TTT soundtrack: Sindarin and Old English
lyrics
[December
12, 2002, Updated
on January 4, 2003]
December
10, 2002 was the official release date of Howard Shore's score for
The Two Towers. There are three
versions of the soundtrack: Standard
Jewel Case Edition, Limited Edition
and Internet Limited Edition.
The first edition has only three lyrics in its booklet: The
Ents (Sindarin), Gollum's Song (English) and The
Missing (Old English). Two of them have been analyzed in our Soundtrack
Department.
The
Limited Edition package contains
"lyrics and poems": we hope it covers the rest of the lyrics
sung in Quenya, Sindarin, Adûnaic and Old
English which can be heard in TTT score.
Update!
Karyn Traphagen
sent to G-i-P few poems and lyrics found on the
Limited Edition website. They can be found here.
I also received a necessary help from Iris, who has found fragments
of the lyrics in the soundtrack.
If you are in possession of other lyrics
and poems from TTT soundtrack send
them to Gwaith-i-Phethdain! They will be analyzed here in detail.
Your help is wanted!
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Mysteries
of movie Dwarvish revealed!
[December
1, 2002]
David
Salo in Elfling message
from November 30, 2002 presented background and meaning of the Moria
inscriptions prepared by himself for the LotR trilogy: "In
May of 1999, I was asked to provide some translations and renditions
into a mode of Angerthas for the runic lettering that would
appear on the walls of Moria. I worked with John Howe and Grant Major
on this; Grant wrote the texts he wanted rendered into Khuzdul (to
be accurate: part Khuzdul, and part my own inventions), and I faxed
back transcriptions into cirth. It was a few days' work, and
then of course the inscriptions had to be turned into actual artifacts
that would give the flavor of the Dwarvish civilization in
Moria."
David
Salo's Khuzdul phrases and inscriptions can be seen here.
David writes in his Elfling message: "I should add that my construction
of neo-Khuzdul (or pseudo-Khuzdul, if you prefer) changed over time,
and that the constructions I used in the soundtrack differed in some
particulars; in particular, I elaborated the verbal system a good
deal more and in some different ways than the examples above suggest."
We
all hope David Salo will describe his neo-Khuzdul one day on
our website.
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Inane comments written on the walls of Moria: true of false?
[December 1, 2002]
Listening
the commentary sound-track from the design crew on the extended
edition of FotR DVD we can hear unusual history about the inane
runic inscriptions on the walls of Moria (Disc II, scene 35
"Balin's Tomb"), just after the entrance of the Fellowship
into the Chamber of Mazarbul:
GRANT
MAJOR: There's quite a interesting story attached to all the
lettering on the walls here, because we, well, I personally,
actually, wrote the text which was translated into Dwarvish
and then applied onto the walls, and so I was very careful with
the place names and the people's names and what have you, and
of course there is a limited amount of information that I could
glean from the books in terms of the histories here, whatever;
I did write down all the history part of it myself, and as fate
would have it, there was a Tolkien language scholar who was
invited onto set; and he happened to visit this particular Balin's
tomb set one day off-shoot, and he reported to the producer
that there was all sorts of inane comments written on the walls,
like, - I can't remember the exact quote he used, but something
like "Joe was here" and various other irrelevancies.
Finally
the crew didn't find any such an inane inscription and it seems
that the "Tolkien language scholar" (whoever he was)
had a false impression about the runic inscriptions in
the movie, but... I have found this strange inscription in Appendices
to extended DVD edition (Disc IV, Big-atures):
The
inscription reads: ... and gohn made. It is English and
it should be understood as '[a name] and John made'.
Such an inscription couldn't be made by the Dwarves of Khazad-dûm.
Its author is a John who probably worked in the decorations
team. Maybe the mentioned above "Tolkien language scholar"
saw an inscription like this?
It
is clear (especially in light of the report above)
that David Salo (who is the author of the Moria inscriptions
in Khuzdul) is not responsible for such silly texts on Moria
pillars.
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Elvish from Extended DVD FOTR analyzed
[November
15, 2002]
On
November 12 the new DVD Extended FotR edition was released. As we
wrote two weeks ago, it contains a lot of new
linguistic features. Now you can find all the dialogs from the extended
edition analyzed or partially analyzed here.
The new Sindarin dialogs are:
-
Anirne
hene... or Elrond Near Gilraen's Grave.
