in seeking to complete or extend the languages by creating new forms being willing to declare Tolkien's early words or forms "obsolete" if later forms seemed to have the same meanings being willing to conflate forms from different Tolkien stages when these seemed to be "useful" Appleyard named Quenya's respective case, a grammatical case for nouns in Tolkien's constructed Elvish language of Quenya; the linguist Paul Strack describes the grammatical forms and Appleyard's proposal, stating that "There is no direct evidence supporting this theory of its use, however." Other languages Appleyard wrote about Tolkien's frame story character Aelfwine of England, with analysis of Tolkien's use of Old English. Appleyard is recorded as observing that the word nazg ("ring") in the explicitly constructed language Black Speech – in the fiction, constructed by the Dark Lord Sauron, in reality by Tolkien – appeared to have been borrowed from the phrase chanana kad, meaning "ring of doom" in Tolkien's constructed language of Valarin. In 1995 he published the 19-page "Dictionaries of Middle-earth", covering the minor languages of "Danian, Old Beorian, Telerin, Ilkorin, Khuzdul, Old Noldorin, and Valarin." Technology in Middle-earth Appleyard wrote, too, on the subject of "Tolkien and Space Travel", noting that Tolkien and his friend C. S. Lewis had agreed to write a pair of science fiction stories, Lewis getting space travel and Tolkien getting time travel; Appleyard suggested that Tolkien drops several hints that advanced technologies (explosives used by the Orcs at Helm's Deep, iron dragons used to assault Gondolin) were developed on Arda. He wrote that Tolkien describes Eärendil's ship that sails across the sky built "'of mithril and of elven-glass / with shining prow: no shaven oar / nor sail she bore on silver mast', and mentions no wood in its construction. This indeed sounds suspiciously like most people's image of a spaceship." References Sources External links Appleyard's homepage with materials on science fiction, fantasy, and scuba diving Helge Fauskanger's analysis of Firiel's Song, discussing some of Appleyard's linguistic suggestions Tolkien studies 1943 births 2022 deaths