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			{{short description\|Fictional script in the fantasy works of J. R. R. Tolkien}}
	:''Note: some of the accented letters used in this article may not display properly unless Tengwar fonts are installed.''
			{{More citations needed\|date=March 2024}}
	{{Infobox WS
			{{Infobox writing system
	\|name=Tengwar
			\| name = Tengwar
	\|iso15924=Teng
			\| sample = Tengwar.svg
			\| caption = The word "Tengwar" written using the Tengwar script in the Quenya mode
			\| imagesize = 180px
			\| type = Alternative
			\| typedesc = ] or ] according to the "]"
			\| time = 1930s–present
			\| fam1 = ]
			\| creator = ]
			\| languages = a number of ], ] and ], ]
			\| iso15924 = Teng
	}}		}}
	] (in ])]]

			{{special characters}}
	'''Tengwar''' is an ] which was invented by ]. In his works, the Tengwar script, supposedly invented by ], was used to write a number of the ], including ] and ]. However, it can also be used to write other languages, such as ] (most of Tolkien's Tengwar samples we know of are actually in English). The word ''tengwar'' is Quenya for "letters". The corresponding ] is ''tengwa'', "letter".

			] in ], written with a spelling-based pointed mode of ''Tengwar''. The first three lines: "All human beings are / born free and equal / in dignity and rights. /..."]]
	==Internal history and terminology==
	According to '']'' (Appendix D to ''Quendi and Eldar''), Fëanor when he created his script introduced a change in terminology. He called a letter, i.e. a written representation of a spoken phoneme (''tengwë'') a ''tengwa''. Previously, any letter or symbol had been called a ''sarat'' (from ''*sar'' "incise"), especially the alphabet of
	] of ] on which Fëanor supposedly based his was known as ], but became later also known as "Tengwar of Rúmil". The plural of ''tengwa'' was ''tengwar'', and this is the name by which Fëanor's system became known. Since, however, in commonly used modes, an individual ''tengwa'' was equivalent to a consonant, the term ''tengwar'' in popular use became equivalent to "consonant sign", and the vowel signs were known as ''ómatehtar''. By loan-translation, the tengwar became known as ''tîw'' (singular ''têw'') in Sindarin, when they were introduced to Beleriand. The letters of the earlier alphabet native to Sindarin were called '']'' (singular ''certh'', probably from ''*kirte'' "cutting", and thus semantically analogous to Quenya ''sarat''). This term was loaned into exilic Quenya as ''certa'', plural ''certar''.

			The '''Tengwar''' ({{IPAc-en\|ˈ\|t\|ɛ\|ŋ\|ɡ\|w\|ɑː\|r}}) script is an ], one of ] by ], the author of '']''. Within the context of Tolkien's fictional world, the Tengwar were invented by the ] ], and used first to write the Elvish languages ] and ]. Later a great number of ] were written using the Tengwar, including ]. Tolkien used Tengwar to write ]: most of Tolkien's Tengwar samples are actually in English.
	==External history==
	===Precursors===
	The ], described in ''] 13'', a script developed by J. R. R. Tolkien in the late ], anticipates many features of the tengwar, especially the vowel representation by ]s (which is found in many tengwar varieties), different tengwar shapes and a few correspondences between sound features and letter shape features (though inconsistent).

			== Internal history and terminology ==
	Even closer to the tengwar is the ], described in ''] 14'', which J. R. R. Tolkien used from about ] to ]. It features many tengwar shapes, the inherent vowel {{IPA\|}} found in some tengwar varieties, and the tables in the samples V12 and V13 show an arrangement that is very similar to the one of the primary tengwar in the classical Quenya "mode".

			Within the context of ], the Tengwar were invented by the ] ] in ], and used first to write the Elven tongues ] and ]. According to ]'s '']'', at the time Fëanor created his script, he introduced a change in terminology. He called a letter, a written representation of a spoken phoneme (''tengwë''), a ''tengwa''. Previously, any letter or symbol had been called a ''sarat'' (from ''*sar'' "incise"). The alphabet of Rúmil of Tirion, on which Fëanor supposedly based his own work, was known as ]. It later became known as "Tengwar of Rúmil".<ref>'']'', Appendix D to ''Quendi and Eldar''</ref>
	Jim Allan (''An introduction to Elvish'', ISBN 0-905220-10-2) compared the tengwar with the ''Universal Alphabet'' of ] of ], both on grounds of the correspondence between shape features and sound features, and of the actual letter shapes. Resemblances to ], ], and ] are also evident in Tengwar. A correspondance between shape features and sound features is also found in the ]n ] alphabet, though it is not known whether Tolkien was aware of these similarities. However, considering the sarati and the valmaric script, it is conceivable that Tolkien developed the idea of a general correspondence between shape features and sound features by himself.

			The plural of ''tengwa'' is ''Tengwar'', and this is the name by which Fëanor's writing system became known. Since, however, in commonly used modes, an individual ''tengwa'' was equivalent to a consonant, the term ''tengwa'' in the fiction became equivalent to "consonant sign", and the vowel signs were known as ''ómatehtar''. By loan-translation, the Tengwar became known as ''tîw'' (singular ''têw'') in Sindarin, when they were introduced to ]. The letters of the earlier alphabet native to Sindarin were called '']'' (singular ''certh'', probably from ''*kirte'' "cutting", and thus semantically analogous to ] ''sarat''). This term was loaned into exilic Quenya as ''certa'', plural ''certar''.
	===The tengwar===
	The tengwar were probably developed in the late ] or in the early ]. ''The Lonely Mountain Jar Inscription'', the first published tengwar sample, dates to 1937 ('']'', most editions). The full explanation of the tengwar was published in Appendix E of '']'' in 1955.

			== External history ==
	The ''Mellonath Daeron Index of Tengwar Specimina'' (DTS) lists 67 known samples of tengwar by Tolkien.

			=== Precursors ===
	There are only few known samples predating publication of ''The Lord of the Rings'' (many of them published posthumously):
	* ''The Lonely Mountain Jar Inscription'', published 1937
	* - ''Ilbereth's Greeting'' from ], dating to 1937
	*/ - ''Edwin Lowdham's Manuscript'' from ] has ] text written in tengwar (with a few ] and Quenya words), dating to 1945/6.
	* - The Brogan Tengwa-greetings, appearing in '']'', No. 118, tentatively dated to 1948.
	*The following samples presumably predate the Lord of the Rings, but they were not explicitly dated: , , - ''Elvish Script Sample I, II, III'', with parts of the English poems ''Errantry'' and ''Bombadil'', first published in the ''Silmarillion Calendar 1978'', later in '']'', as well as - ''So Lúthien'', a page of the English ''Lay of Leithan'' text facsimiled in '']'':299.

			The ], a script developed by Tolkien in the late 1910s and described in ''] 13'', anticipates many features of the Tengwar: vowel representation by ]s (which is found in many Tengwar varieties); different Tengwar shapes; and a few correspondences between sound features and letter shape features (though inconsistent).
	A few other samples, e.g. a tengwar mode for ] are known to exist, but remain unpublished to date .

			Even closer to the Tengwar is the Valmaric script, described in ''Parma Eldalamberon 14'', which Tolkien used from about 1922 to 1925. It features many Tengwar shapes, the inherent vowel {{IPA\|}} found in some Tengwar varieties, and the tables in the samples V12 and V13 show an arrangement that is very similar to one of the primary Tengwar in the classical Quenya "mode".
	== Spelling and pronunciation ==
	=== Modes ===
	Just as with any ], every specific language written in tengwar requires a specific ], depending on the ] of that language. These tengwar orthographies are usually called ''modes''.

			In his ''An Introduction to Elvish'', Jim Allan compared the Tengwar with the London merchant ]'s 1686 ''Universal Alphabet'', both on grounds of the correspondence between shape features and sound features, and of the actual letter shapes.<ref>{{cite book \|editor-last=Allan \|editor-first=Jim \|title=An Introduction to Elvish \|publisher=Bran's Head Books \|isbn=0-905220-10-2}}</ref>
	Some modes, called ''ómatehtar'' (or ''vowel tehtar'') modes, represent vowels with ] called '''tehtar''' ("signs"; corresponding ]: ''tehta'', "sign"), while other modes, called ''full writing'' modes, represent vowels by normal letters. These ómatehtar modes are technically ] rather than ]. Some modes map the basic consonants to {{IPA\|/t/}}, {{IPA\|/p/}}, {{IPA\|/k/}} and {{IPA\|/kʷ/}}, while others use them to represent {{IPA\|/t/}}, {{IPA\|/p/}}, {{IPA\|/tʃ/}} and {{IPA\|/k/}}. Some modes follow pronunciation, while others rather follow traditional ]. The "full writing" modes are sometimes called ''Beleriandic modes'' because a well-known "full writing" mode is called the "mode of ]".

			=== Tengwar ===
	Since the publication of the first official description of the Tengwar at the end of '']'', others have created modes for other languages such as ], ], ], ], ] and ].

			], written in the ] of ] using Tengwar: "Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul / ash nazg thrakatulûk, agh burzum-ishi krimpatul".]]
	=== Tengwar letters ===
	The most notable characteristic of the tengwar script is that the shapes of the letters correspond to the features of the sounds they represent.

			]
	The letters are constructed by a combination of two basic shapes: a vertical '''stem''' (either long or short) and either one or two rounded '''bows''' (which may or may not be underlined, and may be on the left or right of the stem).

			The Tengwar script was probably developed in the late 1920s or in the early 1930s. ''The Lonely Mountain Jar Inscription'', the first published Tengwar sample, dates to 1937.<ref>'']'', most editions with colour plates.</ref> The full explanation of the Tengwar was published in Appendix E of '']'' in 1955.<ref>'']'', Appendix E, "Writing: The Fëanorian Letters "</ref>
	The principal letters are divided into four series ("témar") that correspond to the main ] and into six rows ("tyeller") that correspond to the main ]. Both vary among modes.

