War & Grace
ELVISH BATTLE CRIES & BLESSINGS
Arm yourself with the words of Elves. Battle cries for war, blessings for peace, and insults for foes.
ALL BATTLE CRIES
For Gondor!
SINDARINAn Gondor!
!
Shouted at Minas Tirith in the films; "an" ("for/to") triggers no mutation on the proper noun Gondor.
To arms!
SINDARINNa vagol!
!
Vagol shows soft mutation of bagol ("weapon") after the preposition na, typical Sindarin lenition.
Stand your ground!
SINDARINDartho!
!
Imperative form of dartha- ("to wait/remain"), the same verb Aragorn shouts to Frodo in the films.
Death to the enemy!
SINDARINGurth an glamhoth!
!
Film Sindarin by David Salo, not Tolkien's. Glamhoth ("din-horde") is Tolkien's Sindarin term for Orcs, literally "noise-crowd."
For the King!
SINDARINAn i Aran!
!
The definite article i precedes aran ("king"); stress falls on the first syllable of Aran.
Fire!
SINDARINNaur!
!
Naur ("fire") is the word Gandalf invokes in "Naur an edraith ammen" at the Redhorn Pass.
Charge!
SINDARINNoro!
!
Imperative of nor- ("to run"), as in "Noro lim, noro lim!" ("ride fast") called to Asfaloth.
Victory!
SINDARINTûr!
û!
The circumflex marks a long vowel — hold the û slightly longer than a short Sindarin u.
No mercy!
SINDARINÚ-naeth!
ú-!
The prefix ú- negates a word, here attached to naeth ("pity/lament"); pronounce ú as "oo."
Hold the line!
SINDARINDartho i thîr!
î!
(Neo-Elvish, not attested in Tolkien.) 'Dartho' (stay!) is film Sindarin, and 'thîr' actually means face or look, not line — a doubtful fan composition.
Where These Phrases Come From
Every Elvish battle cry, blessing, and insult on this page is marked by its source: a few come straight from Tolkien's own writing, some are film Sindarin written by David Salo for Peter Jackson's films, and many are Neo-Elvish — modern phrases built from Tolkien's vocabulary but not attested in his work, and labelled as such. The Klingon entries come from Marc Okrand's canon, and the Dothraki ones from David J. Peterson's dictionary. Each entry shows the original Elvish, an English translation, and the Tengwar script rendering, so you can see the phrase three ways at once.
Elvish, especially the Sindarin spoken day-to-day in Middle-earth, doesn't actually have much documented "battle cry" vocabulary in the way Klingon does — the Elves in Tolkien's writing are more often shown blessing, mourning, or lamenting than shouting war cries. Where Tolkien's corpus is thin on a category (insults, for instance), the entries there are Neo-Elvish, and the note on each one says so.
These phrases are meant to be used as-is — for cosplay, tattoos, or just impressing a fellow Tolkien fan — but if you want to understand the grammar behind them well enough to build your own phrases, the lessons and dictionary linked below are where to start.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are these real phrases from the books, or invented for this page?
It depends on the entry, and each one says which. Some are Tolkien's own words, some are film Sindarin by David Salo, and many Elvish entries are Neo-Elvish, built from Tolkien's vocabulary but not attested in his writing. Klingon phrases are Okrand canon and Dothraki phrases come from Peterson's dictionary.
Why are there more blessings than battle cries?
Because that's genuinely what Tolkien wrote more of — Elvish in his surviving corpus leans toward the ceremonial, the mournful, and the reverent rather than martial exclamations. Where we fill a gap with a modern phrase, it is tagged as Neo-Elvish.
Can I get the pronunciation, not just the spelling?
Yes — each phrase includes an audio pronunciation you can play, generated from each language's documented phonology.
