Is the Elvish document translator free?

You can try it free, with no account needed, and signing in gives you a larger daily allowance. Pro and Scholar are there for longer documents and regular use.

Which Elvish do I get: Sindarin or Quenya? What about Tengwar?

With Elvish as the target, expect Tolkien-style Elvish in Latin letters, most often Sindarin, the language of the films' dialogue and of most fan requests. To fix the language, choose Sindarin or Quenya as the target: Sindarin for the sound of Middle-earth in the Third Age, Quenya for the older, ceremonial register with noun cases and acute accents. Tengwar is the Elvish script rather than a language, and this page does not write it; the Latin-letter output is what you would transcribe into Tengwar in a second step.

Can it read Elvish from the books, or a Tengwar inscription in a photo?

Typed or scanned Elvish in Latin letters, yes: passages from the books, fan fiction, song lyrics and film lines are read into English, with the attested passages coming through reliably and fan-composed text more loosely. Tengwar in a photograph is a different matter. The script has several modes, spells English as readily as Elvish, and is not something to expect a reading from in an image; transliterate it into Latin letters first (fan sites and Tengwar charts help) and upload that.

How accurate is it? What is the difference between Fast and Advanced?

Fast gives a quick Elvish rendering that is fine for a game handout or a draft. Advanced runs a frontier model and is the choice for anything you will print or speak: it keeps closer to attested vocabulary, handles Sindarin's consonant mutations and vowel plurals more consistently, and paraphrases modern concepts rather than inventing roots. Even so, all of it is fan-grade. Tolkien's own texts are few, the grammar is reconstructed from them, and specialists disagree on details, so for vows or a tattoo ask someone who studies the languages to review the result.

Will the translation keep my document's layout?

The translator produces a translated PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Excel or EPUB file that aims to preserve the original layout, including tables, columns and headers. Text size, fonts and line breaks may change, so review the result against the original. Elvish runs a similar length to English, a little longer where a modern term is paraphrased, so programs and invitations usually keep their shape. Check that accented letters (â, ê, û in Sindarin, á, é, ë in Quenya) survived in the font you use.

Is this real Tolkien Elvish? Can I trust it for a tattoo or vows?

It is Elvish in the sense fans use: vocabulary and grammar drawn from Tolkien's published writings and extended by the community (neo-Sindarin, neo-Quenya) to say things he never wrote. Nothing beyond his own sentences is canon, and a translator cannot make it so. For a keepsake or vows, print the English alongside, prefer short sentences built from attested words, and have the text checked by someone versed in the languages before it becomes permanent.

What file types can I upload?

PDF, DOCX (Word), PPTX (PowerPoint), XLSX (Excel) and EPUB, plus photographed or scanned pages as JPG, PNG or HEIC. Free and Pro accept up to 20MB and 100,000 extracted characters per file; Scholar accepts up to 50MB and 1,000,000 characters.

Elvish PDF & Document Translator — English into Elvish, Elvish into English

Translate a Word file, PDF, invitation, script or photo into Tolkien-style Elvish (Sindarin or Quenya in Latin letters), or read an Elvish text in English, while keeping your document's layout. Upload your file, choose the target, and get fan-grade Elvish for vows, invitations, games and stories, not canon Tolkien.

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See “Keep formatting” in action

Real examples of the “Keep formatting” option: original on the left, translated document on the right. Click either page to enlarge.

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A civil complaint filed in Mexico City, Spanish to English. Caption block, numbered pleadings, the evidence table and the signature block all keep their places. — Original — A civil complaint filed in Mexico City, Spanish to English. Caption block, numbered pleadings, the evidence table and the signature block all keep their places.

An Italian birth certificate, photographed rather than scanned. The framed masthead, the field grid, the marginal annotations and the round seal all hold their positions. — Original — An Italian birth certificate, photographed rather than scanned. The framed masthead, the field grid, the marginal annotations and the round seal all hold their positions.

A handwritten archaeological field notebook from 1974. The engine reads the hand and keeps the ruled inventory table intact. — Original — A handwritten archaeological field notebook from 1974. The engine reads the hand and keeps the ruled inventory table intact.

A handwritten archaeological field notebook from 1974. The engine reads the hand and keeps the ruled inventory table intact. — Translation — A handwritten archaeological field notebook from 1974. The engine reads the hand and keeps the ruled inventory table intact.

A German hospital discharge summary. Diagnoses with ICD codes, lab values and the medication table survive the translation unchanged. — Original — A German hospital discharge summary. Diagnoses with ICD codes, lab values and the medication table survive the translation unchanged.

A German hospital discharge summary. Diagnoses with ICD codes, lab values and the medication table survive the translation unchanged. — Translation — A German hospital discharge summary. Diagnoses with ICD codes, lab values and the medication table survive the translation unchanged.

