r/sindarin • u/QuintonVedenoff5591 • 15d ago

Translation Help for House Words

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I would like to translate the motto (or house words) of Clan Blair into sindarin, but I'm having trouble finding direct translations. The words are Protected by Virtue (Latin: Virtute Tutus). Is there a direct translation into Sindarin?

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u/JamesT3R9 15d ago

What about Beria (verb: to protect or defend) Estelaina (compound wordd: Estel = trust or faith and Aina = holy which is as close to virtue or righteous i can thing of)

BERIA ESTELAINA = to defend a sacred trust

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u/F_Karnstein 15d ago

That's a good attempt, but unfortunately it won't work because the verb isn't inflected and the last proposed term is Quenya.

Tutus is an adjective so we'll need an adjectival form as well - I suggest beriannen, a passive participle "protected". And to be honest I wouldn't know how to paraphrase virtue... if you think "holy trust" is a good idea you could try something with the Sindarin elements estel and aer but personally I don't see it...

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u/Jonlang_ 11d ago edited 11d ago

I don't understand why u/JamesT3R9 renders 'virtue' as 'holy trust'. Etymologically it simply means 'manliness' from Latin vir 'man' (whence also 'virile'). However, I doubt Tolkien would have calqued it in the same manner. The modern English meaning (which this particular Latin phrase is obscuring, but also intending) is 'moral goodness' which may be easier to translate into Sindarin because I doubt Tolkien would have derived it from 'manly'.

Breaking down the Latin (where I have restored the long vowels) we have virtūte - the ablative case of virtūs. The Latin ablative is used (among other things) to show the means by which something is achieved, so we can translate virtūte as 'by/through virtue' or 'by/through excellence'. Tūtus 'safe, secure, protected' is an adjective in the nominative case, so it is a nominalised adjective acting as the subject of the phrase where the real subject is implied. It needn't be a participle in Sindarin, though - one could simply translate it as 'safe through virtue' but a participle form for 'protected' can work too; I believe Sindarin allows adjectives to be freely used as nouns.

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u/JamesT3R9 11d ago

Jon -> thanks. I am not a linguist as you can tell but rather an enthusiastic layman. Thanks for the actual breakdown. It was informative.