-
Boe
ammen... or Lórien Dialog III
-
Am
meleth dîn... or Galadriel's Farewell
In
preparation is a special analysis of the new Elvish songs occurring
in the extended edition as well as a review of the calligraphy fragments
found in the movie. Your help will be appreciated! R.D.
UPDATE!
Thanks to Míriel's
message on ELFLING I could add to our list the Sindarin text of
the song sang by Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn). Today I present two new
Sindarin texts of songs from DVD Extended FotR:
-
A
Elbereth Gilthoniel
-
Lay
of Leithian
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Easterling
letters! New writing system in the TTT?
[November
3, 2002]
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Yesterday
Tolkien
Online presented a report
from the TTT exhibit in Toronto, Canada. Its author, Elbren
wrote there that he had been able to see very interesting Easterling
armor. Elbren
wrote: I really don't know if we'll notice the detail of
this armor in the movie, but almost every piece of armor has
some sort of script on it that looks like a cross
between Arabic and Elvish lettering.
If
this is true we can expect a new kind of movie language team
activity: devising quite new system of writing for the movie!
I hope we will soon see it.
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Easterling
language and script is not described in J.R.R. Tolkien's writings.
It seems WETA and Peter Jackson wanted Easterling linguistic devices
to make their weapon more realistic. Maybe Bill Welden or David Salo
could say something more about this?
UPDATE!
In Brian Sibley's album The Lord of the Rings - The Making
of the Movie Trilogy I have found an inscription which seems to
be in the script mentioned above. I think it is the first published
inscription in Easterling script devised especially for The Two
Towers and The Return of the King films. Here it is:
It
really looks like "a cross between Arabic and Elvish lettering".
We can only guess what it means in the intention of its creators.
Visiting
the tomb of Aragorn's mother
[November
1, 2002 - All Saints' Day]
Florian
"Lothenon" Dombach from Germany sent us this very
interesting photo from the extended DVD version
of FotR (see here).
It
seems to be the tombstone of Gilraen, Aragorn's mother, visited
by her son (a theme very actual today, on All Saints' Day) and
this is what Florian could decipher:
Gilraen
Onen
i estel edain
ú-chebin
estel anim
It
is quite obvious that this Sindarin text comes from the well
known linnod from Appendix A in The Return of the
King: Onen i-Estel Edain, ú-chebin estel anim 'I
gave Hope to the Dúnedain, I have kept no hope for myself.'
These were the last words Aragorn heard from his mother.
It
is remarkable that the diphthongs are written full with carriers
and the variable S-Tengwa is used as Christopher Tolkien often
did (a in most full-modes).
For
detailed analysis see here.
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FOTR
Extended DVD Linguistic Review
[October
31, 2002]
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In
few weeks all of us will be able to see the DVD extended FotR
version with special Peter Jackson's cut. Here
you can read leo's
review of this 4-disc-set. Spoilers!
Tolkienian
linguists and lovers of the movie Elvish may find it interesting
that the DVD version will contain many David Salo's phrases
in the languages of J.R.R. Tolkien, which were not included
in the theatrical version of FotR.
In
the extended film Frodo and Sam meet Elves passing from Middle-earth
to Gray Havens. Elves sing in Elvish! As
the Hobbits and Aragorn rest after passing the Midgewater Marshes,
Frodo overhears Strider sadly singing a song in Elvish
(in Sindarin?) When asked whom he was singing about,
the Ranger responds that it was the Lay of Leithian.
During the Council of Elrond, Gandalf utters the Ring Verse
in Black Speech (see here)
The Rivendel-sequence ends with Elrond
giving his blessing over the Fellowship. He probably uses the
Quenya phrase analyzed here.
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We
will hear Sindarin in the scene with Aragorn and Elrond
near Aragorn's mother grave. Also we will see extended scenes
in which Haldir and Aragorn discuss in
Sindarin in Lórien; they can be found here.
In the same scene Gimli curses at Haldir in Khuzdul (this
curse can be found here).
During the farewell scene in Lórien there is more time
for Aragorn's goodbye to Galadriel and some more Elvish
lines are being spoken. This can be a new, earlier not revealed
dialog in Quenya or Sindarin.
As
soon as the extended version will be available, you can expect
Gwaith-i-Phethdain:
Movie will publish the detailed analysis of all the linguistic
features found there!
