Parma Eldalamberon & Vinyar Tengwar

[Tuilinde]

Huanarmo has asked about these two publications, and it seemed a good idea to put some information about them into the main body of the forum.
Obviously many beginners in the world of Tolkien's created languages will not have heard of them and may not know how to access them.

First of all, here is Huanarmo's question:

I'm interested to understand where Parma Eldalamberon and Vinyar Tengwar sit in terms of works of reference. Both are frequently mentioned and obviously carry substantial weight, but where do they stand, for example, vis-à-vis the Tolkien Society, or Helge Fauskanger's magnificent wordlists? I ask also because having approached a couple of libraries - including the main State library here in a city of over 4 million - I was met with complete blanks about how to source the material in the public domain. Are they private works?

It is clear that there are people to whom the publications are second nature - to the extent that they can quote an edition and know that others will understand precisely the linguistic development that is revealed there - to professional librarians who cannot help with any advice about how to gain access to the source material. I also asked a scholar who is marvellous with languages and knows lots of sources, but she too drew a blank.

Apologies in advance if this is painfully pedestrian. I hope it doesn't sound like someone saying they liked LotR, but what's this other piece called The Silmarillion and where does it fit in?

I shall put some information into a separate message, but if anyone else wants to add comments to mine - especially if they happen to own copies which are hard to obtain at present - then please do so.

[Tuilinde]

OK, as I understand it, Vinyar Tengwar was originally started in September 1988 as a newsletter of the Elvish Linguistic Fellowship by a group of linguists in the USA, under the editorship of Jorge Quiñonez.

Later Carl Hostetter took over as Editor, and then later again, having seen the work which he and many other contributors were producing, (and presumably having checked their qualifications for the work) Christopher Tolkien granted them the right to edit all the various linguistically related documents, papers and bits and pieces which had been left by his father.

So gradually it changed from a newsletter with many contributors into an occasional magazine producing edited material of Professor Tolkien's. This means that the material can be considered a first and primary source for new understandings of the Elven languages.

I'm not sure at what point Parma Eldalamberon came into being, but it is a companion to Vinyar Tengwar and is created by Christopher Gilson. The most important recent edition is P E 17 Words, Phrases and Passages in The Lord of the Rings which has added a huge amount of new material to what we had, and necessitated the revision of his courses by Thorsten (make sure you have the most recent edition!), and the revision of Helge's wordlists and his Quenya course which I believe he is working on at present.
All the various people who are involved in this work - Carl Hostetter, Ivan Derzhanski, Christopher Gilson, Arden Smith and Patrick Wynne, plus Bill Welden - are in general referred to as The Editorial Team.

As they are all busy people with full time jobs, and the work is particularly difficult - 60-year-old pencil scribblings in some cases - a long time may elapse between editions. But they are amongst the most important resources we have.

The links to find out more are:

http://www.elvish.org/VT http://www.eldalamberon.com

[Tuilinde]

Thirdly! -

here is a comment from Christopher Gilson made to me in a recent email:

You may be aware from recent announcements on the Tolkien-related newsgroups that I have also been working on making PE 14 available again -- see <http://www.eldalamberon.com/parma14.html>;.

Of the back-issues I will probably try to get a reprint of the Qenya Lexicon finished next; although I need also to keep spending time working on the further Quenya materials from the 1940s for subsequent issues. You mention PE 11, so I should point out that that issue is currently in print -- see <http://www.eldalamberon.com/parma11.html>;.

My goal is to have all of the works by Tolkien that I have published be in print again. The point of this, from my perspective, is so that they will be available to students and scholars of Tolkien's linguistic writings, such as you.

The Qenya Lexicon is one of the more important editions, and I shall certainly get hold of it as soon as it comes back into print.

[Huanarmo]

Many thanks, Tuilinde.

You are very kind. That helps enormously.

Maybe it's because some components are not in print that tracking them down through library channels was a little difficult. I will certainly use those links, thank you.

Nai elen caluva tielyanna,

[órerámar]

First of all, here is Huanarmo's question:

or Helge Fauskanger's magnificent wordlists?

I would like to add the following to Tuilinde's information, since you cite Helge's wordlist. This list is based on all the material available. Whenever a VT or PE comes out, Helge updates the list. You will not find in the wordlist the whole of the Qenya Lexicon, of course. The Qenya words that are in the list, are there because Helge at some point needed for one of his experiments a certain word and a suitable one existed in Qenya. Some years ago there was a great deal less Quenya vocabulary available than we have now, so from time to time some borrowings were made from the QL. The VT are useful, even if Helge's list is always updated and very precise, because there is a lot more in terms of explanations to be found than can be copied into a wordlist. For one original sentence of Tolkien, you can easily have several pages with explanations and foot-notes with cross -references etc. I must say, I could not do without all this source material and even for someone who does not wish to buy all the past volumes, I believe that at least from no 40 on it is a must.