Apologies To Any Saxons That May Be Listening

Jared, Oriana and Ned talk about Oriana’s choice of topic: Tolkien’s invented writing systems. The graceful lettering of the Tengwar, easily Tolkien’s most well-known writing system, is now a calling card for his work in general on the level of the Ring itself, Bilbo, Gollum and more besides. Less well known but nearly as broadly familiar is his runic system, the Cirth, with both featuring in somewhat but not totally thorough descriptions in the appendices of The Lord of the Rings itself. In keeping with his invented languages, it certainly makes sense that there would be a non-Greco-Roman style alphabet or two to express them, though in the same way that Tolkien invented more than Quenya and Sindarin, writing systems were a regular passion of his and many further examples have since come to the fore, showcasing that this was a part of his creative life in general. What about the description of the writing systems in The Lord of the Rings itself was inspiring, but at the same time, what was frustrating and incomplete about it? How do the systems work as a particular kind of artistic or community signal, whether in terms of formal adaptation or in the many worlds of fan art? What are the possible kinds of sources or comparison points to the systems when it comes to real world systems, and what were Tolkien’s own particular linguistic goals and feelings that lay in their creation? And have your hosts, whether in the past or present or both, regularly made use of the writing systems one way or another in a variety of casually random everyday things in life? (Oh yes, yes we have.)