[Tae]

Does anyone know of any Elf names, or any website that can give me an Elf name. If so, please help.

[KhazarKhum]

There are several "name generators", which all have problems.

For my money, the best place to go is Ardalambion.

http://www.uib.no/People/hnohf/

Ardalambion is dedicated to Tolkien's languages. Using it is a litle tricky, but well worth the effort. You will be able to search through dictionaries of Quenya & Sindarin, and will find all the names you could ever want.

[Panneth]

There is also the Elvish Name section on

http://www.councilofelrond.com

It is actually elvish which tends to help things. They've also got a huge section on languages and downloadable dictionaries so if you want to make up your own names the resources and the people to help you are there.

Emma

[Viv]

[Roisin]

Well I am confused b/c I thought by the time of the War of the Ring the Elves in ME pretty much all spoke Sindarin and had Sindarin names?

Roisin

[Panneth]

Random Mirkwood fact, but at some point in his reign during the Third Age, Thranduil banned the Silvan tongue in the wood so everyone had to speak Sindarin. This would presumably be after he'd given his son a Silvan name...

I'm not sure about Lothlorien, but didn't Legolas say in LotR that he could basically understand what they said but their accent was strange or something. Perhaps here the Silvan tongue had merged with the Sindar one that their ruling classes spoke.

Another thing about the Silvan elves was that they had no written form of communication until the Sindarin elves showed up and then the Silvans had to attempt to write in Sindarin because there was no way to write in their own language.

I'm not sure I completely agree with Viv about giving non-Sindarin characters non-Sindarin names. Galadriel is a Sindarin name even though she was Noldor because it was mutated into that language from the original (Quenya??). Even though Celeborn was Sindar (I think), he did not give her the name in his natural tongue, but the one from the land around him.

Hope this is some help

Emma

[Viv]

Probably the best thing is just, as a writer, to be aware of the differences. And then do whatever you feel best fits your character. The only time this becomes just icky is when folks go to those Get Your Elf Name Right Here! generators and "create" an elven name. Usually, those generators spit out Quenya names because, hey, folks have been working on filling out that language for years, and we have a lot of information about it.

Sindarin is a pretty safe bet, though. Unless, again, your character has an interesting family situation and was deliberately named in another language.

By the way, regarding Legs. In my one lengthy story about him, I wrote that Legolas was his mothername because his mum was a wood elf. Pure speculation, of course (according to JRR, his mother is a complete mystery), but it would explain the Nandoran name depite Thranduil's little language prohibition. Maybe Mrs Thranduil had an independent streak.

[Viv]

[Moralanqua]

Panneth -


Where did you read about Thranduil making the Silvan elves speak Sindarin? This would make a great addition to something im working on!! Can you dig out your source?

I know that Thingol banned the Noldo variation of quenyan (cause they did that whole kin slaying thing and him being of Telerin origin took offense) This is why peeps like Artanis, Aikanaro etc ended up Galadriel, Aegnor etc

Although Celeborn is credited with the naming of Galadriel.

(my source : http://www.uib.no/people/hnohf/sindarin.htm )

Claudio over at Elf Fetish (some of you may know him?) and I recently had a discussion on the naming of wood elves. He said that Nandorin linguistics were a pain in the $&! and that Sindarin names were very feasable. Im placing my trust in his opinion since he's into all the linguistics and translates most of the stuff at that site.

Here is a link : http://www.uib.no/people/hnohf/nandorin.htm

If anyone wants a more classical character to have a Silvan name, this will be of limited help as there are only about 30 known words.

[Panneth]

Viv-

There's some disagreement as to whether Doriath had it's own language called Doriathin or whether they simply spoke Sindarin or a variant on it. There's a nice lengthy article on it over at Ardalambion at

http://www.uib.no/People/hnohf/doriath.htm

In the Unfinished Tales, in the History of Galadriel and Celeborn it gives both their names first in their Telerin forms as Alatáriel and Teleporno (what a name to be born with!) and then the Sindarin translations of Galadriel and Celeborn. The Quenya form of Galadriel is also given, just for fun (it's Altáriel).

I'm confused as to whether Nandorian was the original tongue of the Silvan elves before the arrival of the Sindar or not. It is said to be the Silvan tongue on Ardalambion, but there is conflicting information in Tolkien's writing. At one point the Silvan elves are described as being distantly related to the Green-elves of Ossirland who spoke Nandorian, but in another Tolkien refers to the "Silvan or Nandorian" name of something. I'm seriously confused

Lucky-

The UTs also totally confuse the issue of the adoption of Silvan/Sindarin in the Greenwood. Even Christopher Tolkien notes the contradiction in his father's writing. JRR Tolkien writes in one place that the handful of Sindar elves that came to the forest started to speak the local language and even took names in that language and form. However, in another place Tolkien writes that the original languages of the Silvan elves in both Greenwood and Lorien died probably died out as the years went on.

That puts the idea of giving Sindarin names to Silvan elves down the pan whichever way you look at it!

I was sure I had read somewhere that Thranduil had banned any language other than Sindarin towards the end of his reign. Although I don't think there was a reason. I've checked the Sil, UT and Appendices and this is driving me nuts, I was convinced!! I've even opened my copy of the Etymologies and got very scared by all the words! I will think about this some more and get back to you guys on it if I find anything.

Hope I've been some help and not completely confused you all like I've managed to do myself!

Emma

I was so sure *goes off muttering to self*....

[Nanneline]

Hey all

I figured I'd help you out a little bit on the whole language thing. I don't know much (well anything) about the history, but I bought this book The Languages of Tolkien's Middle Earth By: Ruth S. Noel. It has all fourteen language's Tolkien created and a little bit of history on them. Of course I haven't read the whole thing, I'm really bad about it. Here are all 14 languages:
Black Speech
Common Speech (Westron)
Dunlending
Hobbit
Khuzdul (Dwarvish)
"Any one of the languages of Men" (I'm not sure what this would be)
Numenoean (Adunaic)
Orkish
Pre Numenorean
Quenya
Rohan
Sindarin
Sylvan
Wose

The book even has a dictionary of the words/names that are used in the books, but it doesn't have anything.
I hope this helps a bit.
~Nanne