Letter to David Masson (1955)

From Tolkien Gateway

During 1955, J.R.R. Tolkien drafted a letter to David Masson (librarian at the University of Leeds).[1]

Excerpt[edit | edit source]

The languages have, of course, changed quite as much as the world and its stories to which they belong, and are now almost an Entish record of my own linguistic-æsthetic history, hardening at last with age. But you are quite right in your perceptions. Quenya still retains the traces of the impact upon me of Finnish. Sindarin was deliberately composed to resemble (with a difference) Welsh, by working similar sound-changes on the simple basic Eldarin structure to those exhibited by Brythonic, especially Welsh.
[1]

See also[edit | edit source]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 J.R.R. Tolkien, "Words, Phrases and Passages in Various Tongues in The Lord of the Rings", in Parma Eldalamberon XVII (edited by Christopher Gilson), p. 40