Heya! So I see in fics all the time that when Thorin and/or any number of Dwarrow is trying to be sexy (or cute) af they come up with a nice little endearment in their *cough* secret *cough* language. The one most often used–as far as I’ve seen– is Ghivashel “treasure of all treasures”. This is lovely and all, but DAMN. There are so many more that are just there to be used. So without further ado, I offer you my own personal deck of Dwarven endearments. Feel free to use them, all I did was look for them in the Dwarrowscholar dictionary and other such places.
I’ll update it as I find more stuff, and if you have any additions feel free to add them!
Tag: khuzdul
Dwarven Insults
Because every fic needs that emotional breakdown moment where [insert Dwarrow/dam here] shouts in their secret tongue. Or if you just want some insults to throw around! Feel free to uset them, I just gather them from the Dwarrowscholar’s dictionary and other such places. I’ll try to put where I find any that aren’t from there when I can. If there’s nothing added in parenthesis, assume it’s taken from the updated Dwarrowscholar Dictionary.
I’ll add more as I find them.
(Can be considered a companion to my Dwarven Endearments post)
Hi! So this is a veeery nitpicky question and I apologize in advance if I’m being pedantic. It’s about the khuzdul in Sansûkh. Pretty early in the story you have translated “nidoyith” as “young boy” and “nidoyîth” as “young boys”, so I took it as i or î making the difference. But then further on you nearly always use -îth in singular forms, like Gimizhîth, Thorinîth, Azaghîth , etc., but Fíli calls Frerin khuzdith once – long story short, is there a ‘right’ way to do it? Do you know the answer?
Hey Nonnie!
Yeah, the answer is ‘Dets Fucked Up’ :DDD
The old Neo-Khuzdul dictionary (it has since been superseded) had the -ith suffix to mean ‘that is young’ and ‘-îth’ to mean ‘that are young(plural)’. The example using ‘nidoy’ above? That’s the correct usage!
I just mixed them up on occasion, probably. Thank you for bringing it to my notice!
Dets, do you have your own dark name??? :D
what’s khuzdul for small soft catastrophe
Actually Nonnie, I do!!! The amazing @poplitealqueen gave me one when she drew my dwarfsona! Pop is AMAZING OKAY, IT IS INDISPUTABLE FACT.
It’s Ubbanukarâz (“Weaver of Glories”)
djsfhgldshgaljfakjhfdgkajhfdgakh i still get wibbly when I read that, omfg
Dets, have you by any chance thought of Narvi’s Dark-name?
*surfaces from the Neo-Khuzdul dictionary with a GIANT GASp*
ohgod I have DONE IT behold Narvi’s dark-name!
Amsumsalnûna
Waterfall of Marvels
Whispers of course he would never get one (unless Thorin jokingly gave him one, lol) but if you /had/ to make a Dark Name for Bilbo, what would that name be? Feel free to take this as seriously as you wish ofc. I am totally up for Bilbo being called Sassmaster tbh.
LMAO what’s khuzdul for Sassmaster…? XD
Well, I do like that the Hobbits have their own language… it’s not a secret language like Khuzdul, but they have one! Not that it sees much use, mind.
Bilbo’s name, in the hobbit-tongue, is in fact Bilba Labingi.
(Frodo’s is Maura Labingi, Merry is Kalimac Brandagamba, Sam is
Banazîr Galpsi and Pippin is Razanur Tûk!)
A dark-name for Bilbs, though… arrrrrgh, this is a tricky one. Okay, I think I have something…
ararrakidazbur – The Secret Diamond
This would refer to both Bilbo’s rather unexpected heroism and bravery, his brilliant, blazingly bright mind, and his secretiveness (EXCESSIVE SECRECY HELLO). It could also be seen as a reference to his rather… cutting wit (like a diamond, hee!) and his spirit.
dazbur: containing diamond (shape)* (*diamond (stone))
ararraki: continue to keep secret / to keep secret excessively
I’ve noticed you use a lot of Khudzul in Sansukh. Where do you get it? Is there a site I can use as a translator?
Hey Nonnie!
I do my own conjugations, etc, using the work of the very amazing, very generous Dwarrow Scholar.
For someone a LOT better than me, I’ve just searched for and found the blog @neo-khuzdul-translator!
hello Dets 8D quick question, I’m reading Sansûkh again and with all this elvish and khuzdul, I was wondering about Gimli learning sindarin. I mean, he is going to Valinor. Are we going to see Legolas teaching our dwarf the birdie language of the elves? With kudos and kisses and Thorin tearing up his hair? 8D btw, can’t wait to see Thranduil’s face when he discover about his son and a dwarf! “Oh blast and damnation is like Tauriel all over again!”
