MiddleEarthWrite
v1.03MiddleEarthWrite
v1.03MiddleEarthWrite is a utility for writing texts using Elvish alphabet,
known as the tengwar, and the runic Elvish and Dwarvish alphabet, known
as cirth, invented by the late professor John Ronald Reuel Tolkien for
his novel "The Lord of the Rings". But you should be already familiar
with this, since being interested in tengwar and since you read the README.txt.
What? Haven't read it yet? Then do it! It contains important information on
how to configure your system for MiddleEarthWrite.
Basic usage is simple: you enter text in the Enter text: box, and MiddleEarthWrite immediately transcribes it to tengwar or cirth. Then you choose the desired language in the Language: drop-down, and when you are happy with the result, press Copy and choose As text or As picture. It's that simple! You can then copy the text to your favorite word processor, but don't forget that, when the text is copied As text, MiddleEarthWrite only copies raw text, so when you copy the transcript to the word processor, you must also set the font (usually Tengwar Parmaite, Tengwar Cursive or Cirth Erebor). In case of an entry of a character that doesn't exist in the chosen language, MiddleEarthWrite adds the paragraph mark (¶) to the output. If you don't like this default behavior, you can turn it off in options. Now, this is considered to be...
More advanced tolkienites would further fine-tune their output by selecting More options.... These are very self-explanatory. There are also some features available while typing the text. Namely, when you enter "#A", then MiddleEarthWrite will not transcribe the character "A" into tengwar, but add the raw character "A" (from the selected font) to the Result: box. Also, you can enter something like "#229" to add character with the ASCII decimal code 229 to the output. To prevent ligature, for example to write "panthael" (we don't want the "T+H" to become "TH"), you enter the vertical bar character (|), thus "pant|hael". To explicitly enter the character "ore", type in double "R", i.e. "durrbatuluk". Similar is the runic output: to enter, for example, "khazâd", you enter "k+hazaad" or "k+haza'd". Here characters "+h" mark the special "h" of Dwarvish.
A very interesting feature in MiddleEarthWrite are so-called language tags. They allow for an inline switch to any language available inside the text! Language tags have the following syntax:
[text...]<tag_name>[text...][</[tag_name]>][text...]
For example, if you are typing the text in the Mode of Gondor, but you suddenly want to switch to Quenya (Noldor mode), you can type:
Io anann, anann ir gevennim
a-delch a na-'ond,
vanima'lion nostari!</noldor>
Sen dhem gevedim na-erui hi na-vedui.
or you can use the abbreviated close tag:
Io anann, anann ir gevennim
a-delch a na-'ond,
vanima'lion nostari!</>
Sen dhem gevedim na-erui hi na-vedui.
But, dont expect language tags to do miracles. They can't be nested, but if you do so, only the top-level tag will be processed. Also, copied text is just plain text. This may look like a problem if you use language tag to switch to runic mode when you are in a tengwar mode or vice versa, but if you paste the text to your word processor and switch the font, you will see that everything is just fine.
Since the version 1.01, different modes are output using different colors in case they are activated through language tags.
Here is the list of all the language tags and their respective modes:
<noldor></noldor> = Quenya (Noldor mode)
<arnor></arnor> = Sindarin/Adunaic (Mode of Arnor)
<gondor></gondor> = Sindarin/Adunaic (Mode of Gondor)
<beler></beler> = Sindarin (Mode of Beleriand)
<mordor></mordor> = Black speech (Westron mode)
<english></english> = English (Westron-like mode)
<daeron></daeron> = Sindarin (Angerthas
Daeron)
<eregion></eregion> = Sindarin/Quenya (Angerthas Eregion)
<moria></moria> = Khuzdul (Angerthas Moria)
<erebor></erebor> = Khuzdul/Westron (Angerthas Erebor)
<engrune></engrune> = English (Modified Anglosaxon
runes)
<pre></pre> = Preformatted (no transcription)
You can contact me, sending me feedback about MiddleEarthWrite on the following address:
or you can visit my home page at
Also, be sure to visit http://www.gnu.org/ for more info on the GNU GPL.