by | 05/16/2012

How Lord Of The Rings should have sounded…

I remember when I was a teen and we were all excited about the coming movie The Fellowship Of The Ring, one of our first questions was: “What’s the soundtrack gonna be like? There gotta be Blind Guardian, Rhapsody  and the like”.

But we were naive. That’s not how Hollywood (a.k.a. Movie Industry) works, right?

There was a crazy rumor that Rage Against The Machine would sign the soundtrack! What??? We thought: “They gotta nothing to do with it” And then along came Enya. I might say it was kind of a good choice. Emphasis on KIND OF. I like Enya, she’s good, she sings in several different languages, she’s got a good soothing voice. But there, it’s the problem! It’s too calm! What about the metal? What about the epic metal melodies which every single Tolkien/Fantasy/RPG/Metal fan loves?

……By the way….I wonder: How many Tolkien Fans love Metal music? I got really curious! I think I need to ask YOU! Please answer and help me with the stats:

That’s something the wicked Big Movie Industry can’t get sometimes. They prey the masses but fail on minor details. To correct (in my opinion) the Lord Of The Rings soundtrack, I’d like to include here and share with you all, this amazingly put together video containing scenes from the movies (telling the whole story chronologically) and with a wondrous soundtrack! Erutulco indicated me and I jizz in my pants. ”That’s the vision, that’s the true soundtrack of Lord Of The Rings”

I got shivers and I got goosebumps, delightfully edited!

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by | 05/13/2012

“In foramine terrae habitabat hobbitus”

“In a hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit…”

There are great news for Tolkien and Linguistics fans! Some days ago it was announced that a Lingua Latina version of The Hobbit will be published in September! The famous opening phrase will be the one on title of this post (did you think I translated that?). Its nice to see that the book is translated into this language. The one that inspired the Professor so much in the creation of Quenya. It also happens to be that, this year, The Hobbit celebrates its 75th anniversary. A great tribute, don’t you think? It will be called Hobbitus Ille (it sounds great!), and the author of the translation is Mark Walker. The book is already announced in Amazon, and can be pre-ordered for £11.69. Now, I’m really eager for September to come, and put my hand on this jewel of Linguistics. Thank you Mark, for this contribution to us all!

For more information, here is the news article.

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by | 05/10/2012

ONE family tree!

Everybody knows that Tolkien was interested in family trees. It’s everywhere in his books! Silmarillion got it, Lord of the Rings got it and actually it’d be damn hard to understand all the family relations without this visual aid!

For instance: Why is Bilbo Frodo`s uncle? Who is Frodo’s father and mother? Where is the link with Bilbo? Or another example: Who is Fëanor’s grandson? Wait…did he have any?

Got curious???

So…how about…extending it to the Nth degree? Shall we have a family tree of everybody? Elves, Dwarves, Hobbits, Ents, Valar even Orcs in one single place!

Here it is:

It’s the Lord of The Rings Project! A very neat site with everything you need about family relations of all races of Arda! Would you like to know the answer for the questions mentioned above! Check it now in: http://lotrproject.com/

There’s even a part dedicated with lots and lots of stats about all the characters!

Reading a bit of the author Emil Johansson‘s blog entry here, I identified myself a lot with his eagerness of making something for the Tolkien fans. He loved something, he had an idea…he wanted to share! That’s the spirit, Johansson! Hail and praise the spirit Tolkien infused on our bones!

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by | 05/07/2012

Learning how to speak the Tengwar language (a.k.a. Elvish)

Elf?

Ok, first of all: NO! You won’t be able to learn how to speak the Tengwar language. No one will. Why???? Read below…

This post is a guide designed for all the people who are getting their very first contact with the languages developed by Tolkien.

So, below you’ll find quick facts for the beginners who honestly wants to learn more (and also for the geeks & nerds who brag about how expert they are and how fluently they can speak Tengwar)

Fact 1

Tengwar is not a language

This is such a basic thing. Something must be very wrong in Wikipedia, because lately so many people have popped up everywhere saying Tengwar IS a language. I got heavily cursed some days ago by unos cabrones when I corrected the later statement. It was so surreal their talk that a lot of my Twitter followers started to reply or retweet what we were writing on the matter.

What do you see in the picture? In which language is that written?

Above you’ll have an example of Roman alphabet. Roman is not a language. People definitely don’t say “I speak Roman, I speak Cyrillic”. Nonsense! That’s exactly the case with Tengwar. It’s just the alphabet, not the language itself. How can one speak an alphabet? (i.e. a set of symbols arranged in any particular order or set and used for writing a language)

Fact 2

Elvish is not a language

This conception mistake is more common and less horrible than the “Tengwar language”. Actually, you must be wondering: “What? Elvish is a language! That’s what elves speak in the movies, right?” So, bear with me! Let’s think harder for a bit!

Elvish: the word that shows you are not versed in Tolkien lore.

