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British School Offers Elvish Lessons

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the tongue-of-the-light-footed dept.

Adair writes "A school in Birmingham, England is offering its students weekly after-hours lessons in Sindarin, a conversational form of Elvish invented by J.R.R. Tolkien and based on Welsh sounds." It won't be long now until the Klingon to Elvish translation books are produced.

2 of 356 comments (clear)

  1. Re:if women like liv tyler go there by I+Be+Hatin' · · Score: 0, Troll
    Does anyone else aside from me feel very disappointed in the casting of Liv Tyler? I had expected a more delicate, nuanced -- hell, elfin look to my elves, especially one who was such an exemplar. I mean, look at Orlando Bloom as Legolas.
    Tyler makes me think "heavy," "slow" and, forgive me, "stupid."

    Not to mention "butt ugly" and "incompetent actress". Seriously, they could've gotten someone much better to play the part. Why they chose her, I'll never understand. And why the fanboys on Slashdot drool over her is completely beyond my comprehension. I mean, Natalie Portman is understandable (ok, she's not that hot, but she's at least attractive), but Liv Tyler is such a fucking stupid looking bitch...

    --
    I know god exists. I read it on the internet, so it must be true.
  2. Re:if women like liv tyler go there by gujo-odori · · Score: 0, Troll
    Expanding the love interest line, which was not of great significance as written by Tolkien is not, IMO, a good reason to change the story.


    WRT Saruman and the Uruk-Hai, you are in error. If you read the books closely, you will find that Uruk-Hai are also in the service of Mordor (specifically mentioned in The Two Towers), and there is no implication that Sauron got them from Saruman. The other way around, in fact, seems to me morelikely. There is speculation that Saruman has cross-bred Orcs and humans, however, the result was not Uruk-Hai. If you read carefully, ou will find that orcish humans such as the southerner at Bree who was associating with Bill Ferny, are believed to possibly have resulted from Saruman breeding humans and orcs. Perhaps Jackson simply made the same mistake you have, but in light of his wholesale changes in the story at other points, I doubt it.


    Nor did Sauron create the orcs. They were created, or more accurately warped from elves, by Morgoth, of whom Sauron was merely a servant.
    It is not made clear how the Uruk-Hai came into being. They may have been made from regular Orcs by Sauron, or they may have evolved on their own. Certainly, if it was beyond Sauron's ability to create the Uruk-Hai from regular orcs, it would have been even farther beyond Saruman's. None of the Istari, including Gandalf and Saruman, who were the mightiest, had the power or depth of lore possessed by Sauron.