			The ''Mellonath Daeron Index of Tengwar Specimina'' (DTS) lists most of the known samples of Tengwar by Tolkien.

			There are only a few known samples predating publication of ''The Lord of the Rings'' (many of them published posthumously):

			* ''The Lonely Mountain Jar Inscription'', published 1937<ref></ref>
			* ''Middle Page from the ]''<ref></ref>
			* ''Last Page from the Book of Mazarbul, Last Line'', this and the above one originally prepared for inclusion in ''The Lord of the Rings''<ref></ref>
			* ''Steinborg Drawing Title''<ref></ref>
			* ''Ilbereth's Greeting'' from ], dating to 1937<ref></ref>
			* ''The Treebeard Page''<ref></ref>
			* ''Edwin Lowdham's Manuscript'' from ] has ] text written in Tengwar (with a few ] and Quenya words), dating to 1945/6.<ref>/</ref>
			* The Brogan Tengwa-greetings, appearing in '']'', No. 118, tentatively dated to 1948<ref></ref>

			The following samples presumably predate the Lord of the Rings, but were not explicitly dated:

			* ''Elvish Script Sample I, II, III'', with parts of the English poems ''Errantry'' and ''Bombadil'', first published in the ''Silmarillion Calendar 1978'', later in ''Pictures by J. R. R. Tolkien'',<ref>, , </ref>
			* ''So Lúthien'', a page of the English ''Lay of Leithian'' text<ref></ref><ref>Facsimiled in '']'':299.</ref>

			== Description ==

			]

			=== Letters ===

			The most notable characteristic of the Tengwar script is that the shapes of the letters correspond to the ]s of the sounds they represent. The Quenya consonant system has five ]: ], ], ], ], and ]. The velars distinguish between plain and labialized (that is, articulated with rounded lips, or followed by a {{IPA\|}} sound). Each point of articulation, and the corresponding tengwa series, has a name in the classical Quenya mode. Dental sounds are called ''Tincotéma'' and are represented with the Tengwar in column I. Labial sounds are called ''Parmatéma'', and represented by the column II Tengwar; velar sounds are called ''Calmatéma'', represented by column III; and labialized velar sounds are called ''Quessetéma'', represented by the ''Tengwar'' of column IV. Palatal sounds are called ''Tyelpetéma'' and have no tengwa series of their own, but are represented by column III letters with an added diacritic for following {{IPA\|}}.

			Similarly shaped letters reflect not only similar places of articulation, but also similar manners of articulation. In the classical Quenya mode, row 1 represents voiceless stops, row 2 voiced prenasalized stops, row 3 voiceless fricatives, row 4 voiceless prenasalized stops, row 5 nasal stops, and row 6 approximants.<ref>{{cite book \|last=Tyler \|first=J. E. A. \|author-link=J. E. A. Tyler \|title=The Complete Tolkien Companion \|publisher=Pan Books \|year=2022 \|isbn=978-1-0350-0857-5 \|pages= }}</ref>

			==== Regularly formed ====

			Most letters are constructed by a combination of two basic shapes: a vertical '''stem''' (either long or short) and either one or two rounded '''bows''' (which may or may not be underscored, and may be on the left or right of the stem).

			These principal letters are divided into four series ("témar") that correspond to the main places of articulation and into six grades ("tyeller") that correspond to the main ]. Both vary among modes.

	Each series is headed by the basic signs composed of a vertical stem descending below the line, and a single bow. These basic signs represent the ]less ]s for that series. For the classical Quenya mode, they are {{IPA\|/t/}}, {{IPA\|/p/}}, {{IPA\|/k/}} and {{IPA\|/kʷ/}}, and the series are named ''tincotéma'', ''parmatéma'', ''calmatéma'', and ''quessetéma'', respectively; téma means "series" in Quenya.		Each series is headed by the basic signs composed of a vertical stem descending below the line, and a single bow. These basic signs represent the ]less ]s for that series. For the classical Quenya mode, they are {{IPA\|/t/}}, {{IPA\|/p/}}, {{IPA\|/k/}} and {{IPA\|/kʷ/}}, and the series are named ''tincotéma'', ''parmatéma'', ''calmatéma'', and ''quessetéma'', respectively; téma means "series" in Quenya.

	In rows of the ''general use'', there are the following correspondences between letter shapes and manners of articulation:		In rows of the ''general use'', there are the following correspondences between letter shapes and manners of articulation:

	* Doubling the bow turns the ] into a voiced one.		* Doubling the bow turns the ] into a voiced one.
	* Raising the stem above the line turns it into the corresponding ].		* Raising the stem above the line turns it into the corresponding ].
	* Shortening it (so it is only the height of the bow) creates the corresponding ]. ~~It must be noted though that in~~ most modes, the signs with shortened stem and single bow ~~don't~~ correspond to the ] ]s, but to the ]s.		* Shortening it (so it is only the height of the bow) creates the corresponding ]. In most modes, the signs with shortened stem and single bow do not correspond to the ] nasals, but to the ]s.

			In addition to these variations of the Tengwar shapes, there is yet another variation, the use of stems that are extended both above and below the line. This shape may correspond to other consonant variations required. Except for some English abbreviations, it is not used in any of the better known Tengwar modes, but it occurs in a ] <!--sic--> mode where the tengwa Parma with extended stem is used for {{IPA\|/pt/}} and the tengwa Calma with extended stem is used for {{IPA\|/kt/}}.<ref>See '']'' 19 (2010), pp. 41–43.</ref> The Tengwar with raised stems sometimes occur in ] variants that look like extended stems, as seen in the inscription of the ].
	Here is an example from the parmatéma (the signs with a closed bow on the right side) in the general use:
	]
	* The basic sign (with descending stem) represents {{IPA\|/p/}} (it happens to look much like the letter ''p'').
	* With the bow doubled, it represents {{IPA\|/b/}}.
	* With a raised stem, it represents {{IPA\|/f/}}.
	* With a raised stem and a doubled bow, it represents {{IPA\|/v/}}.
	* With a short stem and double bow, it represents {{IPA\|/m/}}.
	* With short stem and single bow, it represents {{IPA\|/w/}}.

			An example from the ''parmatéma'' (the signs with a closed bow on the right side) in the "general use" of the Tengwar is:
	In the classical Quenya mode, the rows are used differently:
	* With descending stem and double bow, we have {{IPA\|/mb/}}.
	* With raised stem and double bow, we have {{IPA\|/mp/}}.

			]
	There are additional letters that don't have regular shapes. They may represent e.g. {{IPA\|/r/}}, {{IPA\|/l/}}, {{IPA\|/s/}} and {{IPA\|/h/}}. Their use varies considerably from mode to mode. Some aficionados have added more letters not found in Tolkien's writings for use in their modes.

			* The basic sign, named ''parma'', (with descending stem) represents {{IPA\|/p/}} (it happens to look much like the Latin letter ''P'').
			* With the bow doubled, ''umbar'', it represents {{IPA\|/b/}}.
			* With a raised stem, ''formen'', it represents {{IPA\|/f/}}.
			* With a raised stem and a doubled bow, ''ampa'', it represents generally {{IPA\|/v/}} but possibly {{IPA\|/mp/}} (depending upon the language).
			* With a short stem and double bow, ''{{not a typo\|malta}}'', it represents {{IPA\|/m/}}.
			* With short stem and single bow, ''vala'', it represents {{IPA\|/w/}}, or {{IPA\|/v/}} if that has the phonological behaviour of a sonorant (e.g. in Quenya).

			In languages such as Quenya, which do not contain any voiced fricatives other than "v", the raised stem + doubled bow row is used for the common nasal+stop sequences (''nt'', ''mp'', ''nk'', ''nqu''). In such cases, the "w" sign in the previous paragraph is used for "v". In the mode of Beleriand, found on the door to ], the bottom ''tyellë'' is used for nasals (e.g., ''vala'' is used for {{IPA\|/m/}}) and the fifth ''tyellë'' for doubled nasals (''{{not a typo\|malta}}'' for {{IPA\|/mm/}}).

			==== Irregularly formed ====

			There are additional letters that do not have regular shapes. They may represent, e.g., {{IPA\|/r/}}, {{IPA\|/l/}}, {{IPA\|/s/}} and {{IPA\|/h/}}. Their use varies considerably from mode to mode. Some aficionados have added more letters not found in Tolkien's writings for use in their modes.

			=== ''Tehtar'' diacritics ===

			]s for vowels, consonant doubling, and nasal sounds]]

			A ''tehta'' (Quenya "marking") is a ] placed above or below the tengwa. They can represent vowels, consonant doubling, or nasal sound.

			As Tolkien explained in Appendix E of ''The Lord of the Rings'', the ''tehtar'' for vowels resemble Latin diacritics: circumflex (î) {{IPA\|/a/}}, acute (í) {{IPA\|/e/}}, dot (i) {{IPA\|/i/}}, left curl (ı̔) {{IPA\|/o/}}, and right curl (ı̓) {{IPA\|/u/}}. Long vowels, excepting {{IPA\|/a/}}, may be indicated by doubling the signs. Some languages from which {{IPA\|/o/}} is absent or in which compared to {{IPA\|/u/}} it appears sparsely, such as the ], use left curl for {{IPA\|/u/}}; other languages swap the signs for {{IPA\|/e/}} and {{IPA\|/i/}}.

			A vowel occurring alone is drawn on the vowel carrier, which resembles ] (ı) for a short vowel or dotless j (ȷ) for a long vowel.

			== Modes ==

			]

			Just as with any ]ic writing system, every specific language written in Tengwar requires a specific ], depending on the ] of that language. These Tengwar orthographies are usually called ''modes''. Some modes follow pronunciation, while others follow traditional orthography.

