On Tuesday, January 14, 2003, at 06:39 AM, NewMoonOccultShop.com wrote:

> At 09:26 AM 1/14/03 -0000, you wrote:
>> Can someone please help me, I want to get a tattoo of mine and my
>> sister's names written in elvish but I don't understand how to
>> translate it at all. Could someone please explain simply how to do
>> it? thanks.

This is a definite for the forthcoming FAQ. :-)

In brief:

How do I write my [special person]'s name in Elvish?

By itself, this question is vague. You need to make several decisions
to do it, and you need to understand some things about how tengwar work
(e.g., modes, alternative letters) to make a fully informed decision
(an important factor, as many people seem to want this for tattoos -
you don't want to mess it up). In order:

1. Choose the name. Do you want the name as-is (e.g., Jane, John)? Or
do you want an Elvish equivalent (e.g. Eruntale or Eruntalon)?

1a. If you want the name as is, do you want an orthographic spelling
(i.e., letter-by-letter equivalence between tengwar letters and the
letters in your name) or do you want a phonetic spelling (i.e., spell
your name in tengwar like it sounds when you say it)?

1b. If you want an Elvish equivalent, do you want it in Quenya (High
Elvish) or Sindarin (what they speak in the movie)? If you choose
Quenya, you can find lots of name-equivalents at the Quenya Babybook -
Quenya Lapseparma at http://www.elvish.org/elm/names.html. If you
choose Sindarin, you presently have to figure it out yourself.

2. Choose the mode for writing tengwar. If you've selected an Elvish
equivalent, then your mode is suggested by whether you chose a Quenya
name or a Sindarin name. If you've selected your name as-is (whether
phonetic or not) your choice of mode is a bit more open-ended - you
could use a Quenya mode or a Sindarin one or any of several modes for
English or other Human languages.

3. Choose the tengwar for the sounds in your name according to the
appropriate mode - you might have some choices between multiple tengwar
here depending on your mode. Arrange them according to the mode as well.

4. Render the tengwar. If you're a calligrapher, you might do this
yourself. If not, there's some software and fonts that can help (and
info on that is a FAQ of its own).

5. Voila! Take your pretty picture of your name to your tattoo artist,
or frame it on your wall or put it on your web-page or whatever makes
you happy.


Brook
aka
Nellardo
___________
Klactovedestene!