1 lall-worten: for Lallwörten see note 30 to ‘Essay on Phonetic Symbolism’.
2 atta: Atta means ‘father’ in Gothic. Tolkien’s continuing interest in this word is evident from a 1958 letter to Christopher Tolkien (Letters, pp. 264–5).
3 Lilliputian: The language spoken on the island of Lilliput in Gulliver’s Travels. Lilliput was inhabited by a race of tiny people.
4 tolgo phonac (fire arrows): A command in Lilliputian which results in ‘an Hundred Arrows discharged’ on Gulliver’s left hand (Swift 2005, p. 18).
5 borach mivola (look out down there): Lilliputian cry, warning people to ‘stand out of the Way’ (Swift 2005, p. 19).
6 peplom selan (loosening cords): While Gulliver lies immobilized, tied up by the tiny Lilliputians, he hears: ‘a general Shout, with frequent Repetitions of the Words Peplom Selan; and I felt great numbers of People on my Left Side relaxing the Cords to such a Degree, that I was able to turn upon my right’ (Swift 2005, p. 20).
7 nardac: Tolkien does not give a translation for this word, which is ‘the highest title of honour’ among the Lilliputians (Swift 2005, p. 47).
8 Belfaborac (French): The place where the palace of Lilliput stands (Swift 2005, p. 38). Tolkien seems to be pointing out that this word sounds French.
9 Mildendo: ‘the Metropolis’ of Lilliput (Swift 2005, p. 40).
10 Clefrin Frelock, Marsi: The exact name of the Lilliputian who signs Gulliver’s inventory when he is arrested is ‘Clefren Frelok, Marsi Frelock’ (Swift 2005, p. 30).
11 Reldresal: Name of Lilliputian Principal secretary for Private affairs (Swift 2005, pp. 33–4).
12 Blefuscu: An island, ‘the other great empire of the universe’ (Swift 2005, p. 43), enemy of Lilliput.
13 Skyresh, Bolgolam (Admiral): Spelt as Skyris Bolgolam in Gulliver’s Travels (Swift 2005, p. 60); the name of the High Admiral of Lilliput.
14 Tramecksan & Slamecksan High and Low Heels: The name of two competing parties in Lilliput who distinguish themselves ‘from the high and low Heels on their Shoes’ (Swift 2005, p. 42).
15 Brob gl gr lg: Tolkien abbreviates Brobdingnag, the name of the land of giants in Gulliver’s Travels, and shows an interest in the presence of the consonant combinations /gl/, /gr/ and /lg/ in their language.
16 Grildrig very little man: The name given to Gulliver on Brobdingnag (where he is small) which Swift states is equivalent to the English Mannikin (Swift 2005, p. 86).
17 splacnuck (small animal): The name of an invented animal that the (now small) Gulliver is compared to on Brobdingrag: ‘a Splacknuck, (an Animal in that Country very finely shaped, about six Foot long)’ (Swift 2005, p. 88).
18 Glumdalclitch: A Brobdingnagian name meaning ‘little Nurse’ (Swift 2005, p. 86).
19 Lorbrulgrud (Pride of the Universe): Name for the Metropolis of Brobdingnag (Swift 2005, p. 90).
20 Laputa: A flying island Gulliver travels to.
21 clear smooth dialect not unlike in sound to Italian: A description of the language of Laputa. Here Tolkien seems to be quoting directly from Swift, bar two words, so perhaps from memory rather than having the text in front of him: ‘At length one of them called out in a clear, polite, smooth Dialect, not unlike in Sound to the Italian’ (Swift 2005, p. 145).
22 When it is not so engaging: This note is linked with an arrow to the word ‘syntax’ above.
23 menel: The Elvish word for the heavens, the apparent dome of the sky. It was formed from the roots MEN (direction, region) and EL which is used for words having to do with stars (PE 17, p. 24). In Tolkien’s legendarium it is used to designate ‘heaven’ ‘the heavens’ and ‘the firmament’ and is also found as an element in place-names; such as the name of the sacred mountain in the centre of the island of Númenor, ‘Meneltarma’, ‘the pillar of heaven’ (Sauron Defeated, p. 373).