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FOTR
Extended DVD Menu Inscriptions
[October
31, 2002]
From
Andrew Durdin:
TheOneRing.net
has just posted a link to an article
on ign.com which shows images from the menus on the Fellowship
of the Ring extended edition DVD. On a couple of these
images, there are inscriptions in the Certar running
along the top of the page (the menus are designed to look like
a book), and in the Tengwar along the bottom of the page,
in imitation of the Lord of the Rings title pages.
In
the third
image, which shows a tilted title page, the runes along
the top are meant to say There and Back Again - a Hobbit's
Tale, while the letters along the bottom read Eleventy-one
years is far too short a time to live among such excelleng and
admirable hobbits. I don't know half -- and there they
stops. In the sixteenth
image, showing a similar title page which is now straight,
the runes along the top are the same, but the writing along
the bottom now reads Nine Companions to match the Nine Ringwraiths.
So be it - Elrond regards them - You shall be the Fellowship
of the Ring!. Most
exciting of all - in my opinion - is the fourteenth
image showing a book with a loose leaf resting on its left page;
this is almost a facsimile copy of the calligraphy Tolkien himself
did for The Road Goes Ever On - that's right, it is
Namárië, in the original Quenya! There are a few other
bits of tengwar writing scattered around, but they seem to be
fragmentary, and are small and not clear, so I didn't attempt
to decipher them.
The
title page inscriptions, while beautifully lettered, are not
very well executed technically, or rather linguistically. The
runes are encumbered by maintaining the silent final 'e' from
English orthography, using certa 55 (in full, no less) which
Tolkien consistently used for schwa, and there is no
attempt at a phonetic spelling such as Tolkien used on the title
page of the book. Even the word "back" is spelled
with a double-k (certa 18).
The
tengwar inscriptions are even worse: the choice of letters is
remarkably inconsistent (vide the use of both tengwar
14 and 22 for 'v', and 22 (again) and 36 for 'w'), and once
again there seems to be little effort at phonetic spelling,
but rather a simple substitution for Latin characters. They
incorrectly use no. 3 for 'c' in companions, and no.
12 for 'ch' in match (though it should be as in Bach).
The inconsistencies also include spelling nine with
17, dot above, 17 dot below (for the silent 'e'), but time
by 1, dot above, 18 (without the dot below). But the dot below
is retained in live. For 'h' they use no. 33 (correctly),
or 15 (incorrectly -- it should be 'zh' as in azure), but they
make 33 do double work for 'x'.
I
am a little disappointed. I would have thought that since New
Line put so much effort into the visual appearance of the
DVD menus, they could have paid a little more attention to using
the Elvish scripts in a more consistent fashion.
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New
details of the weapon inscriptions
[August
31, 2002]
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Thanks
to our movie informer we can show you new
details and new contents of the sword, knife and spear inscriptions
from the movie trilogy. All photos and information come
from The
Official Movie Magazine.
The
most interesting item is the Dwarvish spear inscription
from the weapon of the Cave Troll in the battle of Durin's Tomb!
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Black
Speech and Rohirric in TTT
[August
28, 2002]
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In
October 2002 they will publish Jude Fisher's The
Two Towers - Visual Companion. A fully illustrated visual
guide to the second in the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy,
taking the reader on a journey into the world of Peter Jackson's
epic.
The
book will contain two phrases in the languages of J.R.R. Tolkien's
Middle-earth: one
in Black Speech and one
in Rohirric (which in fact is Anglo-Saxon). Gwaith-i-Phathdain
has analyzed these linguistic items from the upcoming movie.
See here.
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The
Art of The Fellowship of the Ring
[July
24, 2002]
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New
book entitled The Lord of the Rings: The Art of The Fellowship
of the Ring (by Gary Russel; HarperCollins, 2002, HB, 192
pp., 25 GBP or 35 USD) provides us with few interesting linguistic
informations.
We
can find there projects of Aragorn's sword Narsil with simplified
Elvish inscription (see here),
we may also see there the sketch of Aragorn's Hunting Knife
with tengwar letters (see here)
and the traces of tengwar from Legolas' quiver being a gift
from Galadriel (it is worth of further research)
It
would be wonderful if New Line Cinema published a book devoted
to the languages of Middle-earth used in the movie. Maybe it
isn't too bad idea, Dear Publishers!
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