Speak Friend and Enter in Elvish: Pedo Mellon a Minno Explained
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Quick Answer: "Speak friend and enter" in Elvish is Pedo mellon a minno, in Sindarin. Pedo = "speak!" or "say!", mellon = "friend", a = "and", minno = "enter!". It is carved above the West-gate of Moria in The Lord of the Rings (Book II, chapter 4). The phrase is also a riddle: the password is the word mellon itself, so the true sense is "Say 'friend' and enter."
Few lines of Elvish are as well known as the words over the Doors of Durin. They are short, they are a puzzle, and they open a door. This guide is about the phrase as a whole: what each word does, the complete inscription around it, the riddle that stopped Gandalf, and the two craftsmen who signed the gate.
If you came for the single word, two other guides cover it in depth: What Does Mellon Mean? and The Elvish Word for Friend. This page is about the sentence and the door.
Pedo Mellon a Minno, Word by Word
The line has four words, and every one is attested in Tolkien's own text.
Pedo — "speak!" or "say!". It is an imperative, a command form, built on the Sindarin verb root ped-, "to speak, to say." The ending -o marks the command.
Mellon — "friend." This is a plain Sindarin noun. Notice that it is not a form of address here, even though English readers hear it that way. That ambiguity is the whole riddle.
A — "and." The ordinary Sindarin conjunction.
Minno — "enter!". A second imperative, with the same -o command ending as pedo.
Put together: speak — friend — and — enter. In English we have to choose between "Speak, friend, and enter" (friend as the person being addressed) and "Say 'friend' and enter" (friend as the word to say). Sindarin, written without punctuation over the door, does not force a choice. Tolkien built the puzzle into the grammar.
Pronunciation is simple: PEH-doh MEL-lon ah MIN-noh. Stress the first syllable of each long word, and give the double consonants in mellon and minno a little extra length, as in Italian.
The Full Doors of Durin Inscription
"Mae govannen" — want to actually speak Elvish?
Try It Free →The famous line is only part of what is written over the gate. The full Sindarin text, as it appears in The Fellowship of the Ring, reads:
Ennyn Durin Aran Moria: pedo mellon a minno. Im Narvi hain echant: Celebrimbor o Eregion teithant i thiw hin.
Gandalf translates it in the story: "The Doors of Durin, Lord of Moria. Speak, friend, and enter. I, Narvi, made them. Celebrimbor of Hollin drew these signs."
The words outside the password break down like this:
- Ennyn — "doors" or "gates", the plural of annon, "great gate." The plural is made by changing the vowels inside the word, not by adding an ending. That is normal Sindarin.
- Durin — the name of the Dwarf-king, father of the line of Durin's folk.
- Aran — "king" or "lord."
- Moria — "Black Chasm", the Elvish name for the Dwarf-city of Khazad-dûm.
- Im — "I."
- Narvi — the Dwarf who made the doors.
- Hain — "them", referring back to the doors.
- Echant — "made", past tense.
- Celebrimbor o Eregion — "Celebrimbor of Eregion." Eregion is the land the Men of the West called Hollin.
- Teithant — "drew" or "wrote", past tense.
- I thiw hin — "these signs." I is "the", thiw is a form of the plural of tew, "letter, sign", and hin is "these."
So the gate carries three statements: whose door it is, how to open it, and who made it. It reads like a maker's mark on a piece of fine work, which is exactly what it is.
The Riddle That Stopped Gandalf
The company reaches the wall at night, and the outline of the doors appears in the moonlight. Gandalf reads the inscription aloud and admits he does not know the words that open it. He tries spells of opening in several languages. Nothing happens. He grows angry, sits on a stone, and thinks.
Earlier, Merry had asked what the inscription meant, and the clue was in Gandalf's own translation. Gandalf finally laughs at himself: the answer was in front of him the whole time. The line is not "Speak, friend, and enter", a polite welcome to a friend who already knows a secret word. It is "Say 'friend' and enter." He speaks the word mellon, and the doors swing open.
Tolkien uses the moment to show the age of the gate. It was made in a time when Elves and Dwarves of Eregion were friends, and a password that is just "friend" said in Elvish belonged to a more trusting age. Gandalf says as much: those were happier times.
In Peter Jackson's film the scene is shortened and Frodo is the one who asks for the Elvish word for friend. The book gives the question to Merry. Either way, the solution is the same single word.
Narvi and Celebrimbor: Two Makers, One Gate
The signature line is one of the few places in Tolkien where a Dwarf and an Elf sign the same work.
Narvi was the Dwarf craftsman who built the doors themselves. He is named nowhere else in The Lord of the Rings, and this inscription is his only memorial. That a Dwarf put his name on his work in Elvish says a lot about the friendship of the time.