			Some modes map the basic consonants to {{IPA\|/t/}}, {{IPA\|/p/}}, {{IPA\|/k/}} and {{IPA\|/kʷ/}} (classical mode in chart at right), while others use them to represent {{IPA\|/t/}}, {{IPA\|/p/}}, {{IPA\|/tʃ/}} and {{IPA\|/k/}} (general mode at right). The other main difference is in the fourth ''tyellë'' below, where those letters with raised stems and doubled bows can be either voiced fricatives, as in Sindarin (general mode at right), or nasalized stops, as in Quenya (classical mode).

			=== Ómatehtar ===

			In some modes, called ''ómatehtar'' (or ''vowel tehtar'') modes, the vowels are represented with ]s called '']r'' (Quenya for 'signs'; corresponding ]: ''tehta'', 'sign'). These ómatehtar modes can be considered ]s rather than true ]s.<ref>{{cite conference \|last1=Martínez \|first1=Helios De Rosario \|chapter=A Methodological Study of the Elvish Writing Systems \|title=Proceedings of the Third International Conference on JRR Tolkien's Invented Languages, Omentielva Nelya, Whitehaven, 6-9 August 2009 \|series=Arda Philology \|year=2011 \|volume=3 \|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cq2QRcYySHIC&pg=PA1 \|publisher=The Arda Society \|pages=1–25 \|isbn=978-91-973500-3-7}}</ref> In some ómatehtar modes, the consonant signs feature an inherent vowel.

			''Ómatehtar'' modes can vary in that the vowel stroke can be placed either on top of the consonant preceding it, as in ], or on the consonant following, as in ], English, and the notorious Black Speech inscription on the One Ring.

			=== Full writing ===

			In the ''full writing'' modes, the consonants and the vowels are represented by Tengwar. Only one such mode is well known. It is called the "mode of ]" and one can read it on the ].

			=== Modes for other languages ===

			Since the publication of the first official description of the Tengwar at the end of '']'', others have created modes for other languages such as ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ] and ]. Modes have also been devised for other ]s; ] and ].

			Tolkien had used multiple modes for English, including full writing and ómatehtar alphabetic modes, phonetic full modes and phonetic ómatehtar modes known from documents published after his death.<references group=. />

	== Encoding schemes ==		== Encoding schemes ==
	===Non-Unicode===
	The contemporary ] standard in the tengwar user community maps the tengwar characters onto the ] character encoding following the example of the . This implies a major flaw: If no corresponding tengwar font is installed, an awful string of nonsense characters appears.

			=== Legacy encoding ===
	Since there are not enough places in ISO 8859-1's 191 codepoints for all the signs used in tengwar orthography, certain signs are included in a "tengwar A" font which also maps its characters on ISO 8859-1, overlapping with the first font.

			The contemporary ] standard in the Tengwar user community maps the Tengwar characters onto the ] character encoding following the example of the Tengwar typefaces by Dan Smith. This implies a major flaw: If no corresponding Tengwar font is installed, a ] appears.
	For each tengwar diacritic, there are four different codepoints that are used depending on the width of the character which bears it.

			Since there are not enough places in ISO 8859-1's 191 codepoints for all the signs used in Tengwar orthography, certain signs are included in a "Tengwar A" font which also maps its characters on ISO 8859-1, overlapping with the first font.
	Other tengwar typefaces with this encoding include , , or (note that most of these differ in details).

			For each Tengwar diacritic, there are four different codepoints that are used depending on the width of the character which bears it.
	The following sample shows the first article of the ] written in English, according to the traditional ]. It should look similar to the picture at the ], but if no tengwar font is installed, it will look a random jumble of characters because the corresponding ISO 8859-1 characters will appear instead.

			Other Tengwar typefaces with this encoding include , , or (note that most of these differ in details).
	<blockquote style="font-family: 'Tengwar Annatar', 'Tengwar Quenya', 'Tengwar Sindarin', 'Tengwar Formal', 'Tengwar Parmaite', 'Tengwar Elfica';">j#¸ 9t&5# w`Vb%_ 6EO w6Y5 e7~V 2{( zèVj# 5% 2x%51T`Û 2{( 7v%1+º 4hR 7EO 2{$yYO2 y4% 7]F85^ 2{( z5^8i`B5$i( 2{( dyYj2 zE1 1`N ]Fa 4^(6 5% `C 8q7T1T W w74^(69~N2º</blockquote>

			The following sample shows the first article of the ] written in English, according to the traditional ]. It should look similar to the picture at the ], but if no Tengwar font is installed, it will appear as a jumble of characters because the corresponding ISO 8859-1 characters will appear instead.
	===Unicode===
	A proposal has been made to include the Tengwar in the ] standard.

			<blockquote style="font-family: 'Tengwar Annatar', 'Tengwar Eldamar', 'Tengwar Noldor', 'Tengwar Parmaite', 'Tengwar Formal', 'Tengwar Elfica', 'Tengwar Sindarin', 'Tengwar Quenya', 'Tengwar Gothika'; font-size: 150%; line-height: 150%">
	The following Unicode sample is meaningful when viewed under a typeface supporting Tengwar glyphs in the area defined in the Tengwar proposal for the unofficial ] ({{U\|E000}} to U+E07F; see ]).
			j#¸ 9t&5# w`Vb%_ 6EO w6Y5 e7`V`V 2{( zèVj# 5% 2x%51T`Û 2{( 7v%1+- 4hR 7EO 2{$yYO2 y4% 7]F85^ 2{( z5^8I`B5$I( 2{( dyYj2 zE1 1yY6E2_ 5^( 5#4^(7 5% `C 8q7T1T W w74^(692^H -- </blockquote>

			Note: Some browsers may not display these characters properly.
	At the moment, the only ]s that support this proposal are 's ] and ] (see also the ).

			=== Unicode ===
	The following sample repeats the above one according to the Unicode proposal. It will only display correctly if either of James Kass's fonts is installed.

			] made a proposal to include the Tengwar in the ] standard in 1997.<ref>{{Cite web \|title=Proposal to encode Tengwar in Plane 1 of ISO/IEC 10646-2 \|url=http://std.dkuug.dk/JTC1/SC2/WG2/docs/n1641/n1641.htm \|access-date=2023-03-23 \|website=std.dkuug.dk}}</ref> The range {{U+\|16080}} to U+160FF in the ] was tentatively allocated for Tengwar in the 2023 Unicode roadmap.<ref>{{Cite web \|title=Roadmap to the SMP \|url=https://www.unicode.org/roadmaps/smp/ \|access-date=2023-03-23 \|website=www.unicode.org}}</ref>
	<blockquote style="font-family: Code2000, Code2001;">                             </blockquote>

			=== ConScript Unicode Registry ===

			{{Infobox Unicode block
			\|rangestart = E000
			\|rangeend = E07F
			\|assigned = 93
			\|script1 = Artificial Scripts
			\|alphabets = Tengwar
			\|sources = ]
			\|codechart = omit
			\|note = Part of the Private-Use Area, font conflicts possible<ref>{{cite web \|last=Everson \|first=Michael \|url=http://www.evertype.com/standards/csur/Tengwar.html \| title=Tengwar: U+E000 - U+E07F \| work=ConScript Unicode Registry \| accessdate=2017-03-13}}</ref>
			}}

			Tengwar are included in the unofficial ] (CSUR), which assigns codepoints in the ]. Tengwar are mapped to the range U+E000–U+E07F. The following Unicode sample (which repeats the one above) is meaningful when viewed under a typeface supporting Tengwar glyphs in the area defined in the ConScript Tengwar proposal.

			<blockquote style="font-family: 'Tengwar Formal CSUR', 'Kurinto Text Aux', 'Kurinto Book Aux', 'Kurinto Sans Aux', 'Constructium', 'Tengwar Formal Unicode', 'Tengwar Telcontar', 'FreeMonoTengwar', 'Everson Mono', 'Tengwar Eldamar'; font-size: 150%;">{{PUA\|}} {{PUA\|}} {{PUA\|}} {{PUA\|}} {{PUA\|}} {{PUA\|}} {{PUA\|}} {{PUA\|}} {{PUA\|}} {{PUA\|}} {{PUA\|}} {{PUA\|}} ⸬ {{PUA\|}} {{PUA\|}} {{PUA\|}} {{PUA\|}} {{PUA\|}} {{PUA\|}} {{PUA\|}} {{PUA\|}} {{PUA\|}} {{PUA\|}} {{PUA\|}} {{PUA\|}} {{PUA\|}} {{PUA\|}} {{PUA\|}} {{PUA\|}} {{PUA\|}} {{PUA\|}} ⸬</blockquote>

			Some ]s that support this proposal are ], Tengwar Telcontar,<ref>{{cite web \|last1=Winge \|first1=Johan \|title=Free Tengwar Font Project: Tengwar Telcontar \|url=https://freeTengwar.sourceforge.net/tengtelc.html \|website=J. R. R. Tolkien’s Tengwar script \|access-date=25 June 2024 \|date=15 December 2009}}</ref> Constructium, Tengwar Formal Unicode,<ref>{{cite web \|last1=wust \|first1=j ‘mach’ \|title=Free Tengwar Font Project: Tengwar Formal CSUR \|url=https://freeTengwar.sourceforge.net/formal.html \|website=J. R. R. Tolkien’s Tengwar script \|access-date=25 June 2024 \|date=11 June 2010}}</ref> and FreeMonoTengwar<ref>{{cite web \|last1=wust \|first1=j ‘mach’ \|title=Free Tengwar Font Project: FreeMonoTengwar \|url=https://freeTengwar.sourceforge.net/freemonoTengwar.html \|website=J. R. R. Tolkien’s Tengwar script \|access-date=25 June 2024 \|date=22 September 2009}}</ref> (James Kass's ] and ] use an older, incompatible version of the proposal). The eight “Aux” variant fonts of Kurinto (such as Kurinto Text Aux, Book Aux, Sans Aux) also support Tengwar.<ref></ref>

