Audio: JRR Tolkien Recites the Ring Verse

The Geek in me is completely happy now.

Simply fantastic!

Aw, I was hoping he was going to read the Black Speech version, so I could hear him pronounce it. The man had Sindarin contrast voiced and voiceless alveolar trills (it has two different Rs—like Welsh, a European language that thinks it's okay to have the phonics of Burmese or Yupik). I wanted to hear what Black Speech was like.

I realize, not without some chagrin, that there may not be anyone who can correctly pronounce the languages from my writing…because all of my languages require vocal anatomy that humans haven't actually got.

In 1982 I began Catholic High School in Portland, Maine (the big city). At the same time my mother went back to work as a paralegal. The law firm she worked for was across the street from the Portland Public Library. Sometimes I'd get a ride home from my Mom and would happily spend my afternoon in the"big" library. the PPL had an audio library and there was a cassette of Tolkien reading selections of his works. Back when library's had cards and stamped the return date you could see where my library # borrowed that tape over and over again.