, but she'd already convinced us that the Noldor of this age, while mature in body and spirit, are still as children as a race. We ainu, who can see farther in the the future, still should not force them to be anything other than what The One made them.

That is, for better or worse, how the Childhood of the Children of Ilúvatar is to be.

Relational RP

From a 2011/08/13 "Tolkien style and Culture" live presentation at Second Life's Tirion Forest

I've been researching a bit into what elements make RP successful or unsuccessful. Interestingly, they follow the same guidelines for relationships as a whole. Morton Olman MD wrote a successful series of lectures and articles about doctor-patient relationships in 1995 -2010.... summarized in a quirky little article about how to succeed in marriage. Main points extracted below, it applies nicely to business and even fantasy relationships.

TEN WAYS TO
DESTROY
ANY RELATIONSHIP THAT MATTERS TO YOU

1. BE ABUSIVE
2. BE DEFENSIVE
::: Ben Franklin said, "The sting of another's criticism usually comes from the truth in it." Thus, When criticized, look for the truth in it and disregard the false. Apology is almost always helpful, even if you're not wrong.

3. BE CRITICAL
4. BE RIGHT MOST OF THE TIME

from Ogden Nash (reprinted from the June 1994 issue of Readers Digest, p.130) that states this point very well:

To keep your marriage brimming
With love in the loving cup,
Whenever you're wrong admit it,
Whenever you're right, shut up!

5. BE SELFISH
6. BE DISHONEST

I'd like to underline something a little strange about when in Role Playing: First, there is no drama like messing up a relationship, using any one of these methods. However, other players may confuse your IN CHARACTER flaws for your own real character flaws. Then you get , not only unhappy characters ( a lovely source of interesting play), but unhappy players ( a nasty source of needless drama )

One little trick we use for physical damage is the prior private Instant Message:

"My character intends to attack yours. Are you willing to play this battle now?"

Sending in an IM before you damage the other in combat draws the distinction between player and character well and keeps the other player happy.

NOW... what if your character intends to damage a relationship? I'd like to suggest the same IM tool for this equally upsetting act:

"My character, for reasons unknown to you, intends to insult you and make your life miserable. May I begin this now?"

For that matter, you might warn your friendly players whenever you intend on a new course of action.

Before quote the other relationship destruction methods, though, I wanted to make this clear: Noldor elves DO argue and quarrel among themselves, more than any other elven race, and at times, quarrel more than even humans do. However, some of the nicest folks I've ever met are in quarrelsome roles here. While not one of them IM'd me to say "I need to quarrel with you", I knew that that was the way they should play their parts, so no harm done to our real friendships even while our characters do not deal with each other well.

#7. BE UNFAITHFUL, perhaps better translated to RP as
#7. BREAK AGREEMENTS.
#8. BE SUPERIOR, which Dr. Orman expands thus:

If you want to destroy any type of relationship, be sure to think of yourself as smarter, prettier, cooler, hipper, or more worthwhile than other people. Make it your habit to put other people down in order to feel good about yourself. Always strive to win any competition, and never give anyone an even break.

Interestingly, one of the hallmarks of Noldor elves before any others is that we do strive, we do compete, and we never give up an advantage. Even among the Vala, Aulë is the most competitive of the lot, and most argumentative.

Elf-maid: "What!--surely not--valaier aule!"
Aule waggles a finger.... "Vala Aulë, please."
Aule: "'valier', you just called me a bunch of women."
Elf-maid bites her lip.
Aulë laughs out loud!

#9. BE CONTROLLING
#10. BE CERTAIN

"Controlling" is clarified thus: Try to intimidate others, dominate them, and keep them from behaving in ways you don't approve. "Certainty" thus:

Never let doubt or contradictory evidence creep in. Never ask for guidance or support from others. And above all else, never admit any shortcomings that might make you appear weak or stupid.
Always appear to know exactly what you are doing, even when you don't have a clue. This will insure you never learn anything new or useful. It will also guarantee that people who love you will get totally frustrated in their efforts to help you succeed and be happy.

