UNIVERSITY OF VAASA 

 

Faculty of Philosophy 

 

English Studies 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Suvi Ramula 

 

Subtitling Fictional Languages 

 

Translating Elvish into Finnish in The Lord of the Rings 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Master’s Thesis 

 

Vaasa 2017 



1 

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS 

 

ABSTRACT 3 

 

1 INTRODUCTION 5 

1.1 Material 7 

1.2 Method 9 

1.3 The Lord of the Rings 11 

 

2 FICTIONAL LANGUAGES IN POPULAR CULTURE 13 

2.1 The Function of Fictional Languages in Popular Culture 14 

2.2 Elvish in The Lord of the Rings 17 

2.2.1 Elvish as an alienation device 18 

2.2.2 Elvish as a characterisation device 21 

2.2.3 Elvish as a device of magic 26 

 

3 MULTIMODALITY 29 

3.1 Principles of Multimodality 29 

3.2 The Modes of Multimodality 31 

 

4 SUBTITLING 36 

4.1 Global Subtitling Strategies 39 

4.2 Local Subtitling Strategies 41 

 

5 SUBTITLING ELVISH IN THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING 45 

5.1 The Representation of Elvish in the Finnish Subtitles 45 

5.2 Subtitling Different Types of Elvish Expressions 49 

5.3 Analysing Subtitling Strategies from Multimodal Perspective 54 

5.3.1 Transfer 54 

5.3.2 Imitation 59 

5.3.3 Deletion 64 

5.3.4 Other 67 



2 

 

 

6 CONCLUSIONS 74 

 

WORKS CITED 78 

 

 

 

  



3 

 

 

UNIVERSITY OF VAASA 

Faculty of Philosophy 

Discipline:  English Studies 

Author:   Suvi Ramula 

Master’s Thesis: Subtitling Fictional Languages 

   Translating Elvish into Finnish in The Lord of the Rings 

Degree:   Master of Arts 

Date:   2017 

Supervisor:  Nestori Siponkoski   

 

 

ABSTRACT 

 

Tämä tutkimus käsittelee fiktiivisen kielen tekstittämistä. Aineistona käytettiin Peter 

Jacksonin (2002) elokuvassa Taru sormusten herrasta: Sormuksen ritarit esiintyviä 

haltiakielisiä ilmauksia. Elokuva pohjautuu J.R.R. Tolkienin vuonna 1954 julkaistuun 

samannimiseen kirjaan. Tutkimuksessa selvitettiin miten haltiakieliset ilmaisut on 

esitetty suomenkielisissä tekstityksissä. Lisäksi tutkittiin, minkä takia kääntäjä on 

päätynyt tietynlaisiin käännösratkaisuihin. 

 

Haltiakielisten ilmaisujen esittämistä suomenkielisissä tekstityksissä tutkittiin 

paikallisten ja globaalien käännösstrategioiden avulla. Paikallisten strategioiden 

tutkimista varten Henrik Gottliebin (1992) tekstitysstrategioita mukautettiin 

tutkimuksen tarpeita vastaavaksi. Globaalien käännösstrategioiden tarkastelun pohjana 

olivat Lawrence Venutin (1995) käsitteet kotouttaminen ja vieraannuttaminen. Syitä 

tiettyjen käännösstrategioiden valitsemiseen etsittiin enimmäkseen Hartmut Stöcklin 

(2004) näkemyksiin pohjautuvan multimodaalisen analyysin avulla. 

 

Elokuvassa esiintyvät haltiakieliset ilmaisut voitiin jakaa viiteen eri kategoriaan. 

Tutkimuksessa selvisi, että haltiakielisten ilmaisujen kääntämisessä oli käytetty 

pääasiallisesti kolmea erilaista paikallista käännösstrategiaa. Samaan kategoriaan 

kuuluvat ilmaisut oli usein käännetty saman strategian avulla. Vieraannuttavia 

käännösstrategioita oli kuitenkin käytetty kotouttavia enemmän. Osasyynä tähän on 

luultavasti se, että fiktiivisiä kieliä itsessään voidaan tarkoituksella käyttää 

etäännyttämään katsojia fantasiamaailmasta. 

 

Multimodaalinen analyysi paljasti lisäksi, että kuva, kieli, ääni ja musiikki muodostavat 

yhdessä merkityksiä elokuvassa. Näiden neljän moodin keskinäinen vuorovaikutus voi 

myös vaikuttaa kääntäjän tekemiin valintoihin. Haltiakielisiä ilmaisuja ei välttämättä 

tarvitse aina tekstittää suomeksi, jos niiden keskeinen merkitys pystytään kertomaan 

kuvan, äänen ja musiikin avulla.  

 

KEYWORDS: subtitling, multimodality, translation strategies, fictional languages, 

Elvish, fantasy 

 



4 

 

  



5 

 

1 INTRODUCTION 

 

Fictional languages have been featured from time to time in popular culture, especially 

in fantasy and science fiction genres. These languages do not even exist outside fictional 

worlds, but they have still become a relatively popular element in fantasy and science 

fiction television series, films and novels. Some famous examples of fictional languages 

are Anthony Burgess’ Nadsat in his novel The Clockwork Orange (1962), Na’vi in 

James Cameron’s film Avatar (2009) and Dothraki and Valyrian in HBO’s television 

series Game of Thrones (2011–). Fictional languages undoubtedly add their own 

nuances to these stories. Some enthusiastic fans do not settle for enjoying fictional 

languages only on the screen or on the pages of novels, but they want to learn to speak 

these languages themselves. As a result there exists books such as An Introduction to 

Elvish (1978) by Jim Allan, The Klingon Dictionary (1992) by Marc Okrand and Living 

Language Dothraki (2014) by David J. Peterson.  

 

Despite the interest that many fans continue to show towards different fictional 

languages, these languages have not received much academic attention. Of course, there 

are some exceptions, such as J.R.R. Tolkien’s Elvish in his fantasy saga The Lord of the 

Rings (1954–1955). Elvish and other Tolkien’s languages started to fascinate readers 

almost immediately after the first part of the fantasy saga, The Fellowship of the Ring, 

was published in 1954 (Hostetter 2007: 1). Over time this interest resulted in numerous 

lexicons, journals and books on the subject (Hostetter 2007). Peter Jackson’s film 

adaptations of The Lord of the Rings at the beginning of the 21
st
 century ensured that the 

interest in Tolkien and his languages still continues. Tolkien also continues to inspire 

academic studies. For instance, there are still active academic journals such as Tolkien 

Studies (2004–) by West Virginia University Press. Specifically for language 

enthusiastics there are also books like A Gateway to Sindarin by David Salo (2004). 

 

Even though Tolkien has inspired many studies, in general there is very little academic 

material available on the subject of fictional languages. The translation of fictional 

languages has been studied very little, and despite their constant appearances in some 

extremely popular television series and films, they have been studied even less from the 



6 

 

perspective of audiovisual translation. Since fictional languages are continuously 

featured in films and television, it seems that it is time that they are acknowledged also 

in audiovisual translation studies. The purpose of this thesis is to add to the study of 

fictional languages and examine how they are treated in subtitling. 

 

The aim of this thesis is to study the Finnish translation of Elvish expressions, that is, 

words, phrases and sentences, in Peter Jackson’s film adaptation The Lord of the Rings: 

the Fellowship of the Ring (2002). My first research question is: How Elvish 

expressions are represented in the Finnish subtitles? The purpose of this question is to 

find out whether the Elvish expressions are subtitled or not, and if they are subtitled, are 

the subtitles in Finnish or in Elvish. The second question is: Why particular Elvish 

expressions are or are not represented in the Finnish subtitles? These two research 

questions are addressed by studying the subtitling strategies that are used to transfer the 

Elvish expressions into the Finnish subtitles, and by analysing them from a multimodal 

perspective.  

 

Multimodality refers to the combination of speaking, writing, visualization and music 

that is used in audiovisual texts (Pérez-González 2014: 185). Multimodal approach does 

not focus only on language, but acknowledges that other also communicational forms, 

such as gaze and gesture, also have their own functions in multimodal texts (Jewitt 

2009: 14). For a long time studies on audiovisual translation only focused on analysing 

the different types of dialogue equivalences between source and target languages, and 

thus the interplay between dialogue and visual aspects of the film was ignored. Even 

though the film industry still forces the translators to restrict their involvement in the 

translation process to working solely with language, multimodality has recently started 

to gain more attention in studies of other media texts. (Pérez-González 2014: 185). 

 

As Pérez-González (2014: 187) argues, audiovisual translation practice and research 

should be more aware of the different ways information is communicated in audiovisual 

texts. Audiovisual texts such as films convey information through many different 

channels, not only through dialogue and subtitles (Pérez-González 2014). The 

information delivered outside dialogue can affect subtitler’s choices (Taylor 2013: 99), 



7 

 

which is why it is so important to take into account all aspects of multimodal texts. 

Subtitling can often be challenging for the translator due to its many constraints, such as 

time and space limits. Subtitlers use many different strategies to deal with these specific 

problems of audiovisual translation. In this study I will analyse the subtitling strategies 

used in The Fellowship of the Ring by adapting Henrik Gottlieb’s (1992) classification 

of subtitling strategies, while also keeping in mind Lawrence Venuti’s (1995) 

foreignization and domestication strategies.  

 

In sections 1.1 and 1.2 the material and method of the study will be introduced. The 

Lord of the Rings will be shortly discussed in section 1.3. Chapter 2 discusses fictional 

languages and how they are used to serve different purposes in popular culture, 

especially in fantasy and science fiction genres. Elvish and its different functions in the 

films are discussed more in the subsections of chapter 2. In chapter 3 the concept of 

multimodality is discussed, and chapter 4 discusses subtitling in more detail and 

introduces the subtitling strategies used in this study. In chapter 5 the Finnish subtitles 

for the Elvish expressions in The Fellowship of the Ring will be analysed and in chapter 

6 the conclusions of the study will be drawn. 

 

 

1.1 Material  

 

The material of the study consists of Elvish expressions and their corresponding Finnish 

subtitles that are collected from Peter Jackson’s film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The 

Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2002). In total the film contains 54 

Elvish expressions, counted as individual words and sentences. This number does not 

include Elvish character and place names such as Elrond and Lothlórien, because they 

have been excluded from this study. There are two main reasons for this decision. 

