The 4th Production Video Blog of The Hobbit contains a short scene of what appears to be Gandalf etching his mark on Bilbo’s door.  (See 05:00 in the video posted here).  The image shows a bent nail at the base of Gandalf’s staff (see part of his cloak to the right), etching a rune into Bilbo’s green door.  The rune is certh 19 G which, in addition to being the first sign in Gandalf’s name, is also used as his mark throughout The Lord of the Rings — e.g., labeling the firecrackers he brings for Bilbo’s birthday party, as a signature in his urgent letter to Frodo, as his secret mark on Weathertop, etc.

Readers of The Hobbit will remember that Gandalf marks Bilbo’s door in order to lead the Dwarves to Bag End: “… with the spike of his staff [he] scratched a queer sign on the hobbit’s beautiful green front-door.”  The next day, when he arrives with the Dwarves, he beats “a hard rat-tat on the hobbit’s beautiful green door … with a stick” which “knock[s] out the secret mark that he had put there the morning before”. Bilbo is of course unaware of any of this, and therefore expresses some surprise and irritation at the Dwarves’ presumptuous arrival and assumptions, remarking: “I have no signs on my door—it was painted a week ago—, and I am quite sure you have come to the wrong house”.  Gloin responds: remarking ”I assure you there is a mark on this door—the usual one in the trade … ‘Burglar wants a good job, plenty of Excitement and reasonable Reward,’ that’s how it is usually read.”

Of course, Tolkien never provided his readers with an image of this complex mark.  Rather than invent it, the filmmakers seem to have opted instead for the reasonable replacement of Gandalf’s initial.

Marc Zender

[I would like to add to this information that in fact we do know the actual sign Tolkien wanted to appear on Bilbo's door. In J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist & Illustrator by Scull & Hammond, p. 99, we can find Tolkien's sketch with the door of Bag End, with Gandalf and three mysterious signs. They seem to be Anglo-Saxon runes (used in The Hobbit for the Dwarvish script): B for Burglar, D for Danger and a sign of a jewel/diamond for Reward. See the actual inscription in our news from 2009 - here).

Richard "Galadhorn" Derdzinski.]

Elrond knew all about runes of every kind. That day he looked at the swords they had brought from the trolls’ lair, and he said: “They are not troll-make. They are old swords, very old swords of the High Elves of the West, my kin. They were made in Gondolin for the Goblin wars. (…) This, Thorin, the runes name Orcrist, the Goblin-cleaver in the ancient tongue of Gondolin; it was a famous blade.”

(The Hobbit, “A Short Rest”)

Earl Carvalho, a member of TheOneRing.net staff, has informed us about these interesting examples of the use of Tolkien’s runes in The Hobbit movie pre-production. Thanks to the publication of the Dwarves’ characters photos (see Thorin’s photo – here) we can see some interesting Cirth inscriptions on Thorin’s sword, Orcrist, and on his ring:

1. Thorin’s Ring – The ring on Thorin’s right hand seems to have the Dwarven (Angerthas Moria?) rune R on its front face. It’s difficult to determine what the runes on the other faces say (if those actually are runes), but it is possible that another rune is HW. Thorin also wears another ring on his left hand, and it seems to have some sort of design, but we cannot be certain that it works itself out to a rune.

2. Orcrist – The pommel of Thorin’s sword has the Elvish runes O R KH R I S T inscribed on it. The language is Sindarin and the script are old Elvish runes called Angerthas Daeron (we shall remember that the runes of Middle-earth were primarily the script of the Elves of Beleriand in the First Age). Let us compare this inscription with the runes from another sword found by Thorin’s Company in the trolls’ lair – Glamdring (see here).

Photo of Orcrist and Thorin’s Ring edited
by Ryszard “Galadhorn” Derdzinski

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

Elrond, Tauriel, and now Lindir… We find out more and more about the characters in The Hobbit movie who will speak Elvish (mainly Neo-Sindarin made by David Salo). Bret McKenzie, who unofficially played “Figwit” the Elf in The Lord of the Rings (for this fan-created name see here), spoke with ComingSoon.net about his role as Lindir in The Hobbit:

“I’ve got a cameo as an elf. Or another cameo. My character is called Lindir. I hang out with Elrond… I’ve got a few lines in Elvish.

The Gwaith, the Fellowship is very happy it will have more and more phrases to analyze! More about this story can be found at TORn (see here).

