Not quite in time for St Patrick’s Day, but shortly thereafter, fans will at last be able to read an Irish language version of The Hobbit. The book has been translated into Gaelic by Nicholas Williams, and will be published by Evertype on March 25th. More details here. Thanks to ringerspy Riccardo for the news. Middle Earth go Bragh!
Category: Books Publications
Back in 2001, I wrote Glossopoeia for Fun and Profit (also reprinted in The People’s Guide to J.R.R. Tolkien), for our Green Books department, in which I discussed three examples of invented languages: Esperanto, Elvish, and Klingon. For those who found that necessarily brief article of interest, University of Indiana linguistics professor Michael Adams has now edited a new book, From Elvish to Klingon: Exploring Invented Languages (Oxford University Press, 2011), comprising eight essays (including his a general introductory essay by Adams) about linguistic invention, though not precisely the “invented languages” suggested by the book’s title, as we will see. Each essay is accompanied by an appendix by Adams that extends or clarifies some aspect of the essay.
Adams’s introductory chapter deals with the spectrum of linguistic invention, and considers the motivations for such inventions. He considers whether invented languages are an attempt to re-create “the language of Adam”, i.e., a perfected language as spoken by Adam before the fall (it appears that Adams takes the Biblical texts quite literally here), and considers slang and poetry as examples of human linguistic creativity; Adams is the author of Slang: The People’s Poetry(Oxford Press, 2009).
Continue reading “Michael Adams — From Elvish to Klingon: Exploring Invented Languages”
TORn has discovered a Tolkien-inspired children’s picture book called “Nimpentoad“ by Henry Herz and his young sons Josh and Harrison. Five years ago, Henry began drafting a story which he shared with his sons, and they would give their dad ideas on how to improve it. The boys began creating and naming the characters, including the main creature and title’s namesake… Nimpentoad. Being avid fans of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films and J.R.R. Tolkien’s books, their imagination was fueled by those works as their fantasy world took shape. Working together, they created a mysterious forest called Grunwald filled with mean Goblins, hungry Neebels, thundering Rhinotaurs, huge Orcs, a frustrated Giant, and the smallest of the inhabitants… Niblings. The most resourceful and brave of the Niblings is Nimpentoad.
This month, the Bookshelf comes to you from the site of the Super Bowl, where J.W. (part owner of the Green Bay Packers) tells you all about The Genesis of Oblivion Saga, a series of fantasy books by Maxwell Alexander Drake. (By the way, J.W. apologizes to the good people of Nevada for mispronouncing the state’s name. Hopefully J.W. won’t ever have to talk about a literary executor from Nevada, because then he’ll be in a lot of trouble.)
Why did Bloomsbury U.K. eventually decide to offer “Harry Potter” books in disguised covers? Because people were ashamed to be seen reading about witches and wizards on the train. Fantasy had been made into a guilty pleasure, like pornography. It was immature, juvenile, escapist. As for all those Tolkien fans who liked to dress up as elves and orcs, the only explanation, spluttered Edmund Wilson in 1956, was that “Certain people . . . have a lifelong appetite for juvenile trash.” This, Michael Saler remarks, “from a man who liked to be called ‘Bunny.’ ”
In “As If: Modern Enchantment and the Literary Prehistory of Virtual Reality,” a historical and cultural study of fiction fandom, Mr. Saler counterpunches vigorously against the whole edifice of literary snobbery. What he has to say is so self-evidently right that the fact he has to say it makes one wonder how the critical profession has managed, for so long, to cultivate such a large blind spot. His book should be essential reading in every graduate school of the humanities. But it’s much more fun than that recommendation suggests. More..
Elpidha sends along these scans from the December issue of Studio Cine Live, out on newsstands today! (in French markets). Elpidha writes: The French magazine Studio Cine Live, December 2011 issue, has a beautiful spread about the upcoming Hobbit films. I’m not sure if any of the information or images are new, but there are some quotes from the actors that might be. Continue reading “Studio Cine Live Goes Hobbit Happy”