Hey there, Nonnie!
Well, unlike Noldorin (banned!), or Khuzdul (sacred!), there is absolutely NOTHING secret about Sindarin! There’s nothing hindering anyone in the whole of Middle-Earth from learning it.
Considering that Sindarin has been basically the Lingua Franca of Middle-Earth since the First Age, it’s probably a really good idea that Gimli learn it. More Elves in Valinor will speak Sindarin than Westron, I expect!
(begs the question also – did Frodo, Bilbo, Gimli etc. have to learn Quenya to converse in Aman? I honestly don’t know… but imagine older!Gimli doing lots and lots of language lessons, a frown on his white-bearded face 🙂
Oh, we are DEFINITELY going to see Thranduil’s reaction to Gigolas! But I am taking a sliiiiightly different approach to the ‘telling the parents’ situation. 😀
Resources for Tolkien fans
Here are some useful resources I’ve found while I’ve been in the community, so I thought I’d share! PLEASE ADD YOUR OWN IF YOU HAVE ANY! And please reblog and share!
References
askmiddlearth – A great blog where you can send in questions and receive answers regarding just about any aspect of the Legendarium.
coco.raceme – A collection of quotes, songs, and important passages from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, arranged by book and chapter.
Fish in Middle Earth – Did you ever want to know what kinds of fish there were in Middle Earth? No? You’ll probably end up reading this anyways. The curiosity will get to you.
henneth-annun – The HASA story archive has mostly moved to AO3 now, but this website still contains hundreds of timelines, character bios, quotes, object descriptions, and more.
silmarillionwritersguild – Essays, meta, biographies, and more – all about the plot and characters of the Silmarillion.
Languages
almare – Tumblr user almare has a great collection of Tolkien language resources, including a handy graphic of the relations between Elvish languages.
councilofelrond – A good resource for translations of canon texts, glossaries, conlang discussions, a dictionary, etc. Of particular interest is their Sindarin mutation chart, which is necessary pretty much whenever you’re stringing more than two Sindarin words together.
dwarrowscholar – Contains everything from lessons to a truly massive Khuzdul dictionary. If you have a basic understanding of Neo-Khuzdul, you can also make use of the translation tool.
Hiswelókë’s – A delightfully thorough dictionary available in a variety of arrangements ( English-Sindarin, Sindarin-English, thematic, etc. ). Available in English, French, and German.
midgardsmal – The blog of David Salo, one of the people who worked on the languages in Peter Jackson’s Tolkien films.
realelvish – A handy phrasebook that provides categories for easy searches, dialects, pronunciation, and multiple translations of the same phrase. Includes fun categories, such as ‘in the bedroom’ and ‘on the internet’, as well as many others that are more in keeping with Tolkien’s tone.
sindarinlessons – A collection of rules, references, and explanations of Sindarin grammar.
your-sindarin-textbook – On this site, a duck teaches you Sindarin. What more could you want? Includes exercises and references.
Books
All the books in PDF – These two posts both contain links to Tolkien’s works and where you can find them online.
HoME reading order – tumblr user lintamande has put together a list of Tolkien’s texts beyond the Silmarillion, in case you were wanting to dip your toes into HoME but didn’t know where to begin. They also have a general Silm resource page that’s worth looking at, as well as all their meta.
On Fairy Stories – One of Tolkien’s most-referenced essays.
Tolkien’s letters – A collection of many of Tolkien’s transcribed letters, useful for all those really obscure facts you need to check and to impress your friends.
Non-Tolkien
A shameless plug – I do my best to collect useful references, notes, and masterposts on writing, Tolkien, and more in my ‘references’ tag.
howtofightwrite – This blog contains discussions on weapons and how they’re used, as well as some particularly useful weapon primers that will give you the basics on the weapons your character uses.
Medieval references – A collection of a few useful references for medieval-type jobs, terms, and more.
Mood music – Themed music playlists for just about anything you could ever want to write.
Traveling – The methods of traveling in the Middle Ages, and the time it would require.
Adding links for the Lord of the Rings Family Project, which has the best set of genealogies hands down and I constantly reference it.
Ardalambion is a high quality language resource and has extensive wordlists. Good for obscure languages like Nandorin and Taliska. It’s more in-depth than a dictionary and has notes on in-universe and out-universe history for the languages.
Textual Ghosts Project, a list of unnamed and missing female characters from Tolkien’s works.
Notes: some of the book links don’t work any more.
The working link for OP’s resources tag is now here.
This is really useful! Thanks to OP for collecting these! (I totally looked at the fish essay.)
Also adding the LOTR Project – it has a helpful interactive map and timeline of events, and I’ve found it amazingly useful.
(thank you so so much for these!)
Aw Yiss 