Firstly, at the end of the Finnish subtitling track it is mentioned that the translations of 

Elvish character and place names in the film are based on the earlier Finnish translations 

of the original novels (FOTR
1
). Kersti Juva, Eila Pennanen and Panu Pekkanen, who 

                                                 
1
 The Fellowship of the Ring film 



8 

 

have translated The Lord of the Rings novels into Finnish, remark in the appendices of 

the compilation that all Elvish names have been left untranslated (Tolkien 2002: 973). 

Secondly, some Master’s theses have already been done on the subject of proper name 

translation in The Lord of the Rings. One recent example is Tanja Huvila’s (2016) 

Master’s thesis, which studies how the characters names The Lord of the Rings novel 

have been translated into Finnish.  

 

I chose The Fellowship of the Ring (2002) as my material for various reasons. Due to 

the popularity of the novels and films, they have been studied quite much, and as a 

result, there is more material available. The complete film scripts could be found online 

and, most importantly, the lines spoken in fictional languages were included to the 

scripts. This was essential for this study, and as I noticed, unfortunately many film or 

television series scripts did not include the fictional languages featured in the films and 

shows. It is also notable that Tolkien’s Elvish is one of the most complete fictional 

languages that exist (Nummelin & Sisättö 2014). Fictional languages are featured 

relatively much in Jackson’s films, and they are used in more varying ways than many 

other fictional languages that appear in films and television series. This offers a 

possibility to see whether certain types of Elvish expressions, such as spells and 

expressions that occur in conversations, are translated differently.  

 

I collected my material from The Fellowship of the Ring’s DVD version (2002) with the 

help of two different film scripts. The film script that I mainly used as a help in 

collecting the Elvish lines from the film was found online at The Internet Movie Script 

Database
2
. The origin and the age of the script are unknown, but it proved to be very 

accurate. However, because some details, mainly some Elvish lines, were missing from 

the script, I also used another script found at a webpage called Fempiror. This second 

script is a script of The Fellowship of the Ring’s extended edition that was released in 

2002. The origin of Fempiror’s script is equally unknown, but it was still accurate and 

suited the purpose well.  

 

                                                 
2
 Further referred to as IMSDb 



9 

 

First it was necessary to ensure that the film scripts were accurate. The accuracy of 

IMSDb’s script was evolved by comparing it to the DVD’s soundtrack as well as to 

Fempiror’s script. After ensuring the accuracy of the script I collected all Elvish 

expressions and the corresponding Finnish subtitles from the film. The DVD that I used 

was published in Finland in 2002, and the Finnish subtitles were translated by Outi 

Kainulainen from Broadcast Text. Her translation was based on Kersti Juva’s, Eila 

Pennanen’s and Panu Pekkanen’s translation of the original novels (FOTR).  

 

Kainulainen reveals in an old interview published in the Finnish newspaper Turun 

Sanomat (2004) that even though the Finnish translations of the novels helped to 

subtitle the film trilogy, she still thinks of it as one of the hardest tasks she has done 

during her long career. The fact that it took her roughly 80 hours to translate the last 

film The Return of the King (2003), which is more than double the average time that it 

usually takes to translate a film, says something about the difficulty of the task. The 

devotion of Tolkien’s fans also caused Kainulainen to feel more pressure, because she 

knew that if she made mistakes, she would immediately get negative feedback. (Turun 

Sanomat 2004) 

 

 

1.2 Method 

 

After revising IMSDb’s film script and collecting the Elvish expressions and their 

corresponding subtitles from the film the subtitles were analysed. The analysis was 

qualitative and it was divided into two parts. First I addressed the question how Elvish 

expressions are represented in the Finnish subtitles by studying the subtitling strategies 

in the film. Both global and local strategies were taken into account, although the 

emphasis was on the latter. Local strategies are strategies that are applied to certain 

parts of the texts, whereas global strategies affect the whole text (Bell 1998: 188; 

Leppihalme 2001: 140).  

 

Fictional language as a source language somewhat limits the study of subtitling 

strategies. It does not allow a very detailed analysis for the reason that only very few 



10 

 

experts could understand the exact content of the Elvish expressions. Of course, the 

Finnish subtitles have been translated from English, not from Elvish. However, 

comparing the Finnish subtitles to the English translations of the Elvish lines would be 

futile, since the language the viewers hear the characters speak is Elvish. This is the 

reason why I consider Elvish to be the source language in this study, whereas Finnish is 

the target language. 

 

Subtitling strategies introduced in different sources are often meant to address very 

specific translation problems, such as culture specific items. However, because Elvish 

does not allow a very detailed analysis, this study requires a relatively general 

categorisation of subtitling strategies. I chose to base the study of the local translation 

strategies on Henrik Gottlieb’s (1992) categorisation of ten different subtitling 

strategies. However, it was necessary to adapt Gottlieb’s (1992) strategies to suit the 

purposes of this study. I determined first what strategies could be applied to this study 

and excluded the rest. Gottlieb’s (1992) subtitling strategies and their modification is 

discussed more thoroughly later in section 4.2. I concluded that there were four different 

subtitling strategies that could be used as a basis for the study of local subtitling 

strategies. These strategies were called transfer, imitation, deletion and expansion. 

However, it became evident during the analysis that there were no cases of expansion, 

and therefore also this strategy was left outside of the study. Since the analysis also 

revealed that other subtitling strategies had been used as well, an additional category 

other was formed for those cases. 

 

The global subtitling strategies in the film were studied on the basis of Lawrence 

Venuti’s (1995) concepts foreignization and domestication. Domesticating strategies 

bring the audience closer to the source text and culture, whereas foreignizing strategies 

do the opposite (Venuti 1995). In order to study the global subtitling strategies of the 

film, Gottlieb’s (1992) local subtitling strategies used in this study were defined to be 

either foreignizing or domesticating. This division and the concept of global translation 

strategies are discussed in detail in sections 4.1 and 4.2. 

 



11 

 

The question why particular Elvish lines are or are not represented in the Finnish 

subtitles was addressed by focusing on the multimodal nature of the film. This was 

analysed in general level as well as in detail with the help of particular examples. First I 

divided the Elvish expressions in the film into different categories and analysed how 

different types of expressions had been subtitled and why. The categorisation of the 

Elvish expressions was created by considering the purpose of the Elvish expressions 

and the context in which they occurred. A more thorough analysis of the subtitling of 

Elvish expressions was conducted next. The Elvish expressions and the corresponding 

subtitles were divided into categories according to Gottlieb’s subtitling strategies, and 

two examples were analysed from each category. I tried to find reasons for choosing 

particular translation strategies by analysing the ways Elvish dialogue and the possible 

subtitles interact with the image, sound and music of the film. I analysed how these 

different modes can work together to create a certain meaning especially in the cases 

where there are no Finnish subtitles available for the viewers. Due to the special 

relationship between language and image (Pérez-González 2014: 213–214), the main 

focus was on their interplay. This analysis draws material from multiple sources, but the 

categorisation of modes is based on Hartmut Stöckl’s (2004) idea of multimodality as a 

networked system of choices. Stöckl’s categorisation is discussed later in section 3.2. 

 

 

1.3 The Lord of the Rings    

 

J.R.R Tolkien’s epic fantasy novel saga The Lord of the Rings as well as his other works 

have definitely left their mark in fantasy literature (Nummelin & Sisättö 2014: 158), and 

the Middle-earth still attracts many readers. The Lord of the Rings was published in 

three parts in the years 1954 and 1955 as a continuation to Tolkien’s earlier children’s 

book called The Hobbit (1937), but the trilogy was eventually aimed to a more adult 

audience. The story of The Lord of the Rings is essentially a traditional fight between 

good and evil. The protagonist, a hobbit called Frodo Baggins inherits a ring, which is 

discovered to be the destructive Power Ring that the Dark Lord Sauron has forged a 

long time ago. The Ring has to be destroyed, so Frodo and his friends leave their homes 

in Shire and head for a dangerous journey.  



12 

 

 

Peter Jackson was not the first person to film Tolkien’s work, but the earlier adaptations 

of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit certainly never reached the popularity that 

Jackson’s films did at the beginning of the 21
th

 century (Nummelin & Sisättö 2014: 

173–187). The first film, The Fellowship of the Ring, was released in 2001, and it was 

followed by The Two Towers in 2002 and The Return of the King in 2003. In The 

Fellowship of the Ring Frodo Baggins inherits a ring, and when the wizard Gandalf 

discovers that it is the long lost Power Ring, Frodo and his three friends flee from Shire 

in order to go to the Elven outpost Rivendell. The fate of the Ring is decided in 

Rivendell, and it is established that the Ring must be destroyed. The only way to destroy 

the Ring is to take it to Sauron’s land Mordor and throw it to the depths of the same 

volcano where it once was forged. The Fellowship of the Ring is formed to accomplish 

this mission, and the nine members of the Fellowship travel across the Middle-earth 

towards Mordor. The first film ends at the breaking of the Fellowship. (FOTR) 

 

Even though Frodo Baggins is the main character of the film, also the other members of  

the Fellowship have important roles in the story. There are three other hobbits, Frodo’s 

friends Samwise Gamgee, Meriadoc Brandybuck and Peregrin Took. In the novels and 

films they are commonly referred to as Sam, Merry and Pippin. There are two humans, 

a ranger called Strider, or Aragorn by his real name, and the son of the Steward of the 

southern realm Gondor, called Boromir. The wizard Gandalf is the leader of the 

Fellowship, and there is also an elf called Legolas and a dwarf called Gimli.  

 

Other relevant characters in the film The Fellowship of the Ring are people that Frodo 

and the others encounter on their journey. There is the half-elf Elrond, who rules 

Rivendell, and his daughter and Strider’s love interest Arwen. During their journey the 

Fellowship seeks protection from the Elvish forest realm Lothlórien and meet Galadriel, 

the Lady of the Lothlórien. The most important villains are Sauron and his nine 

Ringwraiths, who are constantly trying to capture Frodo and his companions. Sauron 

also has an ally, the fallen wizard Saruman, who has his own forces searching for Frodo 

and the Ring.  

 



13 

 

2 FICTIONAL LANGUAGES IN POPULAR CULTURE 

 

This chapter discusses fictional languages and their use in literature, television and film. 

The central terminology is defined first, and then the function of fictional languages in 

popular culture is discussed in section 2.1. Section 2.2 focuses on the representation of 

Elvish in The Lord of the Rings, and subsections 2.2.1, 2.2.2 and 2.2.3 focus on 

analysing in more detail the different functions that Elvish seems to have in the film The 

Fellowship of the Ring.   

