Elrond

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by Frodo7
See also Elrond (Supplement) by Frodo7.
961910825

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This is a font for Tengwar script, invented by J.R.R. Tolkien. Tengwar is used to write languages such as Quenya, Sindarin, created by the same author. It is also adaptated to write a number of spoken languages including English, Esperanto, French, Finnish, German, Hungarian, Italian, Scottish Gaelic, Spanish, Welsh and Lojban.

19 Comments

It is a work in progress. Numbers, punctuation marks, diacritical marks, and some ligatures will follow. US keyboard layout.

This work was inspired by a Tengwar font or script. By making this pixel font I relied heavily upon a sample text of that original (see attached), though I've made some alterations too.
Comment by Frodo7 4th december 2009
This is quite fascinating and beautifully rendered! But, pardon my ignorance, how does one write these Indo-European languages (and notably Non-Indo-European like Finnish, Gaelic, and Welsh) using this script? Is it some kind of phonetic transliteration? If so, will you post a pronunciation guide or a link to the same? Regardless, brilliant pixeling!
Comment by William Leverette (will.i.ૐ) 4th december 2009
@will.i.ૐ: Well, I only started to study the Tengwar (Elvish) writing a few weeks ago, and learned just enough to make this font. It is amazing how many people are interested in these obscure things, that have very little practical use. There is a vibrant subculture out there dedicated to explore and extend Tolkien's linquistic heritage: websites, newsletters, printed periodicals, forums, blogs, clubs, even scientific papers and conferences.
To answer your question the best thing I can do is to provide a few links with clear descriptions.
Wikipedia.org - is a good start.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tengwar

Omniglot.com has everything you want, and more: http://www.omniglot.com/writing/tengwar.htm

http://at.mansbjorkman.net/tengwar.htm

http://www.sci.fi/~alboin/tengwartutorial.htm

And finally, there is a very capable online Tengwar transcriber here: you type in the English text, and get the elvish script.
http://tengwar.art.pl/tengwar/ott/start.php?l=en
Comment by Frodo7 5th december 2009
I love the attention to detail in this font. I have looked a bit at tengwar script, but that was some time ago, so I can't read it or write it.

@will.i.ૐ. I'm quite sure that Gaelic and Welsh are indo-european, just not germanic or italic/romance. Well it doesn't matter, I just thought I would mention it.
Comment by Christian Munk (CMunk) 5th december 2009
I have enough trouble with English (and that's my first language) ... however, the forms of the glyphs created here are so pleasing to the eye that I don't mind not understanding the meaning. 10/10
Comment by p2pnut 5th december 2009
@CMunk: Turns out I totally missed the boat about the linguistic classification of Welsh and Gaelic. As you said, they both belong to the Indo-European language tree’s Celtic branch. Many thanks for the input; though clearly out of my element, I do care a great deal to learn more about linguistics.

I think it important to remember that geographical associations (e.g. Celtic languages have modern association with the places known as the British Isles and Ireland) rarely illuminate what we think of a language’s origins (e.g. linguists maintain that Celtic languages find their roots in what we now know as Central Europe). Finns have more genealogical ties and genetic similarities with their Indo-European speaking neighbors than with the equally proximal Sami people who speak a more closely related language! I wonder if Elvish, then would be classified as Indo-European...
Comment by William Leverette (will.i.ૐ) 5th december 2009
@will.i.ૐ: To my knowledge Finnish and Hungarian (Magyar) belong to the Finno-Ugric group which is not part of the Indo-European family. They belong to the Uralic language family.
We should not confuse genetic relations and language relations. A case in point is Hungary, the largest population in Europe speaking a Finno-Ugrian tongue. The genetic studies revealed, however, the population is virtually identical (genetically) with the Central-European mix. No wonder. After eleven turbulent centuries there aren't any "pure Hungarians" left, a fact the extreme right nationalists tend to forget.

Linguistics is not my cup of tea either, but I use typeface design as an opportunity to acquire some basic background knowledge.

"I wonder if Elvish, then would be classified as Indo-European..." A very good question. The language of the High Elves, Quenya was based on Finnish (Uralic family). The other major Elvish tongue, Sindarin shows characteristics of Welsh (Indo-European family, Celtic group). Tolkien had created as many as 14-16 languages for his Middle-Earth universe.
Comment by Frodo7 5th december 2009
wooow. too beautiful to come from this world. must be from middle earth, sweet :)
Comment by kix 7th may 2010
Very nice! Looks so real! I'll add it as a fav. I am going to make somemore, too!
Comment by Qaj 7th may 2010
i've missed this font !!! Marvelous work, Tolkien makes me have many dreams when i was young and i still have love for is univers. This is a great tribute. Incredible work

zen
Comment by zen_killa 7th may 2010
By the way, I am thinking about making a font like an elfin font but I want to know how you made yoours? By the way... I LOVE THE LORD OF THE RINGS!!! Frodo's my fave Habbit!
Comment by Qaj 8th may 2010
@Qaj: Elrond is a pixel font, I've used only the square brick to construct it. I used a sample text as template. There are some useful websites (above) for information on Tengwar, where you find all you need to learn. Good luck.
Comment by Frodo7 8th may 2010
Your the greatest! I'll check them out! I am watching the movie right now and it's the old version the one with the cartoon. I love them all!!!
Comment by Qaj 8th may 2010
Your the greatest! I am watching the movie right now. This one is the older one. Remember, the one with the cartoon? That's the one I am watching. It's on Blue-Ray and DVD now!
Comment by Qaj 8th may 2010
Nicely done... but the letters do not fit the letter typed.... do you know how to re-arrange it and make it so it is a type-able font for "practical" uses?
Comment by dudhead15 22nd august 2012
@dudhead15: There is no standardized keyboard layout for tengwar. Several versions exist for different operating systems. There is a proposed character mapping that uses Unicode Private Use Area characters U+e000 – U+e07d, adopted by the Free Tengwar Font Project. I may use that one. Please note, there was no full Unicode support on Fontstruct in 2009 when I created Elrond.
Comment by Frodo7 25th august 2012
Quenya, though heavily based on Finnish, was intended to be a hypothetical "beginning language" from whence all European languages could have sprung, regardless of linguistic family. I think this would mean it doesn't really fit into any linguistic family as nicely as we would like.
Comment by Francesca Auditore (tkdftw) 11th january 2013

Punctuation and diacritical marks have been added. US keyboard layout. I would appreciate any feedback: does it work as intended. See also the color supplement.

Comment by Frodo7 1st october 2021

The diacritics are not going over the letters like they should be. I suggest putting them on the left side of the blue line and make the distance to the left a couple blocks more than they are to the right to acount for the space between leters. I hope this helps.

Comment by roodeday 31st july 2022

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