Sticky: Everything Elvish! - Revamped!

[Glorfirith Annun]

Suilad a mae govannen! Rhaella, Edhellos and I have gotten together to create a decent Elvish resource for all those who have been searching for one and to stop repeat threads. Which so many of us despise xd

Not only is this a very informative thread but it is open to all topics of Elvish discussion! Please come here to talk about the languages, tengwar/runes, the cultures or anything else you can possibly come up with. When we say Everything Elvish... we mean everything!

So, for those of you who are interested, we have some links of lessons and various other useful sites that will help you learn. Also, if you're having any trouble or have questions, we’ll be willing to help you. If the sites we have for you are too difficult to follow, please don’t hesitate to ask questions.

Glorfirith Annun (me!) does translations for sindarin, quenya and tengwar. If you need her assistance with anything, ask her here or send her a pm.

Thread Contents:

Rhaella’s Quenya

Glorfirith Annun’s Sindarin

Edhellos’ Name Generators

Useful Links:

Council of Elrond is a very useful site and it does both Tolkien and PJ.

Ardalambion, which covers nearly everything about the languages of Tolkien.

Parma Tyelpelassiva One of Rhaella's quenya links.

Essentials of Quenya Grammar - this includes tengwar script. This is always good to learn.

Council of Elrond - Elvish Resources - This is a most excellent link. The best of resource links.

Dictionaries:

English-Quenya

Quenya-English

English-Sindarin

Sindarin-English

Dragon Flame*

*Sindarin dictionary. Requires a free download. Also does tengwar.

Warning!

Grey Company IS NOT REAL TOLKIEN ELVISH! If you do not believe me, you can see proof here where

they CLEARLY specify:

Here you will find documents on Tel'Mithrim's Elven Language. If you want to learn Tolkien's Elvish instead, look at the links at the bottom of this page.

and even here, straight out of their FAQs.

Please be wary before you post. If you post any grelvish here, we'll quote your post with our sign and laugh at you:

NOTE: Please don't advertise in our thread. It's kind of rude, I wouldn't advertise in yours. We're giving our free time to help people, it would be appreciated if you don't interfere. SUGGESTIONS however are very welcome. That we're not discouraging in the slightest.

Revamp Update: I’ve again changed Rhaella’s name. This had better be the last time!

[Rhaella]

NOTE: If the accents aren't working, please refresh the page. This is Quenya, the accents are a MUST.

When the Noldor returned to Middle-earth from Valinor, Quenya is the language that they brought with them. During the Third Age (and even during the First Age), it was not the common tongue of the Elves. It had become a language similar to Latin: a language of lore. This happened because of the ban that Thingol, King of Doriath, placed on the tongue after he learned of the Kinslaying at Alqualondë.

Still, Quenya has maintained great importance despite this. Many kings of Númenórë were given names in this language, and even the name itself means Westland in Quenya.

Outside of the mythos, Quenya is an especially interesting language to study when one considers that this is the most highly developed of all of the languages Tolkien created. It is not always perfectly consistent, naturally, and there are problems inherent in it, and many questions that scholars ask, but the extent to which it has been realized is astonishing.

The most extensive site for Elvish languages is Ardalambion, though there are certainly others, and if you are really serious, you should certainly explore other interpretations of the language as well. However, for one dedicated enough to work through it, there is a course offered on Quenya at that site which is very rewarding.

Several examples of Quenya from LOTR are the lament that Galadriel sings the Fellowship of the Ring, and the greeting of Frodo to Gildor Inglorion: Elen síla lúmenn’ omentielvo, which means “A star shines upon the hour of our meeting.”

Several other examples are Fingon’s cry at the Nirnaeth Arnoediad: Utúlie’n aurë! Aiya Eldalië ar Atanatári, utúlie’n aurë! and Nienor’s cry: Túrin Turambar turún’ ambartanen! (“The day has come! Behond people of the Elves and Fathers of Men, the day has come” and “Túrin Master of Doom by doom mastered”, respectively).