All Gwaith-i-Phethdain Reports can be found here.

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

Jak co roku (patrz lata 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010) Helge Kåre Fauskanger, lingwista tolkienowski z Norwegii i autor witryny Ardalambion, z okazji Bożego Narodzenia przygotował dla nas lingwistyczną niespodziankę. W tym roku otrzymaliśmy w prezencie jego neo-quenejskie tłumaczenie całej Ewangelii według św. Marka (tutaj znajdziecie cały dokument).

Autor zwraca się do miłośników języka quenya z prośbą o wszelkie uwagi i poprawki, tak żeby można było tekst tłumaczenia skorygować. Dzięki pracy Fauskangera w chwili obecnej Nowy Testament został przełożony na neoquenya w 25 procentach. Lingwista zauważa jednak, że ponieważ jego wiedza na temat quenya ciągle się zmienia, a jego sztuczny neoquenejski conlang ciągle się rozwija, wcześniejsze przekłady (św. Mateusza i św. Jana) będą musiały przejść proces poprawek i ujednolicenia.

Autor tłumaczenia przyznaje, że “jego” quenya jest dużo bardziej stabilnym i ujednoliconym systemem niż quenya samego Tolkiena. Pojawiają się jednak zawsze pytania, np. czy Górę Oliwną należy tłumaczyć z użyciem genitywu czy posesywu, albo czy Piłat powinien być przełożony na quenya jako Pilátus (na bazie łaciny) czy jako Piláto (w zgodzie z quenejską morfologią).

Słowa użyte w tłumaczeniu zostały dodane do specjalnego słownika quenya-angielskiego, który znajduje się na stronach Fauskangera. Jednak autor wciąż nie stworzył listy swoich neologizmów – odróżnić je możemy od wyrazów wymyślonych przez Tolkiena dzięki znakowi asterysku (*).

Let us watch and listen to Evangeline Lilly or Tauriel the Silvan Elf in the Hobbit movies. In the interview for Access Hollywood, recorded during the Real Steel premiere, she chats Laura Saltman about filming Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit. So, is she worried about how J.R.R. Tolkien fans will take to her character? Plus, Evangeline speaks Sindarin! We’ve tried to decipher these phrases and here it is – the reconstruction of the Sindarin sentences which will be probably used in the Hobbit movie:

(1) Tolo hí! ‘Come down’ (or: ‘Come here’): tolo! ‘come’, sí ‘here’ (lenited hí)
(2) Lyst in saim ‘The cells are empty’: lost ‘empty’, in ‘the’ (pl.), sam, pl. *saim ‘chamber, *cell’

[according to "Edhelharn" Lilly actually says Tolo hi! (si < hi 'now', cf. edro hi ammen) and Lyst i saim (i < in 'the pl.', cf. Echad i Sedryn).]

Evangeline Lilly, who played the role of Kate Austen on Lost, is now living in New Zealand for the duration of Peter Jackson’s dual Hobbit shoots, playing a newly-created character not from the books – Tauriel the Silvan Elf from Mirkwood. In an interview in the SFX magazine Evangeline answered few questions concerning the movie:

Now you’re in New Zealand filming The Hobbit with Peter Jackson. It’s a long commitment which would make some actors balk. Was that a concern?

I will be in and out of New Zealand for the course of a year. It worked out well. For a lot of actors, being that tied down would be problematic for their careers because they wouldn’t have the freedom to take any other part in the meantime. For me it’s perfect because I want to have time to spend with my family and relax and focus on my writing. This role gives me a framework within which to do that because I’m not working all the time but I’m working enough. When you’re not working at all, you get lost in space and time and don’t accomplish anything. It’s a flexible work environment and I don’t have to be estranged from my family.

When you played Kate you were always doing physical scenes and stunts. How are you prepping for The Hobbit?

With every film, you have to educate yourself on the material and it’s often things you don’t know a lot about. Right now I’m studying Elvish and having conversations with people about learning how to be an archer, a swordsperson and how to fight like an elf instead of a gritty convict. [Laughs]

Did you have any reservations about joining The Hobbit cast?

With The Hobbit, it was a no-brainer because I have been a fan of those books since I was 13-years-old.