Imagine what would happen if you turned to a newbie and asked, "how do I look to you?" Even if the new player thought you looked wonderful, you'd have a new friend in short order. If the new player happened to mention a few things that might look better, then you insult him and make excuses and run him thru with your dagger. ☻ And then send the IM:

"Sorry, I'm RPing a nasty character right now. Are you okay?"

Doctor O adds this important little note to his article:

It is important to acknowledge that all of the patterns discussed in this report have positive as well as negative aspects. For example, being right and being in control are often necessary to succeed in our jobs or professions.

There's much more to this article here and admittedly, the fellow is attempting to sell a book, but it's engagingly written and sensible, I think.

"Peace and Joy and wisdom"

Several years ago, searching thru Tolkien, I found this as a motto for the Arda groups of Second Life in "the Book of Lost Tales"

of more worth than all the glory of Valinor and all the grace and beauty of Kor is peace and happiness and wisdom,

I translated the "peace and happiness and wisdom" using [site] into quenya, " Sére ar alasse ar saila!", meaning (Peace and joy and wisdom!)". This short gesture has been popular since then.

But much darker than the snippet I give is the full quote from a speech of Manwë (King of the Valar, called "Gods" in this version). The Noldor from Kor (Tirion) had behaved selfishly and unfriendly to the Valar and each other. Taking advantage of this created sorry state, Melko caused the first death of an elf, the first regicide, and the first orphan.

Without the Gods who brought you to the light
and gave you all the materials of your craft,
teaching your first ignorance,
none of these fair things you love now so well
ever would have been;

what has been done may again be done,
for the power of the Valar does not change;

but of more worth than
all the glory of Valinor and all the grace and beauty of Kor
is peace and happiness and wisdom,
and these once lost
are harder to recapture.

Cease then to murmur and to speak against the Valar,
or to set yourselves in your hearts as equals to their majesty;

rather depart now in penitence
knowing full well that Melko has wrought this evil against you,
and that your secret trafficking with him has brought you all this loss and sorrow.
Trust him not again therefore,

nor any others that whisper secret words of discontent among you,
for its fruit is humiliation and dismay."

While Manwë certainly preaches eloquently, I am simpler spoken:

if you must chose between
your friendship and your stuff,
choose your friends.
They are harder to come by and harder to make
than anything made by hands.

And, when you make that mistake, as we do because we love our stuff,
apologize and atone to your friends and those that helped you.
and turn away from those that lead you astray.

Letters about Dwarves

This, from a unsent addenda of a letter JRR Tolkien to Rhona Beare in October 1958, colors "The Silmarillion" (published posthumously in 1977 from stories JRRT had been writing since 1914) Chapter 2 "Of Aulë and Yavanna" comparing "Christian Mythology" (JRRT's own phrase) "sin and the fall" to good races erring in his own stories.

Aulë, for instance, one of the Great, in a sense 'fell'; for he so desired to see the Children, that he became impatient and tried to anticipate the will of the Creator. Being the greatest of all craftsmen he tried to make children according to his imperfect knowledge of their kind. When he had made thirteen [One, the eldest, alone, and six more with six mates], God spoke to him in anger but not without pity; for Aulë had done this thing not out of evil desire to have slaves and subjects of his own, but out of impatient love, desiring children to talk to and teach, sharing with them the praise of Ilúvatar and his great love of the materials of which the world is made

The One rebukes Aulë, saying that he had tried to usurp the Creator's power; but he could not give independent life to his making. He had only one life, his own derived from the One, and could at most only distribute it. 'Behold' said the One; 'these creatures of thine have only thy will, and thy movement. Though you have devised a language for them, they can only report to thee thine own thought. This is a mockery of me.'

I notice dialogue differences and a few additional facts in this version of the story: "mockery", "thirteen", and later, "laughter".

