Wonderful news! Finally we have the complete lyrics from the FotR EE soundtrack. The new complete recordings of the FotR had been released on Dec 13, 2005 and they have published a pdf file with all the lyrics on their official website! Download it...

The Annotated Score

[PDF file, 1,08 MB; mirror]

... and compare it with our imperfect gueses and reconstructions. I am so happy I finally know what is sung in the obscure fragments of the score.

Is the analysis necessary? I think so. Maybe we can do it together on our Forum "Elendli"? Welcome to the topic New lyrics from FotR, TTT and RotK. Welcome also to our Friends at A Magpie's Nest! Magpie discusses it too!

Tethra from Council of Elrond has sent us a very interesting analysis of the runes from the Mouth of Sauron's helmet. See here.

From recently released website of Daniel Reeve:

"Daniel Reeve is an artist from New Zealand. He is most well known for the calligraphy and cartography on the film trilogy of The Lord of the Rings, directed by Peter Jackson. As well as all the maps, books, scrolls, parchments and inscriptions in the movies themselves, Daniel’s work extended to the merchandising arm of the project with New Line Cinema, where he was responsible for much lettering and design, and of course the ubiquitous map of Middle-earth. Other projects to do with The Lord of the Rings included artwork for the games of Risk and Monopoly for Hasbro, Maps of Middle-earth and tengwar lettered trading cards for Decipher, titles and menus for Extended Edition DVDs, and maps for a computer game by Electronic Arts, to name a few.

Daniel is currently involved in two more movie projects: King Kong, directed by Peter Jackson, and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe [sic!], directed by Andrew Adamson (Shrek). His work can also be glimpsed in the film Van Helsing.

When not working in the film industry, Daniel creates paintings, exhibiting from time to time with The New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts and with Watercolour NZ, in Wellington. Daniel’s paintings are represented in private collections in New Zealand, United Kingdom and South Africa, and in New Zealand’s Parliament.

Daniel accepts commissions for artwork, old-style maps, and calligraphy."

Visiting Daniel Reeve's website is an absolute must for every fan of the languages in the movie! See also our department devoted to the writing system devised by Daniel, and see the new maps and calligraphy by this artist.

In the appendices in the RotK EE DVD we can find some new information about the inscriptions in the RotK movie. Here is what we can see on the helmet of Mouth of Sauron:

According to Cueru the inscription may read:

I wonder what are the opinions of the others. A very strange thing is the presence of the Quenya word Ainulin[dalë].

On the DVD we may find out also the inscription of Grond which reads:

no wall between no power against no endurance of souls - grond - the will of mordor

The Official Movie Site has presented the RoTK Extended Edition trailer in which we have a few-seconds-long scene with Mouth of Sauron. A German website devoted to the RotK EE has stills from the trailer with the close-ups of the helmet (one of them is seen on the left). Our friends: Neratin and Dan Accardi have tried to decipher the runes from the helmet. According to Neratin they read erroneously ... lammen Gorthaur (according to some scholars few years ago Sindarin lammen meant 'of the language' and not, as we know now, 'my language'). Neratin also sees meloo palan in the second line of the inscription what is in accordance with the interpretation of Beren from Canada (see here) The helmet inscription seems to be written in Sindarin (and not in Black Speech like Ch. Smith stated in his book; see here). Dan Accardi has tried to decipher the inscription using three modes of the Cirth runes. Here is what he has found:

Angerhas Daeron: Inner Lame: l a m m e ?   k/g? o v th a u rh; Second Lame: ... a u rh

Julian Jarosch presents his compilation of all revealed lyrics from the LotR movie in the PDF document. As Julian wrote to me in the letter: It's meant to be a help to find the texts as they are sung in the soundtrack. So, enjoy Julian's work. We would like to hear your opinions about the document. Write to me with questions and suggestions. Linguistic Sountrack Textbook [WinZip file, 675 KB]

I would like to announce that new website devoted to the LotR soundtrack (and especially the lyrics in the languages of Middle-earth) has appeared in the net! It is Marilynn Miller's Magpie's Nest, a detailed, carefull and very interesting analysis of the whole LotR soundtrack! I want to thank Magpie for her credits to Gwaith-i-Phethdain: Webmaster, Ryszard Derdzinski and friends have gathered lyrics from many sources and translated the languages of Tolkien into English.  Most of the lyrics I provide here were from Ryszard's site.  This is the premier website for the lyrics of the soundtrack.  When I wanted to compile the lyrics, this was the place I started and it's always the last place I look before I commit to a final 'product'.  I don't agree with everything they have, but it's the most comprehensive lyrics site and is updated pretty quickly when significant information comes to light. Thank you! Magpie's website will also be the place where the author of this service will search for the professional information.