24 kemen: The Elvish word for earth, in the sense of the ground beneath the heavens. This word may go back as far as Tolkien’s name invention for his October 1914 adaptation of one of the key story cycles in the Finnish national poem, Kalevala. In his ‘Story of Kullervo’ Tolkien invented a name for Russia, which is called ‘the great land’ in Kalevala. The word he invented was ‘Kemenume’ (see Higgins 2015, p. 77). The word ‘kemen’ would appear in The Qenya Lexicon glossed as ‘soil’ (PE 12, p. 46). In The Book of Lost Tales, the Vala of the Earth, Yavanna, is also called Kemi. This form would persist in Tolkien’s development of the Elvish languages (see Lost Road, p. 363).
25 Pagetism: on Tolkien’s objections to the work of Paget, see ‘Essay on Phonetic Symbolism’, p. 68.
26 Novial: IAL invented by Otto Jespersen; see Introduction, p. xliv. Tolkien’s view about Novial in this note chimes with his (covert) comment in his 1932 letter to The British Esperantist; see Introduction, xlix–li.
27 It would require a good deal of research … the product of learning of languages: Tolkien’s notes here correspond to ‘A Secret Vice’, pp. 24–5.
28 language as we know it is not bespoke but ready-made. We all wear ready-made dress we misfit to some degree: Tolkien included a very similar point in his O’Donnell lecture on ‘English and Welsh’, while elaborating his notion of a ‘personal linguistic potential’: ‘Linguistically we all wear ready-made clothes, and our native language comes seldom to expression, save perhaps by pulling at the ready-made till it sits a little easier’ (Monsters, p. 190).
29 This one of the generators of change … single language: compare these notes with the ending of Tolkien’s ‘Essay on Phonetic Symbolism’, p. 71.
30 ondolin: the last three letters are circled in pencil.
31 aiþei: Gothic for ‘mother’
32 Anna Livia Plurabelle: Anna Livia is a character in James Joyce’s experimental Modernist novel Finnegans Wake, which was published in 1939. Joyce started writing it roughly a year after the publication of Ulysses (1923) and during its long gestation he called it Work in Progress. Already from 1924, fragments from Work in Progress appeared in different publications. The section known as Anna Livia Plurabelle had already been published four times by the time Tolkien delivered ‘A Secret Vice’: 1) in the periodical Navire D’Argent (October 1925); 2) in the avant-garde journal transition (November 1927); 3) as a separate booklet by Crosby Gaige in New York in 1928; and 4) also as a booklet by Faber and Faber in London in 1930. Tolkien must have found Joyce’s work (or perhaps only the name of this character) particularly striking, as he wrote ‘Anna Livia Plurabelle’ in his ‘Qenya Alphabet’ (later known as ‘tengwar’ letters) in a document dated 1931, now edited and published as a facsimile (with accompanying transliteration and commentary) in Parma Eldalamberon 20, pp. 87–9. Intriguingly, he has crossed out the name and has continued using the same alphabet to write his own name and address, as well as three liturgical prayers. According to the minutes of the Johnson Society, Joyce was mentioned in relation to ‘eccentricities’ of language in the discussion that followed Tolkien’s delivery of ‘A Secret Vice’ (see Introduction, p. xxxiii).
33 Stream of consciousness: a literary technique that attempts to represent the flow of impressions, thought and feelings that pass through the mind. James Joyce’s Ulysses and Finnegans Wake both rely on extensive use of this technique, often taking it to breaking point.
