About
The Languages of Fiction, Taken Seriously
Tengwar exists for the people who watched the films, read the books — and wanted to go deeper.
Some fictional languages are jokes with a costume on. The three Tengwar teaches are not: Tolkien spent six decades building Quenya and Sindarin with real phonology, real grammar, and real historical sound-change between them — he called his stories “a mythology for my languages,” not the other way around. Marc Okrand gave Klingon a genuinely alien grammar for Star Trek. David J. Peterson built Dothraki for Game of Thrones with more depth than the show ever put on screen. These are real languages that happen to come from fiction, and they deserve a real learning platform.
Tengwar (learningelvish.com) is that platform: 72 structured lessons across the three languages (30 Elvish, 21 Klingon, 21 Dothraki), spaced-repetition review that keeps vocabulary from fading, an AI tutor — Mithrandir — constrained to attested vocabulary instead of guessing, a genuine Tengwar-script transcription engine, and a growing library of free reference guides on the blog. The first 30 lessons are free forever, no credit card required.
What We Will Not Do
We do not invent Elvish, Klingon, or Dothraki. Every word, declension, and conjugation we teach is either attested in the creators' published work or clearly cited as a scholarly reconstruction — and when the sources are silent, we say so instead of filling the gap. Dothraki has no native writing system, so we don't teach one. Klingon's week has six days, so we teach six. The full sourcing standard, including which references we use for each language, is public at /method.
The Sources We Stand On
Elvish — Tolkien's published works: The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, the Etymologies, and the linguistic journals Vinyar Tengwar and Parma Eldalamberon, cross-referenced against the Eldamo lexicon. Klingon — Marc Okrand's canon dictionary and the Klingon Language Institute. Dothraki — David J. Peterson's constructed grammar and dothraki.org's reference dictionary. Where scholars disagree, we present the dominant reading and note the disagreement.
How the Project Is Run
Tengwar is an independent, bootstrapped project — no venture funding, no rights-holder backing. Premium subscriptions (billed through Creem) fund hosting, the AI infrastructure behind Mithrandir, and ongoing content development. The free tier is permanently free: it exists so that anyone curious about these languages can start without paying anything.
We are not affiliated with the Tolkien Estate, HarperCollins, CBS/Paramount, HBO, or any rights holder. Tengwar is a fan-built educational resource about these languages, in the same spirit as the community dictionaries and scholarly journals it draws on.
Who Edits This
Aldric Fenwick, Editorial Lead — Aldric edits every lesson and guide on Tengwar for source accuracy — tracing Quenya and Sindarin back to Tolkien's own papers, Klingon to Okrand's published grammar, and Dothraki to Peterson's work for the show. Every lesson, guide, and vocabulary entry credited to Tengwar on this site passes through the same sourcing standard described above before it publishes.
Say Hello
Questions, corrections, partnerships, or press — contact us. If you spot a word we got wrong, we genuinely want to know: sourcing corrections from readers is part of how the editorial standard stays honest.
