Middle Earth Ranger Forum

https://i.imgur.com/vVVQ5Hf.jpeg this should be here in about 6 weeks! Can anyone read the inscription?

Nice blade!

Rob

Ghostsoldier wrote: ↑Mon Mar 06, 2023 5:15 pm Nice blade!

Rob

Thanks!

Very nice! You'll have to put it through its paces and give a review when it gets in!

As far as the inscription goes, it's a little hard to make out so I went on a bit of a hunt. According to this site, (if it's been properly reproduced on the the reproduction) it should read -

Gûd daedheloth

'Foe of Morgoth's Realm'

https://www.elvish.org/gwaith/movie_inscriptions.htm

Thank you Cimrandir!
I've been racking my brain, the internet and my sindarin book with not much luck yet.
The inscription on this blade is different than the movie knife I'm afraid. (Unless it's a different dialect?) Even the guy who makes this knife doesnt know lol but I have had some people on facebook helping me. One said it says "as sharp as the cold as strong as the mountain"
The search continues? Lol
Thank you Sir!

https://i.imgur.com/K8FvCjE.jpeg here's a better shot at it.

Okay, I tried pulling out the tengwar and I can't make any sense of it at all. Here's the sounds the characters signify, going by the workbook at tecendil:
https://www.tecendil.com/tengwar-handbook/

(admittedly I was a bit hurried before work, I might have missed something. And "-" means there's not a value for that character in that mode)
Again it's been ages since I've been deeply into Elvish languages, but those sound values don't look like Sindarin or Quenya to me.
I can think of a couple stories here...

... the smith just copied the characters without knowing what they meant. That's been done in our world to, so that doesn't make your blade a bad piece. A friend once showed me some old pistol made in China I think where the maker had stamped a bunch of gobbledygook in Latin characters, because that's what his people expected. No one cared that the letters didn't mean anything. I can absolutely imagine an illiterate Dunlender copying some old Noldor knife he saw and thought was cool.

... it was made by someone who spoke another language than English, and their translations have different modes. (The "vsy" in the "English mode" has me vaguely thinking Rus/Slavic language sounds, so if you don't know the blade's full history that's a possibility

... a couple characters are flipped, and there's a meaning there I'm not seeing because it's been too long and I'm really rusty.


Thoughts?

Wow thank you so much for trying Elleth! I'm afraid it probably is just gibberish. The characters you came up with are the same I came up with. Oh well shucks lol thank you so much!

I just contacted the maker and he's going to build the knife without any inscription. Once I have it, i will decide what to get engraved.

Taylor Steiner wrote: ↑Tue Mar 07, 2023 7:43 pm I just contacted the maker and he's going to build the knife without any inscription. Once I have it, i will decide what to get engraved.

"Decus et Tutamen"
Often translated as "An Ornament and a Safeguard" but can also be expressed as "Glory & Defence"...... Does that sound good to engrave on your sidearm?

Oh!

Minor thing, but if you're having it newly made, do you think your smith could enclose the tang with no external rivets? I think it would look much more period that way, if it's possible.

Cool idea Elleth! I'll have to ask.
ForgeCorvus: that sounds neat! Is that Sindarin?

He said the rivets have to stay the way they are. Dang.

Latin, it looks like.

You can look up individual words here: https://www.elfdict.com/
... but Sinadarin mutation is tricky. That's a good start though.

Also.. maybe wrap the handle in a sword-hilt wrap to hide the rivets?

Taylor Steiner wrote: ↑Tue Mar 07, 2023 10:39 pm Cool idea Elleth! I'll have to ask.
ForgeCorvus: that sounds neat! Is that Sindarin?

Latin (The Professor may of approved), it was engraved around the edge of gold coins partly as decoration and partly to prevent poeple shaving the coins.

ETA Elleth beat me to it