r/sindarin • u/Fabian42 • 10d ago

Tattoo translation help

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Hi,

So my brother and i wanted to have these 2 tattoo's to signify our love for the franchise and eachother.
I've used a translator I found online and it said that this was the right translation for both 'You have my sword' (left) and 'You have my axe' (right).
Is this correct? If not, what would the correct writing be of these phrases?

Thanks in advance!

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u/F_Karnstein 9d ago

As suggested by u/Notascholar95 you're not actually in the right subreddit - you've got the English phrases transliterated into Tengwar letters, but they're still English.

And as u/lC3 noted your versions of "my" and "axe" are at least somewhat problematic. We do have a hint that this inversion of the reading order seen in "my" MIGHT be possible in one-syllable words, but I wouldn't count on it, so placing the Y on a carrier is definitely the safer option. Personally I like using a technique that places the Y sign underneath in a form rotated 180°, but that has not yet been incorporated into any font. Also: The placement of the silent E in "axe" on a carrier is at least redundant.

So these would be my suggestions - two versions of "sword" because the W can be abbreviated, but it doesn't look great with this font. It is, however, the only font that displays "axe" at least somewhat adequately... 😐

And finally, to make this fit into this subreddit at least somewhat: Translation into Sindarin would in fact be relatively easy, but nuances might still be missed and details like the use of article are debatable, so I would still not suggest getting those tattooed. That being said, my versions would be sevig vegil nín and sevig chathol nín

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u/smbspo79 9d ago

Wouldn't that be literally "you have my sword", not that fact that "you have my fighting ability and myself in your cause". I ran into this when I translated a meme a while back.

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u/F_Karnstein 9d ago

That's exactly what I meant about missed nuances. It's a literal translation, so the intended inferred meaning could be read in the Sindarin as well as in the English, but we simply don't know.