This is a thread to collect all the bits and pieces of Elvish (that being both translation into one of the Elvish languages, such as Sindarin or Quenya and transcriptions into one of the Elvish writing systems, such as Tengwar, Sarati and Cirth) as a more or less comprehensive resource to link to. I'll generally try to discuss where their translation diverges from usual conventions of Neo-Elvish and point out where Tolkien’s published notes point to a different conclusions; however it must be mentioned that this is not necessarily a good source to learn or practice Elvish with. If you wish to learn more, refer to our collection of Links & Resources.

The translator has been confirmed to be Carl F. Hostetter, member of the Elvish Linguistic Fellowship (EP Lindsey Weber & Showrunner Patrick McKay interview, 1:15), it is however probably unreasonable to assume that he did all items from this list, dialect coach Leith McPherson spoke of a “team appointed by the estate” and also said that otherwise unpublished material has been used (The Rings Of Power Wrap-up #007, 34:00, 36:30).

(I would appreciate if discussions of the items or further speculations could be kept to different threads to keep this one nice and uncluttered. Naturally everyone is encouraged to submit new entries as they appear though, this is collaborative!)

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This analysis is based on discussions with and suggestions from many others, who I would like to thank for their contributions, especially Sid, Quirinius, TolkienGuide, zionius, machsna, Elaran, Röandil, Lokyt, EruannoVG and Ríon from the Vinyë Lambengolmor Discord server, u/NachoFailconi, The Dwarrow Scholar and TengwarTeacher.

Runes on Durin’s Collar

English in Angerthas

Prime-only Teaser (picture) — 6th July 2021

On Durin’s collar appears:

reading “...eathless...” probably as a part of Durin’s longer title “Durin the Deathless”. This reading is supported by glimpses in other shots of the trailers. Note that the transcriber did not use the Certh for the English diphthong ea attested in the Book of Mazarbul.

Isildur’s Sister Eärien

Neo-Quenya

Explore Entertainment Article — July 13th, 2022

The name of Isildur’s sister is now confirmed as Eärien, transparently a compound of ear “sea” and -ien a feminine suffix, producing “daughter/maiden of the sea”.

Inscription on Durin’s Hammer

English in Angerthas Erebor

Promotion Poster — July 14th, 2022

“iron in our hands”

Note that the transcriber did not use the one of the Cirth ou or /au/ for the English diphthong ou as attested in the Book of Mazarbul.

Inscription behind Durin

English in Angerthas

Entertainment Article — July 19th, 2022

On the door behind Durin the following appears:

Here the dash separates the left and right parts that are separated by the door in the shot. The right part reads “Ax Mahal rule...” and the left part, possibly continuing where the right part left off, reads “...ule your akʃən”. The first word of the right part is a bit puzzling: So far all English inscriptions in Cirth used the Angerthas Erebor values, with which it would read “ax”, but no other part of the inscription rules out the Angerthas Moria in this case, which would allow for the reading “az”. All in all, I would suggest that this is a phonemic spelling of “As Mahal rule your action”.

Soundtrack-Names

Neo-Quenya

Film Music Reporter — August 18th, 2022

• Track 21 Nolwa Mahtar, probably “Brave Warrior” ← EQ. nolwa “bold, brave” and mahtar “warrior”.
• Track 22 Nampat, possibly “retreat” ← nan- “back” and PAT- “step, walk” (though the lyrics of this piece don’t sound particularly like Quenya, prominently featuring ʃ, z. It might be Black Speech instead, then it could be an participle “[for] namp-ing” like we see in durb- → durbat “constraining, of a sort to constrain”).

1.1 Shadow of the Past — September 2nd, 2022

Names

• Thondir, the latter is probably dîr “man”, combined with either thôn “pine” or thond “root”.
• Rían, attested as “crown-gift” (wife of Huor) or “crowned lady”.
• Médhor. In Sindarin long ē became í, so this name must come from another language, possibly Ilkorin/Doriathrin, containing mêd “wet”.
• Revion, possibly containing NS. revia- “fly, sail; wander”. This word is updated from N. rhenia- under the assumption that in remja- mj > nj would not happen in Sindarin, however it is attested in amja- > ein-.
• Ostirith, probably “City of Watch” ← ost “city, fort” + tirith “watch”. A similar contraction happens in Osgiliath ← Ost-in-Giliath “City of Stars”
• Hordern, possibly a Sindarin compound of SKOR- “rough, marred” and dern “tough, hard”. Alternatively it might be a mannish name, Hordern is an Old English form for “storehouse, storeroom, treasury”.

Finrod’s Battle-cry — Neo-Quenya [5:30]

Valaron kalanen! Firuvante! “By the light of the Valar! They will die!”