34 The three elements: visual representation of word in writing, sound of word, and meaning of word. See below.
35 Merry messenger: This refers to Tolkien’s poem ‘Errantry’, first published in The Oxford Magazine in 1933 and later in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil (1962). As Christopher Tolkien has explained, the poem has a ‘long and complex’ history, and eventually evolved into two separate poems: ‘Errantry’ and Bilbo’s song at Rivendell, as it appears in The Lord of the Rings (for a full comparative study of all versions and their variations see Treason, pp. 84–109). Evidently, Tolkien read the poem to the Inklings in the early 1930s and many years later he described it as a ‘piece of verbal acrobatics and metrical high-jinks’ (cited in Treason, p. 85). The published version in the Oxford Magazine and The Adventures of Tom Bombadil begins with the verses:
There was a merry passenger,
a messenger, a mariner:
However, early drafts of the poem begin rather with:
There was a merry messenger,
a passenger, an errander;
or
There was a merry messenger,
a passenger a mariner
(Treason, pp. 23–5)
36 Here the ‘meaning’ … is so clearly subordinate to sound, that one necessarily pays chief attention to the latter: Tolkien commented on ‘Errantry’ in his letters, often paying particular attention to its sound effects. In a 1952 letter to Rayner Unwin he refers to the poem’s ‘trisyllabic assonances or near-assonances’ (Letters, p. 162); while in a 1966 letter to Donald Swann he mentions its metrical scheme ‘with its trisyllabic near-rhymes’, pointing out that the poem should be recited ‘with great variations of speed. It needs a reciter or chanter capable of producing the words with great clarity, but in places with great rapidity’ (Treason, p. 85).
37 [BODLEIAN TOLKIEN MS. 24 FOLIO 44 VERSO]: In his letter to a potential publisher of both his ‘Silmarillion’ mythology and The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien indicated that ‘behind my stories is now a nexus of languages (mostly only structurally sketched)’ (Letters, p. 143). This table which forms half a sheet of Oxford paper (see p. 3) is a comparative outline of consonants in some of the various Elvish dialects Tolkien was developing in the 1930s and would find their full expression in his 1937 work The Etymologies and the related ‘Tree of Tongues’ (Lost Road, pp. 168–9). The other half of this sheet fits the description of a document published in Parma Eldalamberon 20, which contains transcriptions of miscellaneous materials from phonetic English into Tolkien’s invented writing system, the Tengwar. The transcriptions include the Joycean name ‘Anna Livia Plurabelle’, Tolkien’s name and address (which dates the paper to between 1930 and 1947), and the prayer ‘Hail Mary Full of Grace’ (PE 20, pp. 87–9). On this half sheet (which he struck through) Tolkien outlines the types of consonant shifts found in historical grammars for the Elvish dialects: Qenya (Q.), Telerin (Tel.), Noldorin (N.), Doriathrin (Dor. – this is the dialect of Doriath, the kingdom of Thingol and Melian), Ilkorin (M.a.Ilk.) and an Eastern dialect of Elvish (East.), which could be a version of the Fëanorian or Eastern dialect of Exilic Noldorin (PE 18, p. 27). The abbreviation M.a. before Ilkorin is puzzling; it may be that M.e. was intended, perhaps for Middle-earth.
38 [BODLEIAN TOLKIEN MS. 24 FOLIO 45 VERSO]: At the bottom half of this chart, Tolkien outlines the consonant groups for three Elvish languages: Qenya, Telerin and Noldorin. On the top half, Tolkien appears to have started sketching out two versions of a table showing ‘Places of Articulation’ of consonants: 1. Voiceless stops, 2. Voiced stops, 3. Voiced nasals, 4. Voiceless fricatives, 5. Voiced fricatives, 6. Liquids.
