#GREENLIGHTVOLUME10

YOU WANNA LEARN ELVISH?! HERE YA GO!

is this legit?

This is legit. My husband, sitting across the room, looks over and says, “IS THAT SOMEONE SHOWING HOW TO CONVERT ENGLISH TO TENGWAR?  BECAUSE THAT’S THE WAY!”

Believe this man.  He owns atlases of Middle Earth, the complete history of Midle Earth (leatherbound), and has read the books at least 150 times.  Also: speaks elvish.

Yes.

For future reference. :)

REBLOGREBLOGREBLOGREBLOG

I once taught myself how to read and write Elvish and Dwarvish from the appendices. There are months’ worth of journal entries from when I was 11 that I have no idea what they say. I should relearn it sometime.

If you want a Tolkienesque man, you have to become a Tolkienesque woman….

some days ago I bought the third age Middle Earth map and since I rewatched the films with my parents, this afternoon I was indicated my mom where Rivendell and Minas Tirith are

watching the map I realized that Rivendell and Mirkwood are pretty near but they have the mountain in between so Legolas actually did something similar

since I don't think he neither passed thought Caradhras nor Moria, so why the Fellowship didn't take a similar path?

if Gandalf's plan was to arrive to Lothlorien, here you are, whats the problem

I understand that Jolkien wanted to kill Gandalf ecc but broooooo think about that

if someone knows where Legolas passed please tell me

The other option was to go through the Gap of Rohan, which was rejected on the grounds that it would take the Ring too close to Isengard. But Saruman probably wouldn’t take much notice of a few Elves headed to Rivendell; they probably go there all the time. So that’s my guess.

Tonight, we remember one who lent his enormous talent to telling the story we have all come to love. Hail, the victorious dead!

May the Simbelmynë cover his tomb as it did the tomb of the one he so accurately portrayed.

Bernard Hill Dec 17, 1944 - May 5, 2024

Tolkien Tolkien Tolkien Tolkien i'm begging of you please don't kill my man

His beauty is beyond compare His stature tall, and long his hair Like every other man you wrote has been I know the more you speak his praise The fewer his remaining days How easily you break my heart, Tolkien

Another atmospheric 30-minute painting: Maglor and the Silmaril.

I cheated today, I started another much more complex painting and I realized that I wouldn't be able to finish it, so I did this instead.

Tumblr is butchering the quality of this kind of images in particular, so please click/tap on it to see it properly!

WHERE NOW THE HORSE AND THE RIDER-Aka how I just had a Tolkien related freak out on the train

I can't believe what just happened to me. As in, it's such a weird chain of events that it has left me a little dizzy.

I was reading "Les Nourritures Terrestres" by Gide, and I got to a point he cites parts of a poem which I liked very much. The notes informed me that it's a French translation of "an 8th century saxon elegy called 'The Wanderer' "

That intrigued me, and, being on a train with a lot of time to pass (plus being a little tired of reading in French), I took out my phone and searched for the poem.

I found it here. It's the lament of a warrior in exile who has lost his lord and mourns the joy and glory of a world that has now disappeared. I was enjoying it a lot.

And then I got to this point:

And my mouth actually dropped open, because what?

Are you telling me that the Lament for the Rohirrim, one of my favourite poems in LOTR, which I learnt by heart at 13 and later took care to learn in the original English, which I sing when I do the dishes and which routinely makes me cry, is Tolkien's translation of an 8th century Saxon elegy?

Well, the notes at the end of the page confirmed it:

"Tolkien's rendition is hard to resist" I bet it is. I love that professional philologists add notes to their work saying "yeah, by the way, this bit here? It's in your favourite fantasy novel, and I am kinda jealous of how well it was translated, but it's Tolkien, the man spoke Old English, what can you do? Carry on, xoxo"

I mean, I had gathered that the Tolkien poem played on themes used in medieval literature, but I had no idea it was based on an actual, specific text. That makes it a hundred times cooler!

Maybe it's common knowledge, but it was a delicious tidbit of good news to me. Especially since I wasn't expecting it in the least, so I was blindsided by it.

Cherry on top? I had ignored the Old English text, since I don't understand it, but at the end I gave it a cursory read , and the line "Alas for the splendor of the prince"? "Eala þeodnes þrym!"

Now, I have never studied Old English, but I know roughly how to pronounce it (what kind of Silmarillion fan would I be if I didn’t recognize the thorn?). þeodnes has to be where "Theoden" comes from, right?

Apparently yes. I googled the "Lament for the Rohirrim", and Tolkien Gathaway has a nice little parapraph in which they explain all this. I don't know why I had never read it before, but it was a lot more fun learning it as an unexpected detour from my French practice, not gonna lie.

Bottom line: Tolkien was a both a nerd and a genius and continues to make my life brighter, and this is one of those moments in which I am very happy I have spent years of my life learning languages.

Thanks for coming to my impromptu TedTalk.

In high school I read a translation of Beowulf by Seamus Heaney that had the original Anglo-Saxon on the left page and the English translation on the right. I recognized quite a few of the words! I’ll have to dig it out again because I don’t remember them all, but it addition to “théoden” meaning “king”, the word for horse is “rohan.” Cool stuff to learn.

In honor of the interesting discussion of what kind of sword Turgon would have had on my other post, have something I think about a lot in regards to Glamdring:

Turgon only used Glamdring in two battles. Both were catastrophic losses for the elves. One was the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, the battle that broke all hope of the Elves winning on their own, and the other the Fall of Gondolin, the destruction of Turgon’s own city and fall of the last great Noldorin civilization in Beleriand.

Turgon flees and dies respectively in those two battles. But he is still so terrifying when he fights that goblins fear the sight of his sword two ages of the world and 6000 years later. THAT’S SO LONG. Imagine being so devastating even in your losses that you strike fear into the enemy for generations to come. They know his sword by NAME at a GLANCE. There is no evidence it’s done more than be shuffled from hoard to hoard since the fall of Gondolin.

This is such a Tolkien move. Tolkien’s worldview is that of the extremely catholic long defeat of good. All things degrade but that doesn’t make the effort in fighting that degradation worthless, in fact it is everything. (This inevitability is not my favorite aspect of his work, but it’s undeniably saturated in it)

One of the most powerful and feared weapons in Tolkien’s work has only seen defeat? Honestly, shouldn’t be surprising.

I am very glad that I started reading LOTR at ten. I feel like being exposed to Tolkien’s ideology so young has really informed my worldview on the necessity of virtue, even without expectation of reward.