J. R. R. Tolkien Quotes About Language

Quotes about: Language

• I have the hatred of apartheid in my bones; and most of all I detest the segregation or separation of Language and Literature. I do not care which of them you think White.

  J. R. R. Tolkien

  Thinking, White, Hatred

  Valedictory Address to the University of Oxford, reprinted in "The Monsters and the Critics" by Christopher Tolkien (2006), p. 238, June 5, 1959.

• No language is justly studied merely as an aid to other purposes. It will in fact better serve other purposes, philological or historical, when it is studied for love, for itself.

  J. R. R. Tolkien

  Historical, Purpose, Facts

  "English and Welsh". Lecture at the University of Oxford on October 21, 1955. "The Monsters and the Critics, and Other Essays". Book edited by Christopher Tolkien, 1983.

• It was just as the 1914 War burst on me that I made the discovery that 'legends' depend on the language to which they belong; but a living language depends equally on the 'legends' which it conveys by tradition. ... Volapuk, Esperanto, Ido, Novial, &c &c are dead, far deader than ancient unused languages, because their authors never invented any Esperanto legends.

  J. R. R. Tolkien

  War, Discovery, Esperanto

  J.R.R. Tolkien (2014). “The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien”, p.231, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• My name is growing all the time, and I’ve lived a very long, long time; so my name is like a story. Real names tell you the story of the things they belong to in my language, in the Old Entish as you might say. It is a lovely language, but it takes a very long time to say anything in it, because we do not say anything in it, unless it is worth taking a long time to say, and to listen to.

  J. R. R. Tolkien

  Real, Names, Long

  J.R.R. Tolkien (2012). “The Lord of the Rings: One Volume”, p.323, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• There are truths, that are beyond us, transcendent truths, about beauty, truth, honor, etc. There are truths that man knows exist, but they cannot be seen - they are immaterial, but no less real, to us. It is only through the language of myth that we can speak of these truths.

  J. R. R. Tolkien

  Real, Men, Honor

• I wish life was not so short. Languages take such a time, and so do all the things one wants to know about.

  J. R. R. Tolkien

  Life, Book, Beer

  "The Lost Road and Other Writings". Book by J. R. R. Tolkien. Chapter: "Alboin Errol", 1987.

• Nobody believes me when I say that my long book is an attempt to create a world in which a form of language agreeable to my personal aesthetic might seem real. But it is true.

  J. R. R. Tolkien

  Real, Believe, Book

  J.R.R. Tolkien (2014). “The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien”, p.264, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• Now and again he spoke to those that served him and thanked them in their own language. They smiled at him and said laughing: 'Here is a jewel among hobbits!

  J. R. R. Tolkien

  Jewels, Laughing, Language

  J.R.R. Tolkien (2012). “The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings”, p.66, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• People remember Longfellow wrote Hiawatha, quite forget he was a Professor of Modern Languages!

  J. R. R. Tolkien

  People, Language, Remember

  Source: www.tolkienlibrary.com

• I remember nothing about it except a philological fact. My mother said nothing about the dragon, but pointed out that one could not say 'a green great dragon', but had to say 'a great green dragon'. I wondered why, and still do. The fact that I remember this is possibly significant, as I do not think I ever tried to write a story again for many years, and was taken up with language.

  J. R. R. Tolkien

  Mother, Taken, Writing

  J.R.R. Tolkien (2014). “The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien”, p.214, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• My advice to all who have the time or inclination to concern themselves with the international language movement would be: 'Back Esperanto loyally.'

  J. R. R. Tolkien

  Advice, Esperanto, Would Be

  "A Philologist on Esperanto". The British Esperantist, May 1932.

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