The codex entry “On Skyhold” contains elven writing which references the elven name of Skyhold (“Tarasyl’an telas”), found written underneath a pillar in some of the older parts of the fortress. The Skyhold archivist notes that the writing is “old but still [written] long after the place had been built over.” Only part of the writing survives:

Var'landivalis him sa'bellanaris san elgar

Melanada him sa'miras fena'taldin (word missing)

Nadasalin telrevas ne suli telsethenera

Tarasyl'an te'las vehn'ir abelath'vir (word missing) 

The translation provided was put together by the archivist, with the assistance of Solas. The archivist notes that, even with Solas’s help, they still “managed only a partial translation.” Here is the translation given in the codex entry, along with the archivist’s notes:

Our belief transformed into everything. (assertation/problem? uncertain)

All time is transformed into the final/first death (uncertain),

Inevitable/threatened victory and horrible/promised freedom in the untorn veils, (uncertain)

Where the sky is held up/back, where the people give/gain love that is an apology/promise from/to….(missing subject, uncertain)

While I think the archivist’s translation here isn’t actually *incorrect*, I thought it could be interesting to break this down word-for-word and see if anything new can be gleaned from it. As the archivist even notes in this codex entry, “Elven is often a game of intents, not direct mapping of phonetic meaning. That means it’s a mess.” Additionally, the fact that Solas helped them translate makes me think there are potentially parts that he purposely simplified or concealed the meaning of when translating.

My word-for-word translation and musings are below the cut:

Keep reading