The same delight that led Tolkien to invent fourteen different languages and assorted alphabets for his Middle-earth dwellers now leads many of his fans to puzzle out translations for the Rohirrim's battle cries and to write their love letters in Elvish.

Here is the perfect handbook for all such enthusiasts as well as for serious students of language. It includes a full account of Tolkien the linguist, as well as telling how to write all the languages, with guides to grammar and pronunciation, and a complete dictionary of the fourteen languages.

Here is a book to deepen and enhance our enjoyment of those classics of Middle-earth, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.

Ruth Noel teaches remedial and developmental reading in Riverside, California. She is the author of The Mythology of Middle-earth, on the relation between The Lord of the Rings and European myth in general. "The author is convincing and fascinating as she connects Tolkien's fantasies with the hallowed myths of other cultures." - Publishers Weekly