Then Aulë in grief and repentance humbles himself and asked for pardon. And he said; "I will destroy these images of my presumption, and wait upon thy will.' And he took a great hammer, raising it to smite the eldest of his images; but it flinched and cowered before him. and as he withheld his strike, astonished, he heard the laughter of Ilúvatar.

'Do you wonder at this?' he said. 'Behold! thy creatures not live, free from thy will! For I have seen thy humility, and taken pity on your impatience. Thy making I have taken up into my design.'

This is the Elvish legend of the making of the Dwarves; but the Elves report that Ilúvatar said thus also: 'Nonetheless, I will not suffer my design to be forestalled: thy children shall not awake before mine own." And he commanded Aule to lay the fathers of the Dwarves severally in deep places, each with it's mate, save Dúrin the eldest who had none. There they should sleep long, until Ilúvatar bade them awake. Nonetheless there has been for the most part little love between the Dwarves and the Children of Ilúvatar. and of the fate the llúvatar had set upon the children of Aulë beyond the circles of the world Elves and men know nothing, and if Dwarves know they do not speak of it.

And one more later paragraph, marginalia to Colonel Worskett in September 1963

No one knew where the Ents came or first appeared. The High Elves said the the Valar did not mention them in the 'Music'. But some (Galadriel) were of the opinion that when Yavanna discovered the mercy of Eru to Aulë in the matter of the Dwarves, she besought Eru (through Manwë) asking him to give life to things made of living things not stone, and that the Ents were either souls sent to inhabit trees, or else that slowly took the likeness of trees owing to their inborn love of trees. (Not all were good [illegible word]) Then Ents thus had mastery over stone. The males were devoted to Oromë, but the Wives to Yavanna.

Nice to find answers about ent-wives, dwarf-wives, and the laughter of The One.

Appearances

(This is a mirror post from Second Life note card by Lihan Taifun of JRRT quotes.)

"Now the Valar took to themselves shape and hue; and because they were drawn into the World by love of the Children of Ilúvatar, for whom they hoped, the took shape after that manner which they had beheld in the Vision of Ilúvatar, save only in majesty and splendour Moreover, their shape comes of their knowledge of the visible World, rather than of the World itself; and they need it not, save only as we use raiment, and yet we may be naked and suffer no loss of our being. Therefore the Valar may walk, if they will, unclad, and then even the Eldar cannot clearly perceive them, though they be present. But when they desire to clothe themselves, the Valar take upon them forms some as of male and some as of female; for that difference of temper they had even from their beginning, and it is but bodied forth in the choice of each, not made by that choice, even as with us male and female may be shown by the raiment but is not made thereby. But the shapes wherein the Great Ones array themselves are not at all times like the shapes of the kings and queens of the Children of Ilúvatar; for at times they may clothe themselves in their own thought, make visible in forms of majesty and dread.
...
"Then Melkor saw ... that the Valar walked on earth as powers visible, clad in the raiment of the World, and were lovely and glorious to see, and blissful. ... His envy grew then the greater within him; and he also took visible form, but because of his mood and the malice that burned in him that form was dark and terrible.

Silmarillion, "Ainulindalë"

[Ulmo] does not love to walk upon the land, and will seldom clothe himself in a body after the manner of his peers. If the Children of Eru beheld him they were filled with a great dread; for the arising of the King of the Sea was terrible, as a mounting wave that strides to the land, with dark helm foam-crested and raiment of mail shimmering from silver down into shadows of green. ... Ulmo's voice is deep as the deeps of the ocean, which only he has seen.

Silmarillion, "Valaquenta"

In the form of a woman, [Yavanna] is tall, and robed in green; but at times she takes other shapes. Some there are who have seen her standing like a tree under heaven, crowned with the sun; and from all its branches there spilled a golden dew upon the barren earth ...

Silmarillion, "Valaquenta"

In Angband Morgoth forged for himself a great crown of Iron, and he called himself King of the World. In token of this he set the Silmarils in this crown. His hands were burned black by the touch of those hallowed jewels, and black they remained ever after; nor was he ever free from the pain of the burning, and the anger of the pain.
...
Nonetheless his majesty as one of the Valar long remained, though turned to terror.