During last Geek Kon at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which was held on September 9 to 11, there were three Tolkien-related events, all involving David Salo, an expert on the JRR Tolkien’s invented languages. David’s main contribution to the study of the languages of Middle-earth has been the book A Gateway to Sindarin (see cover on the left). He also was employed as the “Tolkien linguist” for Peter Jackson’s film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings. As we have already analized it on the G-i-P website, he translated phrases and passages from the script into various Middle-earth languages, primarily Sindarin (“Elvish”). David also devised passages in Khuzdul (the secret language of the dwarves), including choral portions in the musical score for the scenes in Moria. David also translated the phrases seen engraved on the swords and other armaments, and he recorded readings of his translations for the language coaches to use in training the actors.

And here we have a great news! We are delighted to know that David Salo is currently performing the same tasks for The Hobbit!

What we can find about his work on TheOneRing report? “David works via email and is usually in touch with script editors and people in the props and art departments. The way the system works is that at intervals, he is sent short passages to translate. He never sees the whole script but only “a couple of lines” in most cases.”

“There are props and maps that will need to have writing on them, but that work has not yet been given to him. Similarly, he expects to be asked to write lyrics for choral passages of the musical score, but again, that has not happened yet.”

“David cannot call upon known facts about these languages. He is a professional linguist, however, and uses the same sorts of techniques that Tolkien himself would have employed. The result is what David calls “an approximation” of how an elf’s speech (Sindarin) might sound.”

“The process for translating into the dwarvish language, Khuzdul, is more tentative. Still, it may be particularly important for The Hobbit, which involves many dwarves as characters. David pointed out that the number of known Khuzdul vocabulary words is small enough to fit on a single page. But even such a limited set of words is useful, in that it sets restraints on what David does as he inevitably invents words: he knows what words would not sound like Khuzdul. (…) David has been working on Khuzdul since the 1990s, when he contributed translations for the now-defunct Iron Crown Enterprise’s Lord of the Rings role-playing game. Some of the Khuzdul names he devised then were re-used for The Lord of the Rings. Perhaps they will crop up in The Hobbit as well.”

“David’s attempts to devise speech in Orcish are based on even fewer words available from Tolkien’s own writings. He followed the general principle of making the language “harsh and strong and ugly.” The writing on the Ring does not reflect the way orcs talked. There were many types of orcs, and as a result their language would have rapidly changed into different dialects. For The Lord of the Rings, David devised three types of Orcish language, for those of Moria, Orthanc, and Minas Morgul. (…) He plans to create new Orcish language for the goblins in The Hobbit. These creatures would be a northern branch of the orcs, borrowing words from dwarves, men, and even elves in the same region.”

_______________________________

About the Khuzdul sentences from The Hobbit you can already read here.

Somebody may wonder if the upcoming The Hobbit movie will contain as rich linguistic material as the three parts of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings. Will the actors speak languages of Middle-earth? Which languages? Will we see new beautiful artifacts with runes or Fëanorian letters like swords or the artwork? Will they sing in Elvish or Dwarvish in The Hobbit soundtrack? We can say “Yes, they will”. We can say also that it is very possible all the linguistic material is already translated by a Tolkienian linguist (David Salo?) or by a group of the linguistis.

Probably the first sentences in the languages of Middle-earth which were already revealed are two Khuzdûl phrases which can be found on P. Jackson’s vlog’s entry [see here]. So Khuzdûl will be featured for sure!  These phrases are:

[Adam Brown, "Ori":]
Gelek d’ash undbar [or Gelek dashund bar]
‘?’ [my transcription can be erroneous]

[Marc Zender comments:
First, I think Adam Brown (Ori) actually says Gelekh dash undbar, with aspirated -kh at the end of the first word. Listen carefully to Roisín Carty (the dialog coach) and then to Brown. But notice also (at 05:41 in the video) that behind Roisín, on the white board, is written R, TH, KH, strongly suggesting that they were working on the special sounds of Khuzdul: uvular R and aspirated TH and KH. (There is also written “axe = b…” and “axes = b…”, where the hidden elements must have given singular bark and plural baruk, to illustrate Khuzdul plural formation.) But much of Adam’s sentence is newly invented vocabulary, and I’m afraid I can’t make it out with any certainty.]

and

[William Kircher, "Bifur":]
Khuzd belkur!
‘Mighty Dwarf’ [khuzd 'Dwarf', *belkur 'mighty']