Our friend Candy Schwartz from Boston, USA, has sent me the articles from Music from the Movies #42 devoted to the soundtrack in the RotK movie. We can find there many new lyrics from RotK translated into Sindarin by David Salo. I present them in our soundtrack department: Angmar, Nazgûl. I have also corrected few older lyrics: The Evening Star, White Rider, The Grace according to the information in the article. I am looking forward to hearing your comments.

David Carroll is a member of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus. The Chorus is soon to perform the LotR Symphony with Howard Shore. Along with the score the members of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus were provided with a PDF file of the supposed translation of the score. Dave has compiled a corrected translation document in which he has leaned heavily on our soundtrack translation site. He has agreed to publish his document. And here it is: the PDF document: The Lord of the Rings Symphony: choral text translation (PDF 44,5 KB)

Thanks to the kindness of Jaime Ondrusek we have three new lyrics in Sindarin which were published in the sheet music for The Return of the King. They are White Rider (Mithrandir's Song), Twilight and Shadow and The Grace of Undómiel. We know now all about The End of All Things too. We need your help in deciphering Twilight and Shadow and The Grace of Undómiel. The text coming from the sheet music is obscure. Danijel Legin has sent me the complete sheet music of the track Minas Tirith. Thanks to his notes I could reconstruct the whole White Rider (Mithrandir's Song) Sindarin lyric. Paul Chapman has sent me the phonetic transription of the Sindarin lyric in FotR: Amon Hen. Now I am trying to reconstruct that lyric. Our friend Pippin's Scarf has sent us the vocal score for the symphony with many new lyrics from FotR, TTT and RotK. Tonight I have added three new lyrics from FotR: A Journey in the Dark (in Khuzdûl), Departure of Boromir and The Seduction of the Ring! Enjoy. Tomorrow there will be more additions.

Update. Thanks to David Carroll we know the English text of the Durin's Song performed in A Journey in the Dark in Khuzdûl. See it here. 

The Return of the King and Peter Jackson have received 11 Oscars! Eglerio! Today I present few newer inscriptions from the RotK movie. You can see them here. I'm looking forward to hearing your opinion about their content.

Update. Thanks to the discussion in our linguistic forum we could provide you with the transcription of the page of the Herbal.

Today there is The Return of the King movie premiere! On this occasion I present all the dialogs in Elvish (Sindarin and Quenya) from RotK. Unfortunately there are only three phrases in Sindarin and one in Quenya, and all four aren't new for us at all. Here they are: (1) Elrond and Aragorn, (2) Aragorn's Thanks, (3) Elrond's Farewell, (4) Frodo's Invocation.

The information comes from Tithenwen who writes in her letter: I´m very disappointed to say that there are only tree lines in Sindarin, and all of them are well known. Information about the Quenya phrase comes from Lothenon. Enjoy your movie premiere! And listen carefully. Maybe you will hear another dialog in the languages of Middle-earth? If you find out something new, write to me please! I am waiting for your comments concerning the languages in The Return of the King.

Update. Thanks to Beren I could correct the phrase (3) Elrond's Farewell. I have also added the orc cry at the Black Gate: (5) The Orc Cry.

Many people have noticed another phrase: (6) Éowyn's Toast in Rohirric (Old English).

David Salo, the author of the dialogs and lyrics in the languages of Middle-earth which were used in the movie, offered to answer a bunch of questions for the readers of Muse. This interesting interview can be found here.

Salo revealed there one of the Neo-Khuzdûl lyrics from FotR and explained some details of his translator's work. He also said that his book about Sindarin grammar will be published in 2004!

