One Ring to rule them all, One ring to find them;
One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.

It all started, about 3 years ago, with a swash (the typographic kind) from a Don Quixote cover (the million dollar one). Countless hyperlinks later, I had developed a sudden interest for typography. With a rare creative outburst (yes, this is rare, I am generally too lazy to allow these to happen) I felt I should actually try something calligraphic, with a lot of swashes, preferably.

Tengwar, the fictional writing script for languages of the Middle Earth, seemed to be perfect for this, with a lot of swashes and diacritics (constructive diacriticism is appreciated by all?) and a very lovely script. The ring inscription seemed like a perfect starting point, the calligraphic beauty and a message that keeps the sorcery alive. More browsing around in deviantart meant adding the Elven languages, Quenya and Sindarin, in the ever growing to-do list of learning. I’ll get there someday.

Equipped with an A2 sized paper (remnants from an Engineering Drawing class that never failed to annoy) that never found its use in its homework assignments, and a modest No. 2 pencil, I set out for my first calligraphic adventure. I had assumed if this goes well, I should try calligraphy for real later (A term like that in a procrastinator’s dictionary generally allows an infinite time to pass by without actually trying anything).

The end result of about 2 hours of grueling pen and paper duel was something that resembled the above (well, without the excessive vignetting filters that everybody loves to use), something for me to look back and smile, and remind me of that elusive creative alter-ego who can sometimes impress.

PS. The last line in the inscription is the Queenyan phase “Anar Kaluva Tielyanna” meaning “the sun shall shine upon your path”.

PPS. By the time I hit the publish button already hi had already rolled out the edit geotag and date feature, saving me from an otherwise mundane explanation of how the date came out wrong.