A Gateway to Sindarin: A Grammar of an Elvish Language from J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings [ペーパーバック]

Unfortunately I don't seem to be able to give this item zero stars.

Sadly, this book lives up to neither its title nor its promise. For anyone who knows anything about J.R.R. Tolkien's invented languages, this book is not a reliable 'Gateway to Sindarin'. Rather, it is an unacknowledged mishmash of Noldorin of the 1930s (fr. 'The Etymologies'), Sindarin of the 1950s (fr. 'The Lord of the Rings'), and numerous inventions of David Salo himself. It is therefore misleading to call this book 'A Gateway to Sindarin'. It would have been more accurate to call it 'An Introduction to David Salo's Synthetic Reinterpretation of Tolkien's Gnomish-Noldorin-Sindarin language'.

(One might charitably suppose that this was in fact Salo's preferred title, but that there simply wasn't room on the stylized Moria Gate on the cover of his book to accommodate such a lengthy phrase. Perhaps the switch from a Beleriandic mode of vowel-representation to one accommodating vowel-pointing tehtar might have saved some room?)

In all seriousness: the unacknowledged, uncredited, and therefore (one presumes) copyright-violating use of Tolkien's 'Moria Gate' drawing on the cover of 'Gateway to Sindarin' is just the tip of the iceberg. While the book does have an "Annotated Bibliography" (pp.416-435), this is no substitute for a proper citation and referencing strategy. One searches in vain for any accreditation of earlier scholars of Tolkien's languages, not least the editors of Vinyar Tengwar and Parma Eldalamberon, whose publications and analyses of much original Tolkien linguistic material this book silently mines for forms without acknowledging any of their theoretical or methodological contributions. If this book isn't already tied up in court proceedings then it certainly should be.

There are several reviews of this deeply-flawed and pseudo-scholarly work online; I urge all would-be purchasers to consult them before supporting the publication of this book (and those like it).

David Salo's humble attitude regarding his intensely thorough research has produced a work of profound and astounding scholarship. This book is exciting to the point of being breathtaking, for, again, it raises the expectation that Middle Earth was indeed peopled by speakers of i-lambi Eldaron and rich with a living, thriving culture in which the powers of Light finally overcame the forces of darkness. Elvish is aesthetically thrilling, but getting a handle on this tongue, i.e., actually allowing tangible use of Sindarin makes this "linguist" jump for joy. The organization of the book moves the reader through what might easily be one of the most interesting graduate courses in language that any elf-friend has ever taken in higher education. Hannon lle, David Salo!

I haven't quite finished the book yet, it's not quite the thriller like the books it was based on, that you simply can't put down before reading "just one more chapter." However, for those interested in such things, it is rather well written (the sort of thing I would expect from an expert in both the language the reader is familiar with and the one he/she is attempting to learn about). The primary motivation for the review though, is to respond to some of the previous reviewers, who make some rather harsh accusations concerning David Salo's supposed lack of "proper citation," among other things.

Certainly I am no linguist myself (in fact, if I were, I would probably do the research myself) and lack the expertise to comment on some of the more technical aspects of the work, but I am more or less literate, and I was able to comprehend the preface to the book which clearly states, "This volume is not and cannot be the last or most accurate word on Sindarin... within the limits of the available source material, I believe this work to be accurate in general and in most points of detail... where gaps occur, they have been filled in by educated guesswork marked as such". That being so, those of us who have no formal education in linguistics, may find it very difficult to pick out the subtle nuances that experts such as Tolkien used in their creations.

It is, therefore, immensely helpful for those of us with an interest in learning a particular language, to have someone who is trained in such things do the research for us and fill in gaps more accurately than we might have ourselves. At the end of the day, Tolkien did not publish an all-encompassing guide to his works, so any reasonable interpretation of the missing pieces can hardly be called "unreliable."

As far as the citation comment, Tolkien's name appears on the front cover above the author's in the same size and style of print. This is effectively a textbook. I imagine most people don't randomly find this book with no foreknowledge of Tolkien's works and think to themselves, "what a great idea, I'll study an imaginary language for no particular reason!" One probably starts by reading the Lord of the Rings and desiring to learn more, and when you've run out of works written by the creator himself, what's the next step? Beyond that, the first 18 pages are actually a short recap of much of the history written in The Silmarillion and the other histories published by Christopher Tolkien. In this section, one can hardly two sentences without running into a cited reference, book and page number included.

Perhaps there are other works on the subject that Mr. Salo could have attributed his inspirations to, but seriously, he spent enough time researching and writing about the subject. One can hardly expect him to attempt to go back in time and make a note of every last detail in his life that led to the completion of this work. I am annoyed by the mere mention of legal proceedings.

Please try to find a book written about person A by person B that person C can't criticize for reasons D, E, or F. Good luck.