Comments by Röandil

These are the 10 posts of 143 by Röandil.

  • Help me with my translation.

    Agreed. If it's intended to be an anciently formed name, I might also suggest Feangoldo, preserving ñoldo's original initial [ŋ] for some character, but it works fine as-is!

  • Phrase “Merry Christmas!” by Aldaleon

    Note that lye is almost certainly an object here, as suggested by the English gloss “thee” (object form of “thou”). If it were the subject of hir- “find,” we’d expect either suffixation onto the verb (hiruvalyë) or an independent form (elyë hiruva, as in Namárië). A more prosaic order would be “May a blessed Amanar find thee.”

    I’m not convinced by your hypothesis. What does the capital have to do with its being a place name? We have multiple attestations of holiday/festival names also denoted by capitals in Latin transcription. Furthermore, if Aman is referring to the Blessed Realm, what is -ar?

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  • Help translating to Quenya!

    This one calls for some paraphrasing, so you’ll likely see as many translations as translators. I wouldn’t tattoo it or do anything permanent with it, but here’s my take:

    Erya þantielwa ná ita carilwë i lúmessë antaina ven.
    lit. “Our only decision is what we do in the time given to us.”

  • Question on contributions

    It’s good overall, but for the sake of discussion, I hear:

    • “Elbarath” for Elbereth
    • “Na-chéred pelen-” for na-chaered palan-
    • “Galathremmin” for galadhremmin
    • “Fanwilos” (“FAN-wi-los”) for Fanuilos (“fa-NUI-los”), though most analyses of the song suggest that the diphthong ui is split for metrical purposes: Fa-nú-i-lòs.
    • “Neff ér, sí neff éron” for nev aear, sí nev aearon. Tolkien transcribed final /v/ with f, and as above, ae is a diphthong distinct from long /e/. Aear and aearon have two and three syllables, respectively.

    The site Glǽmscrafu hosts a wealth of Tolkien's texts read aloud in many of his Middle-earth languages and the real-world ones he knew, including some recitations/pronunciations from Tolkien himself. Perhaps we could link to those where appropriate?

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  • Help translation to Quenya/ Sindarin

    Other translators may have different ideas — particularly with Sindarin, which is not my expertise — so stick around to see what they have to say! Here are my takes:

    “For where am I to go? And by what shall I steer? What is to be my quest?”
    Q. An manna menuvan? Ar manen hiruvan i tie? Mana cestalenya?
    [lit. “For where will I go? And how will I find the path? What (is) my quest?”]
    S. An navan menin? A naman hirin i ven? Man i gestad nín?
    [lit. “For where do I go? And how do I find the way? What (is) my quest?”]

    “I’m going on an adventure.”
    Q. Mínanyë veryandenna.
    [lit. “I’m going toward adventure” = “I have adventure in view, I’m making for adventure”]
    S. Menin na verthas.
    [lit. “I go to adventure.” — credit to Elaran for this phrasing!]

    “Well, I’m back.”
    Q. Mai, nanwénien.
    [lit. “Well, I’ve come back.”]
    S. Mae, dandúlen.
    [lit. “Well, I’ve come back.”]
    We don’t really know the Elvish equivalent of the English interjection “well” acknowledging a situation or introducing a statement, so I’ve taken a leaf from the Romance languages and used the adverb “well” (Q. mai, S. mae); compare Spanish bueno, French bien, Italian beh (< bene), etc. Other options abound.

    “The last pages are for you.”
    Q. Tyéna i telde lassi.
    [lit. “For you (are) the last leaves.”]
    S. Echin i lais vedui.
    [lit. “For you (are) the leaves last.”]
    There are neologisms Q. parmalas / S. parlas (lit. “book-leaf”) for “page,” but I think simple “leaf” works well on its own.

  • Question on contributions

    The other problem we’d run into is that every file would require secondary review — there are a few mispronounced words in the Aerlinn, and I hear Telumehtar stressed on lu rather than meh.

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  • Question on contributions

    I'll leave technical logistics to Aldaleon, but from my perspective, adding audio files to every entry would be a prohibitively enormous undertaking, and I'm not sure how many volunteers you'd find to see it through to completion.

    There are also reliable guides — many with audio files — that make the pronunciation of these languages pretty clear.

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  • Traslation- whats wrong with you

    Got it, thank you! Again, it's is very idiomatic, and other translators will likely have different ideas. I'd take a leaf from the English and say something like:

    Man dŷr vi gin?
    lit. "What (is) mistaken/not right in you?"

    Amman han agóreg? or Amman han ebenneg?
    lit. "Why did you do that?" or "Why did you say that?"

  • Traslation- whats wrong with you

    (1) In which language? The two most well-developed are Quenya, the "High Elven" language of the Blessed Realm, and Sindarin, the "Grey Elven" language of most Elves we encounter in Middle-earth.

    (2) "What's wrong with you?" is very idiomatic, and we don't know how exactly the Elves would phrase it. Even the English expression can be asking various subtly different things. What's the context here?

  • Translation Help

    So sorry to drop the thread here!

    I like your suggestion “kind stranger,” which I’d translate with othol vílui.

    Tecendil is generally very reliable but will occasionally bug and requires mindful punctuation entry. Here's a link to how I'd transcribe it, using the Beleriandic mode to match the Moria inscription. I wouldn't advise changing anything in the input field, but feel free to explore the other fonts!

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