Unveiling the True Pronunciation of Scadutree in Elden Ring: A Linguistic Revelation

Well, scit, we've been pronouncing Elden Ring's Scadutree wrong this whole time. Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is replete with Scadus - we've got the Scadu Atlus, the Scadutree itself, and, of course, all those Scadutree Fragments. If you're like me, you've probably been pronouncing this strange, new word like "shadow" since you first came across it. But it turns out we've been wrong this whole time.

Streamer DrDeComposing - you might remember him as the one who beat Elden Ring with a saxophone - has noted on Twitter that the 'sc' consonant pair is actually pronounced with a 'sh' sound in Old English. That means the Scadutree is pronounced closer to 'Shadutree' - Shadow Tree. DrDeComposing explains that FromSoftware cleverly uses linguistic nuances in their game design.

FromSoftware is no stranger to using archaic spellings with Elden Ring lore. If you've fought the Blackgaol Knight in Shadow of the Erdtree, you've already confronted at least one example with an outdated spelling of jail, but gaol is still technically early Modern English - not proper Old English. However, we can see an example of the older language in the Haligtree, which borrows the Old English word for 'holy.'

'Scadu' is not technically an actual Old English word. Still, FromSoftware has almost certainly derived it from 'steady,' which became 'shadow' in Middle English and then, of course, 'shadow' in Modern English. I fear my brain might always see 'scads' as 'shadow' - and I'm always going to call those fragments 'scooby snacks' - but at least we now all know the truth.

Does all this Scadu talk have you hankering to beat the Scadutree Avatar boss in Shadow of the Erdtree?