Re: tolkien?

wrote:
> i was wondering who many of you were in spired by tolkien? thats why i
> started all this in the first place. and if you werent inspired by
> tolkien who or what made you start?
If I plead guilty, will I get off with less punishment? :)
It seems to me that my whole interest in languages stems from
Tolkien. After a childhood in which I read "The Lord of the
Rings" probably at least once a year from age 6 or 7, I
stumbled on some of the "History of Middle Earth" series
in a local library, and became interested in Quenya. I had
great fun with the _Namarie_ poem, since it was a longish text
with an English translation, so I set about trying to figure
out the grammar by detailed examination, though I didn't know
anything about linguistics (I may have known some French grammar
at the stage, but that's it). Eventually, having suffered the
indignity of having my request for Jim Allen's "An introduction
to Elvish" interpreted as "An introduction to Elvis" by the
sales assistant at a bookshop, I finally got my hands on this
work and was able to see exactly what I have interpreted wrongly
(IIRC, I was more vindicated than contradicted, though that
book is rather dated and had known errors even then).

I then went through a one or two year obsession with Quenya, during
which I carried large chunks of vocabulary around in my head, and
even used to write poetry in Quenya (the usual bad adolescent stuff!).
I think I kept a diary of sorts in it too. At the time, it was
just a hobby, and I didn't realise that I was at that age when
neural pathways are being laid down for the rest of life :).

It's strange how, even being so aware that JRRT had *invented* this
language, the idea never appealed to me enough to bother until a
few years ago.


--
Stephen Mulraney  ataltane@ataltane.net  http://ataltane.net
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