Want to join in crafting a whimsical language for poetry?

[jstaab]

Hey everyone, new member here — my wife and I are enjoying LotR (again), and recently read the section where the hobbits meet Tom Bombadil (everyone's favorite enigma). One passage in particular caught my eye:

Tom sang most of the time, but it was chiefly nonsense, or else perhaps a strange language unknown to the hobbits, an ancient language whose words were mainly those of wonder and delight.

I remarked to my wife, "I'd love to hear something written in that language". Then, with Tolkien's fandom being what it is, I realized I might! Googling didn't turn up much, so on an impulse I decided to see what it would take to write my own. I have a number of years of Latin under my belt (though it's fast fading), and a year of Greek, and I was able to come up with something that (I think) is pretty satisfying.

Below I've copied my favorite poem so far, which is about my kids playing in the backyard:

miar sindar ber lildillo bel
o piner brenderry
ar follawildillo
o warper rumdillo
ar grodillo delloden dinello

Translation:

My little folk, wrap yourselves
in leafy bark
and dig in dewy earth
and grasp the fading sunshine

I've posted the grammar, vocab, and a few other poems on github, so if you have an account there, you're more than welcome to contribute new vocabulary, compose new poems, and make suggestions for how I might improve the grammar, as the language is definitely a work in progress. I hope you enjoy this project as much as I did!

 

[Starbrow]

I like the way your language sounds.

 

[Sailawen]

Cool! It´s pretty awesome, in my opinion.