So I thought I was pretty on top of my Tolkien lore and I know Westron is meant to be the language it was translated from "in universe," but are you telling me there's a full version he wrote in Westron as well?
Replies
:whispers: they're joking
aug 29, 2025, 8:14 pm • 3 0 • view
That would make sense, I could just see Tolkien being the kind of guy to actually write the book in his fake language since he was already the kind of person to create multiple fake languages.
aug 30, 2025, 3:37 am • 4 0 • view
But instead he wrote a whole pseudo-scholarly apparatus for LOTR about the various “translation” choices he had to make (and famously what some of the “original” character names were). It’s quite the thing. We’re just playing along out of admiration and fun.
aug 30, 2025, 1:43 pm • 8 0 • view
There is a gobsmackingly silly and unfunny "British dad joke" about Sam Gamgee's name that haunts me to this day and I leave it as an exercise for the reader.
aug 30, 2025, 2:23 pm • 4 0 • view