  Stephen Fry And Peter Jackson Sit Down In Bag End To Discuss Tolkien
Roads go ever, ever on, under cloud and under star, Stephen Fry’s recital of Tolkien’s poem sets the tone for his little discussion with PJ in a most apt setting – the Bag End set down in New Zealand, where filming for the upcoming Hobbit films is currently on in full swing. Folks in the UK can watch the stream via bbc.co.uk, while those located internationally can catch a snippet over on YouTube (4:17 into the video). A transcript is also up on our message boards courtesy of board member QuackingTroll. David Salo, Linguistic Consultant for The Hobbit, speaks at Geek Kon
Geek Kon is a relatively young gathering, started in 2007 by students and alumni of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The fifth con was held this weekend, September 9 to 11, with 1400 fans attending. There were three Tolkien-related events, allinvolving David Salo, an expert on the professor’s invented languages. David’s main contribution to the scholarly study of those languages has been his book A Gateway to Sindarin. He also, however, acted as the “Tolkien linguist” for Peter Jackson’s film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings. In that capacity, he translated phrases and passages from the script into various Middle-earth languages, primarily 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. (I have known David for years, and in September of 2004 I interviewed him for my book, The Frodo Franchise. I used material from that interview in Chapter 3, “Handcrafting a Blockbuster,” pp. 95-6.) I don’t think it has been publicly announced yet, but fans will be delighted to know that David is currently performing the same tasks for The Hobbit. Although his contract obviously restricts him in what he can say about the actual filming, his first talk shared with us what he could reveal.  Discuss »More about Conventions, Events, Hobbit Book, J.R.R. Tolkien, Languages, Lectures & Education, Lord of the Rings, LotR Books, The Hobbit, Tolkien Enya ‘May it be’ & ‘Aniron’ InterviewAfter watching the Fellowship of the Ring again, I was reminded how much I enjoyed the music and the songs. During the The Council of Elrond scene there is a song sung in Tolkien’s Elvish language “Sindarin“ called ‘Aniron (Theme for Aragorn And Arwen)’ . I did a little digging and have found an interview with Enya where she not only talks about her songs but her love for The Lord of The Rings, how she got involved with the production and Tolkien’s Elvish language’s. Enjoy! Tolkien linguistics draws praise from best seller MartinFantasy writer George R.R. Martin, besides sharing the “double Rs” in his name with J.R.R. Tolkien, is a beloved fantasy author who is in the midst of creating his imaginative masterpiece. Unlike Tolkien, he is able to communicate with and to fans in the digital age. At his “Not A Blog” he wrote today about Tolkien’s skills with linguistics and contrasted it with his own invented language which to date contains only seven words! With an adaptation of his first book in the “Song of Ice and Fire” series headed to HBO, Martin explains what must be done to breath life into his fictional tongue on television while praising The Good Professor. He starts: “Klaatu Barada Nicto…… or something like that. Truth is, I suck at foreign languages. Always have. Always will. That can be a real drawback for a fantasist working in the tradition of J.R.R. Tolkien, who set the bar very high…” Comments Off Did Lewis & Tolkien Plan to Write Together?
Comments Off ‘Legend of Siguard’ reviews, book on sale today
The Guardian in the UK published a faxed interview while while reviews are popping up like mushrooms. Read some here, here, and here. Discuss »More about Christopher Tolkien, J.R.R. Tolkien, Languages, Lectures & Education, The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun, Tolkien Comments Off Celebrate the KalevalaNew Hampshire Ringers interested in learning more about the sources of Tolkien’s inspiration should check out the Poetry Society of NH’s celebration of the Kalevala on October 11. There’ll be poetry, music from the Maine Kantele, and Runeberg’s tarts and other Finnish pastries. It’s at 6PM at Artstream, 56 North Main Street, Rochester, NH. The event is free and open to the public. For more information contact poetrysocietyofnh@gmail.com Comments Off Parma Eldalamberon #17 Now AvailableOstadan writes: Parma Eldalamberon #17 is now available from the Elvish Linguistic Fellowship. This issue is a commentary by Tolkien from the late 1950s and early 1960s concerning the words and names from his invented languages incorporated into The Lord of the Rings. This includes not only the Elvish languages, but Dwarvish, Black Speech (including some analysis of the words in the ring inscription), and the language of Rohan. It has been edited and annotated by Christopher Gilson, with the permission and guidance of Christopher Tolkien and the Tolkien Estate. This 220-page journal is available for $35. [More] Comments Off Tolkien in EsperantoTORN Staffer Ostadan writes: The Esperanto translation of The Lord of the Rings (translated by William Auld) has been out of print for several years. I was recently pleased to learn that it will be reprinted this year, with some material not translated for the first edition (but, alas, still lacking the Appendices). You can get a taste of the translation at here; the site includes the Riddles in the Dark chapter from The Hobbit (Enigmoj en la Mallumo) which was reprinted in 2005, and two chapters (so far) from Lord of the Rings (La Ombro de la pasinteco, and La Spegulo de Galadriela), with four more to come over the next few weeks; one translated chapter from each of the six books of LotR will appear on the site. Since people have the original English at their fingertips (if not actually memorized), these translated excerpts may prove interesting as a curiosity even to those who cannot easily read Esperanto. Comments Off David Salo Answers Your Language Questions In Hall of Fire!If you’re even casually interested in the languages Tolkien created, you’ll want to join us in Hall of Fire on December 11 at 5.30pm EST when we’ll be joined by Tolkien language expert David Salo for a moderated question and answer session. David was the primary language consultant for Peter Jackson’s adaptation of Lord of the Rings. David wrote Elvish dialogue, and created Dwarvish inscriptions for Moria, as well as the inscriptions for Aragorn’s sword – Anduril – and Frodo’s sword – Sting. [More] Comments Off |
  
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From HarperOne’s blog on C.S. Lewis: “Did C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien collaborate on a project that was never published? It is well known that the two were close friends and relished each other’s praise and criticism. However, there is little evidence that the two intended on working together on any manuscript. Steven A. Beebe, professor and chair of communication studies at Texas State University, believes he has found a fragment of an unpublished work. CSLewis.com recently interviewed Dr. Beebe to get more insight on his findings. 
J.R.R. Tolkien’s newest posthumous work lands in retail today. The body of the non Middle-earth tale is told in two narrative poems told in the form of Norse mythology with a Tolkien lecture and an introduction from his son Christopher. Tolkien was a master of the forms of Old Norse and Old Englsih poetry while for most of us, that brilliance is likely to go unappreciated, there is still treasure to be gleaned in understanding the author and the traditions that led him to construct his own cosmology.