 

Language invention is not a new phenomenon. According to Arika Okrent (2009: 10) 

the earliest documentation of an invented language is from the twelfth century. It is 

known that this language was created by a German nun, but its purpose has remained 

unclear (Okrent 2009: 10). Languages have been invented for centuries, but despite this 

the terminology and categorization of different intentionally created languages is still 

somewhat vague. One reason for the lack of uniform terminology is probably that even 

though the idea of language invention seems to fascinate many, these languages have 

not been studied much academically.  

 

There are only few academic sources available on the subject of invented languages, 

and the terminological problems are easy to notice if these sources are compared with 

each other. The most obvious issue is that different sources prefer to use different terms 

about the same concept. The linguist David J. Peterson (2015) uses the term constructed 

languages, whereas Arika Okrent (2009) talks about invented languages. Peter 

Stockwell (2006) acknowledges that in addition to these also terms artificial languages, 

planned languages and even neographies are used. This study follows Peterson’s 

(2015) terminology and categorisation, because it appears to be the most logical and 

extensive. Peterson (2015) has defined the central terminology by not only drawing 

from his own linguist background but also acknowledging the terminology that is used 

among the enthusiastic language creators on the internet. 

 

Peterson divides languages into two different categories, natural languages and 

constructed languages. Natural languages, or natlangs, are languages that have evolved 



14 

 

naturally. All spoken languages, such as English and Finnish, are considered to be 

natural languages, but in addition also creole languages, sign languages and languages 

that have died and are no longer spoken in the world belong to this category. (Peterson 

2015: 19) Those languages that have not evolved naturally are called constructed 

languages.  

 

According to Peterson (2015: 18) constructed languages, or conlangs, are consciously 

created languages that have, or are intended to have, a fully functional linguistic system. 

This term covers many different languages from Esperanto to Elvish. Constructed 

languages can be further divided into different categories such as auxiliary languages 

and artistic languages. Auxiliary language means a constructed language that has been 

created for international communication, whereas artistic language is a constructed 

language created for aesthetic or otherwise artistic purposes. (Peterson 2015: 18, 21) 

 

In the context of this thesis the most important type of constructed language is fictional 

language. It is a language that is “supposed to exist in a given fictional context” 

(Peterson 2015: 19). For example, the Dothraki language Peterson created for HBO’s 

series The Game of Thrones (2011–) is intended to be a real language in the fictional 

universe of The Game of Thrones (Peterson 2015: 19). Similarly, Elvish and other 

Tolkien’s languages are supposed to be real languages that exist in the fictional Middle-

earth. However, it is worth noting that even though Elvish can clearly be classified as a 

fictional language, it can also be considered to be an artistic language, because it was 

designed to be aesthetically appealing (Stockwell 2006: 8). In order to avoid confusion 

only the term fictional language will be used in this thesis.  

 

 

2.1 The Function of Fictional Languages in Popular Culture 

 

This section focuses on the purposes that different fictional languages can serve in 

popular culture. Okrent (2009: 11) argues that the primary motivation for creating new 

languages has come from the need to improve natural languages. As a result of natural 

development, natural languages have many flaws such as irregular verbs, idioms and 



15 

 

words that mean more than one thing (Okrent 2009: 11). However, even though 

constructed languages might have originally been attempts to perfect natural languages 

(Okrent 2009: 11), Peterson’s (2015: 18–23) categorization demonstrates that languages 

are not anymore invented only to fix the problems of already existing languages. 

Nowadays there are many unique constructed languages that have been created for 

different purposes. Some constructed languages are used in international 

communication and some are spoken by aliens in science fiction films (Peterson 2015). 

Nowadays many constructed languages only exist in fictional worlds, and they have 

become a relatively common element in the works of fantasy and science fiction. 

However, the central question is, what exactly is achieved by adding fictional languages 

to novels, films and television series? 

 

Peter Stockwell (2006) provides a possible answer for this question. He argues that 

constructed languages have three main functions in fiction. The first function is 

elaborate, which means that “the language is present to lend an ornamental richness to 

the imagined landscape, and works essentially as a detailed lyrical description”. 

Stockwell mentions Star Trek’s Klingon as an example. The speakers of Klingon are an 

aggressive race, and the harsh sounds of Klingon language are supposed to convey that. 

(Stockwell 2006: 9) Elvish works in a similar manner in The Lord of the Rings. Elves 

are portrayed as a beautiful and wise race, and as Stockwell (2006: 9) states, the Elvish 

language itself is supposed to sound beautiful.  

 

The second function Stockwell (2006: 9) calls indexical. A constructed language has an 

indexical function, if it assists in the creation of the imagined world and makes it more 

plausible in the reader’s mind. Constructed language helps to create a sense of realism 

(Stockwell 2006: 9). For example, Tolkien’s fictional Middle-earth resembles real 

world because it is inhabited by many different races and nations, who all have their 

own histories, cultures and languages. Among other things the constant appearances of 

Elvish and other fictional languages can be considered to help to give an impression of 

separate cultures and cultural differences between them. For instance, elves and hobbits 

are very different races that barely have any contact with each other, so it is logical and 

realistic that they also speak different languages.  



16 

 

The third function that Stockwell (2006: 9) names is emblematic, and it means that a 

constructed language itself represents a thematically important idea. The language can 

for instance be used to carry a political comment or satire. One example of a constructed 

language that has an emblematic function is Newspeak in George Orwell’s novel 

Nineteen Eighty-Four. (Stockwell 2006: 9). In Nineteen Eighty-Four the society heavily 

restricts individuals’ freedom of thought, and the very controlled and restricted language 

of Newspeak is one way to do that (Orwell 1992).  

 

Stockwell (2006) differentiates three main functions that constructed languages usually 

have in fiction, but if different constructed languages were analysed more closely, it 

could be noticed that they can also serve more specific purposes. An alien language in a 

science fiction film and a language that is used to perform magic in a fantasy novel can 

both have for example an indexical function, but their representation and characteristics 

probably still differ from each other. In the end there are countless possible ways to 

feature fictional languages in fiction, and every story can use them for their own 

purposes.  

 

Elvish can be considered to have what Stockwell (2006) calls elaborate and indexical 

functions, but those are not the only purposes that Elvish seems to serve in the films. 

The rest of this chapter focuses on Elvish in The Lord of the Rings in order to gain a 

better understanding of the ways this language has been utilized in the films as well as 

in order to demonstrate different functions that fictional languages can adopt. The 

representation of Elvish in The Lord of the Rings will be discussed first in section 2.2. 

Next I will examine some of the most important purposes that Elvish seems to serve in 

the films and especially in The Fellowship of the Ring. In subsection 2.2.1 I will first 

discuss the way Elvish is used to create a necessary feeling of otherness (Salo 2004). In 

2.2.2 I discuss Elvish as a device of characterization, and in subsection 2.2.3 I will 

finally discuss Elvish as a device of magic. 

 

 

 



17 

 

2.2 Elvish in The Lord of the Rings  

 

Elvish and other fictional languages have a rather special role in Tolkien’s work. Unlike 

in many other fantasy novels, the fictional languages were not born because the fantasy 

universe needed it, but rather the other way round. As Nummelin and Sisättö (2014: 17–

18) state, Tolkien started by inventing fictional languages, and only after the languages 

had been born, he started to create speakers and histories for those languages. In fact, 

Tolkien (1999c: 506) has even stated that The Lord of the Rings itself is an English 

translation of a book written in a fictional language, called Westron. In Tolkien’ mind 

Westron technically functions as the lingua franca of the Middle-earth (Tolkien 1999c: 

506).  

 

The unique origin and status of Elvish probably explains why fictional languages are 

featured so extensively in The Lord of the Rings. There is not only Elvish, but two kinds 

of Elvish, Sindarin and Quenya, and both have their own histories, grammatical systems 

and rules (Stockwell 2006: 8). Especially Quenya, or High Elvish, was created for 

aesthetic purposes (Stockwell 2006: 8). In this thesis these two varieties are not 

separated, since it is not relevant for the purpose of the study. It is also quite unlikely 

that a regular viewer could be able to tell the difference between Sindarin and Quenya.  

 

In addition to Elvish the trilogy also features fictional languages such as Dwarvish, 

Black Speech and Entish (Tolkien 1999a, 1999b & 1999c). Black Speech is spoken by 

Sauron and his servants, and Entish is the language of a tree-like race called ents. In the 

novels these different fictional languages can be found for example in poems, phrases 

and names. There are also few cases where the novels present fictional languages by 

using their own alphabets (see Tolkien 1999a: 66), which greatly differ from the Latin 

script we use today. The foreign expressions in the novels are not always even 

translated for the viewers. For example, there are songs that are in Elvish, and not even 

their main content is explained in any way (see Tolkien 1999a: 311). In The Fellowship 

of the Ring film Elvish can be found among other things in characters’ speech and 

narrator’s voiceover, songs, spells and in names of objects, characters and places.  It can 

also be spotted in written form for example in the markings of the Ring. Other fictional 



18 

 

languages are not featured in the films as extensively as Elvish, although some of them, 

like Black Speech, are used few times.  

 

In general the films seem to feature less different fictional languages than the novels. 

However, it seems that Elvish is featured even more varying ways in the films than in 

the novels. For example, characters do not really discuss in Elvish with each other in the 

novels, whereas in the films fictional languages are used in conversations. In addition 

many characters’ understanding of fictional languages is different in the novels and in 

the films. The most important difference is Frodo Baggins and his knowledge of Elvish. 

The films do not seem to indicate that he can actually understand Elvish. However, in 

the novels Tolkien states that unlike Sam, Merry and Pippin, Frodo has some 

knowledge of the Elvish language (Tolkien 1999a: 105). Frodo has learnt quite much 

about elves from Bilbo and Gandalf, and his friends even suspect that he meets elves 

when they happen to travel through the Shire (Tolkien 1999a: 56). Elves are familiar to 

Frodo at the beginning of the novel, whereas in the film he does not appear to have 

much knowledge of them.  

 

One reason why Frodo does not appear to know much about elves or Elvish in the film 

is probably that it is important to place him to the same position as the viewers. The 

fantasy world in the film cannot appear to be too alien to the viewers, or they might not 

be able to identify with the characters. As a result, viewers might become confused or 

lose interest in the film. Novels allow readers to go back and check if they do not quite 

understand something, but films do not allow that as easily. For this reason it is often 

necessary to include characters who can provide information for the viewers and who 

can guide them in the unfamiliar world. The next subsection focuses on the balance of 

familiarity and alien in the film and discusses how Elvish can be utilized in order to 

create an alienating effect.  

