you might know that john ronald reuel tolkien, esteemed author of lord of the rings, was a professor of english lit and language at oxford. his gift for linguistics had landed him an earlier job with the oxford english dictionary, and he all but admitted that he wrote the tales of middle-earth primarily as a means of giving history and depth to languages he invented himself, much the way that someone else might pen a poem or scratch a sketch onto a pad. only tolkien wasn’t just doodling here, because went so far as to develop full etymologies and conjugations and rules and regulations for his various versions of elvish (there are at least five or six), dwarvish and so on. it was his gift, his hobby, his amusement, his passion. you might also know that he was good friends with another british author of fantastical works, c. s. lewis. knowing lewis’s more obviously religious books, it is not at all surprising to know that tolkien was a christian. a catholic, actually. but when you put all of that together, would you have imagined that tolkien wrote a translation of the lord’s prayer in a constructed elven tongue he called quenya? well, he did.
taremma i a han a na aire esselya aranielya na tuluva na care indmelya cemende tambe Erumande : men anta sra ilaura massamma ar men apsene caremmar sv’ emme apsenet tien i carer emmen. lame tulya sahtienna mal me etelehta ulcullo : nsie :
nsie, indeed. that’s elvish for amen, you see.
for a full translation and analysis, you can dive headlong into this essay. and hey, with all of the excitement around the movies, you might even be inclined to try your tongue at learning elvish. that’s right, being a relatively complete and documented (though constructed) language, you can learn it for your own use (which, admittedly, would be rather limited). there’s even an online course for those interested in a little more quenya conversation. and hey, it’s at least a cooler waste of time than klingon…
