Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #183101 in Books
• Published on: 1978-11-24
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 303 pages

Customer Reviews

Good, but technical
Thorough and quite technical detail of Quenya, Sindarin and Eldarin. Good English / Quenya / Sindarin dictionary. If you're serious about learning elvish, and know a bit about languages, this is a great book. Not really for 'dipping into' as it is like a proper language text book in some ways. Also has some other sections on different Tolkein languages and similarities between Tolkein's languages and some european languages. I'm quite impressed by the content, the writing is a bit small though and its not always the easiest of reads!

If you're into linguistics...
I love this book; it's a detailed and scholarly take on the languages of Tolkien's Middle-Earth, written by enthusiasts for enthusiasts. It may be a little heavy going for the non-linguist, but what it lacks in readability it makes up for in its astounding attention to detail. Far superior to anything else you'll find out there in terms of its accuracy and serious approach to the study of Tolkienian linguistics, but if you're just in it for understanding what Liv Tyler says in the movie, give it a miss. Not exactly for the linguistic beginner.

Comphrehensive and equally complicated!
At first look this book from the outside looks like a welsh or irish style designed documentary book.

On further examination of its contents however, you might think you've grabbed a sort of university text.

From the first look you can see that the text in the entire book is in a postscript font, the typical typewriter typed sort text albeit also in a slightly faded sensemaking it often difficult to keep your eyes on for long.

I can basically spend hours either critisizing or promting the book, but as a writer seeking insipiration for a fantasy novel I will present a clear and fair opinion.

The book is not really a typical book per say, though it has a content and structure of sorts it is more a collection of what seems like published typed scripts.

This book is basically a collection of descriptions about the origins of fan developed language and lingual words and structures from the time when the great tolkien himself first published the first copies of the LOTR saga, from various parts of the world.

Anyway, while it does provide one with various examples of words in the various languages used by the races oin the world of the lord of the rings along with what basic instructions as to how to develop ones own unique languages, this book is not for the beginner, more a book for a 3rd year Linguistics student, the text is very complicated to study and even more so to read, though one can quite often take a few interesting phrases and customize them to be your own, it is more about history of how they came to be than anything else.

For those avid RPG players one will see the various many distinct similarities that great RPGs such as D&D have had to the types of lingual usuage and in the same sort of structure especially the "Elven" and nature deity's names and identifications.

I hope there truly are easier to understand and study books out there for would fans of the elven and other languages first borne by Tolkiens works.