#the cirth

[tenth-sentence]

Its chief characteristics were: the use 43 as z; of 17 as ks (x); and the invention of two new cirth, 57, 58 for g, gh, or as mere variants of 19, 21.

"The Lord of the Rings: Appendices – Appendix E" - J.R.R. Tolkien

[whats-in-a-sentence]

The Certhas Daeron was originally devised to represent the sounds of Sindarin only.

"The Lord of the Rings: Appendices – Appendix E" - J.R.R. Tolkien

[maironsbigboobs]

@sindarweek day 1: Inventions - Certhas Daeron

In Y.T. 1350, Daeron, Loremaster of Doriath, reorganised the cirth and added new ones, and this became known as Certhas Daeron. It was used for inscribing names in Menegroth. The Dwarves working for Thingol liked them and adopted them, spreading Certhas Daeron beyond the Blue Mountains.

[espenlearnskhuzdul]

Learning "Khuzdul", the language of the dwarves in Middle Earth

I've always loved the dwarves of Middle Earth, their culture, their art and clothing, their writing system, and of course their language.

That's why i've decided to learn Khuzdul! (and the writing system Cirth, while we're at it)

Now, there's unfortunately not a lot of info about Khuzdul by Tolkien himself. But the linguist David Salo further developed any info we do have and created neo-Khuzdul which was used for the LotR and Hobbit movies.

On this blog, i'll document everything i learn and try to explain it as best as i can, since i have a BA in linguistics. I'll also try to only use "canon" resources (this includes neo-Khuzdul by David Salo), but no fan-created material.

My sources are:

David Salo's blog (unfortunately deactivated now, but here's the link to the archived blog posts on Khuzdul)

"The Hobbit" and "Lord of the Rings" by Tolkien

the books "The History of the Lord of the Rings" / "The History of Middle Earth" by Christopher Tolkien & any other Tolkien books set in Middle Earth

---------------------------------------------------

Master List:

To-Do-List of "Khuzdul" Resources

David Salo's blog posts:

#1 (Feb. 2013)

#2 (Feb. 2013)

#3 (Feb. 2013)

#4 (Feb. 2013)

#5 (Feb. 2013)

Khuzdul in the movies:

"The Fellowship of the Ring" #1

[carrionkid]

man sorry about your various medical woes. can I offer you a (few) picture(s) of Klaus in these trying times

yeah. good luck!!

OHHHHH thank you river..... Best dog ever

[tragedykery]

babygirl I can make the ugliest fucking attempt at copying down the tengwar you have ever seen

[msrandonstuff]

DAERON MENTIONED

DAERON MENTIONED

[dfwbwfbbwfbwf]

Yeah, but no one in Beleriand would be able to read it. And even Rúmil admitted the Tengwar is superior. But Galadriel COULD use Daeron's Cirth.

when u want nothing whatsoever to do with your psychotic uncle but he literally invented the alphabet

[tenth-sentence]

Nos. 13, 15 were used for h or s, according as 35 was used for s or h.

"The Lord of the Rings: Appendices – Appendix E" - J.R.R. Tolkien

[gwaedhannen]

[Excerpt 12 from Sorrow Beyond Words: Collected Testimony of the War of Wrath, 4th Edition; edited by Elrond Peredhel.]

Editor's Note: The following is a partial listing of various graffiti and artefacts within the thrall quarters reported by the cleansers of Angband. The documentation was done at the command of Prince Ingwion, and a copy of the final report given to King Gil-Galad before the Prince returned to Valinor. The full report also contains medical examination information for every captive and corpse recovered, and is several thousand pages long.

[Sindarin Tengwar text, located in barrack 1443]: “Lenlim died here, and she did not forget the sun.”

A doll made of heavily-stained cloth and leather, in the form of an Eruchîn. Object shows heavy wear, and one arm is nearly torn off from the torso. Located in a refuse pit.

[Sindarin Tengwar text, located in barrack 933]: “They will offer you better food if you’re pregnant. Refuse.”

[Black Speech Tengwar text. Located in a mineshaft]: “snaga snaga snaga snaga snaga snaga snaga snaga snaga snaga snaga snaga snaga snaga snaga snaga snaga snaga snaga snaga snaga snaga snaga snaga snaga snaga“

Several bones from a foot, wrapped in cloth. Bite marks make age estimation impossible. Located in barrack 23.

[Sindarin Tengwar text, located in barrack 521]: “Feirdal is a snitch. Don’t trust him.”

[Sindarin Cirth text, located in barrack 521, on the opposite wall]: “Faranel is a hollow. Don’t trust her.”

[Taliska Tengwar text, located in a connecting tunnel]: “I told my son what rain is today. He doesn’t believe it exists.”

