Download Some Dwarvish Fonts

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Are you looking to download some fonts for Dwarf Runes?  These are good places to start:
fontspace.com
dafont.com
fonts2u.com


Keep in mind that the people compiling these fonts don't distinguish between the runes we have been learning (Cirth, from Appendix E of Lord of the Rings), the runes on Thror's Map in The Hobbit, and runes from any other generic fantasy dwarves.

From those sites, here are some of the more useful fonts:

Angerthas Moria
classic look
dafont.com/angerthas-moria

The Cirth Erebor set 
classic look
This is the font I have used for my examples.
Be aware that the characters do not correspond directly to the keyboard. 
fontspace.com/dan-smiths-fantasy-fonts/cirth-erebor
dafont.com/cirth-erebor
fonts2u.com/cirth-erebor

Angerthas
handwritten (brushstroke) look
fontspace.com/bruce-kvam/angerthas
fonts2u.com/angerthas-runes
 
Moria
informal look
Has phases of the moon in place of the numerals.
dafont.com/moria

Angerthas Moria (a different "Angerthas Moria" font)
informal look
fonts2u.com/angerthas-moria

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Here are runes in Thror's Map style.

Dwarf Runes
classic look, incomplete alphabet
fonts2u.com/dwarf-runes 

Moon Runes
handwritten (brushstroke) look
A complete alphabet, though not all the numerals are in rune-style
fonts2u.com/moon-runes  

Tolkien Dwarf Runes
handwritten  (blobby-pen) lookincomplete alphabetdafont.com/tolkien-dwarf-runes
fonts2u.com/tolkien-dwarf-runes 

Thror's Map uses Anglo-Saxon Runes, so consider just downloading an Anglo-Saxon Rune font.
Most of these are "complete" alphabets, but not all the letters may correspond to characters found on Thror's map.
The lower-case letters are more likely to be "standard" characters, with variant forms in the capitals.  The C/K character on Thror's map might be in the C, c, K, or k position.
fonts2u.com/anglosaxon-runes
fontspace.com/dan-smiths-fantasy-fonts/anglosaxon-runes
fonts2u.com/anglo-saxon-runes-regular
fonts2u.com/futhark-aoe
dafont.com/futhark-aoe
dafont.com/ancientrunes
dafont.com/oxford-runes
dafont.com/english-runic
dafont.com/beowulf-runic
dafont.com/modraniht-runic
dafont.com/historical-runes

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Just for fun, here are a couple of fonts with "ordinary" letters in a runic-looking style.
fontspace.com/dan-smiths-fantasy-fonts/ds-runenglish-2
fontspace.com/manfred-klein/runish-quill-mk
dafont.com/odinson


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Tengwar Capitals?

 « Writing  «          Course Index         » Names of the Tengwar  »     

It is generally said that Tengwar do not have capital letters, and this is for the most part true.

I did recently come across an example, in Professor Tolkien's own handwriting, that includes some "decorated" Tengwar, which in some way resemble "capitals."  This is found in Sauron Defeated, volume IX of History of Middle Earth.

At the time Professor Tolkien was writing the ending to Lord of the Rings, he was picturing the main narrative continuing on farther into the later lives of the hobbit characters.  (This material was eventually incorporated into Appendix B, "Later Events Concerning the members of the Fellowship of the Ring.")  Tolkien made several drafts of a letter written by King Aragorn Elessar to Mayor Samwise of the Shire.  This is a bilingual letter, written in both Common and Sindarin Elvish.  (I am guessing that a court scribe would have done the actual penmanship.  I doubt the King of Gondor writes out his own correspondence.)

This is the beginning of the third draft of the Elvish half of the letter:

I have highlighted three "decorated" letters, the initial letters of Elessar (Elfstone), Telcontar (Strider), and Varanduiniant (Brandywine Bridge).  In some respects, these decorated letters are functioning as we would use capital letters.  However, notice that Aragorn and Arathorn (in the second line) are not distinguished in any way.

Extra material for geeks:

Because the language is Sindarin, rather than Quenya, some of the tengwar represent different sounds.

