Hi, im looking for someone who can help me with this name: servant of the light. I want to translate this to sindarin. I think "e- galad" is "smthing of the light" but i cant find the "servant" word. Can someone help me please?
That "e(n)-" is a grammatical element, it is never used with names of persons.
Quenya has -ndur "servant", but Tolkien did not derive any Sindarin words from ancient √NDUR, so a Quenya name like Calandur would be much safer. But if you are set on Sindarin, we can derive a neologism from √NDUR and say that Calannur works as a Sindarin name.
An arguably safer Sindarin alternative is possible. Tolkien once said:
[...] the distinction [between √NDUR & √NDIL] is not always made (especially not by men [...]) [PE17/152]
The point being that both √NDUR and √NDIL refer to devotion of some sort. Thus we could use the -ndil "friend" element which appears in both Quenya and Sindarin. So I would say Celennil (or with restored vowel qualities Calannil) in Sindarin as "Light-friend(/servant), Friend(/Servant) of Light". Also an archaic name would keep the medial "nd" as Celendil (or Calandil).
Thank you very much for the help!
Hm so i was completely off, im glad i asked for your help. Yes, i did find the -ndur but indeed i needed a sindarin name. I like your neologism too, but i love the second option with the friend element and the fact that its closer to smthing that Tolkien would use. I will go with Calandil. Again thank you for your help, u seems to be an expert of the theme :)
Maybe another question: what do u think one of my earlier creation, a name: Mornmaw as Blackhand. I just put together the morn (black, dark) and the maw (hand) words. Is there a more fitting translation or is it just totally wrong?
As I demonstrated here, simply combining two words would rarely yield accurate results in Sindarin. There are a lot of rules which make that difficult. For "Blackhand" I would offer Morgam or older Morcham.