Celebrimbor was the Elven-smith of Eregion. His name is Sindarin for "silver fist." He drew the signs on the gate. Readers of The Silmarillion and its appendix on the Rings of Power know him as the greatest smith of the Second Age, the maker of the Three Rings of the Elves, who was deceived by Sauron. The Doors of Durin are a small, peaceful trace of him before that disaster.
The two names side by side show what Moria and Eregion once shared: trade, craft and trust across the mountains.
The Letters on the Door: Tengwar and Ithildin
The inscription is not in Latin letters. It is written in the Tengwar, the Elvish script, and Tolkien draws it in full in the book.
The spelling used is the Mode of Beleriand, an older way of writing Sindarin in which vowels have their own full letters, like consonants. In the more familiar style used for most Tengwar inscriptions, vowels are small marks above the consonants. That difference makes the door text look unusual to anyone who has learned Tengwar from the One Ring or from modern name transcriptions. If you want to see how the modes compare, read the Tengwar Modes Complete Guide.
The lines are inlaid with ithildin, a Sindarin word meaning roughly "moon-star." It is an alloy that can only be seen by starlight or moonlight. In daylight the wall looks blank. Gandalf has to wait for the moon before he can read anything at all.
You can write the phrase in Tengwar yourself with the Tengwar Writer, or practise drawing letters by hand in the Tengwar Scribe.
Using the Phrase Today
Pedo mellon a minno is one of the safest Elvish phrases to use, because every word is printed in Tolkien's own text. There is nothing reconstructed or invented in it.
It works well:
- As a door sign or doormat. It is the obvious choice, and it carries the joke of the riddle with it.
- As a Wi-Fi name or password hint. Many fans name their network after the line and set the password to mellon. It is a fun nod but obviously not a secure password.
- As a tattoo. The full line or just mellon both work. If you want it in Tengwar, copy the letter shapes from a trusted source and check every character before the needle touches skin.
- As a greeting card or wedding detail. "Speak, friend, and enter" makes a warm welcome line for a house-warming.
Be careful with variations. People sometimes try to make "speak, friend" plural or swap in a Quenya word. Quenya has its own words for friend, and they are not mellon. Mixing the two languages in one sentence produces something Tolkien never wrote. Keep the line exactly as it is on the door.
Why This Line Matters for Learners
For anyone starting Sindarin, the Moria inscription is a small, complete lesson. In four words you meet:
- the imperative ending -o (pedo, minno)
- a plain noun used without any article (mellon)
- the conjunction a
- and, in the full inscription, a vowel-change plural (annon to ennyn) and past tense verbs (echant, teithant).
That is why so many Elvish courses start here. If you want to keep going, the Learn Elvish course walks through Sindarin greetings and grammar step by step, starting with words like these.
People Also Ask
How do you say "speak friend and enter" in Elvish? Pedo mellon a minno, in Sindarin. Pedo = speak or say, mellon = friend, a = and, minno = enter. It is the line carved over the West-gate of Moria.
What is the password to Moria? The single word mellon, "friend." The riddle is that the inscription means "Say 'friend' and enter", not "Speak, friend, and enter."
What does the whole Doors of Durin inscription say? "Ennyn Durin Aran Moria: pedo mellon a minno. Im Narvi hain echant: Celebrimbor o Eregion teithant i thiw hin." In English: The Doors of Durin, Lord of Moria. Speak, friend, and enter. I, Narvi, made them. Celebrimbor of Hollin drew these signs.
What alphabet is on the Doors of Durin? Tengwar, in the Mode of Beleriand, inlaid with ithildin, which shows only under the stars and moon.
Related Reading
People Also Ask
How do you say "speak friend and enter" in Elvish?
In Sindarin it is "Pedo mellon a minno." Pedo means "speak!" or "say!", mellon means "friend", a means "and", and minno means "enter!". The line is carved over the West-gate of Moria in The Lord of the Rings, Book II, chapter 4, "A Journey in the Dark."
What is the password to Moria?
The password is "mellon", the Sindarin word for "friend." The inscription reads "Pedo mellon a minno", which Gandalf first reads as "Speak, friend, and enter." He later realises the right sense is "Say 'friend' and enter", and the doors open when he speaks the word mellon.
What does the whole Doors of Durin inscription say?
The Sindarin reads "Ennyn Durin Aran Moria: pedo mellon a minno. Im Narvi hain echant: Celebrimbor o Eregion teithant i thiw hin." Tolkien translates it as "The Doors of Durin, Lord of Moria. Speak, friend, and enter. I, Narvi, made them. Celebrimbor of Hollin drew these signs."
What alphabet is written on the Doors of Durin?
The inscription is written in the Tengwar, in the Mode of Beleriand, a way of spelling in which vowels are written as full letters instead of marks over the consonants. The letters are made of ithildin, a substance that shows only in starlight and moonlight.
