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Ambidexters
English
Quenya
Tengwar

  ⸱
Eldar ataformaiti;
The Elves were ambidexters;
       :
epetai i hyarma ú ten ulca símaryassen.
consequently the left hand was not to them evil in their imaginations.
⸱       ⸱   ⸱
úsie, an ké mo querne kendele númenna, ve senya,
On the contrary. For if one turned the face westwards as was usual,
    ⸱
i hyarma tentane Melcorello,
the left hand pointed away from Melkor [in the North],
      ⸱:⸱
ar ké mo formenna tentanes Amanna.
and if northwards, it pointed towards Aman [the Blessed Land].

Commentary
This sentence was presented and analysed by Patrick H. Wynne under the title The Ambidexters Sentence in Vinyar Tengwar n° 49, attached to the essay Eldarin Hands, Fingers & Numerals published in three parts in Vinyar Tengwar n° 47 to 49. Tolkien composed it apparently in 1969; there are seven successive versions, of which we here give the final one.

The text is transcribed in tengwar or “letters of Fëanor” according to the classical mode for Quenya described by Tolkien in the Appendix E to The Lord of the Rings and used for instance by the Namárië manuscript in The Road Goes Ever On p. 65. We made use of Måns Björkman Berg’s typeface Tengwar Eldamar.  Open this mode in Glaemscribe

References
Vinyar Tengwar: The journal of the Elvish Linguistic Fellowship, a Special Interest Group of the Mythopoeic Society. Edited by Carl F. Hostetter. Crofton (Maryland): 1988-  . ISSN 1054-7606. 🌍 The Elvish Linguistic Fellowship.

The works of John Ronald Reuel and Christopher Tolkien are under the copyright of their authors and/or rights holders, including their publishers and the Tolkien Estate.
Quotations from other authors, editors and translators mentioned in the bibliography are under the copyright of their publishers, except for those whose copyright term has ended.
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