[Marc Zender comments:
I think he actually says Khuzd belkul!, with a final -l, and naturally he provides his own translation: “mighty dwarf”. Now, khuzd is of course well known as the singular for “dwarf”. As for the unattested belkul, this may contain the -ul adjectival suffix seen in Khuzdul ‘Dwarvish’. Its radicals would then seem to be B-L-K “mighty,” and I suppose that it is imagined by David Salo as having been a borrowing from Elvish. Compare Noldorin beleg “great, mighty” (< BÉL-EK, Etym.), Quenya melehta “mighty” (PE17:115) and, of course, Melkor “He that arises in might”. Note also the noun + adjective order of “dwarf mighty” for “mighty dwarf”. This is a typical feature of Semitic syntax, from which Salo would seem to have drawn some inspiration. Yet the pattern in Khuzdul noun compounds is generally, though admittedly not always, the reverse — e.g., Sigin-tarâg, long + beards, for “Long beards” (PM:321). So this syntactical construction is one I’m still a bit uncertain of.]

Richard Armitage (“Thorin”) said in the interview on Jackson’s videoblog:

We’ve all learnt a bit of the Dwarf language, Khuzdûl, so we all have a kind of selection of words to fall back on, and curses and battle-cries

We trust the latter means that we may, at long last, hear the famous words Baruk Khazâd! Khazâd ai-mênu! uttered on a field of battle.

We’re waiting for new information about the languages of Tolkien in Jackson’s movies. Feel free to send the reports to elendilion@elendilion.pl We’re looking forward to your comments too.

Najbliższa konferencja, Omentielva Cantëa, odbędzie się w dniach 11–14 sierpnia 2011 na Politechnice w Walencji w Hiszpanii (hiszp. Universidad Politécnica de Valencia). Przewodniczącym konferencji jest Helios De Rosario Martínez, a sekretarzem Anders “Beregond” Stenström. Zaproszono na tę konferencję wyjątkowego gościa specjalnego. Będzie nim Arden R. Smith, wybitny badacz języków i pism Tolkiena, który do Hiszpanii przyleci z wykładem prosto ze Stanów Zjednoczonych. W organizacji tegorocznej konferencji pomogło Hiszpańskie Towarzystwo Tolkienowskie (hiszp. Sociedad Tolkien Española), które przeznaczyło specjalny grant na przyjazd gościa z USA.

Wśród innych uczestników konferencji znajdziemy takich znanych lingwistów jak: Petri Tikka, Måns Björkman, Ivan Derzhanski i Roman Rausch. Tutaj znajdziecie szczegółowy program imprezy.  My zwracamy w nim szczególną uwagę na następujące punkty:

• Arden R. Smith: Editing Tolkien’s Alphabets (‘O redagowaniu alfabetów Tolkiena’)
  
• Anders “Beregond” Stenström: Another Look at the Problem of Erukyerme (‘Inne spojrzenie na problem słowa Erukyerme‘)
  
• Practical Elvish (‘Praktyczny elficki’) (prowadzi Petri Tikka)
• Elvish Poets’ Workshop (‘Warsztaty poetów elfickich’) (prowadzi Valeria Barouch)
• Helge Fauskanger (in absentia): The World’s most Evil Syllable (‘Najbardziej zła sylaba świata’)
  
• Roman Rausch: Sound Symbolism in Elvish (‘Symbolika dźwięku w elfickim’)
• W niedzielę 14 sierpnia dzień rozpocznie ekumeniczna modlitwa poranna prowadzona przez Petri Tikkę, pastora luterańskiego. Tego samego dnia po śniadaniu uczestnicy będą zwiedzać Walencję – przewodnikiem będzie Juan Gómez.

Każda konferencja owocuje wydaniem kolejnego periodyku Arda Philology. W kolejnym numerze znajdziemy wszystkie teksty odczytów, zatem pozostaje nam poczekać na Arda Philology nr 3. A może ktoś będzie za kilka dni w okolicach Walencji? Wtedy prosimy pozdrowić uczestników Omentielva słowami: Elen síla lúmenn’ omentielvo!

Kolejne konferencje odbyć się mają w 2013 i 2015 roku. Może zaproponujemy jakąś polską lokalizację (poprzednie konferencje miały miejsce w Sztokholmie w Szwecji, w Antwerpii w Belgii, w Whitehaven w Anglii).