Arcastar

A collection of random Tolkienian contributions with a main focus on philological aspects, including calligraphies, short musings and articles, artworks, quotations and more. All works by Lothenon (former Arðon Ellammath and Sindarin.de) unless stated otherwise.

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ENITH NA THÎW VELERIANDREN The Sindarin names of all letters used in the Beleriand mode of writing. [PE22]

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I hope to be able to publish at least some bits of this Neo-Tolkienian (re)creation of mine in 2014. Here are some first little insights.

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I wish I had time to produce an elementary (! both languages are, of course, extremely difficult) grammar and vocabulary of 'elven': sc. Quenya and Sindarin. I am having to do some work on them, in the process of adjusting 'the Silmarillion and all that' to The L.R. Which I am labouring at, under endless difficulties: not least the natural sloth of 77+.

J.R.R. Tolkien From a letter to Michael Tolkien, 25 November 1969 [The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, #313]

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Proposal for an orthographic mode for GERMAN IN TENGWAR (this ows a lot to the work of Mach Hezan)

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Merseburg charm no. 2 in Sindarin

Fol a Wodan anwer nan eryn. Ennas rocheg na chîr harnant i-bôd ín. Ennas agarfant na den Sinthgunt, i neth Anor. Ennas agarfant na den Fría, i neth Folla. Ennas agarfant na den Wodan i bân paul. Aes-nestad, sui iâr-nestad, sui dâl-nestad. Aes an aes, iâr an iâr, tâl an dâl, sui raen.

Phol and Woden went to the forest. There the lord's foal hurts its foot. There spoke to it Sinthgunt, Sun's sister. There spoke to it Frija, Fulla's sister. There spoke to it Woden who could [do it] well. Bone-healing, like blood-healing, like leg-healing. Bone to bone, blood to blood, leg to leg, like [being] enlaced. ______________________________________

In my rendering of the second Merseburg incantation I chose for my translation to treat "balder" as title of Woden, not the god Balder. The names have been given Sindarin shape without translation (safe "sunna", of course), with Folla being the phonetic transcription of OHG "volla", not an erroneous Norse "fulla". As is usual I chose the reading Sinthgunt over actual "sinhtgunt" due to etymological reasons.

As there is no attested Sindarin counterpart of "limb" ("lid(i), geliden") I chose "leg, foot" since this is the limb Woden's foal hurt.

The reconstructed vocabulary (and that not yet included in Hiwelóke dictionary) is:

*anwer - [they] went | < *anwe- < anu, awn, pa.t. of gwa- [PE17:148] *rocheg - foal | roch-eg, lit. "horselet". Cf. nogotheg < nogoth agarfant - spoke | analogical pa.t. of carfa- [PE17:126] bân - good | PE17:150, here used adverbially *paul - could, was able | pa.t. of *pol- < *pul- (cf. Q pul-). Cf. daul as pa.t. of doltha-/doelia- *aes² - bone | < *ais < *aχs < CE *aksō > Q axo tâl - leg | attested as "foot" only which is here treated as pars pro toto an - to, for | dative marker with lenition [PE17:146-147]

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Digital calligraphy of the draft version of Galadriel's lament, using Quanta Sarme as exemplified in PE18 (with length tehtar).

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early Quenya ř

Earlier stages of Q(u)enya contained an untrilled r. It derived from primitive d (either directly as ř < ð < d [PE17:71] or as ř < z [< ð?] < d [PE17:41, WJ/363]) and is transcribed as ř in the Latin alphabet [PE17:71] and as óre in an unattested Tengwar mode [AppE]. The pronunciation should be more or less [ɹ] and it is found in the following words:

auřel [ˈɑʊɹɛl] - Elf who departed from Beleriand to Aman • ᴅᴇʟ- (S. ódhel) ◊ WJ/363 ař [ɑɹ] - and • ᴀᴅ- (S. að) ◊ PE17:71 hyař- [çɑɹ] - to cleave • sʏᴀᴅ- (cf. N. hâð, cleaver) ◊ Ety/389 íře [ˈiːɹɛ] - desire • ɪᴅ- ◊ Ety/361 ířima [ˈiːɹimɑ] - lovely, desirable • ɪᴅ- (cf. N. idhren, thoughtful) ◊ Ety/361 lářa [ˈɫɑːɹɑ] - flat • ʟᴀᴅ- (or ᴅᴀʟ- [ˈɫɑːrɑ]) ◊ Ety/361 manař [ˈmɑnɑɹ] - doom, final end, fate, fortune • ᴍᴀɴᴀᴅ- (N. manadh) ◊ Ety/371 mařya [ˈmɑɹjɑ] - pale, fallow, fawn • ᴍᴀᴅ- (N. meið/maið) ◊ Ety/371 niřwa [ˈniɹwɑ] - bolster, cushion • ɴɪᴅ- (N. nedhw) ◊ Ety/378 oař [ˈɔ.ɑɹ] - away • awā-da ◊ WJ/366 oařel [ˈɔ.ɑɹɛl] - Elf who departed from Beleriand to Aman • ᴅᴇʟ- (S. ódhel) ◊ WJ/363 reř- [rɛɹ] - to sow • ʀᴇᴅ- (N. rheði) ◊ Ety/383 séře [ˈseːɹɛ] - peace, rest, repose • sᴇᴅ- (N. sîdh) ◊ Ety/385 tař [tɑɹ] - thither • ᴛᴀ-, tad ◊ Ety/389 véře [ˈveːɹɛ] - bond, troth, compact, oath • wᴇᴅ- (N. gwaeð) ◊ Ety/397

Furthermore the early Qenya nier "honeycomb" [LT1:262] apparently shares a root with later Noldorin nîdh [VT/45:38] which also hints to a form in ř < d.

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Behind my stories is now a nexus of language

J.R.R. Tolkien Letter to Milton Waldmann, 1951 [The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, #131]