[Sindarin Cirth text, located in a mineshaft near a cave-in]: “[undecipherable] was here. Remember me.”

The handle of a rock hammer, with the head entirely worn off. Located in a dead-end tunnel. The rock wall at the end of the tunnel is heavily scratched and contains numerous broken fingernails and teeth.

[Sindarin Tengwar text, located in barrack 287]: “I came back. There is nothing beyond these stones for us.”

[Sindarin Tengwar text in three different hands, located in barrack 1242]:

"When I get to Mandos I am punching him in the face." "I’m aiming for the crotch instead." "We're not going to Mandos. Stay alive."

[Quenya Tengwar text, located in a latrine]: “The signs are compromised. Only believe your ears.”

[Taliska Tengwar text, located in barrack 932]: “They will offer you better food if you’re pregnant. Take the deal.”

[lenievi]

My fave spones fics

It's spones day!, so I decided to finally publish this extremely subjective short list I wrote years ago (hence no new fics). If a link doesn't work, put it through a wayback machine.

---

TOS McCoy/Spock romance, friendship, anything in between

A Man of Integrity by Jane Carnall. M. 18k. A mirror ‘verse story. Spock didn’t mind meld with McCoy, but kept him for long enough that the rest left without him. Will McCoy get back home? Written in 1989. (ao3)

Blue Under the Colourless Sky by vail-kagami (LJ). T. 4k. This. was. so. good. And melancholic. And bittersweet. And saying more would spoil it. (death is discussed)

Catharsis by babel. E. 40k+ still WIP. This is all I ever wanted from a McCoy/Spock fic. Follows season 1 of TOS. What if Spock and McCoy had an arrangement.

Coming Through in Waves by Cirth. T. 6k. “Spock dislikes doctors.” This was just lovely. A great character study from Spock’s POV. Includes room sharing and bathroom sharing. 

Deepening of the Spirit by lynndyre. G. 1k. A short fic set after the last film. Sweet and warm, finally getting together after all those years.

Distances series by berlynn_wohl. G-E. 54k. The first story is pre-slash and can be read as a standalone mission fic. A nice series spanning years. Written in 2007.

Down The Long Corridors Of Air by Thistlerose. T. 7k. This is another fic that demonstrates quite well what I like in the pairing. “A circle has no end. Spock and McCoy over the years.” Spoilers up to ST VII. Written in 2009.

Further Study Needed by J. Rosemary Moss. G. 2k. Cute pre-canon fic. McCoy tries to teach Spock how to flirt. Pre-slash. Written in 2008.

My Little Town by Phoenix. M. 8k. Post-movies. McCoy’s mother dies, and McCoy goes back to Earth to sell the old house. Spock accompanies him. A bit sad, melancholic story where the two of them finally stop avoiding what’s between them.

something bright, traveling fast by lupinely. G. 7k. “After fal-tor-pan, Spock considers existence.“ Movie-era, really lovely.

Spock of Baker Street by K. V. Wylie. M. 18k. Crossover with Doctor Who. The Guardian of Forever “kidnaps” Spock and McCoy, and throws them into late 19th century Britain. They meet a guy named Arthur, and live at Baker Street. And investigate a murder. Established relationship.

Teshuvah by K. V. Wylie. PG. 20k. A reincarnation AU - i.e. McCoy gets to relive his life again.

The Secrets of Pine Cones by K. V. Wylie. PG. 9k. Movie-era. Married Mc/S. McCoy is observing Ramadan, and this year, after many years spend together, Spock stays at home and keeps him company for the first time. A very lovely fic, written from Spock’s POV.

Through A Glass, Darkly by Jane Carnall. M. 67k. mirror ‘verse. pon farr. mind bond. Written in 1988. (on ao3: prime spones part and the mirror spones 3-parter)

AOS McCoy/Spock

This Must Be The Place by therev. M. 38k. Spock learns that Spock Prime and his Leonard McCoy were in a relationship, and... This was one of the first mc/s fics I read, and it’s still among my favourites. It also showed me that aos!mccoy/spock could work. The mood is a bit melancholic (and perhaps a bit slice-of-life-ish), it’s set post-Beyond, and it has Joanna.

---

also older spones fics recs (i.e. written before the reboot)

[shrikeseams]

He decides to keep his Top Secret Long-Term Doom Aversion Project Notes written in Khazad with cirth script for functional privacy and nearly exposes his whole deal when Feanor makes an unexpected visit and shuffles through his notes and starts vibrating at the speed of light about New Linguistic Stuff. He only just barely passes it off as a work in progress that he's not ready to share with anyone yet. Possibly he implies that it's a translation project of some writing from Aule's Children that he got from Mahtan (who got them from Aule, who asked Orome to check in on his kids across the sea).

