| This book is an irreplaceable written help, by the hand of J.R.R. Tolkien, to understand the world of Middle-earth and the story of the Lord of the Rings, which have both their origin in Tolkien's love for the languages he invented. Published with the help of the Tolkien Estate and Christopher Tolkien, illustrated by Alan Lee, this work is single in its kind. It has now been released in French as a paperback version by Christian Bourgois éditeur. The reader will find explanations of many Elven names and discover the starting points of many tales imagined by Tolkien. The Etymologies is a document edited by Christopher Tolkien which appears in English in the The History of Middle-Earth: the Lost Road and Other Writings. Christopher Tolkien described it as "a remarkable document." It is neither a dictionary nor an instructional primer - words are not listed in alphabetical order - it is essentially a list of "roots" which J. R. R. Tolkien used as building blocks in creating the Elvish languages of Arda, namely Quenya and Sindarin. Christopher Tolkien said in his introduction that his father was "more interested in the processes of change than he was in displaying the structure and use of the languages at any given time." (Lost Road p. 378.) |
Tolkien was always interested in words, not in actually using a language to communicate. Thus the etymologies are preoccupied with place-name elements and the like, but nowhere are basic Elvish phrases (except the two or three in Lord of the Rings) ever developed.
Because the etymologies were extant when work on Lord of the Rings began, they give many insights into place and personal names of elvish origin otherwise opaque in the work itself.
We have to congratulate the French Tolkien Publisher to produce this paperback - let us hope the UK and US Tolkien Publishers will give us a similar publication real soon!
| Les étymologies by J-R-R Tolkien (Author), Christopher Tolkien (Editor) and Daniel Lauzon (Translator) Paperback: 156 pagesPublisher: Christian Bourgois EditeurPublication date: 8 Oct 2009Language: FrenchISBN-10: 226702053XISBN-13: 978-2267020533 |
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