39 Narqelion: This is a version of the first poem Tolkien wrote in Qenya. This poem grew out of his composition process of another poem, in English, Kortirion among the Trees in November 1915 (Lost Tales I, pp. 36–9). Douglas A. Anderson has indicated that, presumably while composing Kortirion among the Trees, Tolkien wrote four lines in the upper margin of the paper in Qenya. He returned to these four lines in March 1916 when he completed Narqelion in Qenya (Douglas A. Anderson, email communication). The name ‘Narqelion’ itself is glossed in The Qenya Lexicon as ‘Autumn’ and is formed from the base root NṚQṚ, ‘to wither, fade, shrivel’ (PE 12, p. 68). This poem is a lament for the fading and loss of autumn and the coming of winter. The phonetic make-up of the Qenya words in Narqelion clearly show that Tolkien was attempting to create a link between sound aesthetic and semantics (see Introduction, p. xxii for examples of how Tolkien achieved this in specific lines and words of this poem). The version of Narqelion presented here offers a rare insight into Tolkien’s process of imaginary language invention as in this page he gives different variations on the first two stanzas of the poem. This poem has been the subject of analysis by Tolkien scholars since four lines (not completely accurately transcribed) were published by Humphrey Carpenter (Biography, p. 76) and then subsequently in such journals as Mythlore, Vinyar Tengwar and Parma Eldalamberon. The most recent and detailed analysis of the poem accompanies a facsimile reproduction in Vinyar Tengwar by Christopher Gilson (1999, pp. 6–32).
40 Eldamar: see ‘A Secret Vice’, note 85.
41 silda: this word is circled in pencil.
42 San rot: The following 14 lines are written in pencil on the right-hand margin of the page.
43 N · alalmeo lalantar: This and the following 6 lines are written in pencil at the bottom of the page, below the main poem.
44 eida selda: line from Brot af Sigurðarkviða. Tolkien praised four lines from the Brot, including this one, as having ‘supreme vigour and economical force’ (Sigurd, p. 233). See note 68 below for a further quote and commentary.
45 Each individual probably has a ‘phonematic form’ or character but independent ultimately of his ‘native’ language: Tolkien explores this idea further in the ‘Essay on Phonetic Symbolism’ (see p. 71) and in ‘A Secret Vice’ (see pp. 24–5)
46 What makes Greek sound Greek: The idea of a particular language’s ‘phonetic predilections’ is explored in the ‘Essay on Phonetic Symbolism’, p. 71.
47 phenomenon of “fixation” ma, ca, vru: Tolkien examines the phenomenon of a language inventor’s ‘fixation’ with a particular association of sound and meaning in ‘A Secret Vice’, pp. 18–19.
48 Lostwithiel: a small town in Cornwall, on the estuary of the river Fowey.
49 an art of making pretty noises … “significance”: This paragraph is linked with an arrow to the last section above, and is written vertically from bottom to top at the left-hand margin of the page.
50 Gertrude Stein: Gertrude Stein was an American avant-garde poet and novelist, and patron of the arts in the Parisian scene of the 1920s and 1930s. According to the minutes of the Johnson Society, her work was mentioned in relation to ‘eccentricities’ of language in the discussion that followed Tolkien’s delivery of ‘A Secret Vice’ (see Introduction, p. xxxiii). Tolkien may have also heard about Stein in 1926, as two members of the Inklings attended her lecture in Oxford. The Johnson Society had also heard a paper on Stein on 17 June 1928 (see Introduction, pp. lxi–lxii).
51 Abracadabra: A word-form that was believed by the Romans, Gnostics and Medieval practitioners of the occult to have magic powers when it was inscribed as a triangle on an amulet. The word itself has several potential origins: the form may have been invented by a second century AD Roman sage, Serenus Sammonicus, from the Greek word ‘abraxas’ which in the Greek system of alphabetic numerology is significant because it contains letters that add up to 365, the number of the days in the year. It may also have been Semitic in origin either signifying the words ‘ab’ (father) ‘ben’ (son), and ‘ruach hakodesh’ (holy spirit) or from the Aramaic ‘avra kadavra’ meaning ‘it will be created in my words’ or ‘it comes to pass as it was spoken’. Over time that power of the word diminished and it became known as the incantation used in stage magic due to its sound aesthetic of being foreign and mystical (see Guile 2006, p. 2).