Salo's explanations and some notes from our friends (eg. Jonathan Avidan) allowed us to make some updates in the dialogs and the lyrics. Here is the Black Speech phrase from Weathertop and here the new lyric in Khuzdûl. I have also made some minor corrections in many other dialogs and lyrics from the LotR movie trilogy. Enjoy!

In Chris Smith's The Lord of the Rings - Weapons and Warfare. Illustrated Guide to the Battles, Armies and Armour of Middle-earth there can be seen Mouth of Sauron's helmet. It is written that that helmet has the Black Speech inscription in runes: I am the Mouth of Sauron, hear him speak.

Our friend from Canada, Beren, has sent me his analysis of this inscription. In the letter he writes: I have tried looking closely at the helm of the Mouth of Sauron, and in MS Paint went over lines I could see in red. You may see this here.  I also included what the runes were and what I believe they would be in Roman letters.  Some of the lone i's may be parts of other cirth.

Beren's photo with the reconstruction of the part of the Black Speech inscription can be seen on the left. For my first steps in reconstructing this inscription see here. If you have any additional notes write to me with your ideas, please.

Brian Bly has sent another Sindarin lyric from the RotK soundrack. The Eagles come from the Special Edition booklet. Our friend, Pernilla Jansson said that this lyric was sung by Ben Del Maestro in Minas Tirith [2.02]. But now I am sure another friend of Gwaith is right: Caroline from France has correctly identified this lyric as the text sung in the end of The End of All Things [4.09-5.04]. Thank you for your help.

Kurt Milano and Pernilla Jansson found out the meaning of The Return of the King [4.41-5.24]. It is the first part of Song to Tinúviel from FotR which is also sung in The Flight to the Ford in FotR [0.00-0.39]: Tinúviel elvanui, Elleth alfirin 'Tinúviel [the] elven-fair, immortal maiden...'. See here for its application in the RotK soundtrack.

Now we must find the meaning of the following fragments: Ash And Smoke [1.10 onwards], The Fields [1.47-2.52], The Black Gate [2.00 onwards], The End of All Things [0.37-1.10] and [2.17-4.08]. Can anybody find out where eg. The Grey Haven lyric is sung? If you have any guesses write to me, please!

Since today the Limited Edition version of The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King soundtrack is available. This edition contains the DVD featuring a video of the making of the score, and it has a section entitled Songs, Poems, and Lyrics. There we can find 13 lyrics from the CD including 10 new lyrics (3 of 13 were published in the standard version of the soundtrack. If we exclude the English text of The Edge of Night (sung by Billy Boyd) we can 9 completely new Sindarin texts translated by David Salo. Here they can be found. It is not easy to apply the lyrics to the songs. As usually H. Shore uses sometimes only fragments of the lyrics. Sometimes they are very obscure because of their fragmentation. My attempt in the application of the lyrics can be seen here.

Maria Artamonova, a graduate student of Old English at Oxford (and a member of the Oxford Tolkien Society) has tried to tackle the final lines of Éowyn's Dirge. First she gave few notes to Tsukusu Jinn Ito's transcription:

1. The Old English for ‘nowhere’ is nahwær, not nowere.

2. The rules of versification do not permit to have the stranded ‘is’ at the beginning of the new line.

3. ‘mægen’ means ‘power’, not ‘kinsman’, and is not appropriate.

4. The line þurh niedig rest. And mægen deorost has no alliteration and is therefore invalid.

Maria Artamonova's reading is:

þæt he ma no wære,

his dryhtne dyrest and mæga deorost

'that he is no more,

to his lord dearest and of kinsmen most beloved'

(the words dyrest and deorost are nearly synonyms)

If you have another guess write to me, I am waiting for your help!

For the whole of Éowyn's Dirge see here.

Tsukusu Jinn Ito from Japan has sent us the first part of her transcription of the Old English words of Aragorn to the Rohan horse Brego. According to Jinn they are:

Aragorn [to a man of Rohan]:

Hathspell!

[Hathspell is a proper name of a man of Mark]
 

Aragorn [to brego]:

Ælle nog
Fæste, fæste, ælle nog, and stilla,
Lac is drefed, gefrægon.
 

'All right!

