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1/ Have you ever wondered which of #Tolkien’s invented writing systems is used by the #Hobbits? This is a question I repeatedly get asked. Let’s have a look… #TolkienFriday
2/ First, it’s definitely not the Latin alphabet with little dots and strokes about the vowels. This font was invented for Peter Jackson’s movies. The signs about the vowels are not random btw, they are adapted from the Tengwar vowel signs. Very neat, I think.
3/ But now back to Tolkien: In the prologue to #TheLordOfTheRings (which none of you has ever skipped) we learn…
4/ “It was in these early days [before the Hobbits settled in the Shire], doubtless, that the Hobbits learned their letters and began to write after the manner of the Dúnedain, who had in their turn long before learned the art from the Elves.”
5/ So all we have to do is find out what kind of letters the Dúnedain learned from the Elves! There are two main writing systems created by Tolkien: the #Tengwar and the #Cirth (there are actually more but they don’t matter here).
6/ The Tengwar are commonly associated with the Elves and the Cirth with the Dwarves while actually both were created by the Elves. So let’s go back to the beginning…
7/ The Tengwar were created by #Fëanor, that’s the one with the Silmarils, in Valinor to write #Quenya before the Noldor returned to #MiddleEarth.
8/ The Cirth were developed in Beleriand by the Sindar, the best known Alphabet was created by Daeron, “the minstrel and loremaster of King Thingol of Doriath”. They were mostly used to carve inscriptions in stone, while the Tengwar were usually written on paper.
9/ When the Noldor had returned to Beleriand, they adapted the Tengwar to Sindarin and the script gained usage. Later in the #SecondAge, the Tengwar were the dominant alphabet used to write both Quenya and Sindarin as well as other languages like Adûnaic, the language of Númenor.
10/ Because the #Dwarves continued to use the Cirth this alphabet got associated with them. When the Númenóreans started to settle in Middle-earth, they brought their language #Adûnaic with them.
11/ In the following centuries it developed into Westron, better known as the Common Tongue, the language spoken by almost everyone in the Lord of the Rings. When the Hobbits came into contact with the descendants of the Númenóreans in the North of Middle-Earth, the Dúnedain, ...
12/ …they not only adapted the Common Tongue but also the script it was written in. That's what the quote in the prologue is probably referring to. Therefore, we can assume that the Hobbits used Tengwar to write the Common Tongue - just like everybody else.
13/ There are, however, some scenes in the #LOTR which seem to suggest otherwise. In “The Shadow of the Past”, #Gandalf, as everyone will remember, throws The Ring into the fireplace and a part of the Ring Verse appears upon its surface…
14/ “[ #Frodo] now saw fine lines, finer than the finest pen-strokes, ...: lines of fire that seemed to form the letters of a flowing script. … I cannot read the fiery letters,’ said Frodo ... ‘No,’ said Gandalf, ‘but I can. The letters are Elvish, of an ancient mode ..."
15/ The script written in upon the Ring use the Tengwar. There are two possible interpretations of this scene. Firstly, Frodo could not be able to read the script itself.
16/ Secondly, he could be able to read the script but because he doesn’t know the language it makes no sense to him. As Gandalf points out, this is an “ancient mode” of Tengwar and Frodo might simply not be able to read this specific mood ...
17/ ... (like knowing the Latin alphabet doesn’t automatically bring the ability to read Fraktur). Further, the Tengwar letters were used for different sounds in different languages. The Ring Verse is in the Black Speech, not in the Common Tongue, ...
18/ ... so this may also explain Frodo’s inability to understand the writing. Later, when the Fellowship of the Ring reaches the Gates of Moria, Frodo asks:
19/ “What does the writing say?” … “I thought I knew the elf-letters, but I cannot read these.” Again, it seems like Frodo could not read Tengwar but this is probably a false assumption. Frodo says he can’t read “these” elf-letters, so he probably can read others.
20/ One reason may be that the Tengwar are usually written without independent letters for the vowels. Instead, the vowels are written as diacritics (as in Arabic or Hebrew). There is however one mode which uses vowel letters.
21/ It’s called the “Mode of Beleriand” and the elvish writing upon the Gates of Moria are in this specific mode. Frodo might not be familiar with the vowel letters and therefore can’t read the writing. And again, the writing is not in Westron but in Sindarin, ...
22/ … a language Frodo hasn’t mastered at this point.
Most of the information in this thread you can find in Appendix E of the Lord of the Rings.
Most of the information in this thread you can find in Appendix E of the Lord of the Rings.
23/ In short: The Hobbits probably used one specific mode of the Tengwar for writing – which doesn’t mean they could read everything written in these letters. #TolkienFriday