			{{CSUR chart Tengwar}}

			{{CSUR chart Tengwar 2001}}

			{\| class="wikitable"
			\|+ Tengwar letters CSUR encoding
			! Name !! Image !! CSUR \|\| Designation annotation
			\|-
			\| tinco \|\| style="color: black !important; background-color: white !important;" \| ] \|\| U+E000 \|\| Tengwar LETTER TINCO
			\|-
			\| parma \|\| style="color: black !important; background-color: white !important;" \| ] \|\| U+E001 \|\| Tengwar LETTER PARMA
			\|-
			\| calma \|\| style="color: black !important; background-color: white !important;" \| ] \|\| U+E002 \|\| Tengwar LETTER CALMA
			\|-
			\| quessë \|\| style="color: black !important; background-color: white !important;" \| ] \|\| U+E003 \|\| Tengwar LETTER QUESSE
			\|-
			\| ando \|\| style="color: black !important; background-color: white !important;" \| ] \|\| U+E004 \|\| Tengwar LETTER ANDO
			\|-
			\| umbar \|\| style="color: black !important; background-color: white !important;" \| ] \|\| U+E005 \|\| Tengwar LETTER UMBAR
			\|-
			\| anga \|\| style="color: black !important; background-color: white !important;" \| ] \|\| U+E006 \|\| Tengwar LETTER ANGA
			\|-
			\| ungwë \|\| style="color: black !important; background-color: white !important;" \| ] \|\| U+E007 \|\| Tengwar LETTER UNGWE
			\|-
			\| súlë / thúlë \|\| style="color: black !important; background-color: white !important;" \| ] \|\| U+E008 \|\| Tengwar LETTER THUULE (suule)
			\|-
			\| formen \|\| style="color: black !important; background-color: white !important;" \| ] \|\| U+E009 \|\| Tengwar LETTER FORMEN
			\|-
			\| harma / aha \|\| style="color: black !important; background-color: white !important;" \| ] \|\| U+E00A \|\| Tengwar LETTER HARMA (aha)
			\|-
			\| hwesta \|\| style="color: black !important; background-color: white !important;" \| ] \|\| U+E00B \|\| Tengwar LETTER HWESTA
			\|-
			\| anto \|\| style="color: black !important; background-color: white !important;" \| ] \|\| U+E00C \|\| Tengwar LETTER ANTO
			\|-
			\| ampa \|\| style="color: black !important; background-color: white !important;" \| ] \|\| U+E00D \|\| Tengwar LETTER AMPA
			\|-
			\| anca \|\| style="color: black !important; background-color: white !important;" \| ] \|\| U+E00E \|\| Tengwar LETTER ANCA
			\|-
			\| unquë \|\| style="color: black !important; background-color: white !important;" \| ] \|\| U+E00F \|\| Tengwar LETTER UNQUE
			\|-
			\| númen \|\| style="color: black !important; background-color: white !important;" \| ] \|\| U+E010 \|\| Tengwar LETTER NUUMEN
			\|-
			\| {{not a typo\|malta}} \|\| style="color: black !important; background-color: white !important;" \| ] \|\| U+E011 \|\| Tengwar LETTER MALTA
			\|-
			\| noldo / ñoldo \|\| style="color: black !important; background-color: white !important;" \| ] \|\| U+E012 \|\| Tengwar LETTER NOLDO (ngoldo)
			\|-
			\| nwalmë / ñwalmë \|\| style="color: black !important; background-color: white !important;" \| ] \|\| U+E013 \|\| Tengwar LETTER NWALME (ngwalme)
			\|-
			\| órë \|\| style="color: black !important; background-color: white !important;" \| ] \|\| U+E014 \|\| Tengwar LETTER OORE
			\|-
			\| vala \|\| style="color: black !important; background-color: white !important;" \| ] \|\| U+E015 \|\| Tengwar LETTER VALA
			\|-
			\| anna \|\| style="color: black !important; background-color: white !important;" \| ] \|\| U+E016 \|\| Tengwar LETTER ANNA
			\|-
			\| vilya / wilya \|\| style="color: black !important; background-color: white !important;" \| ] \|\| U+E017 \|\| Tengwar LETTER VILYA (wilya)
			\|-
			\| rómen \|\| style="color: black !important; background-color: white !important;" \| ] \|\| U+E018 \|\| Tengwar LETTER ROOMEN
			\|-
			\| arda \|\| style="color: black !important; background-color: white !important;" \| ] \|\| U+E019 \|\| Tengwar LETTER ARDA
			\|-
			\| lambë \|\| style="color: black !important; background-color: white !important;" \| ] \|\| U+E01A \|\| Tengwar LETTER LAMBE
			\|-
			\| alda \|\| style="color: black !important; background-color: white !important;" \| ] \|\| U+E01B \|\| Tengwar LETTER ALDA
			\|-
			\| silmë \|\| style="color: black !important; background-color: white !important;" \| ] \|\| U+E01C \|\| Tengwar LETTER SILME
			\|-
			\| silmë nuquerna \|\| style="color: black !important; background-color: white !important;" \| ] \|\| U+E01D \|\| Tengwar LETTER SILME NUQUERNA
			\|-
			\| essë / áre/áze \|\| style="color: black !important; background-color: white !important;" \| ] \|\| U+E01E \|\| Tengwar LETTER AARE (aaze, esse)
			\|-
			\| essë nuquerna / áre/áze nuquerna \|\| style="color: black !important; background-color: white !important;" \| ] \|\| U+E01F \|\| Tengwar LETTER AARE NUQUERNA (aaze n., esse n.)
			\|-
			\| hyarmen \|\| style="color: black !important; background-color: white !important;" \| ] \|\| U+E020 \|\| Tengwar LETTER HYARMEN
			\|-
			\| hwesta sindarinwa \|\| style="color: black !important; background-color: white !important;" \| ] \|\| U+E021 \|\| Tengwar LETTER HWESTA SINDARINWA
			\|-
			\| yanta \|\| style="color: black !important; background-color: white !important;" \| ] \|\| U+E022 \|\| Tengwar LETTER YANTA
			\|-
			\| úrë \|\| style="color: black !important; background-color: white !important;" \| ] \|\| U+E023 \|\| Tengwar LETTER UURE
			\|-
			\| halla \|\| style="color: black !important; background-color: white !important;" \| ] \|\| U+E024 \|\| Tengwar LETTER HALLA
			\|-
			\| telco \|\| style="color: black !important; background-color: white !important;" \| ] \|\| U+E025 \|\| Tengwar LETTER SHORT CARRIER
			\|-
			\| ára \|\| style="color: black !important; background-color: white !important;" \| ] \|\| U+E026 \|\| Tengwar LETTER LONG CARRIER
			\|}

			{\| class="wikitable"
			\|+ Tengwar ligatures and extended letters CSUR encoding
			! Name !! Image !! CSUR \|\| Designation annotation
			\|-
			\| \|\| \|\| U+E027 \|\| Tengwar LETTER ANNA SINDARINWA
			\|-
			\| \|\| \|\| U+E028 \|\| Tengwar LETTER EXTENDED THUULE
			\|-
			\| \|\| \|\| U+E029 \|\| Tengwar LETTER EXTENDED FORMEN
			\|-
			\| \|\| \|\| U+E02A \|\| Tengwar LETTER EXTENDED HARMA
			\|-
			\| \|\| \|\| U+E02B \|\| Tengwar LETTER EXTENDED HWESTA
			\|-
			\| \|\| \|\| U+E02C \|\| Tengwar LETTER EXTENDED ANTO
			\|-
			\| \|\| \|\| U+E02D \|\| Tengwar LETTER EXTENDED AMPA
			\|-
			\| \|\| \|\| U+E02E \|\| Tengwar LETTER EXTENDED ANCA
			\|-
			\| \|\| \|\| U+E02F \|\| Tengwar LETTER EXTENDED UNQUE
			\|-
			\| \|\| \|\| U+E030 \|\| Tengwar LETTER STEMLESS OORE (digit zero)
			\|-
			\| \|\| \|\| U+E031 \|\| Tengwar LETTER STEMLESS VALA
			\|-
			\| \|\| \|\| U+E032 \|\| Tengwar LETTER STEMLESS ANNA
			\|-
			\| \|\| \|\| U+E033 \|\| Tengwar LETTER STEMLESS VILYA (digit one)
			\|}

