Tengwar Translator

About Tengwar

Tengwar is the script of the Elves — the flowing, calligraphic alphabet that Fëanor devised in the First Age, and that Tolkien used everywhere from the title pages of The Lord of the Rings to the fiery inscription on the One Ring (which is actually the Black Speech of Mordor, written in Tengwar). It is a writing system rather than a language: the Elves used it for Sindarin and Quenya, and fans use it today for everything from English names to tattoos and wedding rings. Tolkien, ever the philologist, arranged its letters by sound — related consonants share related shapes — and in most modes the vowels ride above the consonants as accent-like marks called tehtar.

This translator does the language half of the job: it renders English into attested neo-Sindarin — the Grey-elven tongue most people mean by “Elvish” — in Latin letters, the way the books print it. From there the words can be transcribed into Tengwar in the mode of your choice; the Mode of Beleriand, which writes vowels as full letters and appears on the Doors of Durin, is the friendliest place to start. For deeper grammar and vocabulary, the dedicated Sindarin and Quenya translators go further.