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Rubén Rodríguez Nov 23, 2014 (08:28)

+Tamas Ferencz 's translation for "Twelve Days of Christmas" brought me a question... how would be the correct Quenya translation of "merry Christmas"?

As I said, I have always translated Christmas as "Hristonosta" (birthday of Christ) and I have always translated "merry" in its sense of joy, "Alassë", because i think there's no direct translation for "merry"...

So, for me, it would be like "Alassë a Hristonosta"... is there another and most accurate translation or is that fine?

Also, I question about the translation of the same phrase but in Sindarin. Since Sindarin has no direct translation for Christ, I think the most close to that would be "Son of God"... therefore it would be something like "Eruiôn"? (Eru= God, iôn =son)... and then if I use the same meaning of "Christmas" than in Quenya, it would be birthday= nostor

And for "merry", I found that there is a direct translation for that word, and that gould be "gelir"... so in short:

Merry Christmas (in Sindarin) would be like "Gelir Eruiôn nostor"

Are they correct?
"Alassë a Hristonosta" (Quenya)
"Gelir Eruiôn nostor" (Sindarin)

and how would they be written in their respective elvish characters?

Tamas Ferencz Nov 23, 2014 (12:00)

I don't think there is a "correct" translation (the only "correct" one would be an attested one which we don't have). Even real world languages have quite different ways of rendering the name of this festival. Hristore, Hristonosta, Hristonostare are all possible ways of saying Christmas in Quenya, as is the attested Turuhalme (corresponding to English Yule), and doubtless there are other ways.

Tamas Ferencz Nov 23, 2014 (12:02)

As for your examples, I would put them as

Alassea Hristonosta
Nostor Eruion 'elir

Jenna Carpenter Nov 24, 2014 (10:51)

Also Durufuin = Log night (Yule) - Sindarin, which is my preferred usage as that's what I celebrate.

Björn Fromén Nov 24, 2014 (23:52)

Suggestions for wishing a merry Christmas:
Q na merya i Turuhalme!
S no meren i·Durufui!

Rubén Rodríguez Nov 26, 2014 (19:49)

+Björn Fromén 
As for your suggestions, can you please explain the etimology? 
I understand merya which is festive, and Turu- which is "victory" but I don't quite undestand well the word "-halme" or the overall compund... he he XD

Björn Fromén Nov 26, 2014 (23:31)

+Rubén Rodríguez
Turuhalme is literally 'logdrawing', a name for the festival of Yule. The turu of this compound is from another root than the 'victory' word; it means 'firewood' or 'wood in general' (The Book of Lost Tales I, p.270). For halme, cf. perhaps the Noldorin verb heli 'lift' (from a root KHAL-).

Matt Dinse Nov 30, 2014 (04:32)

halme is likely related to the Goldogrin verbs hala-  "drag. draw. pull. (espec. draw home. pull towards oneself. draw on or over, of clothes, etc.)  slip on."  and halcha- "drag on ground (roughly)" (GL:47, on the same page as the entry for halm).

Björn Fromén Dec 01, 2014 (00:10)

+Matt Dinse
That is valid in the scenario of BLT of course, but those Goldogrin verbs don't seem to have survived in later conceptions. So if you import Turuhalme into LOTR-style Quenya, I think another plausible etymology needs to be suggested.

Matt Dinse Dec 03, 2014 (01:28)

+Björn Fromén
Yeah; I mentioned the earlier scenario since I didn't see how either part of it would remain in later Q. However, Turuphanto proved me wrong.