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| Arabic? Sanskrit? Elvish? No—Mordoric! |
Monday, August 26, 2024
7 comments:
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Make way for the Tolkien nerd!
ReplyDeleteThat is actually Elvish, or at least an Elvish script known as Tengwar. It was used to write a number of different languages, including the language of Mordor, which apparently did not have a script of its own. This language was called the Black Speech, and it was invented by Sauron to be used by his minions. The orcs mostly ended up speaking their own regional languages, though, and often used pidgin Westron when they had to communicate with each other.
Whoever made this donut was apparently a Tolkien nerd, though, because the inscription appears to be correct! It is precious to me, though it contains a great amount of calories.
Yeah, you'd have to be something of a nerd to know that Tengwar stuff. I remember from the movies that Gandalf says it "is the Black Speech of Mordor, which I shall not utter here." So since you apparently read Elvish, what part of the saying are we looking at? I want the phonetics as well as the translation! Or am I going to have to go this alone?
DeleteThe consensus from the other commenters seems to be that the Black Speech of Mordor is written in Ancient Spoo.
That is the first phrase of the inscription, "Ash nazg durbatulûk," translated into the common tongue as "One Ring to rule them all."
DeleteI think it would have been even nerdier had the creator replaced "nazg" with "donut" written in Tengwar (which I cannot reproduce here due to lack of support for the character set, unfortunately). I am pretty sure there is no Black Speech word for "donut" (or "doughnut"), because donuts bring joy to the world and Sauron would likely have nothing to do with them.
So if the nazg is "ring," then that's how we get "Nazgûl," i.e., Ringwraith, I presume. Which means (g)ûl is "wraith," then. Ja?
DeleteYou are correct, sir!
DeleteDo nut go there! It's a tasty looking ring though!
ReplyDeleteFirst thing that came to mind was that's one talented porn actor or is it porn chef? Damn, I can't keep porn straight anymore or was it ever straight to begin with?
ReplyDelete