Much of the difficultly with Quenya resides in the differences between grammar in that language and in many modern languages (English, French, and Spanish most certainly. I’m assuming it’s less difficult for anyone who speaks the Scandinavian languages, however. I, unfortunately, do not). For example, the quote above, “Elen síla lúmenn’ omentielvo” consists of the noun “Elen” star, the verb “Síl” to shine and then a modification of the nouns “Lúmë” hour, and “Omentië” meeting.

Sites about Quenya:

A good site about both languages, which has courses that are much more comprehensible than the one from Ardalambion: HERE

On Ardalambion
The Basics

Quenya Dictionaries:

English to Quenya
Quenya to English

If you need any assistance with Quenya, feel free to post here in the thread or pm Glorfirith Annun.

[Glorfirith Annun]

The language of Sindarin is the tongue spoken throughout Beleriand in the first age and later on through history in Middle-earth as we know it from The Lord of the Rings. The reason that Sindarin is the main language is mainly due to the seperation of the elves during the summoning to Valinor.

The elves split up into several groups while travelling. Some went to Valinor, some stayed behind. Over the years, the language of the elves that stayed behind evolved differently than to that of the elves that went to Valinor. The language they called Sindarin.

When a group of Elves returned from Valinor, they met up with the elves that had stayed behind and realized how much their tongues now varied. The current king of the large realm of Doriath, Thingol, eventually insisted that they speak Sindarin while they were in his realm. Elves being very adaptive, picked it up in no time, reserving their own tongue, Quenya, for more traditional and formal occasions.

Continuing on into the third age during the time of Lord of the Rings, Sindarin was still the main tongue of the elves in Middle-Earth. Basically, if you fell into Middle-earth and Eru forbid, bump into Legolas (or an elf of your choice), this is the language you would use to greet him(/her).

Sindarin is the Tolkien language with the most resources available for studying. I can’t say that it’s the easiest language to learn but I didn’t find it overly difficult.

As with every language, grammar is an important key. Infact, I wouldn’t recommend speaking without it. The wisest place to start when learning Sindarin is indeed with the grammar. Don’t get me wrong, vocabularly is also extremely important. Considering without it, you can’t communicate.

Most websites that I’ve seen that give one information and lessons tend to carry the same basic content. So in the end, it’s up to you where you choose to study. Personally, I use a mix of them.

Council of Elrond offers workbooks, forum assitance, dictionary and encyclopedias. This is my main resource for learning Sindarin.

Ardalambion is also a very good site. I’ve known more people to learn from here. I occasionally use it but unfortunately, I find the layout confusing.

I’ve been studying Sindarin for several years now. I’m also very good with Sindarin tengwar, the form of script used. If you need any extra guidance outside of the information provided, feel free to post questions in the thread or you can also pm me here. I’m willing to do translations in both script and general Sindarin. If you’d like a translation, again, let me know.

Sindarin Dictionaries:

Dragon Flame**
English-Sindarin Dictionary at CoE
Sindarin-English Dictionary at CoE

**This is the best Sindarin dictionary one can lay their hands on. It’s a free download to your computer where you will have it at your fingertips. It also does tengwar in Sindarin, Quenya, Black Speech and English.

[Edhellos]

So you want an Elvish Name, huh? Read on.

BEWARE of "elvish name generators" and "Middle Earth name generators". In case you don't know, a generator is something that, well, generates stuff. In other words, it will throw random nonsense at you no matter what you type.

If you type your dog's name, it will return something.

In other words, typing your name into a thing like that, will NOT give you your elvish name.
It will just throw some elvish name at you. Chances are that the name belongs to a person from the Tolkien books. Sometimes it will even tell you a name from a Man/Woman and tell you that's your elvish name. True story! I have seen it.

So before you go around claiming MY ELVISH NAME IS FEANARO FELAGUND LOLZ! let us do a little research.

To get started:

First of all, suppose your name is John. What you want to do is find out what your name means. Excellent websites for this are:
www.babynames.com
www.behindthename.com

Got it? No? There is a slim chance your name is not there. Ask your parents if they gave you that name for a reason. You can even do a little research and see if your name relates to a mythological person. My real name relates to a greek sea creature.

