Post by Admin on Jan 9, 2021 2:49:14 GMT
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien - the creator of Middle-earth and a devoted linguist... Let us dedicate this month's topic to the thing that stood at the cradle of this wonderful fantasy world - Languages. Indeed it was Tolkien's love for languages and their construction that compelled him to create an entire world where these languages would be alive - because a language without history is just a collection of words and grammar rules.
That is not the case of Middle-earth though, and we are thankful to Tolkien that he didn't only create Quenya and Sindarin, but also the mighty and beautiful Elves whose voices rise to the stars as they sing in a nightly forest, that with Adunaic he created the Men of Numenor, the Sea-kings whose glory was as high as the depth of their fall and with Khuzdul the Dwarves who create wonderful things in their halls deep under the mountains while the deep song of their voices sounds with their hammers. And the list goes on: there is Valarin, the language of the Powers residing in Aman, the speech of Rohirrim, based on old Anglo-Saxon, the Black Speech that sounds through Mordor, Entish, where only what is worth a long speech is said, and of course Westron, the Common speech..
There is a saying in Slovak "how many languages you know, so many times you are a person". Learning languages is as important in Middle-earth as in our world, especially for travellers, like Aragorn was, and for every educated person in general. You can write/draw a picture about Aragorn or Legolas learning a new language, or, in the contrary, having trouble because they don't know the language of some poeple they meet. Put them into a situation where they language skills are tested, maybe even save their life. Just write your story in English, please, because not all of us are fluent in Quenya or Khuzdul
That is not the case of Middle-earth though, and we are thankful to Tolkien that he didn't only create Quenya and Sindarin, but also the mighty and beautiful Elves whose voices rise to the stars as they sing in a nightly forest, that with Adunaic he created the Men of Numenor, the Sea-kings whose glory was as high as the depth of their fall and with Khuzdul the Dwarves who create wonderful things in their halls deep under the mountains while the deep song of their voices sounds with their hammers. And the list goes on: there is Valarin, the language of the Powers residing in Aman, the speech of Rohirrim, based on old Anglo-Saxon, the Black Speech that sounds through Mordor, Entish, where only what is worth a long speech is said, and of course Westron, the Common speech..
There is a saying in Slovak "how many languages you know, so many times you are a person". Learning languages is as important in Middle-earth as in our world, especially for travellers, like Aragorn was, and for every educated person in general. You can write/draw a picture about Aragorn or Legolas learning a new language, or, in the contrary, having trouble because they don't know the language of some poeple they meet. Put them into a situation where they language skills are tested, maybe even save their life. Just write your story in English, please, because not all of us are fluent in Quenya or Khuzdul
