The Rukh Nulûrz Ring Verse

Here is my version of the ring verse in the dialect Rukh Nulûrz (RN). It is of course very similar to the Land of Shadow (LoS) version as the RN is a variant of LoS. I will first present the RN version and after that a comparison between the RN and the LoS versions. See also my post of the LoS version of the ring verse. 

Gakh nazgu golugothu’ûr nut’lata

Udu gazatgothu’ûr ruz’ulbo’ishi gundum’ob

Krith tarku’ûr matûrz dûmpûrz matat 

Ash gothbûrz’ûr ulîma’tab’sûr

Uzgbûrz’ishi amal burgûlu kâtut

 

1. The elven line

Gakh nazgu golugothu’ûr nut’lata
Three rings elf-lords-to sky-under
Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky

The only difference from LoS is the different words for lord. I could not find ‘durub’ in the RN word list so I used ‘goth’. There is no plural marker for persons in LoS but this is marked in RN with a –u suffix attached to ‘goth’. 

LoS line: Gakh nazgu Golugdurub-ûr nut-lata

2. The Dwarven line

Udu gazatgothu’ûr ruz’ulbo’ishi gundum’ob
Seven dwarflords-to hall-their-in of stone
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone

In this line I encountered the problem of suffix chains: in which order should the different suffixes of plural and postpositions be places. I used the same order as in LoS, i.e. plural before the postposition.

I elaborated with two another constructions: a compound ‘gundumruz’ (stonehalls); or stone as an adjective ‘ruz gundûrz’ or ‘ruz gundumûrz’ (stone hall).  

Compound construction: Udu gazatgothu’ûr gundumruz’ulbo’ishi
Adjective constructions: Udu gazatgothu’ûr ruz’ulbo’ishi gundûrz/gundumûrz

The differences to the LoS line are that the third person possessive pronoun plural (their) is ‘ulbo’ in RN and ‘lub’ in Los; and the words for ‘stone’ are similar but a bit different: ‘gundum’ in RN and ‘gund’ in LoS. 

LoS line: Udu Gazatgoth-ûr rûlub-ishiz gund-ob

3. The mortal line

Krith tarku’ûr matûrz dûmpûrz matat
Nine men-to deadly doomed to die
Nine for the mortal men doomed to die

This line is was more problematic. RN does not have any participles as LoS has. In the LoS I ‘doomed’ is a participle ‘dûmpugaz’ but RN explicitly use the adjective form so I simply put ‘dûmpûrz’ (adjective of doom) after the adjective ‘matûrz’ (mortal). Othervise the line is the same as the LoS line: Krith Tark-ûr matûrzu dûmpugaz matat.

4. The Dark Lord line

Ash gothbûrz’ûr ulîma’tab’sûr
One lord-dark-for throne-his-on
One for the dark lord on his dark throne

This line is quite straightforward and has the construction as the LoS line. The only difference is that the LoS postposition for ‘on’ is –ir instead of –sûr. 

LoS line: Ash Gothbûrz-ûr ulîmabûrz-tab-ir

5. The Mordor Line

Uzgbûrz’ishi amal burgûlu kâtut
land-dark-in where shadows lie
In the land of Mordor where the shadows lie

The same as the LoS line

 

The Change of the Ring Verse

During the years that I have developed Zhâburi the Ring Veres has always functioned as a central text that shows the changes of the language. In the beginning the change was mostly grammatical but later on the words have changed. I have for a long time been thinking of publishing a word list and an analysis of the Zhâburi Ring Verse. I started on a word list and immediately started to question the choice of words and I changed four of the words. All of them from Svartiska to Primitive Elvish roots. The new words are marked in bold.

Gakh nazg ghal-shidizala golugut-za
Udu gazatshakh-za gûdrûd-bulshidiza
Krith bartadash-diza gûrum tarkgut-za
Ash shakhbûrz-za sûl-bulshidiza
Al burghi gâtugulûk Dûrbûrz-ishi

ghal “sky” instead of ‘nût’; ghal from elvish root ƷEL “sky”. 
gut “lord” instead of ‘goth”; gut from Etym. KOT(H) “strive, quarrel”.
rûd “hall” instead of ‘had’; rûd from PE rǭda “cave”.
bart– “doom”, “fate”, “judge”,instead of ‘fund-’; bart- from PE m(b)arat “doom, fate”.

Tha last version was

Gakh nazg nût-shidizala golugoth-za
Udu gazatshakh-za gûd’hâd-bulshidiza
Krith fundadash-diza gûrum tarkgoth-za
Ash shakhbûrz-za sûl-bulshidiza
Al burghi gâtugulûk Dûrbûrz-ishi

 

The Ring Verse in The Land of Shadow Dialect

The most widespread dialect or or version of a Black Speech of Mordor that of The Land of Shadow (LoS) and it is interesting to compare it to Zhâburi and Svartiska dialects. Svartiska is the version that I started with and Zhâburi started as an attempt to make Svartiska more coherent to the Black Speech of the Ring Inscription.

Because the central, and really only, example of true Black Speech sentences are those of the ring inscription I will use them as my comparision example. When I first found out about LoS I looked for a translation of the whole ring verse but I could only find the first to lines.