			{\| class="wikitable"
			\|+ Tengwar accents CSUR encoding
			! Name !! Image !! CSUR \|\| Designation annotation
			\|-
			\| amatixe 3 \|\| ] \|\| U+E040 \|\| Tengwar SIGN THREE DOTS ABOVE
			\|-
			\| unutixe 3 \|\| \|\| U+E041 \|\| Tengwar SIGN THREE DOTS BELOW
			\|-
			\| amatixe 2 \|\| ] \|\| U+E042 \|\| Tengwar SIGN TWO DOTS ABOVE
			\|-
			\| unutixe 2 \|\| ] \|\| U+E043 \|\| Tengwar SIGN TWO DOTS BELOW
			\|-
			\| amatixe 1 \|\| ] \|\| U+E044 \|\| Tengwar SIGN AMATICSE (dot above)
			\|-
			\| unutixe 1 \|\| ] \|\| U+E045 \|\| Tengwar SIGN NUNTICSE (dot below)
			\|-
			\| tecco \|\| ] \|\| U+E046 \|\| Tengwar SIGN ACUTE (andaith, long mark)
			\|-
			\| \|\| \|\| U+E047 \|\| Tengwar SIGN DOUBLE ACUTE
			\|-
			\| rempe \|\| ] \|\| U+E048 \|\| Tengwar SIGN RIGHT CURL
			\|-
			\| \|\| \|\| U+E049 \|\| Tengwar SIGN DOUBLE RIGHT CURL
			\|-
			\| rempenuquerna \|\| ] \|\| U+E04A \|\| Tengwar SIGN LEFT CURL
			\|-
			\| \|\| \|\| U+E04B \|\| Tengwar SIGN DOUBLE LEFT CURL
			\|-
			\| amatwe \|\| ] \|\| U+E04C \|\| Tengwar SIGN NASALIZER
			\|-
			\| unuatwe \|\| ] \|\| U+E04D \|\| Tengwar SIGN DOUBLER
			\|-
			\| \|\| \|\| U+E04E \|\| Tengwar SIGN TILDE
			\|-
			\| \|\| \|\| U+E04F \|\| Tengwar SIGN BREVE
			\|-
			\| \|\| \|\| U+E050 \|\| Tengwar PUSTA (putta, stop)
			\|-
			\| \|\| \|\| U+E051 \|\| Tengwar DOUBLE PUSTA (putta)
			\|-
			\| \|\| \|\| U+E052 \|\| Tengwar EXCLAMATION MARK
			\|-
			\| \|\| \|\| U+E053 \|\| Tengwar QUESTION MARK
			\|-
			\| \|\| \|\| U+E054 \|\| Tengwar SECTION MARK
			\|-
			\| \|\| \|\| U+E055 \|\| Tengwar LONG SECTION MARK
			\|-
			\| thinnas \|\| ] \|\| U+E056 \|\| Tengwar SIGN LONG CARRIER BELOW
			\|-
			\| \|\| \|\| U+E057 \|\| Tengwar SIGN DOUBLE ACUTE BELOW
			\|-
			\| \|\| \|\| U+E058 \|\| Tengwar SIGN RIGHT CURL BELOW
			\|-
			\| \|\| \|\| U+E05A \|\| Tengwar SIGN LEFT CURL BELOW
			\|-
			\| sarince \|\| ] \|\| U+E05C \|\| Tengwar SIGN LEFT FOLLOWING SILME
			\|-
			\| \|\| \|\| U+E05D \|\| Tengwar SIGN RIGHT FOLLOWING SILME
			\|}

			{\| class="wikitable"
			\|+ Tengwar digits CSUR encoding
			! Name !! Image !! CSUR \|\| Designation annotation
			\|-
			\|title="STEMLESS OORE"\| 0 \|\| \|\| U+E030 \|\| Tengwar LETTER STEMLESS OORE (digit zero)
			\|-
			\|title="STEMLESS VILYA"\| 1 \|\| \|\| U+E033 \|\| Tengwar LETTER STEMLESS VILYA (digit one)
			\|-
			\| 2 \|\| \|\| U+E062 \|\| Tengwar DIGIT TWO
			\|-
			\| 3 \|\| \|\| U+E063 \|\| Tengwar DIGIT THREE
			\|-
			\| 4 \|\| \|\| U+E064 \|\| Tengwar DIGIT FOUR
			\|-
			\| 5 \|\| \|\| U+E065 \|\| Tengwar DIGIT FIVE
			\|-
			\| 6 \|\| \|\| U+E066 \|\| Tengwar DIGIT SIX
			\|-
			\| 7 \|\| \|\| U+E067 \|\| Tengwar DIGIT SEVEN
			\|-
			\| 8 \|\| \|\| U+E068 \|\| Tengwar DIGIT EIGHT
			\|-
			\| 9 \|\| \|\| U+E069 \|\| Tengwar DIGIT NINE
			\|-
			\| 10 \|\| \|\| U+E06A \|\| Tengwar DUODECIMAL DIGIT TEN
			\|-
			\| 11 \|\| \|\| U+E06B \|\| Tengwar DUODECIMAL DIGIT ELEVEN
			\|-
			\| \|\| \|\| U+E06C \|\| Tengwar DECIMAL BASE MARK
			\|-
			\| \|\| \|\| U+E06D \|\| Tengwar DUODECIMAL BASE MARK
			\|-
			\| \|\| \|\| U+E06E \|\| Tengwar DUODECIMAL LEAST SIGNIFICANT DIGIT MARK
			\|}

			==In popular culture ==

			Tengwar has been used in ] since the publication of ''The Lord of the Rings'' in the 1950s.<ref>{{cite web \|last=Shelton <!--Tolkien scholar--> \|first=Luke \|title=Anna Voß's Experience — Tolkien Experience Project (212) \|url=https://luke-shelton.com/2022/10/25/anna-voss-experience-tolkien-experience-project-212/ \|publisher=Luke Shelton \|access-date=23 March 2023 \|date=25 October 2022 \|quote=Like most Tolkien obsessed teens, I used to teach myself writing Tengwar. Nowadays I research writing systems by way of typesetting/typography. It’s a field very much connected to Philology.}}</ref>

			With the exception of ], the actors playing the ] in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy have Tengwar tattoos of the English word ''nine''.<ref name="tattoo">{{cite web \|title=The stars of The Lord of the Rings trilogy reach their journey's end \|url=http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue348/interview.html \|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070306100400/http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue348/interview.html <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> \|archivedate=March 6, 2007 \|accessdate=May 31, 2007 \|publisher=SciFi.com}}</ref>

			Footballers such as ]<ref>{{Cite web \|last=Kaviraj \|first=Tina \|title=10 things you need to know about Sergio Aguero \|url=https://www.sportskeeda.com/football/10-things-you-need-know-about-sergio-aguero \|access-date=2022-02-05 \|website=www.sportskeeda.com \|date=22 February 2017 }}</ref> and ]<ref>{{Cite web \|date=2014-12-17 \|title=Torres and Aguero's Elvish Obssession [sic] \|url=https://www.soccerpro.com/thecentercircle/hobbits-dwarves-elves-oh/ \|access-date=2022-02-05 \|website=The Center Circle - A SoccerPro Soccer Fan Blog }}</ref> have tattoos with their first name in Tengwar on their forearms.

	== See also ==		== See also ==

	* ]
	* ]		* ]
			* ]
			* ]
			* ]

	==References==		== References ==

	*Christopher Tolkien, ''The Tengwar Numerals'', in ] 13, Feb. 1982, pp. 8-9; a further, untitled, explanation of the Tengwar numerals by Christopher Tolkien appeared in Quettar 14, May 1982, pp. 6-7.
			{{reflist}}

			== Sources ==

			For a list of linguistic material by Tolkien published in the journals '']'' and '']'', see ].

			* Derzhanski, Ivan A. "The Fëanorian Tengwar and the Typology of Phonetic Writing Systems." ''Vinyar Tengwar'' 41 (2000): 20–23.
			* ] ""Si man i-yulmar n(g)win enquatuva": A Newly-Discovered Tengwar Inscription." ''Vinyar Tengwar'' 21 (1992): 6–10.
			* ], Irmengard Rauch and Gerald F. Carr. "The Semiotics of the Writing Systems of Tolkien's Middle-earth." In ''Semiotics around the World: Synthesis in Diversity, I-II'', ed. Irmengard Rauch, 1239–42. Berlin, Germany: Mouton de Gruyter, 1997.

	== External links ==		== External links ==
	* Wikibook on the secondary-world history of the Elven writing systems
	* A comprehensive study of the tengwar script
	* — a continuously expanding list of all published tengwar samples
	*
	* by Dan Smith
	*
	*

			{{Commons category\|Tengwar}}
	=== Modes ===
	*
	*
	*
	*
	*
	*
	* (] format)
	*
	*
	*
	*
	*
	*

			* A general presentation by Måns Björkman of the Tengwar script, with some extrapolations.
	===Technical===
			*  — a continuously expanding list of published Tengwar samples
	* supports editing Tengwar directly in Wiki articles.
	*		*
	*		*
	*		*
			* , a project promoting ] Tengwar fonts mapped into ] private use code points
	* Some Tengwar and other Tolkien-based fonts available for download

	* (in ], but still useful even if you can't read the language)
			{{Languages of Middle-earth}}
			{{Middle-earth}}
			{{Constructed languages}}

	]
	]		]
	]		]
	]
	]		]
			]

			]
	]
	]
	]
	]
	]
	]
	]
	]
	]
	]
	]
	]
	]
	]
	]
	]
	]
	]
	]

Latest revision as of 08:41, 1 January 2025

Fictional script in the fantasy works of J. R. R. Tolkien

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Tengwar
The word "Tengwar" written using the Tengwar script in the Quenya mode
Script type	Alternative abugida or alphabet according to the "mode"
Creator	J. R. R. Tolkien
Time period	1930s–present
Direction	Left-to-right
Languages	a number of Tolkien's constructed languages, Quenya and Sindarin, English
Related scripts
Parent systems	Sarati Tengwar
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Teng (290), Tengwar
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between , / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

This article contains special characters. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols.

The Tengwar (/ˈtɛŋɡwɑːr/) script is an artificial script, one of several scripts created by J. R. R. Tolkien, the author of The Lord of the Rings. Within the context of Tolkien's fictional world, the Tengwar were invented by the Elf Fëanor, and used first to write the Elvish languages Quenya and Telerin. Later a great number of Tolkien's constructed languages were written using the Tengwar, including Sindarin. Tolkien used Tengwar to write English: most of Tolkien's Tengwar samples are actually in English.

Internal history and terminology

Within the context of Tolkien's fictional world, the Tengwar were invented by the Elf Fëanor in Valinor, and used first to write the Elven tongues Quenya and Telerin. According to J. R. R. Tolkien's The War of the Jewels, at the time Fëanor created his script, he introduced a change in terminology. He called a letter, a written representation of a spoken phoneme (tengwë), a tengwa. Previously, any letter or symbol had been called a sarat (from *sar "incise"). The alphabet of Rúmil of Tirion, on which Fëanor supposedly based his own work, was known as Sarati. It later became known as "Tengwar of Rúmil".

The plural of tengwa is Tengwar, and this is the name by which Fëanor's writing system became known. Since, however, in commonly used modes, an individual tengwa was equivalent to a consonant, the term tengwa in the fiction became equivalent to "consonant sign", and the vowel signs were known as ómatehtar. By loan-translation, the Tengwar became known as tîw (singular têw) in Sindarin, when they were introduced to Beleriand. The letters of the earlier alphabet native to Sindarin were called cirth (singular certh, probably from *kirte "cutting", and thus semantically analogous to Quenya sarat). This term was loaned into exilic Quenya as certa, plural certar.

