Elden Ring’s Shadow Tree has a more interesting name in English but has caused pronunciation problems for fans
Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree includes the Shadow Tree. In Italian it is a simple and clear name, but in English there are many more meaning games and it is interesting to discover the details.
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree , as you might guess from its name, is linked to the Shadow Tree which takes the place of the Mother Tree in the base game. In Italian, however, its name is a bit too direct and explicit and loses the linguistic finesse of the English version.
In English, in fact, it is called ” Scadutree “. But what does “Scadu” mean?
The English version of the Shadow Tree from Elden Ring
Scadutree is a peculiar term. Streamer DrDeComposing – who is known for beating the base game using a saxophone – analyzed the word and explained that in Old English “sc” is pronounced like the modern “sh”, so Scadutree is actually pronounced Shadutree. In other words Shadu-tree, aka Shadow – Tree. Many have only discovered the correct pronunciation of the English term this way.
Elden Ring’s Shadow Tree has a more interesting name in English but has caused pronunciation problems for fans
The 3 trees are representatives of the 3 planes: Haligtree (Holy, Heaven), Erdtree (Earth, Land) and Scadutree (Shadow, underground).
That’s why it’s said in the Land of Shadows that “It’s the place where all forms of death come to” or something like that.
I love this game
— Jeor (Rodrigo Freitas) (@RodrisAnfre) June 26, 2024
Even more precisely, although Scadu is not a real word, it is credible that it was derived from Sceadu in Old English, which later became Schadowe in Middle English and finally Shadow in Modern English.
It is also not news that the terms used for trees originate from Old English. For example, Haligtree is based on the word that later became “holy”. In fact in Italian it is called Sacred Tree. Erdtree, on the other hand, is based on the term that later became Earth, so technically it is called Earth Tree (in Italian it is Mother Tree, like Mother Earth if you want). This also creates a trio of meanings: the three trees represent the sacred (which can be understood as paradise), the earth (i.e. the plane of life) and the shadow (understood as the underworld or of the dead, an interpretation supported by the fact that plot the Shadow lands are ends all that is dead).
In Italian some of the meanings remain, but in English the linguistic game is much more elaborate and interesting , which is why we wanted to share it with you.
If these language games don’t help you get through the DLC, know that the creator of Elden Ring also says he “sucks” at video games and needs all the help he can get . So don’t be too hard on yourself.