Ok, need some Tolkien nerd help (can YOU write elvish?)

krunchyfrogg · Mar 22, 2018

This kinda relates to a thread I stared a couple days ago. A good friend of mine wants a Tolkien tattoo. Wants the first two lines from The Riddle of Strider tattooed on his forearm.

I’ve been trying to help him, but it seems like there are different fonts and probably some bad images all over the internet.

I think the tattoo is a neat idea.

He wants

All that is gold does not glitter
Not all those who wander are lost

Written in elvish, in a circle, around the JRRT Tolkien monogram.

Kinda like this:

69d12d5b7bad93a06a1b82ec89510421--tolkien-quotes-lotr-quotes-elvish.jpg

Around this:

jrr_tolkien_the_one_ring_stylized_monogram___m_by_s4sarahssigns-d7abfee.jpg

Except, not the “one ring to rule them all” in Black Speech, as is written in the second pic.

Dioltach · Mar 22, 2018

So your friend is the secret heir to the throne? Cool!
(This reminds me of the bit in one of the Rivers of London books -- I think it's Broken Homes -- where Peter deciphers the Elvish script on a magical trap, and it says, "If you can read this, you are a nerd and probably also dead.")

tomBitonti · Mar 22, 2018

Hi,

The font is perhaps the easier part. Check out:

https://quenya101.com/2013/04/04/tengwar-fonts-guide/

The font used on the One Ring is Tengwar Annatar Italics in this collection.

I would imagine that writing this is *not* just putting letters next to each other. There are likely all sorts of adjustments based on letter adjacency and such.

For the translation, here is one:

http://www.elvish.org/gwaith/riddle.htm

That has a link to an earlier translation:

This beautiful poem by J.R.R. Tolkien was first translated into Quenya by Ivan A. Derzhanski and it was published in Vinyar Tengwar #38, pp. 19-21

At:

http://www.elvish.org/

Thx!
TomB

krunchyfrogg · Mar 22, 2018

Dioltach said:
So your friend is the secret heir to the throne? Cool!
(This reminds me of the bit in one of the Rivers of London books -- I think it's Broken Homes -- where Peter deciphers the Elvish script on a magical trap, and it says, "If you can read this, you are a nerd and probably also dead.")

LOL, only if you call the toilet the throne.

Yes, the poem refers to Aragorn, but you see the second line on half the signs at Bed Bath and Beyond.

I think it does look pretty cool though.