External history

Precursors

The sarati, a script developed by Tolkien in the late 1910s and described in Parma Eldalamberon 13, anticipates many features of the Tengwar: vowel representation by diacritics (which is found in many Tengwar varieties); different Tengwar shapes; and a few correspondences between sound features and letter shape features (though inconsistent).

Even closer to the Tengwar is the Valmaric script, described in Parma Eldalamberon 14, which Tolkien used from about 1922 to 1925. It features many Tengwar shapes, the inherent vowel found in some Tengwar varieties, and the tables in the samples V12 and V13 show an arrangement that is very similar to one of the primary Tengwar in the classical Quenya "mode".

In his An Introduction to Elvish, Jim Allan compared the Tengwar with the London merchant Francis Lodwick's 1686 Universal Alphabet, both on grounds of the correspondence between shape features and sound features, and of the actual letter shapes.

Tengwar

The Tengwar script was probably developed in the late 1920s or in the early 1930s. The Lonely Mountain Jar Inscription, the first published Tengwar sample, dates to 1937. The full explanation of the Tengwar was published in Appendix E of The Lord of the Rings in 1955.

The Mellonath Daeron Index of Tengwar Specimina (DTS) lists most of the known samples of Tengwar by Tolkien.

There are only a few known samples predating publication of The Lord of the Rings (many of them published posthumously):

The Lonely Mountain Jar Inscription, published 1937
Middle Page from the Book of Mazarbul
Last Page from the Book of Mazarbul, Last Line, this and the above one originally prepared for inclusion in The Lord of the Rings
Steinborg Drawing Title
Ilbereth's Greeting from The Father Christmas Letters, dating to 1937
The Treebeard Page
Edwin Lowdham's Manuscript from The Notion Club Papers has Old English language text written in Tengwar (with a few Adûnaic and Quenya words), dating to 1945/6.
The Brogan Tengwa-greetings, appearing in The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, No. 118, tentatively dated to 1948

The following samples presumably predate the Lord of the Rings, but were not explicitly dated:

Elvish Script Sample I, II, III, with parts of the English poems Errantry and Bombadil, first published in the Silmarillion Calendar 1978, later in Pictures by J. R. R. Tolkien,
So Lúthien, a page of the English Lay of Leithian text

Description

Letters

The most notable characteristic of the Tengwar script is that the shapes of the letters correspond to the distinctive features of the sounds they represent. The Quenya consonant system has five places of articulation: labial, dental, palatal, velar, and glottal. The velars distinguish between plain and labialized (that is, articulated with rounded lips, or followed by a sound). Each point of articulation, and the corresponding tengwa series, has a name in the classical Quenya mode. Dental sounds are called Tincotéma and are represented with the Tengwar in column I. Labial sounds are called Parmatéma, and represented by the column II Tengwar; velar sounds are called Calmatéma, represented by column III; and labialized velar sounds are called Quessetéma, represented by the Tengwar of column IV. Palatal sounds are called Tyelpetéma and have no tengwa series of their own, but are represented by column III letters with an added diacritic for following .

Similarly shaped letters reflect not only similar places of articulation, but also similar manners of articulation. In the classical Quenya mode, row 1 represents voiceless stops, row 2 voiced prenasalized stops, row 3 voiceless fricatives, row 4 voiceless prenasalized stops, row 5 nasal stops, and row 6 approximants.

Regularly formed

Most letters are constructed by a combination of two basic shapes: a vertical stem (either long or short) and either one or two rounded bows (which may or may not be underscored, and may be on the left or right of the stem).

These principal letters are divided into four series ("témar") that correspond to the main places of articulation and into six grades ("tyeller") that correspond to the main manners of articulation. Both vary among modes.

Each series is headed by the basic signs composed of a vertical stem descending below the line, and a single bow. These basic signs represent the voiceless stop consonants for that series. For the classical Quenya mode, they are /t/, /p/, /k/ and /kʷ/, and the series are named tincotéma, parmatéma, calmatéma, and quessetéma, respectively; téma means "series" in Quenya.

In rows of the general use, there are the following correspondences between letter shapes and manners of articulation:

Doubling the bow turns the voiceless consonant into a voiced one.
Raising the stem above the line turns it into the corresponding fricative.
Shortening it (so it is only the height of the bow) creates the corresponding nasal. In most modes, the signs with shortened stem and single bow do not correspond to the voiceless nasals, but to the approximants.

In addition to these variations of the Tengwar shapes, there is yet another variation, the use of stems that are extended both above and below the line. This shape may correspond to other consonant variations required. Except for some English abbreviations, it is not used in any of the better known Tengwar modes, but it occurs in a Quenya mode where the tengwa Parma with extended stem is used for /pt/ and the tengwa Calma with extended stem is used for /kt/. The Tengwar with raised stems sometimes occur in glyph variants that look like extended stems, as seen in the inscription of the One Ring.

An example from the parmatéma (the signs with a closed bow on the right side) in the "general use" of the Tengwar is:

The basic sign, named parma, (with descending stem) represents /p/ (it happens to look much like the Latin letter P).
With the bow doubled, umbar, it represents /b/.
With a raised stem, formen, it represents /f/.
With a raised stem and a doubled bow, ampa, it represents generally /v/ but possibly /mp/ (depending upon the language).
With a short stem and double bow, malta, it represents /m/.
With short stem and single bow, vala, it represents /w/, or /v/ if that has the phonological behaviour of a sonorant (e.g. in Quenya).

In languages such as Quenya, which do not contain any voiced fricatives other than "v", the raised stem + doubled bow row is used for the common nasal+stop sequences (nt, mp, nk, nqu). In such cases, the "w" sign in the previous paragraph is used for "v". In the mode of Beleriand, found on the door to Moria, the bottom tyellë is used for nasals (e.g., vala is used for /m/) and the fifth tyellë for doubled nasals (malta for /mm/).

Irregularly formed

There are additional letters that do not have regular shapes. They may represent, e.g., /r/, /l/, /s/ and /h/. Their use varies considerably from mode to mode. Some aficionados have added more letters not found in Tolkien's writings for use in their modes.

Tehtar diacritics

A tehta (Quenya "marking") is a diacritic placed above or below the tengwa. They can represent vowels, consonant doubling, or nasal sound.

As Tolkien explained in Appendix E of The Lord of the Rings, the tehtar for vowels resemble Latin diacritics: circumflex (î) /a/, acute (í) /e/, dot (i) /i/, left curl (ı̔) /o/, and right curl (ı̓) /u/. Long vowels, excepting /a/, may be indicated by doubling the signs. Some languages from which /o/ is absent or in which compared to /u/ it appears sparsely, such as the Black Speech, use left curl for /u/; other languages swap the signs for /e/ and /i/.

A vowel occurring alone is drawn on the vowel carrier, which resembles dotless i (ı) for a short vowel or dotless j (ȷ) for a long vowel.

Modes

Just as with any alphabetic writing system, every specific language written in Tengwar requires a specific orthography, depending on the phonology of that language. These Tengwar orthographies are usually called modes. Some modes follow pronunciation, while others follow traditional orthography.

Some modes map the basic consonants to /t/, /p/, /k/ and /kʷ/ (classical mode in chart at right), while others use them to represent /t/, /p/, /tʃ/ and /k/ (general mode at right). The other main difference is in the fourth tyellë below, where those letters with raised stems and doubled bows can be either voiced fricatives, as in Sindarin (general mode at right), or nasalized stops, as in Quenya (classical mode).

Ómatehtar

In some modes, called ómatehtar (or vowel tehtar) modes, the vowels are represented with diacritics called tehtar (Quenya for 'signs'; corresponding singular: tehta, 'sign'). These ómatehtar modes can be considered abugidas rather than true alphabets. In some ómatehtar modes, the consonant signs feature an inherent vowel.

Ómatehtar modes can vary in that the vowel stroke can be placed either on top of the consonant preceding it, as in Quenya, or on the consonant following, as in Sindarin, English, and the notorious Black Speech inscription on the One Ring.

Full writing

In the full writing modes, the consonants and the vowels are represented by Tengwar. Only one such mode is well known. It is called the "mode of Beleriand" and one can read it on the Doors of Durin.

Modes for other languages

Since the publication of the first official description of the Tengwar at the end of The Lord of the Rings, others have created modes for other languages such as English, Spanish, German, Swedish, French, Finnish, Italian, Hungarian and Welsh. Modes have also been devised for other constructed languages; Esperanto and Lojban.

Tolkien had used multiple modes for English, including full writing and ómatehtar alphabetic modes, phonetic full modes and phonetic ómatehtar modes known from documents published after his death.

Encoding schemes

Legacy encoding

The contemporary de facto standard in the Tengwar user community maps the Tengwar characters onto the ISO 8859-1 character encoding following the example of the Tengwar typefaces by Dan Smith. This implies a major flaw: If no corresponding Tengwar font is installed, a string of nonsense characters appears.

Since there are not enough places in ISO 8859-1's 191 codepoints for all the signs used in Tengwar orthography, certain signs are included in a "Tengwar A" font which also maps its characters on ISO 8859-1, overlapping with the first font.

For each Tengwar diacritic, there are four different codepoints that are used depending on the width of the character which bears it.

Other Tengwar typefaces with this encoding include Johan Winge's Tengwar Annatar, Måns Björkman's Tengwar Parmaitë, Enrique Mombello's Tengwar Élfica or Michal Nowakowski's Tengwar Formal (note that most of these differ in details).

