Aiya Eärendil elenion ancalima!

A little drawing, I made of Thuringwethil and Sauron for @fall-for-tolkien 's Scribbles & Drabbles 2024 event! :)

This is finished now! It was a nice little weekend project ahh~ Morgoth proudly presenting possibly the greatest of all the evils he has wrought, Sauron. “He’ll keep causing headaches long after I’m gone, just you watch.” @u@;

some doodles of Faramir and Eowyn and Legolas and Gimli ❤

i have several thoughts on translation and tolkien. not just the textual role of translation in the conceit, no, i want to read the two towers in arabic because some things about the rohirrim would really, especially resonate in arabic. for example, the lament for the rohirrim, and the style of the old english lament that tolkien borrows to evoke maximum nostalgia, grief, and distance from the past, is almost perfectly an echo of the arabic ritha’. 

i found a translation of the fellowship that used the word jinn as a translation for elves, and several people took issue with the choice, but i found it simply perfect. elf, in english, has two connotations in the same way that the word jinn does, and the translator chose this word for a reason. i found it a clever choice.

‘elf’ can evoke either galadriel and fëanor or santa’s little helpers, and you would not swap out this iconic, useful word for another because of either connotation, would you? ‘jinn’ can likewise evoke figures of great mystery and mystique in worlds far removed from our own, or it can evoke horror stories told around a campfire. not only does this match the word for elf in english, in a sort of way, it perfectly captures the sheer difference between elves in the silmarillion and elves in the lord of the rings. 

now, i should love an arabic translation of the fall of gondolin that captures how extremely ancient baghdad it is of turukáno to craft two trees from silver and gold in a city that will never be finished, that will be built and rebuilt forever in the memories and the art of others. 

Herblore of the Shire by Meriadoc Brandybuck. 

"Do candles pity moths?"

"Or moths candles, when the wind blows them out?"

Aegnor and Andreth