A 1747 parish baptism register in Latin. Ruled columns, godparents and marginal notes stay aligned, so the genealogy still reads as a register. — Original — A 1747 parish baptism register in Latin. Ruled columns, godparents and marginal notes stay aligned, so the genealogy still reads as a register.

A 1747 parish baptism register in Latin. Ruled columns, godparents and marginal notes stay aligned, so the genealogy still reads as a register. — Translation — A 1747 parish baptism register in Latin. Ruled columns, godparents and marginal notes stay aligned, so the genealogy still reads as a register.

A scanned 17th-century Italian index of sermons. Two columns of dense small print, translated in place. — Original — A scanned 17th-century Italian index of sermons. Two columns of dense small print, translated in place.

A scanned 17th-century Italian index of sermons. Two columns of dense small print, translated in place. — Translation — A scanned 17th-century Italian index of sermons. Two columns of dense small print, translated in place.

How Elvish documents come out

Upload a Word file, PDF, slide deck, photo or scan and get it back in Elvish with the layout kept: wedding vows and a ceremony program, an invitation, a tattoo brief, a chapter of fan fiction, a game handout, a card. Elvish means Tolkien's Elvish, written in Latin letters the way it appears in The Lord of the Rings. The other direction works too: a passage in Sindarin or Quenya from the books, a fan work or a transliterated inscription can be read in English. The result is fan-grade Elvish, not canon Tolkien.

Tolkien invented two main Elvish languages, and the word Elvish covers both. Sindarin is the Grey-elven tongue, the everyday Elvish of Middle-earth in the Third Age and the language of most of the Elvish dialogue in the films; Quenya is the older, ceremonial High-elven, closer to Latin in feel, with noun cases and long vowels marked by acute accents (Namárië, Galadriel's lament, is Quenya). Here Elvish means text in Latin letters, as both languages appear in the books, and it will most often come out as Sindarin; to fix the language, choose Sindarin or Quenya as the target. In-world, Elves wrote in Tengwar, the flowing script also seen on the One Ring (whose inscription is Black Speech, not Elvish), or in the angular Cirth runes, and rendering Elvish in Tengwar is a separate step this page does not take. Two facts shape every result. Tolkien left a limited vocabulary and revised his grammar over decades, so modern words (email, weekend, coffee) have no attested Elvish and are coined or paraphrased; and Sindarin changes the first consonant of a word after certain articles and prepositions and forms plurals by changing the vowels inside a word (adan, edain), so two correct-looking renderings of one sentence can differ. Photos and scans go through text recognition before translation, and typed text reads far better than a picture.

Translate your document and keep its structure

The translator keeps your file’s structure while translating the text in context. The downloaded format depends on the source file.

PDFs and scanned pages: The translated PDF follows the page visually, with translated pages rendered as images. Selectable PDF text and identical fonts are not guaranteed.
Word documents and PowerPoint presentations: Start with DOCX or PPTX when you have it. Native paragraphs, table text and slide text can stay editable in the corresponding file format. Translated text inside pictures remains image content; review text wrapping and font changes in your editor.
Excel workbooks and EPUB books: Use the original XLSX or unprotected EPUB for a translated workbook or ebook. Review formulas, numbers and text cells in a workbook; check chapter order, navigation and text flow in your ebook reader.

What people translate to and from Elvish

Wedding vows, programs and invitations

The largest group of uploads is wedding material: vows to read aloud, a blessing or reading for the ceremony, a line for the invitation, a program with the Elvish beside the English. Short, plain sentences come out most convincingly, because they stay close to the vocabulary Tolkien actually wrote. Sindarin gives the softer sound of the films; Quenya suits a formal blessing. Print the English alongside, so guests can follow, and if the words will be spoken or framed, have someone versed in Tolkien's languages read them over, since a rendering that looks right can still bend a rule of mutation or word order. The program's columns and headings are kept in the translated file.

Tattoos, jewelry and keepsakes

A tattoo brief, an engraving list or a card with a single phrase deserves the plainest warning on this page: this is neo-Sindarin and neo-Quenya, the reconstructed usage of fans and scholars, not text Tolkien wrote, and a phrase he never composed has no canonical form. Attested phrases (mae govannen, mellon, namárië) are safe; a sentence about your own life is a reasoned guess. Two confusions to avoid: Tengwar is a script, so a Tengwar tattoo can spell English or Elvish and is a separate transcription step; and the Ring inscription is Black Speech, however Elvish it looks. For anything permanent, get a second opinion before the ink or the engraver.

Fan fiction, game handouts and props

Writers upload a chapter with Elvish dialogue to fill in, game masters upload handouts, letters, maps and lore documents for a campaign, and prop makers upload the text for a scroll or a signpost. The layout is kept, so a handout stays a handout and a letter stays a letter, and a Word file comes back editable. Proper names are left as they are, which is what you want for characters and places. Over a long file, expect some variation in how a coined word is rendered from chapter to chapter, since there is no fixed dictionary for modern concepts; for consistency, keep the recurring terms in a short list at the top and check them in the output.

