The Tengwar

[Shi Huangdi]

Greetings, Third Age Total War developers, submodders, and fans.

Most of the Tengwar passages that appear on signatures, advertisements, etc. for TATW either do not say anything or say something that has nothing to do with LOTR or the general theme of TATW. I understand that this is not a the most important issue, and I hope I do not appear to be a nit-picker by pointing this out. I love TATW and I have been impressed by the great job the TATW team has done. That said, I believe Tolkien, were he still living, would consider accurate representation of his languages and alphabets key to true immersion in his mythical world.

The Tengwar are not easy to master and it took me months to do so. Here is a link to the resources I used: http://www.geocities.com/tengwar2001/pubs.htm.

For those who do not wish to take up the task of learning a new alphabet, here is a link to an online Tenwar transcriber, which will take a passage in English, German, Czech, Polish, Black Speech, Sindarin, or Quenya and transliterate it into the appropriate Tengwar characters. http://tengwar.art.pl/tengwar/ott/start.php?l=en. Depending on what fonts you have installed on your computer, it may take a bit of fiddling to produce an acceptable result, but I have found it a very useful tool. It includes an option to make a .png file, so your tengwar inscription can easily be added to a wallpaper, signature, or whatever in any image editing application.

[gary0044187]

you mean the scribled lines everywhere? that is a language? I believe they took it from the movies, I could be wrong. But, if it is from the movies then the fault lies in the movies.

[mambea]

you mean the scribled lines everywhere? that is a language? I believe they took it from the movies, I could be wrong. But, if it is from the movies then the fault lies in the movies.

Tolkein invented it, it's not something from the movies although it does appear at parts.

Thank you Beren Erchamion very much! Me and my friend were beginning to learn Quenya, this is sure appreciated!

[gary0044187]

Tolkein invented it, it's not something from the movies although it does appear at parts.

Thank you Beren Erchamion very much! Me and my friend were beginning to learn Quenya, this is sure appreciated!

what I meant was the script used was taken from the movies. I could have sworn that the line at the loading screen was pulled from the image of the one ring from the movies.

[mambea]

Ah I see.

[Shi Huangdi]

what I meant was the script used was taken from the movies. I could have sworn that the line at the loading screen was pulled from the image of the one ring from the movies.

It is taken from the book. The inscription reads

Ash nazg durbatuluk, ash nazg gimbatul, ash nazg thrakatuluk, agh burzum-ishi krimpatul

or in English,

One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, one ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.

Tolkein invented it, it's not something from the movies although it does appear at parts.

Thank you Beren Erchamion very much! Me and my friend were beginning to learn Quenya, this is sure appreciated!

You're welcome

[Radboud]

Are there a lot of sigs with tengwar in it ? Great links btw.

[mambea]

Are there a lot of sigs with tengwar in it ? Great links btw.

I only saw one on these forums, if I bump into it again I'll post for who it belongs.

[Aikanár]

I only saw one on these forums, if I bump into it again I'll post for who it belongs.

bump

[mambea]

There he be matey!!

[Radboud]

What is it supposed to say ?

[evinmulligan]

It says "bow before evinmulligan- he is your master!!"

[mambea]

It says "bow before evinmulligan- he is your master!!"

Not quite, I tried translating it but the cursive font makes it difficult, guess we'll wait for Aikanár to reply.

[Aikanár]

Ar Saruon lende númenorenna ... lantie nu huine ...
ohtakárie valannar ... manwe ilu terhante. eari lantier
kilyanna númenor atalante ... malle téra lende númenna,
ilya si maller raikar. Turkildi rómenna ... nuruhuine me lumna.

[Radboud]

Oh now I understand what it says .

[evinmulligan]

Ar Saruon lende númenorenna ... lantie nu huine ...
ohtakárie valannar ... manwe ilu terhante. eari lantier
kilyanna númenor atalante ... malle téra lende númenna,
ilya si maller raikar. Turkildi rómenna ... nuruhuine me lumna.

Its from the lost road and other writings.Itmeans

And Sauron came to Numenor...fell under shadow...war-made on-powers...?(manwe) ?(Ilu) broke. Seas fell into-chasm. Numenor down-fell. road straight went westward, all now roads bent. ?(turkildi) eastward. Death-shadow us is-heavy.

This comes from the lost road, an abandoned story by tolkien. In it a man from the modern world hears languages in his dream, one of which is quenya. he hears this paragraph and deciphers it. The question marks are words with no english equivalent, and he doesn't understand them, so I've put the quenya in brackets after.

[Shi Huangdi]

I was having trouble reading it too . There is more than one correct way to write the Tengwar, and it also changes depending on which language you use.

[Aikanár]

I was having trouble reading it too . There is more than one correct way to write the Tengwar, and it also changes depending on which language you use.

Hehe, that's partly due to the relief-filter I used

Concerning the way to write: totally seconded.
One even has to take care which TT one uses, because some of them do not change consonants, if it is
a regular combination of them, into one type.
The language is Quenya, but in an early state of development, 1936 to 1937.

[Mithrandir]

Does this mean my sig is incorrect?

[Shi Huangdi]

Does this mean my sig is incorrect?

No, your signature is one of the few correct ones I've seen around here. It says "mithrandir" correctly. It's not necessarily the way I would write it (I would represent the n as a wavy line over the d), but it's still correct.