Translation Help! Sindarin or Quenya with Tengwar Needed for a Show Title

Hi hi! I'm a Lore Master for an Adventures in Middle Earth game. We're looking to change the name of the show (it's a D&D twitch stream) to something different from the books. To that end we want to call the show something in one of Tolkien's languages.

The game has been rather dark; the players have accumulated many a shadow point - a game mechanic that slowly corrupts their characters based on how they interact within Middle Earth. As a group they've also been rather lost at times and have dealt with the emotional trauma of two character deaths early on.

tol;dr I'm looking for a show title that includes descriptive words like 'Lost, Shadows, Journey'. Think you can help me out?

With requests like this one, it’s almost always easier if you can generate a few titles for us to translate and choose what you like best.

Ooh, okay.

The Coming of Heroes

Shadows in the North

The Darkened Road

The Witch-King's Rise

Middle-earth: The Unsung Stories

Middle-earth: Forgotten Heroes (or souls)

Middle-earth: The Long Journey

Lovely! A few options for most of these. Here we go:

THE COMING OF HEROES

• Q. I Tulessë Calloiva (“The Coming of-Heroes”); Callotulessë (“Hero-coming”)
• S. I Doled Cellyn (“The Coming [of] Heroes”); I Doled Thelyn (“The Coming [of] Dauntless-Ones”)

SHADOWS IN THE NORTH

• Q. Huinë Formessë (“Shadow in-the-North”); Huinë mi Formen (“Shadow in the-North”); Forohuinë (“North-shadow”)
• S. Fuin vi Forod (“Gloom in-the North”); Dúath vi Forod (“Night-shadow in-the North”); Gwath vi Forod (“Shadow in-the North”)

THE DARKENED ROAD

• Q. I Lómëa Tië/Mallë (“The Shadowed Road/Street”); I Morna… (“The Dark…”); I Lúna… (“The Dark…”)
• S. I Ven/Rath Wathren (“The Road/Street Shadowy”); ...Wathui (“…Shadowy”); …Vorn (“…Dark”), …Dûr (“The Road/Street Dark [with evil implications]”)

THE WITCH-KING’S RISE

• Q. Orië Angamarwa (“[The] Rising of Angmar”); Oryalë Angamarwa (“[The] Rising of Angmar”) [Two noun formations of orya- “to rise”]
• S. I Eriad Angmar (“The Rising of Angmar”); I Eriad Angbar [using the “pure Sindarin” form of the name]

MIDDLE-EARTH: THE UNSUNG STORIES

• Q. Endor [long form Endórë]: I Allirinë Quentar (“Middle-earth: The Unsung Stories”); …Nyarnar (“…Legends”); …Nyári (“…Histories”)
• S. Ennor: I Phint Allinnin (“Middle-earth: The Stories Unsung”); …I Nern Allinnin (“…the Tales Unsung”)

MIDDLE-EARTH: FORGOTTEN HEROES/SOULS

• Q. Endor [long Endórë]: Lehtainë Callor/Fëar (“Middle-earth: Forgotten Heroes/Souls”)
• S. Ennor: Cellyn/Fae Leithennin (“Middle-earth: Heroes/Souls Forgotten”); …Thelyn Leithennin (“Dauntless-Ones Forgotten,” as above) [The Sindarin for “soul,” fae, is identical in singular and plural. You could perhaps use a collective faeath, basically “all souls,” but I wouldn’t make this a first choice.]

MIDDLE-EARTH: THE LONG JOURNEY

• Q. Endor [long Endórë]: I Anda Lenda (“Middle-earth: The Long Journey”)
• S. Ennor: I Lîdh And (“Middle-earth: The Journey Long”)

There you have it! A quick note that Quenya is my expertise, so I'm pinging a Sindarin expert to come take a pass. After that, you can let us know your favorites and we can work on tengwar transcription!

Wow, thanks so much! Really informative and so much attention to detail - I love it! I sent in your list and we have fallen on this one:

SHADOWS IN THE NORTH

Q. Huinë Formessë (“Shadow in-the-North”); Huinë mi Formen (“Shadow in the-North”); Forohuinë (“North-shadow”) S. Fuin vi Forod (“Gloom in-the North”); Dúath vi Forod (“Night-shadow in-the North”); Gwath vi Forod (“Shadow in-the North”)

The setting starts in 2946 T.A. and involves all the Free Peoples of Middle-earth. Right now the players are in Rhovannion, aiding in King Bard's restoration projects. Long-term goal story-wise is for us to eventually make our way to Angmar and face off against the Witch-king (many years will pass in the story).

That all said - would you think it be better to use Quenya or Sindarin as the show title? As of now I'm picturing a logo that has both Shadow in the North displayed with the translated version underneath. Then the Tengwar of that translated text displayed in some integrated fashion. Perhaps similar to Sauron's ring inscription.

Ah, glad you like! So there are three options there for both Quenya and Sindarin, each separated by semicolons after the parenthetical translations. Let me know which you prefer.

By that point in history, Quenya was "dead" (i.e. no new native speakers) and confined to lore and ritual, occupying a very similar space to Latin in our world. Sindarin was the most widely-spoken Elvish language of the time. For this purpose, however, I think you could justify a Quenya name to convey a sense of ancientness or sophistication — again, much as we do with Latin with university mottoes, scientific nomenclature, etc. So, again, your call!

Hmm... I'm thinking Huinë mi Formen. Thanks for all the help! By the way, how would I pronounce something like this? What's the phonetic structure?

No problem! Happy to help.

Tengwar transcription here, using Tengwar Annatar Italic to mimic the style of the One Ring inscription. You'll be able to save it as a PNG file from the "Share" window in the bottom corner of the right pane.

A rough English approximation would be "HOOEY-neh mee FOR-men." Navigate to this IPA reader, select the "Carla - Italian" voice from the dropdown menu, and enter /ˈhuinɛ mi ˈfɔrmɛn/ in the query bar for a pretty good Elvish accent.

Fantastic! Thanks Röandil!