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G-i-P Report: The Hobbit soundtrack linguistic survey

We have already informed you about the existence of the lyrics in the languages of Middle-earth on The Hobbit soundtrack (see here). Now having at hand the booklet with the lyrics from the soundtrack CD we want to analyze all we can find out about the texts translated by David Salo. All the choral text is by Philippa Boyens save „The Eagles” composed by J.R.R. Tolkien and Philippa Boyens. But we can read there also that: „Choral Text Translations by David Salo” (booklet, page 6).

What is very precious in the booklet is the text by Doug Adams (the author of The Music in The Lord of the Rings Films) which analyzes the themes of the soundtrack (pages: 12, 15, 16, 18, 22). We have found these linguistic fragments in his text, and we would like to analyze it word-by-word (I used two books – David Salo, A Gateway to Sindarin and Edouard Kloczko, Dictionnaire des langues elfiques; the forms signed with * are the new words created by David Salo):

I. „Radagast the Brown” [Sindarin]
„Above this dense collection of forest murmurs, boys chorus sings a text by Phillippa Boyens” [translated by David Salo]:

Meno, edveno
O galad vos i lais
Lim, meno lim
Na fuin, trí dhuaith …

‚Away! Away! / From soft leaf-light / Hurry! Hurry! / Through dark of night … ‚. Literally the text is: ‚Go, go forth / from [the] light soft [of] the leaves /Lightly, go lightly /to [the] nightshade, through dark-shadow’.

*meno v. imp. ‘go!’; *men-, √MEN ‚way, region’
*edveno v. imp. ‘go forth’’; < *ed-men-, cf. *men-, √ET ‚forth, out’ and √MEN ‚way, region’
o prep. ‘from, of’
galad n. ‘light, bright light’
*mos (lenited vos) adj. ‘soft’; cf. Quenya mussë ‚soft’, √MUS
lais n. pl. ‘leaves’
lim adj., adv. ‘clear, sparkling, light’; cf. noro lim, Asfaloth *’run lightly, Asfaloth’ (I 222)
na prep. ‘to, toward, at’
fuin n. ‘night, gloom, darkness, dead of night, nightshade’
trî prep. ‚through’
dhuaith n. pl. ‚nightshade, dark shadow’, sg. dúath

II. „The Hidden Valley” [Sindarin]
„Gandalf eventually leads the Dwarves to the safety of Imladris, the Last Homely House and home to Elrond, Master of Rivendell. Rivendell’s timeless music is embellished with tolling chimes, harp glissandi, and female voices singing “Rivendell Revealed” in Sindarin, the Elves’ common tongue. However, Elrond is not the only Elf to hold sway in Rivendell — and Gandalf is not the only Wizard. Also present are Galadriel, the Lady of Lórien, and Saruman, wisest of his order. While the Dwarves accept the invitation issued in Rivendell’s choral text —

Edwenno brestaid en-Amar

‚Lay down your troubles, set aside your fear’ [lit. ‚Set aside troubles of [the] Earth’]

*edwenno v. imp. ‚set aside’; √ET ‚forth, out’ and √? ‚?’
*prestaid (lenited brestaid), n. ‚trouble’, sg. *prestad; cf. presta- v. ‚affect, trouble, disturb’
en, e- art. ‚of the’
Amar n. ‚Earth’

III. Galadriel’s theme [Quenya]
„Female chorus sings”:

Ninquë silë misë nár
Nóna silmë andané

‚A white fire shines within her / The light of a star, born long ago’.

ninquë adj. ‚chill, palid, white’
silë v. (aorist) ‚shines’; cf. sil- ‚shine’
misë, pron. ‚(with)in her’
nár n. ‚flame, fire’
*nóna adj. ‚born’; isolated from Apanónar ‚After-born’
silmë n. ‚starlight’
*andané adv. ‚long ago’; anda-né ‚long-was’?

And that’s all we can find in the lyrics booklet. Unfortunately we don’t receive all the lyrics in the languages of Middle-earth such as Adûnaic („An Ancient Enemy”), Black Speech („Brass Buttons”), and Sindarin („Out of the Frying-Pan”, „A Good Omen”).

G-i-P stands for Gwaith-i-Phethain, ‘The Fellowship of the Word-smiths’ or the linguistic website devoted to post-Tolkienian constructions in the “reconstructed” languages of Middle-earth [link].

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Kategorie wpisu: Adaptacje tolkienowskie, Filmy: Hobbit i WP, G-i-P Report, In Westron (English), Lingwistyka

1 komentarz do wpisu "G-i-P Report: The Hobbit soundtrack linguistic survey"

Angela, dnia 29.12.2013 o godzinie 18:18

Do you think we will be able to have all the lyrics, as we did with Lord of the Rings Trilogy? I wish it, very much.

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