Gakh Nazgu Golug-durub-uru lata-nut.
Three Rings Elf-lords-for under-sky
Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky

Udu Gazat-shakh-uru ulub ruz-ishiz gund-ob.
Seven Dwarf-lords-for their halls-in stone of
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone

These two lines are a bit perplexing because they do not follow the grammar as it is explained on the Black Speech School site. Both the dative postpositional endings have lost their circumflexes –uru instead of –ûru. (These are plural, the singular is, just as in Svartiska –ûr. The Svartiska plural is instead -ûri.) And in the first line the postposition –lata (under) has become a preposition preceding the noun nût (sky), (which has lost its circumflex). This is explicitly described as Debased Black Speech. And it’s strange that the word for ‘hall’ ru has a double plural marker, both a suffix attached to the word itself and a plural marker in the postposition –ishiz. These lines are LoS-black Speech and not genuine Tolkien sentences and should not be considered as authentic. But we can make a simple rule of this example of double plural: if the noun ends in a vowel the noun takes a double plural marker in both the noun and the postposition. A more complicated rule would be that a noun ending in a vowel takes the double plural marker only if the postposition starts with a vowel. Both are consistent with the  case of “in the halls” and the noun ru (hall) and innessive postposition (in) –ishi, e.g. ru-ishi “in a/the hall” ruz-ishiz “in [the] halls”.   

So I have reconstructed both lines and the rest of the Ring Verse.

1. Gakh nazgu golug-durub-ûru nût-lata
Three rings [the] elf-lords-for [the] sky-under
Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,

2. Udu gazat-shakh-ûru ulub ruz-ishiz gund-ob
Seven [the] dwarf-lords-for their halls-in stone-of
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,

3. Krith tark-ûru matûrzu dûmpuga matat
Nine men-for mortal doomed to-die
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die

4. Ash goth-bûrz-ûr tab ulîma-ir
One [the] lord-dark-for his throne-on
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne

In this line I chose to use the word goth for lord instead of shakh to avoid repetition.

5a. Uzg-ishi Mordor-ob amal burgûlu kulut
[the] Land-in Mordor-of where shadows are
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie

5b. Uzgbûrz-ishi amal burgûlu kulut
In [the] Dark-land [Mordor] where shadows are
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie

In the last word of the fifth line I had to find another word than ‘to lie’ because I could not find it. So I used the word for are kul– which is the regular form of “to be” in third person plural present tense. [Update 17.04.18. There is a word for “to lie” kât- (from Quenya caita-) which I know that I’ve seen before. So line 5b: Uzgbûrz-ishi amal burgûlu kâtut.]

There is also the problem of whether to translate Mordor or not. In 5a Mordor is not translated and the translation follows the original. In version 5b Mordor is translated into Uzgbûrz “The Dark Land” following the form of Lugbúrz “The Dark Tower”. The 5b is shorter and have the same amount of syllables and I think it’s more appropriate not to use Elvish words. Mordor ought to have its own name in its own language. So I have used 5b below.  

6. Ash Nazg Durbatulûk
One Ring to-Rule-them-all

7. Ash Nazg Gimbatul
One Ring to-Find-them

8. Ash Nazg Thrakatulûk
One Ring to-Bring-them-all

agh burzum-ishi krimpatul
and [the] Darkness-in Bind-them

My version of the Ring Verse in the LoS dialect of the Black Speech of Mordor

1. Gakh nazgu golug-durub-ûru nût-lata
2. Udu gazat-shakh-ûru ulub ru-ishiz gund-ob
3. Krith tark-ûru matûrzu dûmpuga matat
4. Ash goth-burz-ûr tab ulîma-ir
5. Uzgbûrz-ishi amal burgûlu kulut

1. Ash Nazg Durbatulûk
2. Ash Nazg Gimbatul
3. Ash Nazg Thrakatulûk
4. agh burzum-ishi krimpatul
5. Uzgbûrz-ishi amal burgûlukulut

 

 

The Ring verse updated

The Ring verse had to be updated. When writing about the Descriptive I changed it so it agrees with the word it describes. When it agrees with nouns it is subject to suffixaufnahme. In the third line (nine for mortal men doomed to die) the descriptive ‘fundadash’ (doomed/judged) agrees with the directive of ‘tarkgoth-za’ (to the lords of men)  suffixaufnahme –diza have to be added. Because of the additional syllables the sentence need to be shortened so ‘goth’ (lord) of ‘tarkgoth’ had to be deleted.

In addition I have started to develop the vocabulary, bringing it closer to Primitive Elvish (PE). This has given me new words for ‘die’ from the PE word ‘ñgurū’ (death) which becomes ‘gûr’ in Zhâburi B. The intransitive of this is ‘gûru-‘.

The third line is thus changed from Krith fundadash maum tarkgoth-za to Krith fundadash-diza gûrum tark-za.

The word for ‘stone’ has been changed from ‘gund’ (Svartiska) to gûd (Primitive Elvish gondo) following the same peinciples as ‘ñgurū’ to ‘gûr’. Interestingly the Svartiska word for stone is quite similar to the PE ‘gondo’ and is probably inspired by Sindarin ‘gond’. The word ‘gund’ for stone can also be found in the orcish dialects Land of Shadows, Horngoth and MERP. In Svartiska and MERP another word for ‘stone’ is – gur.

The Ring verse in Zhâburi

Here is the whole Ring Verse in Zhâburi

* * *

Gakh nazg ghal-shidizala golugut-za
Udu gazatshakh-za gûdrûd-bulshidiza
Krith bartadash-diza gûrum tarkgut-za
Ash shakhbûrz-za sûl-bulshidiza
Al burghi gâtugulûk Dûrbûrz-ishi

Ash nazg durbatulûk
Ash nazg gimbatul
Ash nazg thrakatulûk
agh burzum-ishi krimpatul
Al burghi gâtugulûk Dûrbûrz-ishi

* * *

Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie

One Ring to rule them all,
One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all,
and in the darkness bind them,
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie