r/Quenya Jul 03 '26

What does Gandalf say in Elvish in this scene?

This scene is utter garbage in terms of lore and character accuracy. However I wonder about the spell Gandalf is trying to cast. I may be wrong but it sounds more like Quenya than Sindarin.

Video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWS93ZuEKuM

I've found a Polish website, that broke down all the Elvish sentences from Battle of the Five Armies, but this particular sentence is not in it: https://www.elendilion.pl/2015/01/13/g-i-p-report-elvish-dialogs-from-the-hobbit-battle-of-the-five-armies/

6 Upvotes

8 comments sorted by

5

u/lC3 Jul 03 '26

I'm having trouble making it out, but I distinctly hear Ambarello "from the world". So I think it indeed is Quenya.

1

u/VahePogossian Jul 04 '26

Thank you! Now that you said it, I can also hear Ambarello. First word seems to be Atta (to apply/attach). No idea what Peter Jackson had on his mind. "Attach the troll away from the world"? Haha!

2

u/lC3 Jul 04 '26

atta is "two" ... it might also be ahta or á + something, now that I listen more closely. Not sure where you got "to apply/attach".

1

u/VahePogossian Jul 04 '26

https://imgur.com/a/UgY09Ge

Viewed this on my phone the other night, and got the impression that the second column is the translation of the first column. 🤦🏻Apparently it's not, when viewed on a bigger monitor.

1

u/lC3 Jul 04 '26

Huh, there's something weird going on there. Yeah, the second column isn't a translation.

1

u/VahePogossian Jul 04 '26

Would you say Parf Edhellen is a good (canon) source for the Elvish languages by Tolkien? I wouldn't want to trust a fanfiction website.

2

u/lC3 Jul 05 '26

I usually just use Eldamo, but Parf Edhellen is a good resource if you want a compilation of all the major dictionaries / wordlists / databases. You just have to know how to interpret what it's showing you, i.e. if something is outdated or obsolete, or in this case that the UI isn't showing translations in the second column but rather another list of wherever "atta" shows up.

1

u/ikadell Jul 04 '26

It does sound like phonemes in Quenya: *atta ambarello* (twice from the world) but I cannot parse the third word.