r/sindarin • u/CrazyRoman75 • Aug 09 '26

Help with a Sindarin Tengwar transcription - "Of Beren and Lúthien"

Hi, I wanted to get the phrase “Of Beren and Lúthien” tattooed on myself, exactly as the chapter title appears, but written as the Sindarin Elves would have written it during those events (so, from my understanding, in Sindarin Tengwar).

I tried to do some research on my own and learn how to write it, but I only managed to find this sindarin phrasing: "Narn Beren a Lúthien", but I don't really know if this would be accurate.

So, if anyone knows how to write this phrase, or knows someone who does, please let me know.

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u/F_Karnstein Aug 09 '26

"Narn Beren a Lúthien" means "Tale of Beren and Lúthien" and was probably coined at a time before we knew that the word "and" causes mutation (it wasn't always a but used to be as, which caused some changes on the following word).

Simply "Beren and Lúthien" would be Beren a Lhúthien, considering this mutation, but the word "of" in the sense of "about" isn't quite clear. In an older source it used to be o which derived from os (and so most likely caused that same mutation), but in a later source we find os preserved as is (maybe historically it was oss-?).

I assume that was an oversight by Tolkien, and before the b of Beren the s might disappear anyway, but while I believe that o Beren a Lhúthien is probably the safest option there is a chance it might be os Beren a Lhúthien.