# The Silmarillion (abridged edition) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** middle-earth\ **Created:** [April 8, 2004, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-silmarillion-abridged-edition/238863 "2004-04-08T01:48:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2004, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-silmarillion-abridged-edition/238863/1 "2004-04-08T01:48:42Z")
Yep. The whole thing in [a thousand words](http://www.livejournal.com/users/camwyn/328358.html). 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2004, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-silmarillion-abridged-edition/238863/2 "2004-04-08T01:55:54Z")
Very good. Now do it in Quenya. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2004, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-silmarillion-abridged-edition/238863/3 "2004-04-08T02:17:15Z")
> [@Qadgop the Mercotan](#): > > Very good. Now do it in Quenya. Heh. I once attempted to translate the Ainulindalë into Quenya when I was something like 16, working from both a self-created vocabulary made up of word-stems I picked apart from the published Quenya songs and names and the (very) newly-published Etymologies from…Book of Lost Tales(?). One of the pre-full-blown-HOMES C. Tolkien volumes, anyway. I think I managed to get about 3 paragraphs into it. This was well before I came to the adult realization that just because I wanted the Elvish languages to be capable of reconstruction, I wasn’t the one who was going to be able to do it. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2004, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-silmarillion-abridged-edition/238863/4 "2004-04-08T02:35:24Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Heh. I once attempted to translate the Ainulindalë into Quenya when I was something like 16, working from both a self-created vocabulary made up of word-stems I picked apart from the published Quenya songs and names and the (very) newly-published Etymologies from…Book of Lost Tales(?). One of the pre-full-blown-HOMES C. Tolkien volumes, anyway. > > I think I managed to get about 3 paragraphs into it. This was well before I came to the adult realization that just because I wanted the Elvish languages to be capable of reconstruction, I wasn’t the one who was going to be able to do it. :eek: I am impressed! At age 16, I’d mastered the Angerthas Moria, to send cryptic notes in school to my girlfriend (now the esteemed Mrs. Mercotan) but only to write them in English with the rune alphabet. I’d never have been talented enough to try to pull together the whole Quenya vocabulary (tho JRRT was still alive and expanding it then). 3 paragraphs is damn good! ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2004, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-silmarillion-abridged-edition/238863/5 "2004-04-08T02:46:19Z")
> [@Qadgop the Mercotan](#): > > :eek: > > I am impressed! > > At age 16, I’d mastered the Angerthas Moria, to send cryptic notes in school to my girlfriend (now the esteemed Mrs. Mercotan) but only to write them in English with the rune alphabet. I’d never have been talented enough to try to pull together the whole Quenya vocabulary (tho JRRT was still alive and expanding it then). > > 3 paragraphs is damn good! Don’t be too impressed. It looked and sounded nothing like the snippets JRRT actually published in the books. I had to cobble together an awful lot of grammar from nothing more substantial than a couple of songs and very large doses of conjecture. It was clunky and not particularly pretty, which is why I stopped after three paragraphs. I did a LOT of calligraphy with the Tengwar adapted to English, though. I even tried to design a Tengwar font for my Commodore 64! ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2004, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-silmarillion-abridged-edition/238863/6 "2004-04-08T03:33:38Z")
God, I love you people. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2004, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-silmarillion-abridged-edition/238863/7 "2004-04-08T03:36:56Z")
> [@](#): > > At age 16, I’d mastered the Angerthas Moria, to send cryptic notes in school to my girlfriend (now the esteemed Mrs. Mercotan) Dammit, where were all these nerdy girls when I was growing up? For that matter, where are they now?