The following sample shows the first article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights written in English, according to the traditional English orthography. It should look similar to the picture at the top of the page, but if no Tengwar font is installed, it will appear as a jumble of characters because the corresponding ISO 8859-1 characters will appear instead.

j#¸ 9t&5# w`Vb%_ 6EO w6Y5 e7`V`V 2{( zèVj# 5% 2x%51T`Û 2{( 7v%1+- 4hR 7EO 2{$yYO2 y4% 7]F85^ 2{( z5^8I`B5$I( 2{( dyYj2 zE1 1yY6E2_ 5^( 5#4^(7 5% `C 8q7T1T W w74^(692^H --

Note: Some browsers may not display these characters properly.

Unicode

Michael Everson made a proposal to include the Tengwar in the Unicode standard in 1997. The range U+16080 to U+160FF in the SMP was tentatively allocated for Tengwar in the 2023 Unicode roadmap.

ConScript Unicode Registry

Unicode character block

Tengwar
Range	U+E000..U+E07F (128 code points)
Plane	BMP
Scripts	Artificial Scripts
Major alphabets	Tengwar
Assigned	93 code points
Unused	35 reserved code points
Source standards	CSUR

Note: Part of the Private-Use Area, font conflicts possible

Tengwar are included in the unofficial ConScript Unicode Registry (CSUR), which assigns codepoints in the Private Use Area. Tengwar are mapped to the range U+E000–U+E07F. The following Unicode sample (which repeats the one above) is meaningful when viewed under a typeface supporting Tengwar glyphs in the area defined in the ConScript Tengwar proposal.

            ⸬                   ⸬

Some typefaces that support this proposal are Everson Mono, Tengwar Telcontar, Constructium, Tengwar Formal Unicode, and FreeMonoTengwar (James Kass's Code2000 and Code2001 use an older, incompatible version of the proposal). The eight “Aux” variant fonts of Kurinto (such as Kurinto Text Aux, Book Aux, Sans Aux) also support Tengwar.

Tengwar
ConScript Unicode Registry

U+E00x

































U+E01x

































U+E02x

































U+E03x









U+E04x

































U+E05x

























U+E06x



























U+E07x

Notes

1. Proposals 1993-05-09, 1996-09-15; revision 1998-01-10

2. Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

Tengwar
ConScript Unicode Registry, 2001 draft proposal

U+E00x

































U+E01x

































U+E02x































U+E03x



















U+E04x































U+E05x

















U+E06x





















U+E07x





























Notes

1. Proposal 2001-03-07

2. Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

Tengwar letters CSUR encoding
Name	CSUR	Designation annotation
tinco	U+E000	Tengwar LETTER TINCO
parma	U+E001	Tengwar LETTER PARMA
calma	U+E002	Tengwar LETTER CALMA
quessë	U+E003	Tengwar LETTER QUESSE
ando	U+E004	Tengwar LETTER ANDO
umbar	U+E005	Tengwar LETTER UMBAR
anga	U+E006	Tengwar LETTER ANGA
ungwë	U+E007	Tengwar LETTER UNGWE
súlë / thúlë	U+E008	Tengwar LETTER THUULE (suule)
formen	U+E009	Tengwar LETTER FORMEN
harma / aha	U+E00A	Tengwar LETTER HARMA (aha)
hwesta	U+E00B	Tengwar LETTER HWESTA
anto	U+E00C	Tengwar LETTER ANTO
ampa	U+E00D	Tengwar LETTER AMPA
anca	U+E00E	Tengwar LETTER ANCA
unquë	U+E00F	Tengwar LETTER UNQUE
númen	U+E010	Tengwar LETTER NUUMEN
malta	U+E011	Tengwar LETTER MALTA
noldo / ñoldo	U+E012	Tengwar LETTER NOLDO (ngoldo)
nwalmë / ñwalmë	U+E013	Tengwar LETTER NWALME (ngwalme)
órë	U+E014	Tengwar LETTER OORE
vala	U+E015	Tengwar LETTER VALA
anna	U+E016	Tengwar LETTER ANNA
vilya / wilya	U+E017	Tengwar LETTER VILYA (wilya)
rómen	U+E018	Tengwar LETTER ROOMEN
arda	U+E019	Tengwar LETTER ARDA
lambë	U+E01A	Tengwar LETTER LAMBE
alda	U+E01B	Tengwar LETTER ALDA
silmë	U+E01C	Tengwar LETTER SILME
silmë nuquerna	U+E01D	Tengwar LETTER SILME NUQUERNA
essë / áre/áze	U+E01E	Tengwar LETTER AARE (aaze, esse)
essë nuquerna / áre/áze nuquerna	U+E01F	Tengwar LETTER AARE NUQUERNA (aaze n., esse n.)
hyarmen	U+E020	Tengwar LETTER HYARMEN
hwesta sindarinwa	U+E021	Tengwar LETTER HWESTA SINDARINWA
yanta	U+E022	Tengwar LETTER YANTA
úrë	U+E023	Tengwar LETTER UURE
halla	U+E024	Tengwar LETTER HALLA
telco	U+E025	Tengwar LETTER SHORT CARRIER
ára	U+E026	Tengwar LETTER LONG CARRIER

Tengwar ligatures and extended letters CSUR encoding
Name	Image	CSUR	Designation annotation
		U+E027	Tengwar LETTER ANNA SINDARINWA
		U+E028	Tengwar LETTER EXTENDED THUULE
		U+E029	Tengwar LETTER EXTENDED FORMEN
		U+E02A	Tengwar LETTER EXTENDED HARMA
		U+E02B	Tengwar LETTER EXTENDED HWESTA
		U+E02C	Tengwar LETTER EXTENDED ANTO
		U+E02D	Tengwar LETTER EXTENDED AMPA
		U+E02E	Tengwar LETTER EXTENDED ANCA
		U+E02F	Tengwar LETTER EXTENDED UNQUE
		U+E030	Tengwar LETTER STEMLESS OORE (digit zero)
		U+E031	Tengwar LETTER STEMLESS VALA
		U+E032	Tengwar LETTER STEMLESS ANNA
		U+E033	Tengwar LETTER STEMLESS VILYA (digit one)

Tengwar accents CSUR encoding
Name	CSUR	Designation annotation
amatixe 3	U+E040	Tengwar SIGN THREE DOTS ABOVE
unutixe 3	U+E041	Tengwar SIGN THREE DOTS BELOW
amatixe 2	U+E042	Tengwar SIGN TWO DOTS ABOVE
unutixe 2	U+E043	Tengwar SIGN TWO DOTS BELOW
amatixe 1	U+E044	Tengwar SIGN AMATICSE (dot above)
unutixe 1	U+E045	Tengwar SIGN NUNTICSE (dot below)
tecco	U+E046	Tengwar SIGN ACUTE (andaith, long mark)
	U+E047	Tengwar SIGN DOUBLE ACUTE
rempe	U+E048	Tengwar SIGN RIGHT CURL
	U+E049	Tengwar SIGN DOUBLE RIGHT CURL
rempenuquerna	U+E04A	Tengwar SIGN LEFT CURL
	U+E04B	Tengwar SIGN DOUBLE LEFT CURL
amatwe	U+E04C	Tengwar SIGN NASALIZER
unuatwe	U+E04D	Tengwar SIGN DOUBLER
	U+E04E	Tengwar SIGN TILDE
	U+E04F	Tengwar SIGN BREVE
	U+E050	Tengwar PUSTA (putta, stop)
	U+E051	Tengwar DOUBLE PUSTA (putta)
	U+E052	Tengwar EXCLAMATION MARK
	U+E053	Tengwar QUESTION MARK
	U+E054	Tengwar SECTION MARK
	U+E055	Tengwar LONG SECTION MARK
thinnas	U+E056	Tengwar SIGN LONG CARRIER BELOW
	U+E057	Tengwar SIGN DOUBLE ACUTE BELOW
	U+E058	Tengwar SIGN RIGHT CURL BELOW
	U+E05A	Tengwar SIGN LEFT CURL BELOW
sarince	U+E05C	Tengwar SIGN LEFT FOLLOWING SILME
	U+E05D	Tengwar SIGN RIGHT FOLLOWING SILME

Tengwar digits CSUR encoding
Name	CSUR	Designation annotation
0	U+E030	Tengwar LETTER STEMLESS OORE (digit zero)
1	U+E033	Tengwar LETTER STEMLESS VILYA (digit one)
2	U+E062	Tengwar DIGIT TWO
3	U+E063	Tengwar DIGIT THREE
4	U+E064	Tengwar DIGIT FOUR
5	U+E065	Tengwar DIGIT FIVE
6	U+E066	Tengwar DIGIT SIX
7	U+E067	Tengwar DIGIT SEVEN
8	U+E068	Tengwar DIGIT EIGHT
9	U+E069	Tengwar DIGIT NINE
10	U+E06A	Tengwar DUODECIMAL DIGIT TEN
11	U+E06B	Tengwar DUODECIMAL DIGIT ELEVEN
	U+E06C	Tengwar DECIMAL BASE MARK
	U+E06D	Tengwar DUODECIMAL BASE MARK
	U+E06E	Tengwar DUODECIMAL LEAST SIGNIFICANT DIGIT MARK

In popular culture

Tengwar has been used in Tolkien fandom since the publication of The Lord of the Rings in the 1950s.

With the exception of John Rhys-Davies, the actors playing the Fellowship of the Ring in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy have Tengwar tattoos of the English word nine.

Footballers such as Sergio Agüero and Fernando Torres have tattoos with their first name in Tengwar on their forearms.

