Correct ordering of words

James Haywood #3094

I am very new to learning Elvish words but am planning to use Elvish (Sindarin) for speaking my spells in my recently started D&D campaign. For now I have done straight word for word translations but would like some help with the ordering of words to make it true to Elvish.

Frostbite – feel the wrath of my frost - matha i rûth o hell nín

Animal Friendship – allow me the friendship of this (animal/bird/reptile) - dav nin i wend o sen (lavan/aew/lhûg)

Ice Knife – give birth to the knife of ice - onna i higil o gochel

Speak to animals - allow me to talk the language of the (animal/bird/reptile) - dav nin an carfa i lam uin (lavan/aew/lhûg)

Healing words – Please accept this prosperous gift - Listo cav hen alwed ann

Wild Shape - make me one with the earth, become the (animal/bird/reptile) - caro nin min di i cae, ol i (lavan/aew/lhûg)

Pre-fight Meditate – please protect us from the terror we are about to face - listo beria men uin goroth thîrm

All of the spells involving animals would be replacing the brackets with the actual animal. Also could someone clarify whether the correct translation of "master of my fate" would be "tûr amarth nín"?

Ellanto #3096

It's not just word order that may need correcting. Some word choices ought to be corrected, as well as grammar (inflections, mutations etc). Some of these I would recommend rephrasing altogether, mostly due to limitations of the lexicon.

Ultimately I would recommend against the approach of merely using a dictionary to do a word-to-word "translation", because indeed without applying the relevant grammar it is not a translation. To give you an example, if I were to apply this same approach when translating a sentence from my native language to English, I might end up with something like The man-s watch-ed-s in the star-s to mean "The people were watching the stars". Therefore I recommend looking closer at the grammar; if you need help or suggestions for study materials, feel free to ask.

Here are my suggestions for your spells:

  • "feel the wrath of my frost": i·Rûth i·nich nín naegro len/gin, lit. "may the wrath of my frost pain you" (len vs. gin is formal vs. informal).
  • "allow me the friendship of this (animal/bird/reptile)": Davo annin i·nilith (lavan/aew/lhûg) hen.
  • "give birth to the knife of ice": No onnen i·higil chelegren lit. "may born be the dagger of ice". I think "may born be..." is more appropriate here than "give birth". I should also note, however, that i·higil can also be taken to mean "necklace"; if you wish to avoid the possible double-meaning (dagger of ice vs. necklace of ice) then you could replace it with i·grist "the cleaver".
  • "allow me to talk the language of the (animal/bird/reptile)": Davo annin peded vi lam (e lavan/en aew/e 'lûg). (Note the mutations of en and the following noun.)
  • "Please accept this prosperous gift": Listo, cavo i·ann alwed hen.
  • "make me one with the earth, become the (animal/bird/reptile)": Ertho nin gu i·geven, no i olathon (i·lavan/i·aew/i·thlûg), lit "unite me with the earth, may it be that I become the animal/bird/reptile".
  • "please protect us from the terror we are about to face": Listo, berio ven dan i·ñoroth i dadhrathof hí. You can also use other words in place of goroth, e.g. i·ñorgor "the extreme horror, haunting fear", or i·'oe "the terror, great fear, dread".

For "master of my fate" I would offer Hîr en amarth nín.

James Haywood #3097

Thank you for your help with this. The rephrasing does make a lot more sense. I kind of rushed to get some of these ready for the previous session we played so just went with word for word as a quick go to knowing that it wouldn't be a true translation. Again, thank you for helping!