elvish placenames: language links

I am starting a series of posts which will translate (hopefully!) the Sindarin place names found throughout LoTRO.   Sindarin is an elvish language but it was also spoken by the Númenóreans in the Second Age and their descendants, the Dúnedain in the Third age, which, at least partly, explains the proliferation of Sindarin place-names across Middle-Earth.  When I first starting playing, I found navigation difficult as I had no frame of reference (beyond the obvious examples found in LoTR) and the place names just seemed meaningless.  I got quite cross as normally I’m quite good at navigating (even though I play a hunter ;)) and so I started looking up the meanings of some of the Sindarin names.

I’ve found it easiest to group and learn some Sindarin by grouping common elements together e.g. amon/emyn = hill/hills, duin = river.  So I have split the translations into groups such as water, high places, woods and forests for example.   I’m aiming to publish these fortnightly for now and hope you find them useful.

In the meantime, if you’re interested in further information about the languages of Middle-Earth, here are some handy links:

• Hisweloke Sindarin Dictionary  include alphabetical Sindarin to English, analogical English to Sindarin, thematic and semantic Sindarin to English dictionaries.
• Council of Elrond includes quenya and sindarin, dictionaries, workbooks, forums (under language, also has a lot of other resources relating to middle earth).
• The Encyclopedia of Arda the languages and lore of middle earth.
• Ardalambion the languages of Arda (from sindarin to westron to khuzdul and more)
• The Khazad Guard’s naming guides and pet naming guide  Great guides to help you name your characters and their pets.
• Lotro Names Pronunciation Guide includes sindarin, khuzdul, black tongue and more (forum thread)
• Sindarin lessons a series of lessons and workbooks to learn Sindarin
• More Sindarin lessons (recently updated) plus an excellent guide to making compound words and sindarin names
• Lotro Name Translations forum thread of translations (includes some input from Berephon)
• Names in Middle Earth alphabetical naming references (forum thread)
• Dunlending lexicon comparison and translation of dunlending terms to welsh

If you know of any links that should be added, please leave a comment and I’ll add to the main list 🙂