Also, because the language is Sindarin, the vowels are placed over the following consonant, rather than the preceding consonant.  (I find this easier to read, but harder to write.  But anyway that is the convention for Sindarin.)  

The text of that extract says:

Elessar Telcontar: Aragorn Arathornion Edhelharn, anglennatha i Varanduiniant erin dolothen Ethuil (egor ben genediadDr...

which translates to:

Elessar Strider: Aragorn son of Arathorn, the Elfstone, will approach the Brandywine Bridge on the eighth day of Spring (being in the reckoning of the Sh...

and he goes on to request Sam and his family to meet him there.

Later in the letter, a number of words are underlined.   Since the first underlined word is "in especial," I think the underlining is emphasis, rather than strictly how we would use capitalization.  Two names, Samwise and Rose, are decorated, but the names of their children are not.

"in especial, he desires to see Master Samwise (who should be called Fullwise), Mayor of the Shire, and Rose his wife; and Elanor, Rose, Goldilocks, and Daisy his daughters; and Frodo, Merry, Pippin, and Hamfast his sons.

Extra material for geeks:

The Sindarin text reads:

tírad i Cherdir Perhael (i sennui Panthael estathar aen) Condir i Drann, ar Meril bes dîn, ar Elanor, Meril, Glorfinniel ar Eirien, sellath dîn; ar Iorhael, Gelir, Cordof, ar Barvorn, ionnath dîn.

What do we conclude from this?  No capitals are required in Tengwar.  There is no tradition of doing anything special to the first letter of a sentence.  Most examples of Tengwar use only "plain" characters.  It is permitted, but by no means required, to "decorate" the first letter of a name.  Even in this rather artistic letter, out of 33 words that would be capitalized in English (18 of them names of people), only 5 (4 of them names of people) are decorated.

 « Writing  «          Course Index         » Names of the Tengwar  »     

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Writing with a Pen, and Some Extra Characters for Writing English

 

The distinctive shape of "runes" derives from carving the runes.  Straight lines are much easier to carve than curves.  When carving runes on wood, vertical lines can easily be cut across the grain of the wood, but horizontal lines (along the grain) are likely to either split the wood or be difficult to read. We don't know how much early Dwarves carved on wood, but we do know the practice was common among early northern Europeans, whose runes Tolkien used as models.

However, when someone writes with a pen in a runic script, those constraints no longer apply.  We do have some of Professor Tolkien's thoughts on what his runes would look like when written with a pen.

In The Treason of Isengard (History of Middle Earth, volume VII), Christopher Tolkien describes  some notes his father made "from the period shortly before the beginning of the Lord of the Rings -- more or less contemporary with the Quenta Silmarillion," discussing runes.  At this point, Professor Tolkien was thinking primarily of Elves using runes, but we know, from the Book of Mazarbul found at Balin's tomb in Moria, that Dwarves did sometimes write their runes on paper.

I here add the written forms of the runic letters to my previous charts.  Most of the letters are shown in two versions, one approximating more closely the original runic shapes, and one showing a more "handwritten" effect. 

Tolkien continued to revise his runic alphabet after these notes were made, so not all the letters  published Appendix E to Lord of the Rings, have "written" versions.  I think you will probably be able to easily fill in the missing letters, if you use these forms.

The pale green lines show the "base line" for lining up letters, just like the lined paper I learned on in elementary school.

This is what a passage looks like in these letters (Christopher Tolkien's handwriting):

 

Don't worry about how it translates.  It uses a slightly earlier version of which sounds are associated with each letter.  (Also, it is in Sindarin Elvish.)  I include this to show you how the letters look.

(I am not sure how Professor Tolkien derived some of those letters.  A few of those look strange to me.  And I am pretty sure it is wrong that the second form for Û is identical to the form for N.  But that is how Professor Tolkien wrote it, or at least how Christopher copied it.)

»◊«

 In the same notes, quoted in Treason of Isengard, are included some additional characters Professor Tolkien modified to represent sounds in English.  In particular, English has more variations in vowel sounds than any of the languages of Middle Earth.

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