Anyway, now that we've got that covered, we see that John means "God is gracious". Most Hebrew names contain God in their name.

So now all you have to do is translate your name into Elvish, be it Quenya or Sindarin, using the resources Glorfirith and Rhaella have provided you.

If you are lazy, fear not. There are websites dedicated to this:
Elvish.org
Ardalambion Article

If your name is in there, YAY. You have no more to do. For example, we see that suggestions for John are Eruantalon or Eruntalon or Erufailon. Also, don't take to heart what this website says if you really don't like your name. Just try to translate it yourself.**

Otherwise, my friend, begins the painful task of translating it directly. Good luck!
I hope this was informative.

** If you need any assitance in name translations, pm Glorfirith Annun, or post in the thread.

[greenkitsu]

It's all very informative but no matter how much I try it still makes my brain hurt!!!! *sniffy* cry

[Edrahil]

Nice thread! I've checked out most of the sites before- except for the Grelvish of course. Good thread for newbies.

[Lalaith Eruiel]

Thanks for all of the information. I've been wanting to pick up where I left off when I started studying Quenya last summer.

[PearlZenith]

Wonderful, and pretty thread! (I like the title pics on the opening posts, and the grelvish wanring sign rocks my socks.)

I'm not sure if this fits into this thread, but resources for the Quenya and Sindarin modes of Tengwar would be nice, as well.

[ChewySkywalker]

Finally! I wish you gals luck with this!

[Rhaella]

Okay, if there's any interest, I'd like to start either tomorrow or Sunday (weekdays are hellish for all of us wink ).

@ greenkitsu
Don't worry, if you're still interested in learning at all (even just the pronunciations), just put a little bit of effort into it and you should be fine. And tell us if we're confusing you.

That goes for everyone, of course. 3nodding

@ Edrahil
Thank you! heart
If you'd like to study with us a bit, you're more than welcome to. whee

@ Jupiter Rain:
We'll probably start at the beginning, assuming anyone is really interested, of course. smile You can jump in whenever you'd like, though, or just refresh yourself. 3nodding

May I ask where you did leave off?

@ PearlZenith
Come and learn... domokun Yes, Tengwar is a good idea too.

@ ChewySkywalker
Molto grazie! heart Come and get involved!

[PearlZenith]

Nandelle

@ PearlZenith
Come and learn... domokun Yes, Tengwar is a good idea too.

Heh, you know I really wanted to say Sarati, too, but the only mode that really exists is English. I think that's all that Tolkien ended up using it for.
However,the Sindarin mode of Cirth might also be nice.

[Lalaith Eruiel]

Nandelle

@ Jupiter Rain:
We'll probably start at the beginning, assuming anyone is really interested, of course. smile You can jump in whenever you'd like, though, or just refresh yourself. 3nodding

May I ask where you did leave off?

I'm not too far along, I'm afraid. sweatdrop I had just studied a few vocabulary words and unfortunately got side-tracked. So it's good that we're starting from the beginning. 3nodding

[ChewySkywalker]

Nandelle

@ ChewySkywalker
Molto grazie! heart Come and get involved!

Of course, I shouldn't be too busy since third quarter just ended so I'm not bombarded with anything.

[Inemine]

ooh I love elvish! whee
I can speak it a bit, hang on *hum*

vedui mellon amin!

Namaarie 3nodding

lol, I do know other phrases but I rather don't speak them as they are a bit insulting...heheh

[Vendie]

Inemine

ooh I love elvish! whee
I can speak it a bit, hang on *hum*

vedui mellon amin!

Namaarie 3nodding

lol, I do know other phrases but I rather don't speak them as they are a bit insulting...heheh

If I'm not mistaken, I think that "Vedui" is a Grelvish phrase sweatdrop I'm not too great at Elvish, but I recognize the Grey Company stuff when I see it. *used to be a Grelvish speaker* xp sweatdrop