Hi! First Post/Help with Sindarin Name Translations for Characters

[Vanya]

Hi, all! First-time poster here! I love Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” book series (I read them a few years back), and have only started watching the films (I know, I’m very late, lmao). I wasn’t aware that there was a site before so I’m pretty excited to be here now, too.

I’ve also been very interested in Sindarin lately, specifically with constructing proper names out of words in order to create original names for characters. The only problem is, I’m by no means a Sindarin lingual expert and I don’t trust Sindarin name generators/word translators. I’ve heard Elvish grammar/lingualisms/phonetics are a lot more complicated than that.

I’m just wondering, how would you convert these two meanings below into proper female Sindarin names?:

1. “Lady death/deathly lady” - like an epithet or something, for a mysterious elven character. Yes, I know. It’s very edgy, lol.
2. “Swallow” - as in the bird.

It’s just for fun, and I like using Tolkien’s Elvish names for elven characters. It helps with a lot of inspiration, haha. Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks!

 

[HALETH✒🗡]

Welcome, Vanya! Unfortunately, I'm by no means a Sindarin lingual expert too. Hopefully, you'll find people here who will be able to help you. What stories are you writing?

 

[Gilruin]

Sorry for the late reply, I overlooked this post. (And you are indeed quite right that name generators cant deal with Sindarin)

For “death”, I'd suggest either gurth or guru, for “lady” either heryn or híril. Combining these, I'd produce Gurucheryn, Guruchíri(e)l, Gyrtheryn, Gyrthíri(e)l, assuming that the original form without i-affection would be be restored with guru, where the compound remains obvious, but not with gurth, where more then the normal mutation rules happen (my model for th + h is Lothíriel). If it's just an epithet and not a name proper one could also construct a normal genitive phrase híril/heryn gurth/guru (just the two words you choose right after each other like we see in Aran Moria “king of Moria”), just like Aragorn's titles include hîr i-mbair annui “lord of the western lands” instead of something like Dúmbarchir as a compound. If the gender of the person is already clear form the name itself you could also use hîr gurth/guru like we see Elbereth being called Hîr Annûn “lady of the west” despite hîr usually meaning “lord”.

We have tuilin(n) “spring-singer” for “swallow” from Tolkien, however this can't be used as a name without further modifications:

The mere names of things, such as 'hill, river, tree', and especially of unique things, as 'sun', were not used, at any rate without differentiation: [...] for that would imply some kind of total equation or identity. An Elf (or Man) would not be called Anar 'Sun' even to depict great glory or radiant vigour. [...] But an Elf or Man could be called Anárion, Anardil [etc.]
— Parma Eldalamberon #21, S. 86

One could attempt using the loophole that your name just means “spring-singer” which happens to be the name for swallows as well (which could work bacause the name is a compound to begin with), but I'd suggest to add some additional suffix: Tuilinnil “Swallow-friend”, Tuilinwen “Swallow-maiden”, Tuilinniel/Tuilinnien/Tuilinneth “Swallow-daughter”

(if you have any question regarding the mechanics of these formations, feel free to ask!)

 

[1stvermont]

Hi, all! First-time poster here! I love Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” book series (I read them a few years back), and have only started watching the films (I know, I’m very late, lmao). I wasn’t aware that there was a site before so I’m pretty excited to be here now, too.

I’ve also been very interested in Sindarin lately, specifically with constructing proper names out of words in order to create original names for characters. The only problem is, I’m by no means a Sindarin lingual expert and I don’t trust Sindarin name generators/word translators. I’ve heard Elvish grammar/lingualisms/phonetics are a lot more complicated than that.

I’m just wondering, how would you convert these two meanings below into proper female Sindarin names?:

1. “Lady death/deathly lady” - like an epithet or something, for a mysterious elven character. Yes, I know. It’s very edgy, lol.
2. “Swallow” - as in the bird.

It’s just for fun, and I like using Tolkien’s Elvish names for elven characters. It helps with a lot of inspiration, haha. Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks!

Welcome.