Elvish Idioms

One of the things that we love about writing fantasy is the worldbuilding. Being able to create an entire world from scratch is so fun! We get to decide everything about the world: what people like to eat and drink, what the geography is like, what are the styles of architecture, what holidays are celebrated, what religions exist, how prevalent is magic, and the list goes on and on. We get to decide it all.

One of the things that may seem pretty minor, in the grand-scheme of building a whole world, is language. While we write in English, our characters don’t speak English – this is a fantasy world, of course. And when you write about a culture that has a unique origin and a different connection to the world – such as the elves in the Kingdom of Tenyl – then the way they speak is going to be different. Not just the words and terms that they use, but especially things like idioms (a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words). You may use idioms all the time and not even know it: it’s raining cats and dogs, once in a blue moon, a fish out of water, etc. We could probably use common English idioms in our Reva novels, but where’s the fun in that? We want to give extra flavor to the story and show the differences between our world and the fantasy world we’ve created. Plus, it’s a heck of a lot of fun to come up with new idioms.

Here's a list of 20 idioms we have created for the Reva series. The book column lists the book where the idiom appears, followed by the elvish idiom, the English equivalent, and the meaning of the idiom. (WFB = Wrath of the Fury Blade, JWT = Joy of the Widow’s Tears, FMJ = Fear of the Minister’s Justice, and VSG = Vengeance of the Sea God, a (currently) unpublished short story.) 

Book	Idiom	English equivalent (approx.)	Meaning
JWT	branch is heavy	a lot on (one's) plate	To have many things to do or deal with; to be overwhelmed with work.
FMJ	another bud on the flower	another piece of the puzzle	A clue or additional information about a subject.
WFB	out on the branch	backed into a corner	To be forced into a difficult or unpleasant situation that one cannot easily resolve or escape.
FMJ	hacking at (a, the) stump	beat a dead horse	To continue to focus on an issue or topic that is no longer of any importance or relevance.
VSG	break your branches	box (one's) ears	To hit one on the head, especially on or around one's ears. Typically used as a threat.
JWT	(trim, cut) to the roots	bring (someone) to (someone's) knees	To disrupt a process; to make a group weak or submissive.
WFB	by-the-scroll	by the book	In accordance with rules and regulations.
JWT	get in on the bottom branch	come in on the ground floor	To become involved in something at its inception.
JWT	sitting on a branch	cool (one's) heels	To wait, usually to become calmer or more composed.
WFB	give (one) a branch	cut (one) some slack	To allow one more latitude or freedom than usual; to be more lenient with one.
WFB	deadwood	deadwood	No longer useful or productive
WFB	on a narrow branch	do (something) at (one's) own risk	To do something with the foreknowledge or forewarning that there is implied risk or danger that one must accept as one's own responsibility.
FMJ	earned (ones) bark	earn (one's) spurs	To prove one's skill in a particular area.
WFB	blow (-ing) leaves	exaggerate	To consider, represent, or cause to appear as larger, more important, or more extreme than is actually the case; overstate.
WFB	(excuse, forgive) my Arisportian	excuse my French	Excuse my inappropriate language.
WFB	like orcs and dwarves	fight like cats and dogs	Continuously argue or fight with another person.
JWT	wave (-ed, -ing) (a, the, that) branch	get down to brass tacks	To discuss the important things; to get to the bottom of something; to get serious about something.
WFB	pry (-ed, -ing) up the bark	get to the bottom	To find out the truth about a situation.
FMJ	how deep (the) roots grow	get to the bottom	To determine the cause or source of something or solve the mystery of something.