The Cellar Read by Tolkien Glǽmscribe Mathoms News
Quenya Sindarin Telerin Qenya Gnomish & Noldorin
Adûnaic Westron Khuzdul Black Speech Valarin
Old English – Tolkien Old English Middle English
Gothic Old Norse Finnish Welsh Latin
Seo Niþerhrorene
English
Old English – Tolkien
Tengwar

⁊     :
7 Saweron cóm to hýþe.
And Sauron came to the haven.
    :
Gedruron Fréafíras under sceadu.
The Lords of Men fell under the shadow.
     :
Tarkalion wíg gebéad þam Héamægnum.
Tar-Kalion made war upon the High Powers.
    
Þa tocléaf Westfréa þas woruld
Then the Lords of the West rent the Earth
    :
be þæs Ælmihtigan léafe.
with leave of Ilúvatar.
⁊        
7 fléowon þa sǽ inn on þæt micle gin
And the seas flowed into the great chasm
⁊    :
7 wearþ Nówendaland ahwylfed.
and the Land of Mariners was overwhelmed.



     ⸱
Géo læg riht weg westanweard,
Of old a straight way lay westward,
     :
nú sind alle wegas [?forcrymbed].
now all ways are crooked.
  :
Fréafíras éastweard.
The Lords of Men are eastward.
     :
Déaþscúa ús líþ hefig on.
The shadow of death lies heavy on us.
      :
Nú swíþe feor is seo Niþerhrorene.
Very far away now is the Downfallen.

Commentary
These sentences in Old English paraphrase the Qenya fragments dreamt by Alboin Errol in The Lost Road, but were published only later in Sauron Defeated p. 317. A recast version of these fragments in Qenya and Adûnaic are to be found there too, included in Tolkien’s unfinished novel The Notion Club Papers.

We heartily recommend to those who wish to delve deeper in these matters Aleš Bičan’s excellent essay The Atalante Fragments, that can be downloaded on his website (Elm) and is available too in the Elvish Linguistic Fellowship’s article selection.

The symbol here reproduced as 7 stands for a similar sign in use in Anglo-Saxon writing. It is an abbreviation from the ancient system of Tironian notes and is read and / ond.

The text is transcribed in tengwar or “letters of Fëanor”. Tolkien created two different adaptations of the general use of the Third Age to Old English, presented in Sauron Defeated p. 318-327. We especially attempted here to emulate the mode of the so-called “Text II”. We made use of Måns Björkman Berg’s typeface Tengwar Eldamar.  Open this mode in Glaemscribe

References
Tolkien, John Ronald Reuel. Sauron Defeated – The End of the Third Age: The History of The Lord of the Rings, part four & The Notion Club Papers & The Drowning of Anadûnê. Edited by Christopher Tolkien. London: HarperCollins, 2002. 482 p. (The History of Middle-earth; IX). ISBN 0-261-10305-9.

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.
Last update of the site: September 22nd 2019. Contact us: