elvish placenames: introduction

I thought I’d start by translating some of the placenames you will come across early on during your travel in Middle-Earth, including the place name  that got me started (echad candelleth).  I’ve found remembering the common elements isn’t too bad (e.g. ost ~ fortress, amon ~ hill, echad ~ camp) and it makes navigating a little easier if I know what type of landmark I’m looking for.  Each post will contain 2 or 3 common elements, with 4 -5 examples.  I’ve included a screenshot for each place so that it will jog your memory if you haven’t been there for a while and also I just love taking screenshots 😛

common elements:
amon (pl. emyn) ~ hill / hills
echad ~ camp

Amon Sûl, Lone-lands
Amon meaning hill and sûl meaning wind.  More famously known as Weathertop.

Amon Thanc, Ered Luin
Amon meaning hill and thanc meaning split, cleft, forked. Perhaps known as Cloven Hill, given Clovendale is very near.

Echad Candelleth, Trollshaws
Echad meaning camp.  Candelleth is an elf-maiden found there, so this simply translates to Candelleth’s Camp.

Echad Sûl, Lone-lands
Echad meaning camp and sûl meaning wind.  Camp of Wind.

Gondamon, Ered Luin
Gond meaning stone and amon meaning hill.  Hill of Stone.

(Translations are from the Appendix: Elements in Quenya and Sindarin, The Silmarillion, J.R. R. Tolkien and  Hiswelókë’s Sindarin Dictionary.  I am not an expert at all – if you see any mistakes please let me know!)

5 comments

  1. Andang /

    Thanks for this Eldaeriel!

  2. Love it! Sanctuary represent!

  3. Lilikate Buggins. /

    Very nice, looking forward to more!

  4. Kaleigh Starshine /

    Very informative, thank you!

  5. eldaeriel /

    thanks for the comments 🙂 I’m back from hols now so sorry for not replying earlier.

    I’ve been thinking and I’m not sure if just having the screenshots & translations is a little bit um… boring dry…? 😉

    So I thought I could either add a little bit of background to the places or perhaps I could be really brave and offer to translate reader requests (placenames or character names or come up with sindarin character names on request). What do you think? 🙂

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