Sindarin Tengwar Inscriptions
by D. Daniel Andriës
D.
Daniel Andriës (Uialdil) is 38 years old
and lives in Shreveport, Lousiana, USA. Uialdil writes: I first became
interested in calligraphy when I first 'met' J.R.R. Tolkien, via The Hobbit.
I was about twelve years old at the time. While I was in high school, there
was a general re-awakening of interest in Tolkien's works, especially The
Lord of the Rings. I read it and loved it! So did many of my classmates.
While reading Appendix E, I realised that I could actually spell words
using tengwar, and my classmates and I set to learning them. We based our
usage on the example on the title page, and a few of us decided to devise a
more phonetic approach by matching tengwar to IPA symbols. A few of us
lingustic-minded ones could read this 'mode,' but it was gibberish to most of
the others! (You realise English is not phonetic in its spelling!) I now use
the full writing mode in the King's Letter to represent English. I generally
use true calligrapher's tools for my tengwar calligraphy, but for computer
scanning of examples I often use felt-tipped markers and gel pens for their
vibrant colours.
Oh, and by the way, my Elven 'alias' is Uialdil... mixed Sindarin/Quenya
form meaning 'Lover of twilight'...twilight being very special to the Eldar.
A(ng) Ngaladhorn anno huilad nîn!
'To Galadhorn [I] give greeting mine!'
