If someone could help me translate the sentence ‘where the great river divides’ I would be eternally grateful! Note it doesn’t have to be an exact translation if it doesn’t work/make sense (it could be ‘where the grand river splits’ for example). Thanks in advance 🙏🏼

I’ve been studying Quenya for about a month now and have dumped a considerable amount of time in trying to translate simple things and moved into trying to form sentences. More difficult than I thought so I came here for help. Please excuse the length of this post. Sorry if it runs too long, but I’d like to explain my reasoning for some word choices.

English: The world is indeed full of peril and in it there are many dark places. But still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it still grows, perhaps, the greater.

Quenya:

I arda quanta raxë naitë ar mi á lilómëa nomi. Ná eä olvanië. Tensi mi ilquanori melmë ar nyérë á nauta. Melmë, nai, anlawā.

Literally:

The world is full [of] danger indeed and within are very dark lands. But (or “on the contrary”) there is much beauty. Still, within all lands love and grief are bound. Love, perhaps, blooms exceedingly.

I had to change around the structure of the quote as best I could to get a close enough translation, but I think it makes sense. I believe the only words I had to make up were “olvanië” olya (much) and vanië (beauty) and “anlawā” an- (very, exceeding, greatest) lawā (blooms).

Please let me know if I could have done better or if the above makes sense to someone who is more fluent. Thanks!

Who wants to test their Quenya skill and explain the meaning of this song? It is both grammatically correct and poetic references and phrases, before asking. The lyrics are crafted with double meanings and perspective referencing. Created to withstand grammar fanatics.

https://youtu.be/VP6FaXWcTkA

Isilya: Nancanë Elenion Cala

First Verse)
Mi huinë núra, yassë quildë súla,
Nancanë cala orta, ve huinë túra.
I cala ustuva, pilu estel,
Mal enderyassë, morgul caita mel.

(Chorus)
A Isilya, Hína Nyéreva,
Ana i calma, orta ar mahta.
As túrë morneva, nanquenta i món,
Mi huinë vanya, i cala nauva undómë.

(Second Verse)
Ter fanyar nyéreva, vanta as túrë,
Nairieryanen tanca, umbarya turë.
Tára i huinion liltalëo,
Turya i lómë, ehenta i calo.

(Chorus)
A Isilya, Hína Nyéreva,
Ana i calma, orta ar mahta.
As túrë morneva, nanquenta i món,
Mi huinë vanya, i cala nauva undómë.

(Bridge)
Ilya elen ya fifírëa,
Estel lantaina, i lómë tuluva.
As huinion melehta, tëa i nórë,
Mi ohta valaina, fairerya mornë.

(Chorus)
A Isilya, Hína Nyéreva,
Ana i calma, orta ar mahta.
As túrë morneva, nanquenta i món,
Mi huinë vanya, i cala nauva undómë.

(Outro)
Sí hosta amba, hossërya yala,
Mi omentië, i huinë ancala.
Ana i calmano, melehtalma tuia,
Isilya tura, ve estel quela.

https://preview.redd.it/bcbml4x9spxd1.png?width=2154&format=png&auto=webp&s=79c8fc78c2f6fb8c1a4ada301a71bb2078dbee1e

Yes, I'm trying to translates Merlin's name here.

I actually wanted to translate "The Merlinian" (as a title, you know? "of merlin", someone who is part of Merlin's order), but I'm not sure how to do it, so I tried to start with Merlin name.

Some places say Merlin means "mad man" other "wonder man" and some say it is "sea fortress" and "born of the sea". I like these two later more. Is "Ostearion" (ost - fortress, ear - sea, ion - son of/male suffix) a good translation? And if so, how can I make it into "the merlinian" idea style?

So, I'm trying to translate the word "Francisco" and the name meaning is "free man" (some sites say "free french" but i have no idea who to translate french hahaha). The problem is, quenya dictionary has so many words for "free" that i'm a little lost. How do you choose? What would be best?

Hi! I recently used ChatGPT (I know, horrible of me :D) to translate the following to Quenya. Could you give me some feedback whether this is somewhat acceptable? I'll tattoo this after my late husband so I don't want to embarrass him, he was a huge admirer of Tolkien and his linguistic talents. :)

"I will love you forever" or "I will love you til eternity."

ChatGPT's answer:

The correct Quenya translation for "I will love you forever" is "Nenyë melinyel na arda." If you want "I will always love you," it can be "Nenyë melinyel."

"Nenyë melinyel na arda" can be broken down as follows:
• Nenyë (nen-yay): "I will"
• melinyel (meh-lin-yel): "love you"
• na (nah): "forever"
• arda (ar-dah): "world" or "eternal"
So, it reads as "I love you forever."

So, the first problem is, I want the translation to include the word "arda" because my husband's first name was Arda. He loved the fact that it had a meaning in Tolkien's world. (I think it means the world?) Even if it's 100% not accurate, I'd still tattoo it. :) Just need some affirmation that it is not totally gibberish.