 

2.2.1 Elvish as an alienation device  

 

Bignell (1999: 100) argues that the principle of cinema is to present the recognisable 

and familiar balanced against the new and foreign, the alien, that cannot be experienced 



19 

 

in our everyday reality. Films have the ability to move the audience from their own 

present reality to another space and time in imaginary reality. At the same time the alien 

in the imaginary reality must be made comprehensible by balancing it with something 

familiar and conventional (Bignell 1999: 88, 100)  

 

Constructing a balance between alien and familiar is particularly important in science 

fiction and fantasy genres, which are built around advanced technologies, magic or 

other things that simply do not exist in our reality. As Salo (2004: 25) argues, the 

problem is that if everything presented to the audience is strange and alien, they will 

find the whole imaginary reality equally exotic and banal. This is the reason why the 

sense of alienation cannot be created without offering something familiar at the same 

time (Salo 2004: 25). 

 

The term alienation refers to the act of distancing the subject matter from familiar 

matters or constructing something strange or exotic (Salo 2004: 25). Alienation can be 

achieved through many different means. In the case of The Lord of the Rings the novels 

and films are full of creatures and phenomena, such as elves and magic, that are alien to 

the audience. Tolkien and later Jackson also further distanced the Middle-earth from 

their own centuries with the help of different weapons, customs and clothing (Salo 

2004: 25). Fictional languages also function as an important device of alienation in the 

films and novels (Salo 2004: 25). Since these languages do not exist in the real world, 

they are equally alien to all readers and viewers. 

 

Fictional languages and other fantasy elements ensure that the audience finds the world 

exotic, but at the same time there are also some familiar elements. The protagonist is a 

hobbit, and therefore the Shire of the hobbits is supposed to work as the familiar world 

in the fictional fantasy universe (Salo 2004: 25). The Shire is an idealized and archaized 

version of rural Warwickshire, where Tolkien lived his childhood in the 19th century. 

The Hobbits are reflections of the 18
th

 or 19
th

 century English farmers, but they do not 

have the technology that was available at that time. The hobbits are also not meant to 

live in an ancient or medieval world, because they still have things like umbrellas and 



20 

 

paper. The hobbits function as mediators, who face the world outside the Shire with the 

same sense of alienation as the readers or viewers. (Salo 2004: 25) 

 

The prologue of the film seems to presents the whole Middle-earth as an alien place. 

The prologue tells the history of the Power Ring and introduces the different races of 

the Middle-earth to the viewers. Elvish has a rather significant role in the alienation of 

the Middle-earth, and even the first words spoken in The Fellowship of the Ring are in 

Elvish. When the prologue begins, the viewers can first only see a black screen and hear 

quiet Elvish music in the background. Soon the narrator (Cate Blanchett, who also plays 

Galadriel in the film) starts speaking in Elvish. The narrator speaks several lines in 

Elvish, and then repeats them in English. Introducing the world of the film to the 

viewers with the help of fictional language can be seen to prepare the viewers to step 

into a fantasy universe. The world in the film is established to be different from our 

own, and the use of Elvish can even make the story seem somewhat mythical from the 

very beginning.  

 

After the prologue the film properly begins from the Shire, which is introduced to the 

viewers as the familiar place in the fantasy world. The Shire is portrayed as a peaceful 

countryside region, and the hobbits themselves seem to be cheerful people who live 

simple and carefree life. When the hobbits eventually leave the Shire, the viewers can 

already identify with them and feel sympathy for them. The alienation begins outside 

the Shire with the help of Elvish and other fictional languages (Salo 2004: 28). The 

place names in Shire have clearly English origins, but outside it the hobbits travel to 

places with strange names like Amon Sûl and Bruinen. Even if the audience did not 

recognize these to be specifically Elvish names, they still take the audience into places 

where even normal things such as hills and rivers become exotic because of their weird 

alien names. (Salo 2004: 28).   

 

These strange Elvish names, as well as the whole Elvish language, appear to be 

unfamiliar to both hobbits and the viewers of the film. It could even be seen that the rest 

of the Middle-earth is alien to both hobbits and the viewers. None of the hobbits are 

heard speaking Elvish in The Fellowship of the Ring, and in addition there are many 



21 

 

scenes that specifically draw attention to the fact that the hobbits cannot speak or 

understand Elvish. This highlights the fact that the hobbits are supposed to be in the 

same situation as the viewers. For example, in the beginning of the film, in scene 8 

(FOTR) Frodo recognizes that the markings in the Ring are in Elvish, but states that he 

cannot read them. When the first elf, Arwen, is introduced in the story in scene 17 

(FOTR), Strider and Arwen are shown speaking Elvish with each other, and Pippin even 

asks what they are saying, as he cannot understand them.  

 

In addition to Elvish being presented as alien, also the elves themselves are presented as 

alien. For example, when Sam is told that Strider will lead the hobbits to Rivendell, he 

becomes excited at the prospect of seeing elves (FOTR: SC13
3
). This could indicate that 

elves are exotic and it is not usual to see them in the Shire. Another example of a 

particular scene where elves can be considered to be represented as alien, is a scene 

where sick Frodo sees an ethereal vision of Arwen dressed in white clothes and 

speaking Elvish (FOTR: SC17). In general the elves are portrayed to be wise beings 

who live in beautiful places and wear fine clothes. The fictional language Elvish further 

helps to present the elves themselves as alien beings. Elvish language can even be used 

to create a certain impression of characters that are not elves but speak Elvish. Elvish 

language as a characterisation device is discussed in the next subsection.  

 

2.2.2 Elvish as a characterisation device 

 

Characterisation plays a central part in any work of fiction, and this subsection 

discusses how fictional languages and especially Elvish can be used as characterisation 

devices. As Lothe (2000: 81) states, there are many different ways to convey a certain 

image of a character to the readers or viewers. For example, characters can be described 

by using adjectives or they can be given names that carry a certain meaning. The way 

character acts as well as their external appearance and behaviour can also always reveal 

something about a character. Even milieu can be used in characterisation. (Lothe 2000: 

81–84) For example, the Elven realms in The Fellowship of the Ring film are portrayed 

                                                 
3
 (The Fellowship of the Ring: scene 13) 



22 

 

to be very beautiful and even magical places, and this can add to the characterisation of 

the elves.  

 

Another important device of characterisation is speech. This includes what a character 

thinks or says as well as how they say it. (Lothe 2000: 83). Characters in a novel or film 

have different backgrounds and social statuses, and it is important that this is reflected 

also in their speech. In films, where dialogue plays such an essential role, it is 

particularly important that characters have distinguishable traits of speech. 

(Zabalbeascoa 2012: 71) As Salo (2004: 27) notes, the stylistic differences in 

characters’ speech in The Lord of the Rings are present both in the books and the films. 

In the films the hobbits speak different English dialects whereas Gandalf and Saruman, 

who are characters with a higher status, speak the best King’s English (Salo 2004: 27). 

However, as Zabalbeascoa (2012: 71) states, sometimes the authors and film makers do 

not settle for using different dialects or other conventional means, but invent fictional 

languages for the purposes of characterisation. Also The Lord of the Rings utilizes 

Elvish and other fictional languages as characterisation devices along with the different 

ways of speaking English.   

 

Stockwell (2006: 9) claims that Elvish has an elaborate function. As it was mentioned 

earlier, in general elves are portrayed as a beautiful and wise race. The first description 

of elves in the film states that they are “immortal, wisest, fairest of all beings” (FOTR: 

SC1). Also the Elvish language has been designed to be aesthetically appealing 

(Stockwell 2006: 8). Elvish language can obviously be used to characterise elves, but 

the film also contains characters who speak Elvish despite not being elves. It could be 

assumed that also these characters probably reflect some characteristics that are 

associated with elves or the Elvish language. Salo (2004: 29) also claims that in the 

films heroic characters speak Elvish, and more specifically the Sindarin variation.  

 

However, here it has to be noted that even though many characters in the first film use 

Elvish expressions, not all of them can actually speak Elvish. For example, the dwarf 

Gimli uses the Elvish term mithril while talking about a certain valuable fictional metal. 

It is not suggested that Gimli could speak Elvish, but it rather seems that he uses the 



23 

 

Elvish word mithril because it appears to be the universal term for this type of metal. In 

the first film there are five named characters that can be heard speaking full sentences in 

Elvish. These characters are the elves Elrond and Arwen, the wizards Gandalf and 

Saruman and the ranger Strider. There are also two other elves, Legolas and Galadriel, 

who once or twice use Elvish words in their speech but do not have complete lines in 

Elvish.  

 

If the characters who can actually speak Elvish were analysed, it could be stated that the 

Elvish language could probably be seen as the language of the wise and powerful. If 

Elvish-speaking characters are compared to the hobbits, which is the group that the 

viewers are supposed to mostly identify with, it can be seen that the Elvish-speakers are 

portrayed wiser and more knowledgeable than the down-to-earth hobbits. The Elvish-

speakers also enjoy quite high statuses in the Middle-earth. Galadriel and Elrond are 

Elven rulers, and Arwen is Elrond’s daughter and Strider’s love interest. Gandalf and 

Saruman are powerful wizards, and Strider, or Aragorn by his real name, is revealed to 

be the heir to the throne of the southern realm Gondor. Even Legolas is the son of the 

Elven king Thranduil (Tolkien 1999a: 314, 465), even though it is never mentioned in 

the first film. However, it has to be kept in mind that the relevant characters in The Lord 

of the Rings generally tend to have a high status. Since the books and films do not 

reveal anything about the Elvish skills of the lower classes, Elvish cannot unequivocally 

be regarded only as the language of upper classes.  

 

Out of the Elvish-speakers in the film Arwen is the character who has the most Elvish 

lines. Arwen has little role in the films besides being portrayed as Strider’s love interest, 

even though she is brought to the story in a rather heroic way. In a scene where she is 

introduced, she saves wounded Frodo and takes him to Rivendell the Ringwraiths at her 

heels (FOTR: SC17). Arwen speaks Elvish mostly with Strider, but when the viewers 

first see her, she is heard speaking Elvish to wounded Frodo in his vision. There is also 

a scene where Arwen speaks Elvish to her horse and enchants in Elvish in order to make 

the river Bruinen to flood and prevent the Ringwraiths from following her to Rivendell 

(FOTR: SC17).  