Silmarillion, "Of the Flight of the Noldor"

[Arien, Maia of the Sun] was chosen because she had not feared the heats of Laurelin,, and was unhurt by them, being from the beginning a spirit of fire, whom Melkor had not deceived nor drawn into his services. To bright were they eyes of Arien for even the Eldar to look on, and leaving Valinor she forsook the form and raiment which like the Valar she had worn there, and she was as a naked flame, terrible in the fullness of her splendour.

Silmarillion, "Of the Sun and Moon"


Of old there was Sauron the Maia..... He became the most trusted of the servents of the Enemy, and the most perilous, for he could asssume many forms, and for long if he willed he could still appear noble and beautiful, so as to deceive all but the most wary.

Silmarillion, "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age"

[During the fall of Númenor] the world was broken, and the land was swallowed up, and the seas rose over it, and Sauron himself went down into the abyss. But his spirit arose and fled back on a dark wind to Middle-Earth, seeking a home.

[After the fall of Númenor, Sauron returned to his old haunts in Mordor, in Middle Earth.] There now he brooded in the dark, until he had wrought for himself a new shape; and it was terrible, for his fair semblance had departed for ever when he was cast into the abyss at the drowning of Númenor.

Silmarillion, "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age"

But at last the siege was so strait that Sauron himself came forth; and he wrestled with Gil-galad and Elendil, and they both were slain, and the sword of Elendil broke under him as he fell. But Sauron also was thrown down, and with the hilt-shard of Narsil Isildur cut the Ruling Ring from the hand of Sauron and took it for his own. Then Sauron was for that time vanquished, and he forsook his body, and his spirit fled far away and hid in waste places; and he took no visible shape again for many long years.

Silmarillion, "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age"

[Gandalf describes his battle with the Balrog:]
" ... I threw down my enemy, and he fell from the high place and broke the mountain-side where he smote it in his ruin. Then darkness took me, and I strayed out of thought and time, and I wandered far on roads that I will not tell.
"Naked I was sent back -- for a brief time, until my task is done. And naked I lay upon the mountain-top. ... There I lay staring upward, while the stars wheeled over, and each day was as long as a life-age of the earth. ... And so at the last Gwaihir the Windlord [Chief of the Eagles] found me again, and he took me up and bore me away."

The Two Towers, "The White Rider"
(According to the timeline in Appendix B, Gandalf was dead for 19 days.)

"If you must know more, his name is Beorn.
He is very strong, and he is a skin-changer.
"... He changes his skin: sometimes he is a huge black bear, sometimes he is a great strong black-haired man with huge arms and a great beard. I cannot tell you much more, though that ought to be enough. Some say that he is a bear descended from the great and ancient bears of the mountains that lived there before the giants came. Others say that he is a man descended from the first men ... I cannot say. ... He is not the sort of person to ask questions of. At any rate he is under no enchantment but his own. ... As a man he keeps cattle and horses that are nearly as marvelous as himself. ...
As a bear he ranges far and wide."

The Hobbit, Chapter 7

"The realm of Sauron is ended!" said Gandalf.
"And as the Captains gazed south to the Land of Mordor, it seemed to them that, black against the pall of cloud, there rose a huge shape of shadow, impenetrable, lightning-crowned, filling all the sky. Enormous it reared above the world, and stretched out toward them a vast threatening hand, terrible but impotent: for even as it leaned over them, a great wind took it, and it was all blown away, and passed; and a hush fell.

Return of the King, "The Field of Cormallen"

"To the dismay of those that stood by, about the body of Saruman a grey mist gathered, and rising slowly to a great height like smoke from a fire as a pale shrouded figure it loomed over the Hill. For a moment it wavered, looking to the West; but out of the West came a cold wind, and it bent away, and with a sigh dissolved into nothing.

Return of the King, "The Scouring of the Shire"