Here’s the juicy part! My biggest project so far. I had this idea in 01/16/11. Why isn’t there a translation to Quenya about the genesis of Arda and everything in it? Elves should be able to read on their mother tongue, right? So, I felt like doing it. Bold, very bold indeed. I don’t know if I’m gonna accomplish it or not, but slowly I go, patiently I’m doing it…so let’s see where I’m heading to.
It all started with a blank ancient texture scroll
Click on the pictures below to access their pages with analysis
And it came to this: 1st page of Ainulindalë done!
And Page 2 was born. Different decorations, but the same elvish beauty!
And Page 3 was rescued! Even though it’s scorched it survived the sands of time.
Page 4 with an elvish shield and some blood..possibly from whom tried to save the scroll.
Page 5 and its colors which were added later, as suggested by archaeologists.
The dark page 6 of Ainulindalë. Many stories this piece of ancient paper has to tell.
Landscape of Arda embellished by the coming of the Valar in page 7
I designed my translation to go hand in hand with ‘The Silmarillion’ textbook. I used the 2001 2nd edition from Houghton Mifflin. 
So, each exact line in my Quenya translation corresponds to the English version. Pages as well. The first image with Tengwar writing you see above for example is page 15 from the first word to the last. I had to deal with a lot of empty space, so I decided to fill in some florals and other decorations of the page like ink stains, to make it look like an ancient manuscript. Tengwar italics are used to express the direct speech of Ilúvatar in the first page and I think I’m gonna make it standard for the whole translation instead of quotes or anything like it. It’s beautiful and it’s a convention that may help me to synchronize Quenya pages to English ones.
Enough with the talk and let’s head to the text! Below you’ll find the paragraphs in order of publication:
And here again, it all started with that blank ancient paper texture
The end! In page 8 the song meets its final tune.
The end has begun. In the last page, we read about the first battle of the Valar against Melkor for the dominion of Arda. The Powers clash and the planet is shaped after its effect. Now, let’s resume the second to last paragraph. It reads:
§24
{resuming from the previous page}
…lá ilyë exë Valar, ve oron ya vanta lencavë eäressë ar
harya caserya or i fanyar ar ná vaina mi helcë ar hiswerína
ar nárerína; ar i cala henduva Melcorwa né ve ruinë
ya hesta úrenen ar micirë qualin niquenen.
I cala henduva Melcorwa.
§24
{resuming from the previous page}
…than all other Valar, as a mountain that walks slowly into the sea and
have its head over the clouds and is clad with ice and smoke-crowned
and fire-crowned; and the light of the eyes of Melkor was like a flame
that withers with heat and cuts inside with deadly cold.
One more comment, if I’m not becoming obnoxious yet, but here is the Tengwar transcription of the Sindarin translation: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/104643993/Ainulindal%C3%AB_Xandarien_Tengwar.pdf
I haven’t proofread it yet, so whenever I get the chance I’ll go back and make sure everything is correct, but for the most part it’s finished. I have no idea how to do the editing stuff to make it look like a scroll, though—especially because I used Tengwar Telcontar, which does NOT like to format correctly in 99% of text editors. Retyping it in a font like Annatar sounds positively dreadful, so I really don’t want to do that unless there is no other way.
Anyway, is there anything you would recommend for making this at all up to par with the quality of your work?
Thanks a million!
I really like your comments here and your interest in my Ainulindalë project. Don’t worry to comment whatever you feel like! Everything is welcomed!
So…I don’t know what to do in your case because I simply typed everything. The font you got is pretty cool and I don’t see the need to change to Annatar, but I don’t know if it’s gonna work what you have in mind (copying a whole text and just working the arts). It’s really easier though, but as I’m not computer guru…I’m not sure if it’s doable, perhaps it is.
Anyway….with Serif I couldn’t even write anything the way I wanted, so I don’t think pasting text will work at all.
That is my fear as well. I may not be able to create a parchment design, or I may have to retype it. Another bloke on the forums said he’d transcribe it in the mode of Beleriand using Annatar, so his version ought to be easier to make awesome like this.
Show me what he got!
For translating the Ainulindalë into Sindarin, is “Ainulindalë Sindarinwa” correct Quenya? I’d assume that the Elves who translated it into Sindarin had begun with Quenya, so I want to have that reflected in the title at least.
Someday it’d be amazing if someone took your Quenya translation and worked it into Sindarin. Doing both from English is like translating an English Bible into Spanish rather than starting with the original Greek and Hebrew.
Ainulindalë Sindarinwa is correct! Very good!
It’s a pretty interesting notion you got here about translating it to Sindarin FROM Quenya….I have never thought about it and in essence, it makes sense what you said!
Aiya, I was wondering about write q. subtitles for LOTR or the hobbit movie. Yea, there is problem with tengwar ’cause subtitles can be only in default font, but it will be easy for novices in quenya.
using google translator
Sorry for my english, I’m from distant lands
I have already subtitled some home made videos with Tengwar. Unfortunately, that was a LONG TIME AGO, and when I tried again, I couldn’t do it! I don’t even remember the software I used! If by chance I found it again, I’d know how to do it! It wasn’t hard at all. You typed conventionally and then convert them all to Tengwar. By “conventionally” I mean, Tengwar convention.
I am working on transcribing a WIP Sindarin translation (not translated by me) of the Ainulindalë. I just found this here and am blown away by the professional quality of it. Could you tell me your secrets so that I could put the same detail and perfection into the Sindarin transcription? Thanks!
Aiya Cillendor!
Thank you very much for the compliment! The secret behind my project was: dedication, patience and passion! With those 3, I made the whole thing come true. It’s not finished yet, there’s still the last page to go (and here where patience comes) but I never thought I’ll reach the end and here we are! It’s a huge thing when you stop and think about it. Sentence by sentence, word by word, syntax and vocabulary analysis….it takes time and it’s not easy, but if you have a fire within called passion (for Tolkien lore) you can do it!!!! Everyone can!
Thanks! However, I meant more of the technical aspect of it, like making it LOOK so amazing. I’m doing some proofreading as a transcribe the Sindarin text, but I’m not doing the bulk of translation myself. I would, however, love to make it look as authentic as yours, with the faded text and the drawings incorporated. I recently downloaded GIMP, but in general I’m terrible at photo manipulation, so I was wondering if you could share any pointers on how to make it look real.
Oh…..well, I used Serif PhotoPlus Starter Edition and Paint.NET. I’m really not a master with computers you know…I did what I could. I worked the layers bit by bit, fading here and there, adding colors sometimes, and the result is there.
For typing Tengwar, Serif is not good; that’s why I had to use Paint.NET too. It’s a basic software but it’s simple for me and does the job quite well.
Ah, well thank you! It looks very professional, so say what you will but I think you did a good job.
Hantanyel órenyallo!
With computers I am a toddler yet but I always try my best to compensate!
I’m probably getting annoying by now with the constant questions, but where did you find all of the parchment textures? Google is being very uncooperative with me. :-/
I found it with Google. There is only one and it’s the blank scroll.