 



24 

 

Strider is one of the most important characters in the story, and he has the second most 

Elvish lines in The Fellowship of the Ring. Strider is seen speaking Elvish mostly with 

Arwen. When it comes to Strider and his discussions with Arwen, Elvish is almost used 

as the secret language of lovers. In the film Strider and Arwen speak Elvish in scenes 

where they are alone or when they are in front of the hobbits. The latter case could 

suggest that they speak another language in front of others because they do not want to 

reveal the content of their discussion. However, these characters also speak to each 

other in English, and sometimes one of them even changes the language in the middle 

of the conversation. Strider also once addresses two other elves, Legolas and Haldir, in 

Elvish. Speaking Elvish with elves might be a sign of respect on Strider’s part, but since 

it is suggested that Strider has known all three elves already before the events of the 

film, this could also be connected to his friendships with those elves.  

 

Salo’s (2004: 29) claim that heroic characters speak Elvish in the films seems to apply 

particularly well to Strider. When Strider is first introduced in the film, he is described 

as one of the dangerous rangers who wander in the wilds. However, later he proves to 

be a great swordsman and saves the hobbits many times. It is also revealed that his real 

name is Aragorn, and that he is, in fact, an heir to the throne of the southern realm 

Gondor. However, Strider does not speak Elvish only because he is a heroic character, 

but there is also a logical reason for it, even though it is never mentioned in the films. 

Namely, Strider has been raised in Rivendell (Tolkien 1999c: 414).  

 

Gandalf has the third-most Elvish lines in the film, and those lines are almost 

exclusively related to the practice of magic. He is the leader of the Fellowship, and he 

seems to be portrayed in the films as a wise and rather powerful wizard. He seems to be 

the Fellowship’s wise advisor. Gandalf can also be considered to be heroic because he is 

seen fighting the evil forces many times with swords or magic. Also the other wizard of 

the story, Saruman, can be heard speaking Elvish while casting spells. However, unlike 

other Elvish-speaking characters, Saruman cannot be considered heroic, as he is 

Sauron’s ally. However, Saruman’s betrayal does not make him any less powerful or 

knowledgeable, so Elvish can still be seen to highlight those qualities.  

 



25 

 

In addition to discussing characters who speak Elvish, it is equally important to pay 

attention to the characters who do not speak Elvish. Nothing clearly suggests that any of 

the hobbits understand or speak Elvish in the film The Fellowship of the Ring. In 

addition to this being a device of alienation as it was discussed in subsection 2.2.1, it 

can also be seen as a characterisation device. The characters that are heard speaking 

Elvish in the films are either heroic, wise or powerful, or all this in some way. Even 

though the hobbits, especially Frodo, can be seen to possess certain heroic qualities, the 

hobbits are presented more as ordinary people who only happen to become accidentally 

involved in the war of the Ring. The fact that the hobbits do not speak Elvish supports 

their portrayal as ordinary, down-to-earth, and probably even less educated characters.  

 

Another interesting detail regarding the characters that speak Elvish is that even though 

Legolas is an important part of the Fellowship of the Ring, he only speaks one Elvish 

word in the film. In the first film Legolas is almost exclusively presented as an athletic 

archer who is quite invaluable in the fighting scenes. He could be seen as a heroic 

character because of this, but in the end he does not have as important function to the 

plot as many other characters who speak Elvish. For example, Legolas does not lead the 

Fellowship like Gandalf, and he is not the heir to the throne of Gondor like Strider. 

However, in the later films Legolas can be heard speaking Elvish in many occasions, 

which is probably due to his character getting more visibility and space to grow. 

 

In general, characters who can be heard speaking Elvish in The Fellowship of the Ring 

can be considered to be heroic, wise or powerful, or all of those things. However, Elvish 

is still not exclusively reserved for the good side. For example, the decidedly evil Power 

Ring has markings that are written in Elvish, although the language itself is Mordor’s 

Black speech (FOTR: SC8). Also the fallen wizard Saruman uses Elvish in 

enchantments. Elvish spells and the Elvish markings on the Ring and on other magical 

objects seem to suggest that Elvish has certain power. It can be used to achieve great 

things, whether they are good or bad. In the films there is a clear link between Elvish 

and magic, and it is discussed in the next subsection. 

 

 



26 

 

2.2.3 Elvish as a device of magic  

 

In fantasy genre neologisms and fictional languages, or languages that appear to be 

fictional, are very often linked to the practice of magic. In television characters cast 

spells in fictional languages for example in HBO’s The Game of Thrones (2011–), in 

The CW’s supernatural drama The Vampire Diaries (2009–) as well as in BBC’s 

medieval fantasy series Merlin (2008–2012). Some examples from literature are J.K. 

Rowling’s Latin-derived spells in Harry Potter series (1997–2007) and Christopher 

Paolini’s many fictional languages in the medieval fantasy series The Inheritance Cycle 

(2003–2011).  

 

There are differences in how different works of fantasy represent the relationship 

between fictional languages and magic. The relationship between magic and language is 

often hazy, although there are also some works that state very clearly that languages are 

used to control magic. Both Ursula K. Le Guin in her Earthsea saga (1968–2001) and 

Christopher Paolini in his Inheritance Cycle (2003–2011) base magic on the idea that 

knowledge of a certain language is the key to performing magic. Le Guin’s (2007) 

language is known as Old Speech, and Paolini (2005) calls his language the Ancient 

language. Everything and everyone has a true name in Old Speech and Ancient 

language, and these names allow the magicians to control objects or other people 

(Paolini 2005; Le Guin 2007).  

 

Tolkien does not provide as clear explanations for the readers. Tolkien’s original novels 

actually include very few mentions of the use of magic, and it is never described in 

detail. Tolkien never specifies what is the source of magic. It is not easy to even define 

what is meant by the concept of magic in The Lord of the Rings. There are wizards who 

can use magic, but in addition for example elves can easily be interpreted to possess 

magical abilities. Some elves such as Galadriel clearly have magical abilities both in the 

films and novels, but it is not clear whether all elves are capable of performing magic. 

For example Legolas does not show any signs of magical abilities in the novels or films, 

and it is never stated whether he is capable of performing magic or not. Like all elves, 

Legolas has supernaturally good eyesight and reflexes, but that does not necessarily 



27 

 

mean it is caused by Elvish magic. It could simply be a feature that is typical to a certain 

race, like cats’ ability to see in the dark. However, it is probably safe to assume that the 

Elven race has certain characteristics that appear to be supernatural, and at least some 

elves are capable of performing magic in the form of spells.  

 

It is also unclear what characters are capable of doing with their magical powers and 

what are the laws of magic in the Middle-earth. Different characters also have a 

different understanding of magic. Non-magical beings like hobbits view magic 

differently than magical beings like elves, and Galadriel even states that she does not 

clearly understand what the hobbits mean by the concept of magic (Tolkien 1999a: 

475). Hobbits, who do not possess magical powers, seem to view magic much like we 

nowadays do, and consider different spells, supernatural powers and objects to be 

magical. 

 

In The Fellowship of the Ring film magic is present in many ways. There are magical 

beings like the Balrog and magical artefacts like Galadriel’s mirror, Saruman’s palantír 

and Sauron’s Ring. There are also three characters that are shown to perform magic by 

casting spells. The wizards Gandalf and Saruman use magic on many occasions, and the 

elf Arwen is seen to use magic once, when she floods the river Bruinen in order to save 

Frodo from the Ringwraiths. There are also other characters that are hinted to have 

magical powers, but they are not actually seen casting spells in the film. These are 

characters such as Elrond or Sauron, who forged the magical Power Ring.  

 

There are differences in the ways characters use magic, which could even suggest that 

the magic of elves and wizards might be different. Wizards are seen using staffs when 

they perform magic, but elves do not carry staffs with them. Arwen only chants an 

Elvish spell to flood the river Bruinen, whereas the wizards always use staffs in their 

spells. However, there is one exception in scene 5 (FOTR), where angry Gandalf 

darkens a whole room without touching his staff. This suggests that even though 

wizards usually use staffs in spells, it is not always necessary. 

 



28 

 

Speaking Elvish is also not always required when performing magic. For example 

Gandalf and Saruman do not shout spells when they fight against each other in Isengard 

(FOTR: SC 9), and Gandalf lights the top of his staff in the mines of Moria without a 

word (FOTR: SC28). This could suggest that the source of the magic is not the language 

itself, but it is merely a device for those who already have magical powers. However, it 

has to be taken into account that even if Elvish spells are not said aloud, that does not 

necessarily mean that Elvish is not involved in these spells. For example, in Harry 

Potter characters can perform magic without saying the magic words aloud, but they 

still have to concentrate on those words inside their mind (Rowling 2014).  

 

The connection between Elvish and magic seems hazy, but the fact that the films gives 

an impression that Elvish is the only language that can be used to performing magic 

separates it from other languages of the film. The films give the viewers an impression 

that Elvish can be used to achieve things that are impossible to achieve by using other 

fictional languages such as Dwarvish or natural languages such as English. This 

suggests that even though the magic does not come from the fictional language itself, it 

still seems to have certain mythical power that allows it to control the surrounding 

environment if it is used by someone with magical abilities.  

 

When fictional language is used as a spell language, it draws attention. It differs from 

characters’ normal speech, and might work as a sign for the viewers that something 

extraordinary is going to happen. There is also the fact that chanting spells in English 

would be far less exciting than chanting them in a fictional language. The use of Elvish 

makes the whole event seem more mysterious. It seems to be quite usual in fantasy 

genre that fictional languages are only featured in spells and characters do not speak 

them otherwise. However, compared to many other fictional languages in fantasy, 

Elvish is used in more diverse ways in the films. It is a spell language, but it is also a 

language that characters use in normal conversations. This can make Elvish seem more 

real and believable. Elvish it is not only a weird mythical language from the past that is 

only used to perform magic but it is still used in everyday conversations. However, at 

the same time the use of Elvish as a spell language makes it seem more mysterious and 

alien. 



29 

 

3 MULTIMODALITY  

 

This chapter focuses on multimodality. The key terms are defined first, and then the 

main ideas and principles behind multimodality and multimodal analysis are discussed 

in section 3.1. Section 3.2 focuses more on modes, which are a central part of 

multimodal analysis. Different researchers have slightly different views on what can be 

considered to be a mode, and this study mainly follows Stöckl’s (2004) definition and 

categorisation of modes.  