52 Dir avosaith a gwaew hinar: This is a version of the poem beginning with the same line that Tolkien included in ‘A Secret Vice’; see p. 32.
53 Gail Lúthien heb Eglavar/Luthien he saw as a Fay from Fayland: In this version of the poem Tolkien translates the Noldorin word gail not as ‘star’ (as in the version included in ‘A Secret Vice’) but as ‘fay’ and Eglavar now changes from ‘Elfland’ to ‘Fayland’. The Noldorin word gail is attested in The Noldorin Word-Lists as ‘star’ (PE 13, p. 143) and came into Noldorin directly from Gnomish as it is found in The Gnomish Lexicon with the same gloss (PE 11, p. 37). Tolkien uses the word ‘fay’ in the early versions of his legendarium. In the original ‘Tale of Tinúviel’ in The Book of Lost Tales, Lúthien’s mother is described as ‘a fay, a daughter of the Gods’ (Lost Tales II, p. 10). Tolkien also describes the fading Elves in the Great Lands as ‘fays’ (Lost Tales I, p. 239). It may be, therefore, that this version of the poem represents an earlier stage of the Gnomish or Noldorin language.
54 older vilyar: the notes on this left-hand column are written in very faint pencil against specific lines of the main poem (in ink), as represented here.
55 Norolinde pirukendea: This is a version of the poem entitled ‘Nieninqe’ that Tolkien included in ‘A Secret Vice’; see p. 30. Variations between this version and the one in ‘A Secret Vice’ have been noted and commented upon in PE 16, p. 95.
56 ti: there is a bracket around ‘ti’ in red ink.
57 vilisen (nom plur): this note is written in very faint pencil against a specific line of the main poem, as represented here.
58 Oilima Markirya: This is a version of the poem with the same title Tolkien included in ‘A Secret Vice’; see pp. 27–9. Tolkien has written the word ‘prose’ above the title, and Gilson, Welden and Hostetter have hypothesized that this term ‘is perhaps meant only to describe the style of the poem, for while parts of it are rhythmical, nevertheless it differs from [other versions] in having no rhyme-scheme or regular metre, using the looser rhythms of prose instead’ (PE 16, p. 55). This description of style is also valid for the other two versions of the poem presented in this volume.
59 hui oilimante?: this is written in pencil directly underneath ‘hui oilima’ and is probably an alternative form of these two words. Tolkien has also added a ‘transpose’ line that indicates that he was also contemplating the version ‘oilimante hui’.
60 Man Kiluva: the notes starting with this line are on the right-hand margin of the page. Some are related to the poem, others seem entirely random (see notes on several of them).
61 Peltakse: This word seems unrelated to the poem. It is most likely a form of the Qenya word peltas meaning ‘pivot’, the plural of which is ‘peltaksi’ as found in The Etymologies (Lost Road, p. 380).
62 Rustom Pasha: a form of the name Rüstem Pasha Opuković (1500–1561), Ottoman Croatian statesman who served as the grand vizier of the sultan Suleiman the Magnificent and married one of the Sultan’s daughters.
63 ARTUR: This is a form of the name Arthur.
64 DÁIL EIREANN: Irish for ‘The Irish Assembly’. Note that an accent is missing from ‘E’ in the word ‘Eireann’ (compare with rendition below).
65 ÉIREANN: Irish for Ireland.
66 ARTU: This is a form of the name Arthur.
67 Mer hefir Sigurðr … alla logna: Four lines from the Brot of Sigurðarkviða, the fragment of a lay of Sigurd of which only 20 lines are preserved. Tolkien translates these lines as follows:
oaths he swore me,
oaths he swore me,
all belied them; …’
(S&G, p. 168)
According to Christopher Tolkien’s commentary in The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún, Tolkien believed that the Brot fragment indicated the sad loss of ‘an old and very vigorous poem’ and he cites the four lines that appear here as having ‘supreme vigour and economical force’ (Sigurd, p. 233). Tolkien may have been thinking of using these lines here as another example of the power of the poetic form.