Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Tengwar Capitals?

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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.

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