'[Oh] fast, fast, all right, and [be] quiet,

A battle is stirred up, [they] heard.'

We are waiting for Jinn's interpretation of the latter part of this scene. My conclusion of this scene is here (in places Jinn hears Hathspell and Ælle nog I hear Fæste and stille nú - exactly as it was published in Jude Fisher's TTT Movie Guide)

Tsukusu Jinn Ito from Japan has sent us the transcription of the final part of Éowyn's Dirge which seems to be hopefully the right and final interpretation. Jinn has been assigned to be in charge of supervising Elvish and other Tolkien's created languages in Japanese dub version of The Lord of the Rings: the movie. Because of her education (she first wrote a BA thesis in 1989 and since then my main studies have mainly concentrated on Medieval English language and literature as well as Old Icelandic and other Scandinavian Medieval language and literature in order to understand Tolkien's real intention and his artistry) she is very well prepared to such an transcription. According to Jinn the final part of Éowyn's Dirge is:

Þæt he ma nowere is, þurh niedig rest.

And mægen deorost

Bealo...

'That he is nowhere anymore, for his necessary rest.

And [that he is] the dearest kinsman.'
Killing [took him]...
 

If you have another guess write to me, I am waiting for your help!

NOTE. We should also remember about the earlier attempt of Daniel J. Halloran: þat heo mano arer his þruc ne deores on meagorinc deorcas, belu... 'That noble cousin who always held me dear to his chest, now is held enclosed in darkness...'

In Chris Smith's The Lord of the Rings - Weapons and Warfare. Illustrated Guide to the Battles, Armies and Armour of Middle-earth there can be seen Mouth of Sauron's helmet. It is written that that helmet has the Black Speech inscription in runes: I am the Mouth of Sauron. Listen to his words. It is interesting that the quick investigation reveals some of these runes. It is what I could see:

...mmen and ....n meilô palan. Of course my investigation can be erroneous. I need your help. What do you think about this inscription? What does it read? Write to me, please, with your ideas.

On November 24, 2003 the RotK soundtrack was released. We have expected new 'Elvish lyrics' and here they are! It is really wonderful music, and David Salo's translations are very interesting.

In the CD booklet we find only three lyrics in the languages of Middle-earth: (1) Andúril (Sindarin), (2) The Destruction of the Ring (Sindarin) and (3) Aragorn's Coronation (Quenya - text by J.R.R. Tolkien). But we can hear more music with 'Elvish', Rohirric and Black Speech words. I wonder what you think about their lyrics. I need your help! If you have any guesses write to me, please!

Finally TTT Extended Editions has been released! We don't find many new phrases in the languages of Middle-earth there. I have tried to transcribe every new word which can be heard in the DVD. Here you can see: (1) Sindarin dialog between Arwen and Aragorn, (2) Rohirric (Old English) words of Aragorn to the horse Brego, (3) Éowyn's Dirge.

I hope you will be able to help me to correct all what is incorrect in these transcriptions. I am also waiting for your help in finding the other phrases which were not included in my analysis. For example we hear more words in Old English (and Sindarin?) in Aragorn's words to the horse Brego (something like Man cenich 'What did you see - Sindarin - and more).

From the TTT EE Appendices we know that the two first lines of Éowyn's dirge are:

Bealocwealm hafað fréone frecan forth onsended
giedd sculon singan gléomenn sorgiende on Meduselde...

'An evil death has set forth the noble warrior
A song shall sing sorrowing minstrels in Meduseld...'

What is interesting here the first line is very similar to a line from Beowulf (line 2265): Bealocwelm hafað fela feorhcynna forð onsended... 'Baleful death has many of my living kin sent forth...' (thanks to Pernilla Jansson from Sweden). David Salo, author of Éowyn's dirge, wanted another parallel between Old English poetical tradition and the culture of the Rohirrim. It is very beautiful!

I hope somebody with good knowledge of Old English will reconstruct the rest of the text of Eowyn's funeral song. Write to me, I am waiting for your help!

Andúril's inscription is finally revealed! You can find it analyzed here. My thanks for this information to Kirsten Zeller, Menelvantar, Stefan Servos, Tarlancwen Derencar and Rainer Jarosch.