Thanks for an issue of _VT_ well worth waiting for.

According to VT49:15, the element _-la_ in _pella_
'beyond (the borders of)' (R:66) is identified as _lá_
'beyond' in 'late writings'. While this does not come
as a surprise, I would have thought that the first
element of _pella_ was some derivative of the base PEL
(or PELES, V:380), meaning 'border', given the gloss
in R.

However, on VT49:31 Patrick writes that the etymology
of _pella_ appears in the context of 'notes on
consonant + nasal combinations'. This sounds as if the
true etymon of _pella_ is *pen+la; or could it be
*pelen-la?

Do the references to an etymology of _pella_ on
VT49:15 and VT49:31 refer to the same source?

Fredrik

[Two quite different sources are referred to in the citations
mentioned by Fredrik.

The "late writings" referred to in VT49:15 consist of a bundle
of texts (containing over twenty sides) in which Tolkien
attempts to work out a satisfactory etymology of _pella_
'beyond (the borders of)'. These notes, placed in the boxfile
"Quenya G", were probably written at various times, but most
of them appear to be quite late -- one of them was dated
1971 by Tolkien. The etymologies proposed in these texts
often differ in detail, but the last element in _pella_ is
frequently identified as _lá_ 'beyond', and the first element
is often derived from a root PEL-, which is said to have the
same general sense and associations seen in the bases PEL-,
PEL(ES)- in the _Etymologies_.

The slip of paper cited in VT49:31 is _not_ among the bundle
of texts just described, being found instead in a brown folder
placed in the boxfile "Quenya C" -- see the description in
VT49:3. The etymology of _pella_ occupies the recto of this
slip, and does not involve any consonant + nasal combination;
the "notes on consonant + nasal combinations" are found
instead on the _verso_ of the slip, along with the "germ" of
the Ambidexters Sentence.

I hope this clarifies the situation. -- PHW]