How many elvish languages are there? Only one? When someone says “I want to learn Elvish” which language is one referring? Quenya, Sindarin, Telerin, Vanyarin, Common Eldarin, Primitive Quendian…? You see: Tolkien didn’t create one language. He created a multitude! The term “Elvish” says NOTHING! It’s actually an adjective.

If you are lay to the subject, if you are new, you will definitely use “Elvish”, but after you stop and think for a moment…there’s no sense keeping such an inaccurate term which defines and determines no language after all. Ex.: “He speaks Chinese…Wait…Mandarin? Cantonese? What?”

Fact 3

Tengwar is not a code

So true! The name is Tengwar Alphabet, not Tengwar Code. There’s a famous search engine result called Starchamber that could not be worst to teach Tengwar alphabet. It lacks depth. It shows a shallow surface and only contributes to people writing wrongly with no awareness whatsoever how Tengwar really works.

Tengwar is a PHONETIC alphabet, not a code for Roman alphabet.

Perhaps by its simplicity, this site has become famous and people really like it. I don’t know what happens. Kids are strange these days. They don’t put up with being corrected and they rather have something easy and wrong than enhancing their brain’s level a little bit.

Tengwar alphabet was developed phonetically! What really matters are the sounds and not the letters. That’s where this simple approach of Tengwar as a code, fails completely.

Well…

There are so many things that can be added to this guide. Those above are what I can come up with right now. When something weird, wrong and new comes up (oooo and I’m sure it will) I’m  gonna add to make this post a 1st step to getting to know the basic concepts about Tolkien wonderful creations!

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by | 05/04/2012

Nai i cantëa nauva ólë (May the 4th be with you)

 Special date! Special post! Star Wars at first glance may appear to have nothing to do with Tolkien & elves. Just at first glance! Actually G.Lucas has made several tributes to the work of Tolkien like naming a planet in Quenya (i.e. Endor, the planet of the Ewoks. Endor means Middle-Earth in Quenya) and making a very very special role for the Ewoks themselves (you know…little people who unexpectedly saved the day at the end against all odds…*cough…HOBBITS…cough*)

See? One paragraph and 2 huge facts that entwine Tolkien & Star Wars probably in a way you didn’t see coming.

To celebrate the date, let’s have those quote cards so widely spread in the social media featuring Star Wars characters and Quenya (of course my horse)

Nai i Túrë nauva ólë (May the Force be with you)

Istan ëa mára lessë (I know there is good in you)

Caurë tië ná mórenna (Fear is the path to the dark side)

Teldavë haryuvalvë ahtarië (At last we’ll have revenge)

Nelyë otorno, mellenyel. (You were my brother, I loved you)

Tevinyel! (I hate you!)

Anacin, rácal órenya (Anakin, you’re breaking my heart)

Melinyel / Istan (I love you / I know)

Nas neuma (It’s a trap)

Uúuúuuhhh aáarr úhrr arhhh (Uuuurrr aaaarrr uurrr arghh)

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by | 05/01/2012

Tengwar Welsh Mode

This post is dedicated for all people from UK that have recently joined the ranks here in Quenya101. (Also it suits as an expansion of this) Averyrobertson from UK, asked me today about Tengwar Welsh Mode and I thought he really deserved a decent answer so, I prepared some research for him.

Smaug....is that you?

It’s not like I know Welsh, (so I won’t be able to tell you if this is particularly accurate in its rendition) but it’s a start to get to know it better, huh? Anyway, if you have some knowledge about Welsh phonology & Tengwar writing and something presented here doesn’t seem to be quite good, please do share your views! Here are the basic things about Tengwar Welsh Mode:

Allegedly Tengwar alphabet is well built for Welsh and follows the same patterns of Sindarin Mode. The resemblance lies on the fact that Sindarin was based in Welsh anyway.

Notes

  • The vowel diacritics (tehtar) are written over, or below, the consonant which follows them. If vowels appear on their own or at the end of a word, the diacritics are written over the vowel carrier (as above). The diphthongs are always written as above.
  • Consonants are doubled by adding a wavy line below them.
  • A dot above a letter is used to represent both i and final y, while a dot below a letter represents the non-final y. For example, ysbyty (hospital) is written:ysbyty (hospital) in Tengwar
  • When s comes at the end of a word it’s written with a small curled line: The Welsh word ynys (island) in Tengwar = ynys (island).
  • When a tehtar appears above an s, the s is written thus: The Welsh word urddas (dignity) in Tengwar = urddas (dignity).

Transliteration
Genir pawb yn rhydd ac yn gydradd â'i gilydd mewn urddas a hawliau. Fe'u cynysgaeddir â rheswm a chydwybod, a dylai pawb ymddwyn y naill at y llall mewn ysbryd cymodlon.
Translation
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

Tengwar Welsh Mode devised by Simon Ager

Source: http://omniglot.com/writing/tengwar_welsh.htm

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