Yule

[frameacloud]

Read today's comic.

If it hasn't appeared on the site yet, read the comic here.


The large text is in Quenya, one of the Elven languages invented by Tolkien. I'm sure some of the people reading this have studied it more than I have, so let me know if I did anything wrong.

The words "Yule" and "Christmas" do not exist in Quenya, so I inserted both as loan words. Yule was a reasonable loan word because it exists in the Hobbit calendar, although I doubt the Elves would write it with a silent E. The dictionary doesn't have any equivalent of "happy" or "merry" in it, either, so I had to wish that the holidays were glorious and beautiful instead. It's really a shame that the language has such a small vocabulary, but Tolkien did not have enough years to unfold his whole creation. He deserved a few more decades to finish a few more books, if anyone ever did.

I had the idea for today's comic last December. A county-wide power outage made it impossible to finish it in time, so I saved it for the next Christmas.

The beauty of Elvish doesn't show up when you're using a single-thickness pen. It seems to have been designed specifically for use with a calligraphy pen. I was surprised to see what a difference it made when I inked it with a proper dip-pen, a tool I haven't seriously used before. When I'd penciled in the cirth (Elven letters), they seemed both irregular and repetitive, but when I inked them, then they flowed and looked right. It made it look like I had more skill than I have. I'm probably blind to my beginner's mistakes, but I'm very satisfied with how it turned out.

Be glad that I spared you the horror of what I had in my original sketch: bubble cirth.

Comments

[zuki-san.livejournal.com]

Hee!~ This reminds me of the short segment I heard on NPR today--it was about the widespread belief in elves in Iceland today. There are even a few elf mediums that will try to get in contact with them and apologize/etc, etc, make things right if it's determined that a construction or development project is interfering with their homes.

[laurenthemself]

That's gorgeous.

[jolantru.livejournal.com]

*LOL*

[yaochi.livejournal.com]

Hee Hee

This is not our job, we don't do this !

[r-caton.livejournal.com]

Words fail me....
I love this stuff. Thank you! and may the coming year be blessed!

[drakocrowley.livejournal.com]

Very cute. ^ ^

Also, it just occurred to me how Tolkien's Elvish resembles Arabic, at least in lettering.

[v-dragon.livejournal.com]

(^_^) Pretty writing

[synnabar.livejournal.com]

Wonderful concept, and gorgeous art - and writing! :D

[draco18s.livejournal.com]

Nice!

[limboboy.livejournal.com]

When I was about eight, I noticed that I had some 'kin blood in me. Of course, everyone knew that elves didn't exist, and told me so. However, Santa and his elves at the North Pole were evidently real, so I decided that my elvish blood had to have come from them. In one of my Christmas letters to Santa as a child, I asked him if he was missing an elf. I'm sure that must have caused some consternation, but in the reply I was assured that Santa wasn't missing one of his elves.

I was a very nonplussed eight year-old.

[(Anonymous)]

hee...
thats cute! ^^
A cute 'kin story, now we dont get many of those.. :(

[arvenaperedhel.livejournal.com]

Being half-elven (or at least my 'kin is half-elven) meant that I had a disdain for Christmas elves once I got old enough to understand what I was. I would refuse to watch any Christmas movies and threaten Christmas elves I saw on TV with death threats... I was a frustrated child.

[frameacloud]

Hee hee! Yeah, when I was little, I had strongly political feelings about how dragons were portrayed in popular culture, too. Now I see the stories are only meant as harmless entertainment or symbolism, because most people would never realize that somebody would take it personally in the way that I did. When I was little, though, I viewed all those dragon-slaying stories with the most utterly grim seriousness for all kinds of different reasons.

Some elf otherkin do enjoy how Christmas elves are portrayed. For example, some of the writings by the Silver Elves speak with great approval of how the holiday portrays elves as tirelessly generous.

Plus, it turns out that Tolkien's elves started out in earlier drafts as slightly less glamorous Christmas elves in The Father Christmas Letters. One of whom is named Elrond. *shakes head* The juxtaposition still seems strange to me!