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].
Sí abgen edregol an i Laer ‚ovol. Lim naur ui urui di ‚Obel-i-Pheriain a menel luin. I ast vaer a thirad i Drann. Thiar bain i ndýr ah ast vaer am randirath. O Girithron na Nínui natha ovras a chared a chened.
Check out the first ever Middle-earth weather report — for real! And see the updated transcript of the Sindarin text!
Hear the extraordinary Elvish language of Sindarin come to life in a summer forecast for the ‚Home of Middle-earth’, New Zealand. Our guest Elvish weather reporter says the sun will shine across the lands — especially over Hobbiton! Sindarin is a language that’s usually kept between Elves and friends of Elves, deciphered from the writings of Professor J.R.R. Tolkien. It is one of several languages created for the peoples of Middle-earth. Come on down! www.newzealand.com
This is our attempt to transcribe the text of the forecast. We ask you to help us to correct it and to find its proper form (the obscure words are printed in grey):
Calan vain Ennor! ‘Good morning Middle-earth’
Sí abgen edregol an i Laer ‘ovol. ‘Here is a special forecast for the summer ahead’.
Lim naur ui urui di ‘Obel-i-Pheriain a menel luin. ‘In Hobbiton it will be mostly hot with blue sky’
I ast vaer a thirad i Drann. ‘the ideal time to visit the Shire’
Thiar bain i ndýr ‘The lands are looking good’
ah ast vaer am randirath. ‘And it’s a great time for travellers’
O Girithron na Nínui ‘From December to February’
natha ovras a chared a chened. ‘there will be plenty to do and see’
No alwed i Laer lîn! ‘Have a fantastic summer!’
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].
And here they are! New Khuzdûl words (most of them are actually Neo-Khuzûl). And new examples of the Angerthas runes usage. We hope The Hobbit movie will be the opportunity to study Dwarvish language (which most complete analysis can be found on Ardalambion and on Mellonath Daeron websites) and to develop its coined, reconstructed New Dwarvish form. How do you think will we be able to speak Neo-Khuzûl one day? Will David Salo create full grammar and more complete vocabulary of the Dwarvish used in the movie?
So far we know these „Dwarven Words of the Day” (Neo-Khuzûl is marked with asterisk *):
For the other Neo-Khuzûl forms from The Hobbit movie see here.
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].
Let us see the IMAX posters for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey midnight screenings. We have here an unexpected linguistic addition – the title of the movie written with the Tengwar letters as they are described in Appendix E of the LotR. Tolkien explained there was no official mode for using Tengwar with the English language, but on the title of the same book gave and example of an English phrase written with Tengwar. The rules there were the same as for Sindarin, with the Tehtar (representing vowels) placed above the next consecutive Tengwar letter. The creators of the IMAX posters used another mode which is similar to the mode for Quenya. The Tehtar are place above the proceeding consonantal Tengwar letter.
The inscriptions on the posters read:
the hobbit an unexpected journey
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].
This illustration comes from Jude Fisher’s book The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Visual Companion (chapter „The Elves”). It is a manuscript (prepared for the movies by the artist Daniel Reeve) with the Tengwar lettering, but the text is in English (Tengwar mode for English close to the one on the title page of The Lord of the Rings). Our analysis proves it’s a part of The Silmarillion (p. 193-4) [which is very similar to the paragraph in The Children of Húrin, Chapter „The Battle of Unnumbered Tears”] starting with the words
Last of all the eastern force to stand firm were the Dwarves of Belegost…
and ending with
There as the sun westered…
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].
Today we’ve received a big gift of 60-seconds pieces of the tracks from The Hobbit soundtrack (listen to them here). The music is terrific! And we can hear some fragments of the lyrics in the languages of Middle-earth. We’ve tried to find out which languages we can soon able analyze (let us only wait for December and see the lyrics from the CD booklet!).
Here you can see which languages we could find in the soundtrack:
Today the Neo-Khuzdûl word of the day is aznâg ‚courage’ (the word coined by David Salo?). The information comes from The Hobbit movie profile on Facebook. The Hollywood Reporter in their „The Hard Road to ‚The Hobbit’ present new pictures from the movie set. On of them is a page of a runic book of the Dwarves (made by Daniel Reeve?). It has a nice inscription in English with Anglo-Saxon futhark runes (like these in The Hobbit book):
They read:
Supplies of pipeweed are running desperately low. If we do not find some very soon one of our few remaining pleasures will be a thing of the past.
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].
It seems the runes become more and more popular thanks to The Hobbit movie promotion. Thanks to TORn we know about this advertisement in Los Angeles (see the news). We can read:
Something is afoot! Strange images have been seen all over Los Angeles. What does it mean?? It looks like breakfast – and we all know that Hobbits love breakfast so much, they eat it twice daily. But for those who have a Hobbity appetite for second breakfast, where is the best place to find it? The answer to the riddle will be revealed, in time….
We have deciphered the runes and they read (the mode for English described in the LotR III, Appendix E):
the breakfast ri.. of middle-earth await
What is the third word? Can you help?
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].
The German fan site Herr-der-Ringe-Film has posted new pictures from The Hobbit movies that are currently on display at the Frankfurt Book Fair. The most mysterious one is the picture above. It contains a „wheel of fortune” (?) machine with the signs (numbers?) which are similar to the undeciphered writing system of the Easterling (see here – and the Easterling letters below) in the LotR movies. Can it be the decoration connected with Necromancer, Dol Guldur and the tribes of the East? It is not Tolkienian one (though it may resemble Rúmilian letters sarati).
But we suppose the picture in fact doesn’t show the item from The Hobbit movies. And what do you think?
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].
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).
Visit us on Facebook!