• Valaron “of the Valar” ← vala·r·on, genitive plural of Vala “(Angelic) Power”.
• kalanen “by light” ← kala·nen, instrumental of cala “light”.
• Firuvante “they will die” ← fir·uva·nte, firuva is the future of fir- “to die”, -nte is the subject suffix for “they”. Fir- is glossed more fully “to die, fade, expire, breathe forth” and is connected to the peaceful death of Míriel and later to the natural death of Men, so perhaps for a violent situation like Finrod’s battle, qual- “to die” < KWAL- “to die in pain” would be preferable.

Snow-troll warning — Neo-Quenya [15:18]

Hristorco! “Snow-troll”

• hris- “snow”, cf. hristil “snow-peak” and the full noun hrisse “fall of snow”.
• *torco “troll”, probably coined in analogy to S. torog “troll” with the Quenya syncope.

Elrond writing Gil-Galad’s speech [22:50]

Spoken Neo-Quenya

i palannúmen... i alfirime Nóri... na metta avante... “the far west... the undying lands... At last they go...”

• i palannúmen “the far-west” ← i “the” + palan “far and wide” + númen “west”.
• i alfirime nóri “the immortal lands” ← i “the” + plural of alfírima “immortal” (usually occurring with a long í) + plural of nóre “land”.
• na metta “at last” ← na “to, towards” + metta “end”, this is probably meant to parallel S. na vedui “at last”, but there an adjective “end, final, last” is used instead of a noun like methed “end”.
• avante “they go away” ← ava-, a variant form of auta- “go away” and the subject suffix -nte “they”.

Written Neo-Sindarin in the Mode of Beleriand

Compare Gil-galad’s speach at 29:40.

• -nyr amverin hin “those very bold ?warriors”. -Nyr is probably the end of an agent noun in the plural, in this case probably meaning “warrior”. Amverin might be an intensive formation with am(a)- and a soft mutated and pluralized form of beren “bold”. Hin is probably the demonstrative pronoun sen “this”, again pluralized and soft mutated.
• bo mhen “?before us”. Mhen is the soft mutated form of men “us”, bo is usually identified as “on” (bo Ceven “*on earth”), but seems to be used as “before” here. This is probably intended as a derivation form OPO- “before of place, ahead, in front” while bo “on” is usually connected to pā/apa “on (above but touching)”
• túriel “having won”, a past active participle from *tor- “to win, be victorious” < TUR- “dominate, master, conquer”.
• an în “for age[s]”. În “age” is possibly the plural. An is probably the same as seen in and → anann “for long”, which might be connected to the dative preposition an.
• thar thrond a thangail “across pinnacle and ?shield-wall”. Thar “across”, Gnomish thrond “pinnacle”, a(h) “and”. Thangail is more complicated, there is a word thangail “shield-wall”, but since the English counterpart in Gil-galad’s speech is “crevice”, perhaps this is instead connected to thanc “cleft, split”.
• festiel, an active participle of a verb fasta-/festa-/fosta-. Since the English counterpart is “washing”, I’d assume it is an update to Gnomish fas- “to wash”.
• -thed mhedui “last remaining(s)”. I assume the -thed is the end of a gerund rethed ← reth- “to remain in same place”. Mhedui is the soft mutated form of medui “end, last, final”
• in chyth mhín “[of] our enemies”. in “the” is the plural form of the article which triggers nasal mutation on cyth, which is the plural of coth “ennemy”. It is however a bit unusual that the - of in remains, usually the voiceless stops p, t, c are mutated to ph, th, ch and the nasal is lost: in + Periain → i Pheriain “the hobbits”. Mhín is the soft mutated form of mín “our”.
• asgath lavan “bones [of] an animal”. Asgath is the class plural of asg, lavan is “animal”.

Elrond and Galadriel greet each other [24:25]

Lindóne lye cáva lissenen — Lissenen ni cavina “Lindon receives you with grace — with grace I am received”

• Lindóne, quenyarized form of Lindon “Land of Music”
• lye “you”. Previously I have suggested Lindon elye... withan emphatic pronoun (“you in particular”, e. g. nai elye hiruva “may you find it [but I won’t]”), but I don’t see any implied contrast to anyone who is not received with grace, so I think a normal pronoun Lindóne lye... is more likely.
• cáva “is receiving” ← present tense of cav- “to receve”
• lissenen “with grace” ← instrumental of lisse “grace”. The form might also be lissanen, which could be explained as the instrumental of a variant form lís/liss- with a connecting vowel -a-, as seen in ambartanen.
• ni “I”
• cavina “recieved” ← passive aorist participle of cav- “to receive”