 

Kress and van Leeuwen (2001: 20) define multimodality as “the use of several semiotic 

modes in the design of a semiotic product or event”. Semiotics can be broadly defined 

as the study of signs (The Routledge Handbook of Multimodal Analysis 2009b: 304), 

whereas modes can be seen as “socially shaped and culturally given resources for 

meaning making” (Kress 2009: 54). In practise Kress and van Leeuwen’s (2001: 20) 

definition refers to the way how for example speaking, writing, visualization and music 

are combined in order to create an audiovisual text (Pérez-González 2014: 185).  

 

Strictly speaking multimodality is not a theory but a field of application, and therefore a 

variety of different disciplines and theoretical perspectives from linguistics to 

psychology and art history can be used to explore multimodality. Interest in multimodal 

research has grown due to the fact that in today’s world multimodality is present in 

people’s everyday life, and focusing only on speech and language is not enough 

anymore. Multimodal research looks beyond language, but at the same time it also 

offers new ways to understand language as a part of multimodal texts. (The Routledge 

Handbook of Multimodal Analysis 2009a: 2–3) The next section discusses more 

thoroughly the key ideas behind multimodality.  

 

 

3.1 Principles of Multimodality 

 

Jewitt (2009: 14) argues that the idea of multimodality is based on the assumption that 

representation and communication always draw from different modes. Modes are what 



30 

 

makes the simultaneous realisation of different discourses and types of action or 

interaction possible (Kress and van Leeuwen 2001: 21). According to Jewitt (2009: 14) 

all modes have the potential to contribute to the meaning. In multimodal texts meanings 

are not only made through language, but instead they are made and interpreted through 

several representational and communicative modes. Each mode can realize different 

communicative work, which makes the interaction between these modes significant for 

meaning making. (Jewitt 2009: 14–15) 

 

This interaction and relationship of modes is central for multimodal research (Jewitt 

2009: 17). An analysis of a multimodal text can reveal how a meaning is created by 

different semiotic modes (Taylor 2013: 103). For example, audiovisual texts can consist 

of many different sign repertoires such as speech, music, image, film editing and 

perspective (Pérez-González 2014: 186–187). As a result there is a large variety of 

different factors that affect the outcome (Díaz Cintas 2007: 52). As Taylor (2013: 99) 

argues, even though the translators are usually focused only on translating words, it is 

reasonable to assume that in audiovisual translation also the information conveyed 

through other modes has an influence on the translator’s choices. However, when it 

comes to subtitling, the most important intermodal relationship is between image and 

language. In audiovisual texts visual and verbal elements are particularly closely 

connected and affect together to the way the viewers understand the text (Pérez-

González 2014: 213–214). Since the image cannot be changed, subtitler’s job is to 

create a translation that fits the image and supports the link between image and language 

(Pérez-González 2014: 214).  

 

Despite the great advantages that multimodal analysis can offer for translation studies 

and other fields, it also has its limitations. It is sometimes criticised for being too 

dependent on interpretations. Multimodal analysis interprets gestures or images, but this 

raises the question how is it possible to know what exactly is the meaning of a certain 

image or gesture. While this should be kept in mind when conducting a multimodal 

analysis, it also has to be noted that the same problem is present even when the focus is 

only on speech or language. (Jewitt 2009: 26). How is it possible to know for certain 

what a particular word or sentence means? According to Jewitt (2009: 26) this problem 



31 

 

is resolved by linking the studied meanings to the context and social function. For 

example, in Finland and most other cultures nodding is a sign of acceptance. Knowing 

this, it is safe to assume that if a character nods in a Finnish film, the gesture indicates 

acceptance instead of rejection. 

 

 

3.2 The Modes of Multimodality 

 

This section focuses on important aspect of multimodality, namely modes. Even though 

modes are so central for multimodal research (Jewitt 2009: 17), there are varying views 

on what can be considered to be a mode. As Kress (2009: 54) sees it, for example 

image, soundtrack, gesture, speech and writing can be considered to be separate modes. 

Stöckl (2004), however, views these same concepts slightly differently, and divides 

modes into core modes and sub-modes. He sees multimodality as a networked system of 

choices, where the creation of audiovisual text involves choosing particular modes 

among the total existing semiotic resource types (Stöckl 2004). Semiotic resources refer 

to actions, materials and artefacts that people use for communication (Jewitt 2009: 16). 

The chosen modes help the communicators to convey their communicative intentions. 

(Pérez-González 2014: 191)  

 

According to Stöckl (2004: 13) audiovisual texts consist of four core modes: sound, 

music, image and language. These core modes can be realised in different media, which 

creates medial variants (Stöckl 2004: 12). Core modes and their medial variants are 

illustrated in figure 1 below. 

 



32 

 

 

 

Figure 1. Network of core modes and medial variants. Adapted from Stöckl (2004). 

(Pérez-González 2014: 194) 

 

As it is presented in figure 1, the core mode image can be instantiated through two 

different medial variants. Static images can be found for example on the pages of 

newspaper, whereas dynamic image exists for example on television screen. However, 

as Pérez-González (2014: 194) states, in addition to dynamic images, sometimes also 

static images, like freeze-frames or tableau-like visual inserts, are used in audiovisual 

texts to serve different creative purposes. Also the core mode language can be 

manifested as speech or animated or static writing. Subtitles and intertitles are 

considered to be forms of static writing. (Pérez-González 2014: 194) Subtitles are 

therefore a medial variant of the core mode language. 

 

Sound and music are also not restricted to realization through auditory media. Even 

though sound usually refers to recorded speech or effects, it can sometimes also be 

realised through visual media. For example forensic experts in crime dramas are 

sometimes shown using printed or electronic spectrograms in order to identify suspects. 

Similarly, music in audiovisual texts is normally part of the soundtrack and in 

synchrony with the images, but sometimes printed scores and sheet music are shown 

visually. (Pérez-González 2014: 193) 

 

• Medial variants Core modes 

• Static (still) 

• Dynamic (moving) 
Image 

• Speech 

• Static writing 

• Animated writing 

Language 

• Sound effects 

• Spectograms 
Sound 

• Performed music 

• Score/sheet music 
Music 

Medial variants 



33 

 

Medial variants are further divided into sub-modes, which in turn consist of specific 

aspects that are characteristic to a certain sub-mode. For example, the sub-mode colour 

consists of aspects such as saturation and hue. (Stöckl 2004: 12–13) Sub-modes open 

more possibilities to the communicators, and the result depends on how they interact 

with each other (Pérez-González 2014: 198). As an example, the figure 2 below 

illustrates how the core mode image is divided into different medial variants and sub-

modes.  

 

 

Figure 2. Network of sub-modes for core mode image. Adapted from Stöckl (2004). 

(Pérez-González 2014: 214) 

 

As figure 2 shows, the core mode image can be either static or dynamic. Dynamic 

image has sub-modes such as colours, visual effects and elements. In films elements 

refer to the characters or objects on the screen. (Pérez-González 2014: 213–214) These 

elements and their arrangement and relationship are central for constructing meaning in 

the mode image. (Kress 2009: 56). The positions of characters in a scene is always very 

purposeful as well as the way they interact with each other via gestures and words (Díaz 

Core mode: IMAGE 

Medial variants 

• Elements 

• Vectors 

• Colour 

• Lighting 

• Size 

• Distance 

• Angle/perspective 

• Composition 

Static (still) 

• All of sub-modes for static (still) 

• Camera panning 

• Colours 

• Camera tilting 

• Camera cuts 

• Visual effects 

• Non-verbal/body language 

Dynamic (moving) 

Sub-modes 



34 

 

Cintas & Remael 2007: 52). For instance, image can show nonverbal communication 

between characters, which adds its own flavour to the spoken dialogue.  

 

The medial variants of language are divided into para-verbal means of speech, static 

writing and animated writing. Para-verbal means of speech consist of sub-modes that 

are related to the dialogue. These include for example accents, volume, rhythm, pausing 

and speed. (Pérez-González 2014: 199) According to Remael (2004: 115), speech, or 

dialogue, has three functions: structuring, narrative-informative and interactional 

function. Structuring dialogue is used to provide textual cohesion and promote the 

film’s narrative continuity within and across scenes, whereas interactional dialogue 

contributes to the narrative continuity through interactional development of characters’ 

relationships. Narrative-informative dialogue delivers necessary information, which can 

be hidden in a natural-sounding dialogue or delivered through one knowledgeable 

character. (Remael 2004: 115–116) As Díaz Cintas and Remael (2007: 49) state, these 

functions occur often simultaneously. It is also important to keep in mind that the 

interactional features of the dialogue and the emotional connotations raised by them 

contribute as much to the narrative as the actual words spoken (Díaz Cintas & Remael 

2007: 49)  

 

The sub-modes of sound include the intensity, volume and quality of sound effects as 

well as amplitude, time and frequency of spectrograms (Pérez-González 2014: 199). In 

films different sounds can for example be used to connect sequences or set certain mood 

to a scene (West 2009: 285). The sub-modes of music can also be divided into two 

medial variants, performed or incidental music and score or sheet music. Sub-modes of 

performed or incidental music are melody or tune, orchestration, rhythm or time, speed, 

provenance and lyrics. (Pérez-González 2014: 199) In films music can be used to 

provide the sense of continuity, cover up edits and facilitate the changes of scenes. It 

can also be used as a way to provide certain mood, entertain the viewers, give interludes 

and comment on the action in the film. Also the lack of music and other sounds have 

their own meaning. In different contexts moments of silence can for example build 

tension or redirect the listener’s attention. However, sometimes silence is just meant to 

let the ear rest from sound. (West 2009: 285)  



35 

 

While the effect of sound and music in films cannot be underestimated or ignored, 

image and language are the most important modes from the point of view of this study. 

Subtitles are at the centre of this study, and in addition to the different sub-modes of 

language and the content of the speech itself, image has the greatest impact on subtitles. 

Image can be used to show the audience multiple different things, such as action, 

objects or non-verbal communication between characters. The information conveyed 

through the core mode image can affect the subtitler’s choices. For example, certain 

things can be omitted from the subtitles, if the image already shows the same 

information. Subtitles are discussed more thoroughly in the next chapter. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



36 

 

4 SUBTITLING 

 

This chapter focuses on subtitling as a form of translation. As Pérez-González (2014: 

194) states, subtitles, as a form of static writing, can be considered to be one medial 

variant of the core mode language. Subtitles aim to present speech in concise writing in 

a small space on the screen while also trying to minimalize the almost inevitable loss of 

information. (Remael 2004: 104).  Subtitlers use different strategies to deal with the 

problems of subtitling and to highlight different aspects of the dialogue and story. 

