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music |
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LotR soundtrack, Summoning |
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One interesting thing that I forgot to mention about Trekkies is that they spent a bit of time on the Klingon Language Institute and so-called "invented" languges (which I believe is a fallacy, since all languages are "invented"). Aside from the fact that there was an entire Klingon language that was created for the Star Trek show, I find the entire "invented" language thing to be extremely interesting... Having a casual interest in linguistics (although I don't really know very much- does anyone have an introductory linguistics book that they could recommend?), I think that creating a language oneself is an interesting hobby. I mean, it is one thing to make up words, but to create an entire grammar, etymology, syntax, morphology, and phonology for a language that no one actually speaks/writes/reads is cool. It just is.
Since reaffirming my obsession with Tolkien this winter (and we all know why don't we, folks?), I spent a lot of time poring over the appendicies to LotR, reading all of Tolkien's linguistic material. I found that it wasn't enough. So I began surfing the 'net. Unholy fucking shit... there is a wealth of information out there for people like me who are interested in learning the "behind the scenes" of Tolkien's Quenya and Sindarin languages. I began at TheOneRing.Net, which, aside from being a cool site about Tolkien, has one section in it that has to do with languages, here. From there I went on to Elvish.Org and the other pages that the guy/gal from TheOneRing.Net recommended.
Damn. There are a lot of people out there who have learned what elvish is possible from what J.R.R. Tolkien wrote and what Christopher Tolkien could reconstruct. It is insane, and I have become obsessed with it for some particular reason (oh yes, that's right, I'm obsessive!). Also, the addition of Tolkien's languages with Hedningarna and others has made me more interested in the Finnish language than I have been, although I doubt that my Finnish studies will ever progress very far, as I don't find Finland as interesting as, say, Norway or Iceland. Anyway, eventually when I get time I am going to learn all of this absolutely useless stuff, because I don't find it as arbitrarily stupid as, say, learning a musical instrument for pleasure (rather than to become a pro.) or memorizing sports stats (which is equally useless). Lia, if I end up in Norway, don't be surprised to open a letter and find it in Tengwar script and in Quenya language =)
Ah, yes, I am indeed a geek.
Am I the only person that is on my friends list that shares this obsession? If so, we should talk =)
I was listening to the LotR soundtrack, knowing that I would be writing this post. It is good, although I despise Enya. She is only featured on two tracks, and on one she is singing in elvish and it is subtle (which is in a scene in Rivendell), and the other is at the end, so it is easy to avoid her true annoyingness. The rest of the soundtrack is cool, especially the piece from the end of the film. I still think that they should have hired Summoning to do the soundtrack. They're more than capable, and if they took away the blackmetal vocals, they would be perfect for the job. It is obvious that they don't need to use guitars and such, either. That, and the band is dedicated to Tolkien's work. Heh. Fuck you, Led Zepplin.
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