Also, which font from Tecendil would you suggest for a tattoo? Thanks. :)

https://preview.redd.it/hkjk62zyskxd1.png?width=1170&format=png&auto=webp&s=98381a5cbd3be21c5f4f790c0c88b226afd25d36

For translating “Home is behind, the world ahead” I saw several different translations on here. I came up with “Mélmar ná ca, i ámbar ná” but then wasn’t sure whether to use po or opo for saying “ahead”. Which is correct? Thank you!

Could someone, please, help me to translate "No lamb for the lazy wolf" in quenya?

It is for a tattoo, so i can't do kt wrong.

Hello everyone.

Straight to the point, I tried to do a tengwar transcription of the Oath of Fëanor, as translated to Quenya here à https://www.elvish.org/gwaith/mrezac.htm

I am, however, a bit unsure as to how it turned out, as I am quite inexperienced. Could somebody kindly spellcheck this for me? I am especially uncertain of the “th” sound, the double “s”, "v" or "w", the transcription of the long vowels, and the punctuation.

Many thanks.

https://preview.redd.it/ph2jzxow23xd1.png?width=638&format=png&auto=webp&s=e24a14395596c8dae0214b6c1905c5d4823adc41

Please, rate and proofread my Quenya

Morgothë, tîr na nénu,
Cala ëa, mornië na,
Néren i lórien, tultien,
Maltha na hlarëa.

Auta i mornië, arda hëa,
Hantale quén, cennas uva,
Anar i silmë, nielë úvë,
Cilya nísë, hilya nénu.

Yénë mornië, lira quettar,
Elenath úva, lanta cirien,
Nye caurea, hiril-îlë,
Ar hlarëa na, uva cequë.

https://youtu.be/tr6sQs4DQDA?si=lEXE-ShL4aZrWecd

mind i need these phrases for names for an original character.

the first one is: “Daughter of Gold” (gold of color, not the metal). i actually tried (probabily failing) and i thought of something like “Lauriel”, being the union between “Laurë” and “-iel”, let me know if it’s correct.

the second one is: Spirit of Arts (material arts, like engraving)

the third one is: “River’s Daughter” Again i tried and came out something like “Nuniel”, being the union of “nunië” and “-iel”. (probabily failing again)

the fourth one is: “Leaf of Radiant Light”, this was hell, i do tried, but it was too difficult”

thank you for any response!

This will be engraved on a sword blade we are making in our machine shop. I have done the best translation I can based off my research but came here for clarification. My only doubt is the use of “ancalima”.

“Eärendil elenath ancalima menello, aiya i amarth Mordoreva ve Angband iaureva!”

English: Eärendil, brightest of the stars of heaven, behold the doom of Mordor as Angband of old!”

Thank you guys so much for any help.

https://youtu.be/tr6sQs4DQDA A song about Morgoth

Morgothë: Tîr na Nénu single

Morgothë, tîr na nénu,
Cala ëa, mornië na,
Néren i lórien, tultien,
Maltha na hlarëa.

Auta i mornië, arda hëa,
Hantale quén, cennas uva,
Anar i silmë, nielë úvë,
Cilya nísë, hilya nénu.

Yénë mornië, lira quettar,
Elenath úva, lanta cirien,
Nye caurea, hiril-îlë,
Ar hlarëa na, uva cequë.

I'm working on a fanfic: What if Mairon never got corrupted by Morgoth and the ring he forged was different.

Er corma ilyar varna, Er corma tuvien te, Er corma ilyar tucien Ar cala peanta te

One ring to protect them all, One ring to find them, One ring to bring them all And in the ligth guide them.

https://preview.redd.it/ypr7etxy5cxd1.png?width=385&format=png&auto=webp&s=72efd020f100116ba5cbe6819e55f6a99e5f397b

Cand you help me to check if this is correct?

https://preview.redd.it/gzbmjvfll4wd1.jpg?width=823&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5cee21dd7c5212686dd203bcefea0761355ef028

I created this to be a Middle-Earth version of the line "Always an angel, never a god" from Not Strong Enough by boygenius.

I’m sure you guys get a lot of these but I wanted to know if anyone could ascertain whether the following translation as at all accurate:

Anná antëalme tyé, meldenilma andaloälíva, À napatyes ar alaryatye!

Ann-á ant-ëa-lme tyé, meld-en-ilma anda-loä-líva, à nap-a-tye-s ar alar-ya-tye

Gift-ᴀᴄᴄ give-ᴘʀᴇꜱ-ex.1pl you, friend-ᴅᴀᴛ-ex.1pl.ᴘᴏꜱ long-year-ᴀᴅᴊ, ɪᴍᴘ-particle take-ᴘʀᴇꜱ-2sg-3sg.ᴘʀᴏɴ and rejoice-ᴘʀᴇꜱ-2sg

“A gift we give you, our long-yeared friend, take it and rejoice!”