Subtitling strategies are discussed in more detail in sections 4.1 and 4.2. 

 

Díaz Cintas and Remael (2007: 8) define subtitling as a translation practice that presents 

a written text on the screen. Subtitles are supposed to recount the original dialogue of 

the speakers as well as the discursive elements, such as letters, graffiti and placards that 

appear on the screen. Subtitles also recount other information on the soundtrack, such as 

songs and voice overs. (Díaz Cintas and Remael 2007: 8) Presenting all necessary 

information in a relatively small space and time can be a challenging task, and there are 

quite many technical restrictions that affect subtitlers’ work. 

 

As Díaz Cintas and Remael (2007: 89) state, the physical limitation for two subtitled 

lines is 37–39 characters per line, or 74–78 characters per two lines. However, the 

length of the line varies between companies. For example, Vertanen (2007: 151) states 

that in Finland Yleisradio (The Finnish Broadcasting Company) and some commercial 

channels use the average of 33–34 characters per one line. According to Díaz Cintas and 

Remael (2007: 89) the minimum time that the subtitles have to appear on the screen is 

one second, which is usually 24–25 frames, whereas the maximum time that two-line 

subtitles are recommended to be kept on the screen is six seconds. Vertanen (2007: 151) 

recommends that subtitles consisting of one full line should appear on the screen for 

two to three seconds, whereas subtitles consisting of two full lines should be on the 

screen for four to five seconds. It should be ensured that the subtitles are kept on the 

screen long enough so that the viewers have time to read them properly. For example, if 

the subtitles contain long foreign names, the viewers might need slightly more time to 

read them (Vertanen 2007: 153). Then again, as Díaz Cintas and Remael (2007: 89–90) 



37 

 

remark, subtitles should not be kept on the screen for too long. Viewers tend to read the 

subtitles again, if they appear on the screen for a longer time than the viewers actually 

need to read them. The time that subtitles appear on the screen can be limited by 

splitting the subtitles into smaller units. (Díaz Cintas and Remael 2007: 89–90) 

 

It is also important that subtitles are timed correctly, because poorly timed subtitles can 

confuse the viewers and detract from enjoying the film or show. They can also hinder 

viewers from identifying the character speaking. Because of this, subtitles have to be 

timed so that they mirror the rhythm of the film and the actors’ performances, and also 

take into account things like pauses and interruptions. Subtitles should maintain a 

temporal synchrony with the utterances heard on the screen. In the ideal case subtitles 

should appear the moment the character starts speaking and disappear when they stop 

speaking. (Díaz Cintas & Remael 2007: 88–90) In order to time the subtitles correctly, 

subtitlers need to pay attention to also the other modes of the film and not only to 

language.  

 

Due to these technical restrictions subtitlers often use deletion and reduction strategies 

while translating. As Taylor (2000: 316) states, subtitlers are sometimes forced to 

compromise between maintaining the effect of an individual line and keeping the 

viewers on track of the development of the wider plot. However, the use of deletion and 

reduction strategies should still always account for the original message’s 

communicative intention. (Taylor 2000: 316) For example, it might be tempting to omit 

colloquialisms from the subtitles, but it should be kept in mind that this might give the 

viewers a different idea of the relationship of the characters or the formality of the 

situation (Taylor 2000: 316).  

 

Naturally subtitlers should also be careful not to omit important information. However, 

as Taylor (2000: 316) notes, any element of the dialogue can play an important part in 

creating meaning and maintaining cohesion. Characters’ lines in a dialogue have their 

own important purposes (see Remael 2004: 115–116) and, as Díaz Cintas and Remael 

(2007: 48) state, usually everything has a narrative significance. One action always 

leads to another, everything is connected, and most importantly, there are no narrative 



38 

 

gaps. (Díaz Cintas and Remael 2007: 48) Therefore at first seemingly insignificant 

information might have an important role later in the story. However, as Marleau (cited 

in Díaz Cintas & Remael 2007: 50) states, the verbal mode sometimes further defines 

visually given information, and sometimes the words and images communicate more or 

less the same information. Also Chaume (cited in Díaz Cintas & Remael 2007: 50–51) 

notes that the possible ellipses or gaps in the dialogue or in the subtitles can be filled 

with the information that is given in the images on the screen.  

 

It is also relevant to briefly discuss here the use of italics in subtitles. As Díaz Cintas 

and Remael (2007: 104) state, different punctuation marks, such as dashes and asterisks, 

have their own uses in subtitles. Different subtitling companies might prefer to use them 

differently, but there are some generally accepted conventions. For example, dashes can 

signal that the two lines in a set of subtitles belong to two different people, and asterisk 

can signal that one or more letters have been omitted from the word purposefully. (Díaz 

Cintas & Remael 2007: 104–116) 

 

Italics can have several different functions in subtitles. They are often used for distant 

voices or when the character speaking is not on the screen, but is for example talking to 

another character on the phone. Also character’s thoughts and interior monologues can 

be expressed in italics. Foreign words and neologisms in subtitles are also often in 

italics, although some prefer inverted commas over italics. Díaz Cintas and Remael 

(2007: 125) recommend that foreign words or expressions should be in italics if they are 

not integrated in the vocabulary of the target audience. They also note that if the film or 

television show contains also another language that is unfamiliar to the target audience, 

all translated lines in that marginal language should be presented in italics. (Díaz Cintas 

& Remael 2007: 124–126) 

 

The last point concerns particularly multilingual films, that is, films that have more than 

one language. Since The Lord of the Rings films contain also other languages besides 

the film’s main language English, also they can be considered to be multilingual films. 

As Díaz Cintas & Remael (2007: 58) note, the statuses of the second or even third 

languages in films vary, and the translators should be aware of this in order to create 



39 

 

appropriate subtitles. According to Díaz Cintas & Remael (2007: 58), all regularly 

occurring languages should be subtitled. However, they also argue that it is not always 

necessary to translate a second or a third language. If the dialogue exchange in the 

second or third language is only a part of a setting and does not have a narrative 

function, and if the context makes it understandable to the viewers, the other language 

or languages can be left untranslated. (Díaz Cintas & Remael 2007: 58–59) In cases like 

this viewers can get an idea of the central message of the deleted speech through other 

modes. 

 

The next sections discuss the different translation strategies that are used in subtitling. 

Translation strategies can be divided into global and local strategies (Bell 1998: 188; 

Leppihalme 2001: 140). Global strategies affect the whole text, whereas local strategies 

affect particular text segments (Bell 1998: 188; Leppihalme 2001: 140) Global 

strategies are discussed first in section 4.1 on the basis of Venuti’s (1995) work before 

moving to Gottlieb’s categorisation of local subtitling strategies in section 4.2. 

 

 

4.1 Global Subtitling Strategies  

 

Lawrence Venuti discusses in his book The Translator’s Invisibility (1995) translation’s 

fluency and the different ways translators can use to convey the linguistic and cultural 

differences between source and target cultures. According to Venuti (1995: 1) a 

translated text is considered acceptable when it is fluent and there are not any linguistic 

or stylistic peculiarities in the translation. An acceptable translation is transparent and 

seems to reflect the original writer’s personality, intention or the essential meaning of 

their text. This illusion of transparency creates the impression that the translation is not 

a translation but the original. A fluent translation makes the translator more invisible 

and as a result, the writer or the meaning of the original text more visible. (Venuti 1995: 

1–2) 

 

Venuti emphasizes that the cultural and social conditions always affect the translation. 

When translating to English, the prevailing trend has been to domesticate the foreign 



40 

 

texts to fit the dominant Anglo-American culture. Venuti, however, criticizes this 

because it reduces the cultural difference that the translation is supposed to convey. 

Venuti argues that in translation the linguistic and cultural differences in the foreign text 

are forcibly replaced with elements that are recognizable to the target audience. These 

differences cannot be entirely removed, but Venuti states that the translator can always 

choose to what extent they want to preserve the original text’s cultural and linguistic 

characteristics. The translator can technically choose between two different translation 

strategies, foreignization and domestication. A domesticating translation reduces the 

foreignness of the original text, whereas a foreignizing translation does the opposite and 

emphasizes the cultural and linguistic differences between the source and target 

cultures. If a translator chooses a foreignizing strategy, it is important that the 

translation deviates from the target culture’s and language’s norms enough and creates 

an alien reading experience. (Venuti 1995: 18–20)  

 

Whether a translator chooses a foreignizing or domesticating approach depends on 

numerous different factors, such as the genre of the work and the target audience. For 

example, a novel for young children might demand a more domesticating approach than 

a mystery novel for adults. In addition, sometimes the source text might already contain 

elements that are supposed to be alienating even for the readers of the original text. 

Fictional languages are one example of this. As it was argued in subsection 2.2.1, the 

fictional languages in The Lord of the Rings are meant to create an alienating effect. In 

cases like this, choosing a foreignizing translation strategy can support and highlight the 

alienating aspects of the original text.  

 

Next section discusses local translation strategies that are applied to certain elements of 

the text. The global translation strategy of the text determines what local strategies are 

used (Leppihalme 2001: 140) However, as Kokkola (2007: 207) points out, the whole 

text is not supposed to be exclusively either foreignizing or domesticating. Different 

global strategies can be used to solve different individual cases so that the text is still a 

natural entity (Kokkola 2007: 207). For example, in The Lord of the Rings Elvish place 

names can be left untranslated and English place names can be translated into Finnish.  