Reading Elvish into English

The other direction is real: a passage from the books (A Elbereth Gilthoniel, Namárië, the inscription on the Doors of Durin), a fan work in Sindarin or Quenya, a line from the films, or an inscription someone has already transliterated into Latin letters. Attested passages come through well because they are known and much discussed; fan-composed Elvish is reconstructed and its readings vary, so treat the English as an interpretation. A photo of Tengwar is not something to expect a reading from, since the script can spell several languages and the letters have mode-dependent values; type the transliteration into the file instead and let the translation work from that.

What to watch for in Elvish document translation

The first trap is mixing the two languages: Sindarin and Quenya share roots but not grammar, and a phrase that borrows a Quenya word into a Sindarin sentence (which the reconstructed usage sometimes does deliberately) can look like an error to a reader of either. The second is Sindarin's mutations: after the article the first consonant changes (mellon, i vellon) and plurals change the vowels inside the word (aran, erain), so a rendering in which nouns never change shape is a sign the grammar was skipped. Accents are meaningful: Quenya marks long vowels with acutes (Namárië), Sindarin uses circumflexes on some short words (gûr, dûn), and a layout that drops diacritics changes the words. Modern vocabulary is the weak spot, since Tolkien wrote nothing about phones or weekends, so those words are paraphrased or coined and will differ between runs; keep proper names as they are and check recurring terms across a long file. Attested phrases should match the books exactly (mae govannen, not a variant), and if they do not, the output has drifted. Decorative fonts that merely restyle Latin letters are not Elvish, and Tengwar is a script that can spell English, so an Elvish-looking inscription may say nothing Elvish at all. Finally, the Ring verse is Black Speech, and no Elvish translator should be asked to make it Elvish.

Elvish document translation FAQ

Is the Elvish document translator free?: You can try it free, with no account needed, and signing in gives you a larger daily allowance. Pro and Scholar are there for longer documents and regular use.
Which Elvish do I get: Sindarin or Quenya? What about Tengwar?: With Elvish as the target, expect Tolkien-style Elvish in Latin letters, most often Sindarin, the language of the films' dialogue and of most fan requests. To fix the language, choose Sindarin or Quenya as the target: Sindarin for the sound of Middle-earth in the Third Age, Quenya for the older, ceremonial register with noun cases and acute accents. Tengwar is the Elvish script rather than a language, and this page does not write it; the Latin-letter output is what you would transcribe into Tengwar in a second step.
Can it read Elvish from the books, or a Tengwar inscription in a photo?: Typed or scanned Elvish in Latin letters, yes: passages from the books, fan fiction, song lyrics and film lines are read into English, with the attested passages coming through reliably and fan-composed text more loosely. Tengwar in a photograph is a different matter. The script has several modes, spells English as readily as Elvish, and is not something to expect a reading from in an image; transliterate it into Latin letters first (fan sites and Tengwar charts help) and upload that.
How accurate is it? What is the difference between Fast and Advanced?: Fast gives a quick Elvish rendering that is fine for a game handout or a draft. Advanced runs a frontier model and is the choice for anything you will print or speak: it keeps closer to attested vocabulary, handles Sindarin's consonant mutations and vowel plurals more consistently, and paraphrases modern concepts rather than inventing roots. Even so, all of it is fan-grade. Tolkien's own texts are few, the grammar is reconstructed from them, and specialists disagree on details, so for vows or a tattoo ask someone who studies the languages to review the result.
Will the translation keep my document's layout?: The translator produces a translated PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Excel or EPUB file that aims to preserve the original layout, including tables, columns and headers. Text size, fonts and line breaks may change, so review the result against the original. Elvish runs a similar length to English, a little longer where a modern term is paraphrased, so programs and invitations usually keep their shape. Check that accented letters (â, ê, û in Sindarin, á, é, ë in Quenya) survived in the font you use.
Is this real Tolkien Elvish? Can I trust it for a tattoo or vows?: It is Elvish in the sense fans use: vocabulary and grammar drawn from Tolkien's published writings and extended by the community (neo-Sindarin, neo-Quenya) to say things he never wrote. Nothing beyond his own sentences is canon, and a translator cannot make it so. For a keepsake or vows, print the English alongside, prefer short sentences built from attested words, and have the text checked by someone versed in the languages before it becomes permanent.
What file types can I upload?: PDF, DOCX (Word), PPTX (PowerPoint), XLSX (Excel) and EPUB, plus photographed or scanned pages as JPG, PNG or HEIC. Free and Pro accept up to 20MB and 100,000 extracted characters per file; Scholar accepts up to 50MB and 1,000,000 characters.

See “Keep formatting” in action

Real examples of the “Keep formatting” option: original on the left, translated document on the right. Click either page to enlarge.

1 / 6

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