Silm time travel fixit fic where Curufin is spat out into his younger self fairly early in YoT, and when his efforts to solve the Noldor's political/ Melkor problems bear no fruit... he just fucks off to Alqualonde to apprentice as a ship-builder, because it's a concrete and fixable future problem.

[camille-lachenille]

What if Andúril/Narsil originally was Beren’s sword? I know the popular hc is that it belonged to Maedhros and was passed on to Elros.

But hear me out. What if Finrod gave a sword to Barahir, along the famous ring. It’s something harried, in the middle of war: Barahir lost his sword and Finrod gave him a spare one. It’s not important, bc it’s just a useful tool needed in the moment, and Finrod has plenty of fine weapons forged by Dwarves. Barahir leaves his sword to Beren.

Or maybe the sword is a wedding gift from Thingol to Beren, since he too, has plenty if swords and weapons forged by Dwarves and we know Telchar, who made Narsil, also worked with Thingol. It doesn’t really matter, in the end, where this sword comes from.

What matters is that Dior inherit of his father’s sword, and that sword is salvaged from the ruins of Doriath after the second Kinslaying and brought to Sirion or Balar for Dior’s heir to use in case of need but Elwing never touched it and it sat in some armoury, nearly forgotten, until Elrond and Elros find their way to Gil-Galad.

And then Elros takes this sword as his, because why let this fine blade gather dust when there is a war going on? He gives it a Quenya name, the language of his new kingdom, and has his coat of arms of seven stars etched along the runes. Nobody really remembers where Narsil comes from at this point, except that it’s old and probably from Doriath since the inscription on the blade is in cirth. And after several thousands of years, Narsil is reforged into Andúril and wielded by the heir of Beren to fight the enemy.

[lammergeared]

Numenorean Adunaic Alphabet

I know you're all thinking it.. .. .. If they were going to make an alphabet for the numenoreans in the rings of power, why didn't they at least derive it from one of the alphabets tolkien actually created? Well, you hungry dogs, eat up.

and here's the same lines of poetry without vocalization.

As for the writing system itself, the three stages are the original Cirth, a Numenorean scribe's cursive, and a final book-hand. Here's the alphabet,

I based the script off of an earlier rendition of Cirth (except for the H), which didn't have letters for all of the vowels! Which is okay, because Adunaic only has three short vowels (a, i and u). They have 5 long vowels, (a, e, i, o and u) but long e and u evolved from earlier ai and aw respectively, so the letters for long e is derived from i, and the letter for long o is derived from u!

[dgorringeart]

From the sketch-heap: book-accurate Uglúk, captain of the Uruk-Hai. "There were four goblin-soldiers of greater stature, swart, slant-eyed, with thick legs and large hands. They were armed with short broad-bladed swords, not with the curved scimitars usual with Orcs; and they had bows of yew, in length and shape like the bows of Men. Upon their shields they bore a strange device: a small white hand in the centre of a black field; on the front of their iron helms was set an S-rune, wrought of some white metal." (LOTR, The Departure of Boromir)

"We are the fighting Uruk-Hai! We slew the great warrior. We took the prisoners. We are the servants of Saruman the Wise, the White Hand: the hand that gives us man's-flesh to eat. We came out of Isengard, and led you here, and we shall lead you back by the way we choose. I am Uglúk. I have spoken." (LOTR, The Uruk-Hai)

Jackson's films are gorgeous, but they take some liberties in the look of Middle-Earth and its' denizens; chiefly, in their material culture. The Weta team settled in on a lot of arms and armours from the late middle ages and renaissance- plate armour, sallets, crossbows, German longswords- but Tolkien drew his inspiration from late antiquity and the earlier middle ages; the time of myths like the Nibelungenlied, Beowulf, the Norse sagas, and the history of figures like Attila, Justinian, Theodoric, and so on, which heavily inform the content of his stories. It's all mail, all the time! I've given Uglúk's gear a rather Roman cast owing to that short, broad sword bit; his helmet is a late Roman "intercisa" type, simple and suited for mass-production, adorned with a Cirth-rune S. I'm a bit torn between gladius types, straight and leaf, and the rather exciting, potent cutter that is the Congolese Ikakalaka. I'm not completely satisfied with those shields, yet, but I like the idea of letters and numerals added to differentiate units and track personnel. Arguably, someone carrying a substantial warbow should restrict themselves to an easily-carried buckler. If you're wondering about how he's carrying his arrows, it's an in-battle method used by English longbowmen; as you twist your body to one side, the become easily reached.

[southfarthing]

JIRT 😭😭😭 man was so committed I'm obsessed

DECODING THE SILM COVER PAGE 🫡🫡🥺