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[page 6] MARK MANDEL No. 115, St. John's College, Annapolis, Maryland 21404 _Tîw_ is a lousy pun of a name for a lettercol...but who knows, it might even be warranted. June Konigsberg: Gollum had "thin lank hair"--see II-221. As regards Middle-earth musical instruments, I think we can add to those mentioned by Tolkien several that would seem likely: some sort of recorder, for instance, an instrument which has appeared independently in different parts of the world. Simple percussion instruments, such as tambourines, chimes, and gongs could be included as well. For the music itself, I see no great reason to exclude harmony; and when many musicians are playing together on diverse instruments (cf. Bilbo's "Unexpected Party"), harmony is almost a necessity. The name "Middle-earth" is probably, as you say, an East-West geographical allusion; however, Pippen mentions "Middle-earth and Overheaven and...the Sundering Seas" (II-204), so it might possibly be (also?) vertical. -/For another possible origin, see Bruce Robbins' letter thish./- I think of Dwarves' voices as being deep and throaty: "their utterance seemed to some rather harsh and gutteral." (III-412) Ned Brooks: No. 24 shouldn't be used for "nk" as No.20 is for "ng" because No.20 isn't used for "ng", at least not the way you seem to think. No.20 is used for "ng" in "so_ng_" -- which is phonetically notated <tengwar character> (cf. "noldo", III-401; also the word "ring" in the title-page Tengwar, written <tengwar character>)--not for "ng-g" (<tengwar character>g) in "hu_ng_er" or "so_ng-g_atherer", which, is written-<tengwar character>. Your idea of using <tengwar character> for "ny" is good, except that it's unnecessary: No.19 (<tengwar character>) already covers that sound and is there for anyone to use. -/and also except that it doesn't fit Tolkien's rule covering use of the "preceeding 'n'" sign./- I agree with you, Greg, that the o-curl looks wrong under a tengwa and so would the u-curl. And how would you distinguish "i" from "uh"? ' Ruth Berman's adaptation of _Adon Olam_ to Gil-galad" is beautiful. But next time, when you draw the notes that go on lines, could you draw them on the lines? -/Aw gee, did I goof again? Knowing nothing about written music, I thought I copies @copied@ the song just as Ruth had it, but I guess I must hava slipped./- Banks Mebane's article is a masterpiece of scholarly nit-picking in the finest tradition. [page 7] Those _tîw_ in Ned Brooks' poem were well and handsomely drawn, though the _Certh_ were kind of scraggly. But those dots aren't necessary-- they're not even part of the characters. Tolkien put them in the chart only to separate the different temar: labials, dentals, palatals, gutterals , gutterals -/-w, assorted other consonants, vowels, and more miscellany. That illo on page 24 looks quite stern and manly. Is that Joe Staton's idea of you? Your own, maybe? -/No, I think it's his idea of Aragorn./- The mode of Beleriand is _not_ a necessity for writing Eldarin; in fact, in tyellar 5 and 6 it runs contrary to the standard spelling of Quenya as explained in Part IIi of Appendix E in the Ballantine edition. The diacritical marks used in transcribing Elven-tongues into Rome-letters are mostly unnecessary in the original scripts: diaereses are superfluous; accents are handled by the andaith (long mark; acute accent) in the mode of Beleriand, and the long carrier or double tehtar in others; and I think the apostrophe is used in Quenya to mark letters of the tyelpetema (cf. III-398) and in Sindarin transcription to separate an _ng_ between two vowels from the one before it (III-339). To prove my point I enclose a Hymn to Elbereth (I-250) (Sindarin) and the first section of Galadriel's Farewell-song, written in tengwar with vowel-tentar (Quenya). -/looking over your examples, I see what you mean, though I still think there's something to be said for the use of the mode of Beleriand. I may print your calligraphy somewhere in this issue; but then again I may not./-