References

The War of the Jewels, Appendix D to Quendi and Eldar
Allan, Jim (ed.). An Introduction to Elvish. Bran's Head Books. ISBN 0-905220-10-2.
The Hobbit, most editions with colour plates.
The Lord of the Rings, Appendix E, "Writing: The Fëanorian Letters "
DTS 1
DTS 13
DTS 14
DTS 15
DTS 22
DTS 24
DTS 50/51
DTS 10
DTS 16, DTS 17, DTS 18
DTS 23
Facsimiled in The Lays of Beleriand:299.
Tyler, J. E. A. (2022). The Complete Tolkien Companion. Pan Books. ISBN 978-1-0350-0857-5.
See Parma Eldalamberon 19 (2010), pp. 41–43.
Martínez, Helios De Rosario (2011). "A Methodological Study of the Elvish Writing Systems". Proceedings of the Third International Conference on JRR Tolkien's Invented Languages, Omentielva Nelya, Whitehaven, 6-9 August 2009. Arda Philology. Vol. 3. The Arda Society. pp. 1–25. ISBN 978-91-973500-3-7.
"Proposal to encode Tengwar in Plane 1 of ISO/IEC 10646-2". std.dkuug.dk. Retrieved 2023-03-23.
"Roadmap to the SMP". www.unicode.org. Retrieved 2023-03-23.
Everson, Michael. "Tengwar: U+E000 - U+E07F". ConScript Unicode Registry. Retrieved 2017-03-13.
Winge, Johan (15 December 2009). "Free Tengwar Font Project: Tengwar Telcontar". J. R. R. Tolkien’s Tengwar script. Retrieved 25 June 2024.
wust, j ‘mach’ (11 June 2010). "Free Tengwar Font Project: Tengwar Formal CSUR". J. R. R. Tolkien’s Tengwar script. Retrieved 25 June 2024.
wust, j ‘mach’ (22 September 2009). "Free Tengwar Font Project: FreeMonoTengwar". J. R. R. Tolkien’s Tengwar script. Retrieved 25 June 2024.
Kurinto
ConScript Unicode Registry
ConScript Unicode Registry
2001 draft proposal
Shelton, Luke (25 October 2022). "Anna Voß's Experience — Tolkien Experience Project (212)". Luke Shelton. Retrieved 23 March 2023. Like most Tolkien obsessed teens, I used to teach myself writing Tengwar. Nowadays I research writing systems by way of typesetting/typography. It's a field very much connected to Philology.
"The stars of The Lord of the Rings trilogy reach their journey's end". SciFi.com. Archived from the original on March 6, 2007. Retrieved May 31, 2007.
Kaviraj, Tina (22 February 2017). "10 things you need to know about Sergio Aguero". www.sportskeeda.com. Retrieved 2022-02-05.
"Torres and Aguero's Elvish Obssession [sic]". The Center Circle - A SoccerPro Soccer Fan Blog. 2014-12-17. Retrieved 2022-02-05.

Sources

For a list of linguistic material by Tolkien published in the journals Parma Eldalamberon and Vinyar Tengwar, see bibliography in Elvish languages (Middle-earth).

Derzhanski, Ivan A. "The Fëanorian Tengwar and the Typology of Phonetic Writing Systems." Vinyar Tengwar 41 (2000): 20–23.
Hostetter, Carl F. ""Si man i-yulmar n(g)win enquatuva": A Newly-Discovered Tengwar Inscription." Vinyar Tengwar 21 (1992): 6–10.
Smith, Arden R., Irmengard Rauch and Gerald F. Carr. "The Semiotics of the Writing Systems of Tolkien's Middle-earth." In Semiotics around the World: Synthesis in Diversity, I-II, ed. Irmengard Rauch, 1239–42. Berlin, Germany: Mouton de Gruyter, 1997.

External links

Amanye Tenceli A general presentation by Måns Björkman of the Tengwar script, with some extrapolations.
The Mellonath Daeron Index of Tengwar Specimina — a continuously expanding list of published Tengwar samples
Official proposal to encode Tengwar in Unicode
Tengwar proposal for ConScript Unicode Registry
A comprehensive list of Tengwar fonts
Free Tengwar Font Project, a project promoting free and open Tengwar fonts mapped into Unicode private use code points

v t e Languages of Middle-earth
Elvish languages	Quenya Namárië Quenya grammar Respective case Sindarin A Elbereth Gilthoniel
Other languages	Adûnaic Black Speech Khuzdul Valarin Westron
Scripts	Cirth Sarati Tengwar
Linguists	Elvish Linguistic Fellowship (Vinyar Tengwar, Parma Eldalamberon) Anthony Appleyard Helge Fauskanger Carl F. Hostetter Tom Loback David Salo Arden R. Smith Allan Turner
Related	"A Secret Vice" The Etymologies Lhammas Middle-earth Pseudotranslation in The Lord of the Rings Sound and language in Middle-earth Sundering of the Elves

Middle-earth

Works

In Tolkien's lifetime	The Hobbit (1937) The Lord of the Rings (1954-55) The Fellowship of the Ring "The Shadow of the Past" "The Council of Elrond" The Two Towers The Return of the King "The Scouring of the Shire" "The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen" The Adventures of Tom Bombadil (1962)
Posthumous	The Silmarillion (1977) "Ainulindalë" Unfinished Tales (1980) The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien (1981) Bilbo's Last Song (1990) The three "Great Tales" The Children of Húrin (2007) Beren and Lúthien (2017) The Fall of Gondolin (2018) The Fall of Númenor (2022)

History of
composition

History of Middle-earth	The Book of Lost Tales (1983–84) Ælfwine The Lays of Beleriand (1985) The Shaping of Middle-earth (1986) The Lost Road and Other Writings (1987) The Etymologies Lhammas The History of The Lord of the Rings (1988–92) The Notion Club Papers Morgoth's Ring (1993) The War of the Jewels (1994) The Peoples of Middle-earth (1996)
Others	John D. Rateliff The History of The Hobbit (2007) Carl F. Hostetter The Nature of Middle-earth (2021)

Fictional
universe

Peoples, monsters	Ainur Maiar Balrogs Wizards Valar Dragons Ancalagon Smaug Dwarves Eagles Elves Half-elven Noldor Sundering Ents Hobbits Men Beornings Drúedain Dúnedain Orcs Trolls
Characters	First and Second Ages Celebrimbor Eärendil and Elwing Elendil Fëanor Fingolfin Finwë and Míriel Gil-galad Húrin Isildur Lúthien and Beren Melian Morgoth Thingol Tuor and Idril Túrin Turambar Ungoliant Third Age Elrond Galadriel Gandalf Glorfindel Goldberry Gollum Saruman Sauron Tom Bombadil
Places	First and Second Ages Beleriand Númenor Valinor Third Age Bree Esgaroth Gondor Harad Isengard Lonely Mountain Lothlórien Mirkwood Mordor Moria Rivendell Rohan The Shire Bag End
Objects	Mithril Palantír Red Book of Westmarch Rings of Power One Ring Silmarils Two Trees of Valinor List of weapons and armour

Analysis

Elements	Artwork Family trees Heraldry Languages Adûnaic Black Speech Elvish Quenya Sindarin Khuzdul Valarin Westron Maps Tolkien's poetry Scripts Cirth Sarati Tengwar
Themes	Anachronism Ancestry as guide to character Architecture Christianity Cosmology Round World dilemma Death and immortality Decline and fall Dreams and visions Economy England Environmentalism Evil First World War Forests Frame stories Hell Heroism Light Luck and fate Magic Mental illness Modernism Moral dilemma Music Naming of weapons Northern courage Old Straight Road Paganism Plants Psychological journeys Quests Sound and language Time Trees
Literary	Tolkien's impact on fantasy Influences Beowulf Celtic Classical world Finnish language and literature Medieval Modern Norse Philology Shakespeare Prose style Ambiguity A mythology for England
Geographic	The Atlas of Middle-earth Journeys of Frodo A Map of Middle-earth

Adaptations,
legacy

Artists	Pauline Baynes Cor Blok Anke Eißmann Brothers Hildebrandt Jenny Dolfen Mary Fairburn Donato Giancola John Howe Tove Jansson Alexander Korotich Alan Lee Tom Loback Margrethe II of Denmark Ted Nasmith
Composers	Bo Hansson Johan de Meij Symphony No. 1 The Lord of the Rings Howard Shore Music of The Lord of the Rings film series Music of The Hobbit film series Music of The Rings of Power TV series Blind Guardian Nightfall in Middle-Earth
Settings	Donald Swann The Road Goes Ever On Poems and Songs of Middle Earth The Tolkien Ensemble An Evening in Rivendell A Night in Rivendell At Dawn in Rivendell Leaving Rivendell
Other media	Impact Middle-earth Enterprises Works inspired by Tolkien Fan fiction Film Calendars Video games Things named after Tolkien and his works

Literary
criticism

Constructed languages

Classification

Specific
languages
by group

International auxiliary	Babm Blissymbols Bolak Communicationssprache Esperanto Adjuvilo Arcaicam Esperanto II Ido Mundolinco Reformed Romániço Universal other esperantidos Glosa Interglossa Idiom Neutral Intal Interlingua Interlingue International Sign Kotava Langue nouvelle Latino sine flexione Lingua Franca Nova Lingwa de planeta Mondial Neo Nal Bino Novial Pasilingua Sambahsa Solresol Sona Unish Universalglot Uropi Volapük
Zonal	Afrihili Budinos Efatese Eurolengo Guosa Ortatürk Pan-Germanic language Tutonish Pan-Romance language Neolatino Romance Romanid Pan-Slavic language Interslavic Iazychie Runyakitara Wede Weltdeutsch
Engineered	aUI Basic English Dutton Speedwords Ithkuil Kalaba-X Astrolinguistics Lincos Lingua generalis Loglan Logopandecteision Lojban Real Character Ro Toki Pona
Fictional and other artistic	Atlantean Belter Creole Brithenig Dritok Dothraki Elvish languages Enchanta Kēlen Kiliki Klingon Kobaïan Láadan Lapine Loxian Lydnevi Mänti Middle-earth languages Adûnaic Quenya Sindarin more... Naʼvi Nadsat Newspeak Simlish Spocanian Star Wars languages Syldavian Teonaht Tsolyáni Utopian Valyrian Venedic Verdurian Wenja
Ritual and other	Balaibalan Damin Enochian Eskayan Lingua ignota Medefaidrin Palawa kani Yerkish Zaum

Neography

Study

Comparisons

Categories: