PARMA ELDALAMBERON 15
SÍ
QENTE FEANOR
and Other Elvish Writings
by J. R. R. TOLKIEN
Parma Eldalamberon 'The Book of Elven-tongues' is a journal of
the Elvish Linguistic Fellowship, a special interest group of the Mythopoeic Society. The current issue is a
collection of early writings by J. R. R. Tolkien concerning his
invented languages and scripts. These writings have been edited
and annotated by Arden R. Smith, Christopher Gilson, Patrick H. Wynne
and Bill Welden, under the guidance of Christopher Tolkien and with the
permission of the
Tolkien Estate.
"Sí
Qente Feanor" is a prose excerpt written in Qenya.
It was composed by Tolkien in the same notebook that contains the tale
called "The Nauglafring" and the Gnomish Grammar. Other writings
from the Lost Tales period
presented in this issue include a list of Qenya and Gnomish "Names and Required Alterations"
connected with "The Cottage of Lost Play"; two charts laying out the
sound system of Gnomish; and various early notes on Elvish words and
names not found anywhere else. Also presented here is the full
text of the "Name-list to The Fall of
Gondolin,"
excerpts from which were published in The
Book of Lost Tales, Part Two. Editorial commentary is
provided
on the connections of these various texts with the contemporary tales
and lexicons.
"Early
Runic Documents" is an edition of Tolkien's charts and notes
from about 1918 to 1925 dealing with runes and various rune-like
alphabets. Tolkien's examples of the scripts are reproduced in
fascimile — charts of the
sounds represented by the letters, and Elvish words and English texts
written in the scripts. These include English and Gothic runes;
Gondolinic runes; and two invented scripts, one called simply "Runic"
and the other called "Gnomic Letters". Transcriptions of
the
examples, and commentary on the dating and historical background are
provided. Also published in this issue is an "Addendum to The Alphabet of
Rúmil and The Valmaric
Script."
This is a document recently encountered among Tolkien's papers which
includes texts written in both of these early invented scripts.
Tables
of "Early Qenya Pronouns"
provide a glimpse of the transition in the conception of the language
between the Lost Tales period
and the "Early Qenya Grammar" that Tolkien composed while at
Leeds.
And closely connected with the grammar we also present the beginnings
of an "English-Qenya Dictionary"
which Tolkien started to compile at this time. A remarkable
feature of this dictionary is that most of the Qenya words in it are
transcribed into the Valmaric script, providing one of the more
elaborate examples of Tolkien's own representation of an Elvish
language using an Elvish writing system. From about the same
period, a partial "Index of
Names" for The Lay of the
Children of Húrin is also presented in this issue.
Detailed
annotations and commentary on the conceptual developments in these
texts are included.
Cover art by Adam Victor Christensen.