Also, if possible would someone be able to check my tengwar? Will post once I can find it again

Hey, I was looking at some of Tolkien's poetry and found an excerpt of a poem (Twenty years have flowed away down the long river) from a speech he gave in 1958. There were two lines from a draft of the poem as well, in Quenya:

Loä yukainen avar Anduinë sí valútier:
i aluvar koivienyo eärello nantule.

I found an online dictionary (from Ambar Eldaron) and was able to translate a few words with exact matches/similarities (enough to determine that it wasn't a translation from some of the English excerpt), but not enough to understand the couplet. Since it's a poem draft I was wondering if they were from earlier drafts of Quenya.

Does there exist a translation of the couplet/how would I go about translating it? I'm new to anything Tolkien beyond The Hobbit and LotR, so if there's assumptions about his poetry or about Quenya, I don't know them.

Hi. I’m trying to learn quenya but I can’t really find any material about it. I know it’s not a complete language but I’d like to know some words. Does anyone have any material recommendations? The only stuff I find is about sindarin but I want to learn that later.

Greetings Redditors, thanks for tuning in to my once-in-a-blue-moon post — I can always depend on this place for connecting me with fellow linguists, language enthusiasts, even people simply smarter than me whenever I'm looking for input or a second opinion on some wacky language/art project.

Unless I'm just not looking in the right place, there doesn't seem to be a lot of content on Sarati out here on the Interwebs. I suppose rightfully so; it's rather obscure and doesn't have much spotlight in Tolkien's works. But man, what a special, even mystical aesthetic this script emanates — the way the letters branch out like leaves of varying size speckled with clusters of dots and swoops. I always imagined that Sarati would make for some stunning typographic work but obviously haven't seen much come to fruition.

One visual I've had in my head for a good long while is how well a Sarati text would confirm to a circular path, wrapping on itself, its bar becoming a ring. Sure, this can and has been done with Tengwar or any other real-world script, but I feel that Sarati is unique in that the bar is interrupted only when a line break occurs. That said, a line of text can be placed along a ring without needing to fracture it, making for a neat, strangely Tolkienesque appearance. Here's what I've finally found the time to generate:

https://preview.redd.it/2jbo3p8rrrvd1.png?width=1440&format=png&auto=webp&s=c4650249ceca4bc3d713f12ef6abea308f23b232

Read vertically starting at 12:00 going counterclockwise, the text is the concluding doxology of the Lord's Prayer translated into Quenya by u/Roandil in this post ("An lyenya i aranië ta i melehtë ta i alcar oialë. Násië.") I've transcribed the Latin-script text into Sarati to the best of my ability according to the Q(u)enya usage standards set forth in "Description of the 'Alphabet of Rúmil'" from Parma Eldalamberon 13 (outlined on Amanye Tenceli) and Tolkien Gateway. An odd choice of text to feature, perhaps, but also not really considering Tolkien's universe's fundamental connection to Christianity.

I like the end product, but I also like linguistic authenticity. Not currently having more than a rudimentary understanding of Quenya phonology and phonotactics, I'd like to give the benefit of the doubt on a grammatical level to u/Roandil's translation (although feel free to argue against that). However, if any of y'all have any input on my Sarati transcription job, please let me know.

Below is my process of transcription:

https://preview.redd.it/tfpa7dw6wrvd1.png?width=900&format=png&auto=webp&s=b70438055634cc577af1f2a5a7e4a44f07d61085

• I'm least confident in my transcriptions of "lyenya" and "melehte". In both of these words, I interpreted ny and ht as single glyphs, seeing as both of these are medial biconsonantal groups in Quenya and have their own glyphs in Sarati.
• From what I've gathered, the diacritic for e can be rendered as breve or a double-dot. While Amanye Tenceli uses the double-dot in its example, I've seen more examples using the breve elsewhere. Let me know if there's a usage that I'm unaware of that may sway my decision to use the breve.
• I used the doubled punctuation point, but I'm unsure if this is accurate.

Please feel free to tear my construction apart. I appreciate any feedback/correction anyone can offer!

Hey everyone. I’m going in for a tattoo consultation next week and I’m finally going to get my first LOTR tattoo. There’s a quote from The Silmarillion that’s been hitting home for me recently so I was hoping to be able to get a proper translation (I know that the elvish languages aren’t complete) I’ve put this into multiple “translation sites” and they all give me the same answer but I would just like to be sure.

The quote is “The light failed; but the Darkness that followed was more than loss of light.”

Any help is appreciated!!

i dont have the right words to google for what im looking for so i thought i would come here to ask.

i was wondering if there was a “canon” way to change verbs to nouns in quenya (e.g. defend to defender, give to giver, love to lover, etc).

if there isnt a canon way to do so, what do you think would be an acceptable way to do that?

https://youtu.be/fn2vJBjmNVc

Song Part 3 Nai Nérë Lyenna of Ailinel saga

https://youtu.be/NUO-wCA_eJo

Silmë Úrëa, Lá Lelyuva part 2 of Ailinel saga