A very short primer and introduction to writing english words in elvish script.

Instant free translation to flowing Elvish script. Convert from English to Elvish with Jens Hansen, the original makers of The One Ring for Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies.

Elvish languages are constructed (made up) languages used by Elves in a fantasy setting. Many unrelated versions of Elvish have been created for books, board games and video games.

Tolkien also created a non-complete grammar and framework for a number of Elvish type languages in his Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit books. In addition to Tolkien's original lexicon, many fans have contributed words and phrases, attempting to create a language that was fully usable in reality.

One of the easiest ways to convert from English to Elvish is to write English words with the Tengwar writing system, which looks beautiful and is much easier than translating the English to Elvish first.  

This method of writing basically involves replacing each english letter with a corresponding elvish letter.

e.g. John and Jan becomes s `N 9 5 and s `C 5

and then rearranging the vowels to sit above the consonants that the vowels precede. i.e. the vowels move up and to the right on the page

e.g. s `N 9 5 and s `C 5 becomes s9N5 and s5#

That's it in a nutshell. Of course, there are a number of special rules and fine details which you can read about in the resources below if you would like more information.   For example, you can put the vowels above the letter they follow (Quenya style) or above the letter they precede (Sindarin style). Take your pick. We use the Sindarin style.

In particular be aware that this method does not 'translate' the whole meaning of a word, rather it transcribes or transliterates the sounds of the individual letters or characters of the word.

Write Your Name in Elvish

If you want to see what your name would look like in elvish check out our real-time english to elvish script translator above. This is our free version of an open-source elvish translation (actually transliteration) engine that will transcribe your english text to elvish.

Please note that there are many ways of representing english words and phrases in elvish. We do not hold ourselves out to be experts in these matters nor do we guarantee the accuracy of any results. USE CAUTION BEFORE COMMITTING TO ANY TATTOOS, INSCRIPTIONS AND ENGRAVINGS.