 



41 

 

4.2 Local Subtitling Strategies 

 

This section discusses local subtitling strategies. Gottlieb (1992) differentiates between 

ten subtitling strategies. The first strategy, expansion, means that information is added 

to the subtitles in order to explain for instance culture specific references. In the second 

strategy, paraphrase, an expression of the source language is altered in order to 

adequately render it in the target language, whereas in transfer the full expression in the 

source language is rendered to the subtitles. Subtitles where imitation strategy is used 

contain an expression that is identical to the expression that occurs in the source 

language. Proper nouns and international greetings are common examples of instances 

where imitation is used. (Gottlieb 1992: 166) 

 

Transcription can be used for example translating non-standard speech. This strategy 

preserves the deviations in the source language expressions. Dislocation means that the 

expression used in the target language differs from the expression of the source 

language, and as a result the content of the message is adjusted. (Gottlieb 1992: 166) 

Taylor (2000: 319) argues that dislocation occurs when maintaining the effect of the 

line is more important than maintaining the content. Condensation condenses the source 

language expression to the target language while also conveying the meaning as well as 

most of the original expression’s stylistic content. Usually the only elements that are 

lost in condensation are unnecessary words. Gottlieb notes that condensation is often 

seen as the prototype of subtitling. (Gottlieb 1992: 166–167) 

 

The abovementioned strategies provide corresponding translations in the target 

language, but Gottlieb also lists subtitling strategies where some elements of the content 

suffer in translation. (Gottlieb 1992: 166–167) According to Taylor (2000: 159), these 

strategies appear to be the most used in subtitling. In decimation the expression is 

abridged and the content reduced, whereas in deletion the expression is completely 

omitted. The original message is drastically cut in decimation and deletion, but despite 

this the translation is still often able to convey the message with the help of the 

soundtrack and image. The last strategy Gottlieb calls resignation, since the target 

language expressions differ from the source language expressions and the content of the 



42 

 

message is distorted. Resignation occurs when the translator is unable to render culture 

or language specific elements such as difficult idioms. (Gottlieb 1992: 166–167) 

Resignation results to the loss of the original meaning of the source text (Taylor 2000: 

159).  

 

Gottlieb (1992: 166) defines deletion as “omitted expression”, which is in line with 

what many sources, such as Díaz Cintas and Remael (2007), refer to as omission. Díaz 

Cintas and Remael 2007: 163–166) acknowledge that omissions can happen either at 

word or sentence level, although they emphasize that it is not advisable to omit entire 

lines or sentences. As Mona Baker (1992: 41–42) argues, omission of words and 

expressions inevitably leads to some loss of information, and should therefore only be 

used in situations where a smooth, readable translation is more valuable than an 

accurate translation. However, she also notes that sometimes a word or expression can 

be omitted if it is not essential for the development of the plot (Baker 1992: 41–42). 

Vertanen (2007: 152) states that for example character names and titles that are already 

familiar to the audience can often be easily omitted from the subtitles. In addition 

subtitlers also tend to omit introductory sentences such as “I think that” or “my opinion 

is that” (Vertanen 2007: 152). 

 

Díaz Cintas and Remael (2007: 166) acknowledge that in subtitling there are cases 

where the omission of complete sentences and lines is unavoidable. This can happen for 

example in crowded and noisy scenes or in scenes where several people are talking at 

the same time. However, Díaz Cintas and Remael (2007: 59) also state that when 

subtitling multilingual films it is not always necessary to translate all dialogue in second 

or third language, if it does not have a narrative function and the viewers can understand 

the meaning from the context. This shows that even whole lines can sometimes be 

omitted without affecting negatively to the final result. The other modes of the 

audiovisual text can still manage to convey the message to the viewers without the help 

of subtitles.  

 

This is important to keep in mind especially when studying the translation of 

multilingual films, whether they contain natural or constructed languages. The use of 



43 

 

deletion strategy can even be deliberate, especially if the deleted lines are in a fictional 

language that is supposed to work as an alienation device in the film. Referring back to 

the discussion in subsection 2.2.1, choosing a foreignizing strategy and leaving certain 

Elvish lines completely untranslated could further alienate the elves as well as make the 

viewers identify more with the hobbits.  

 

After examining Gottlieb’s translation strategies it is clear that not all of them can be 

applied to this study. I exclude decimation and resignation, and also paraphrase, 

dislocation, condensation and transcription (Gottlieb 1992) due to the limitations that a 

fictional language as a source text causes. These strategies cannot be studied because 

the exact words and expressions of the Elvish source text are understandable only to 

very few experts. For instance condensation cannot be taken into account in this study, 

because it is not possible to know what exact elements of the Elvish lines have been 

condensed. 

 

Translation strategies that can be applied to this study are therefore transfer, imitation, 

expansion and deletion (Gottlieb 1992). However, as it was explained earlier in section 

1.2, the analysis revealed that the subtitles did not contain any cases of expansion, and 

therefore also this category was left outside of the study. On the basis of Gottlieb’s 

(1992) work, expansion was considered to mean cases where the Finnish subtitles 

contain Elvish expressions, but the Finnish translator has added explanatory information 

that does not appear in the original dialogue. 

 

The remaining translation strategies are therefore transfer, imitation and deletion. 

Imitation refers to expressions that appear in the subtitles in Elvish, whereas transfer 

includes Elvish expressions that appear in the subtitles in Finnish. Since condensation 

cannot be studied, in this case it has to be only assumed that the Finnish subtitles 

provide the full original expression. It is also likely that the viewers tend to simply 

assume that they have been given full translations, because they have no reason to 

believe otherwise. The viewers are not able to notice if something has been removed 

from the Finnish subtitles by listening the Elvish dialogue because they cannot 

understand the spoken language. 



44 

 

The last strategy, deletion, includes Elvish expressions that are completely omitted from 

the Finnish subtitles. Following Díaz Cintas and Remael’s (2007: 163–166) ideas, 

deletion covers the deletion of individual Elvish words as well as the deletion of 

complete Elvish sentences. In practice deletion at word level means that an Elvish word 

that appears in an otherwise English sentence or line does not appear in the Finnish 

subtitles at all. Deletion at sentence level means that Elvish sentences or lines have been 

omitted from the subtitles, and no translation is provided. 

 

Transfer, imitation and deletion can be divided into domesticating and foreignizing 

strategies according to Venuti’s (1995) work. Transfer is considered to be a 

domesticating strategy, whereas imitation and deletion are considered to be foreignizing 

strategies. The strategy of transfer provides a full Finnish translation for the viewers and 

therefore completely eliminates the foreign language Elvish from the subtitles. Imitation 

preserves the original foreign language and represents it in the subtitles, whereas the use 

of deletion does not provide any kind of subtitles for the viewers. As a result the 

meaning of the Elvish expression has to be deduced with the help of the image, sound 

and music.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



45 

 

5 SUBTITLING ELVISH IN THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING  

 

In this chapter the Elvish expressions and their Finnish subtitles in the film The 

Fellowship of the Ring are analysed. This study aims to find out how Elvish expressions 

are represented in the Finnish subtitles and why particular Elvish expressions are or are 

not represented in the subtitles. The representation of Elvish expressions is discussed in 

section 5.1. This section includes an analysis of the subtitling strategies that were used 

to transfer the Elvish expressions to the Finnish subtitles.  

 

The Elvish expressions in the film could be roughly divided into five different types 

according to their purpose and the context in which they occur. The similarities and 

differences in subtitling different types of Elvish expressions are discussed in general 

level in section 5.2. The last section 5.3 focuses on analysing more thoroughly some 

Elvish expressions and the corresponding subtitles from a multimodal perspective. This 

analysis tries to find reasons for choosing particular subtitling strategies by examining 

the interaction between different modes and the way they are used together to construct 

a certain meaning. 

 

 

5.1 The Representation of Elvish in the Finnish Subtitles 

 

This section focuses on the representation of Elvish expressions in the Finnish subtitles. 

The Elvish expressions featured in The Fellowship of the Ring were either single words 

or sentences. Single Elvish words usually appeared in an otherwise English line. Lines 

that were completely in Elvish consisted of one or several Elvish sentences. In this 

study the focus is on the translation of complete lines instead of individual sentences. 

When subtitlers translate lines, they sometimes delete single words or complete 

sentences, but in the end their focus is not on words or sentences but on the whole line. 

It is often more important how the central message of the line is translated than how 

certain parts of the line are translated. Another significant reason why the analysis 

focuses on lines instead of sentences is that in those cases where Elvish lines consisted 



46 

 

of several sentences, the same subtitling strategy had almost always been applied to the 

whole lines.  

 

Following Gottlieb’s (1992) classification of subtitling strategies, there were three 

different local strategies that were used to transfer the Elvish expressions into Finnish 

subtitles. These strategies were transfer, where the Elvish expressions had been 

translated into Finnish, imitation, where the Elvish expressions appeared in the subtitles 

in Elvish, and deletion, where the Elvish expressions had been omitted from the 

subtitles. There were also two cases that did not belong to any of the abovementioned 

categories. 

 

The Elvish expressions found in the film and the subtitling strategies that were used to 

translate them into Finnish are illustrated in table 1. The expressions are divided into 

words and lines for the reasons discussed above. In addition to Gottlieb’s (1992) 

translation strategies transfer, imitation and deletion there is also a category called 

other, which consists of cases that did not belong to any of the other categories. Since 

this study does not analyse the translation of Elvish place and character names, they are 

not included in the numbers of the table.  

 

Table 1. Elvish expressions and subtitling strategies in The Fellowship of the Ring 

 

Elvish expressions Transfer Imitation Deletion Other Total 

Single words - 10 - - 10 

Lines consisting of one 

Elvish sentence 4 - 10 - 14 

Lines consisting of two 

Elvish sentences 3 - 5 2 10 

Lines consisting of three or 

more Elvish sentences 3 - - - 3 

 

As table 1 shows, the film contains 10 single Elvish words and 27 Elvish lines. 

However, some of the lines consist of more than one Elvish sentence, and therefore the 

total amount of individual Elvish expressions in the film is 54. Subtitling strategies 

transfer, imitation and deletion were used in translating the Elvish expressions almost 



47 

 

equal amount of times, although deletion was used slightly more than the other two 

strategies. The film contained only two cases that belonged to the category other, and 

both of them were lines that consisted of two Elvish sentences. In the first case (see 

example 9) one of the sentences was transferred into Finnish and the other was deleted. 

In the second case (see example 10) the Elvish line was apparently transferred into 

Finnish apart from a character name, which was deleted. Since it is important to pay 

equal attention to all subtitling strategies found in the film, also the cases belonging to 

the category other are analysed in detail in chapter 5.4  

 

As can be seen from table 1, imitation was only used in subtitling single words, and 

almost all complete Elvish lines were either transferred or deleted. One reason for this 

practice is probably related to the time and space restrictions in subtitling. Many of the 

Elvish lines might simply be too long to be imitated entirely in subtitles. If even long 

but ordinary names in a foreign language take longer to read (Vertanen 2007: 153), 

incorporating entire sets of subtitles in a fictional language might require more space 

and time than is available. Subtitles in a fictional language might also draw unnecessary 

attention to them. If the viewers focus on trying to read long sets of su