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Monsters and the Critics (MC)

A book of essays written by Tolkien. Of greatest interest to Tolkien’s languages is the essay “A Secret Vice”, from a speech given by Tolkien in 1931 about his linguistic inventions. This essay has several early Elvish poems, including “The Last Ark”, also known as “Oilima Markirya”. There is additional linguistic information in the notes following the essay. The notes on the article include a later version of the Markirya poem, written in the last decade of Tolkien’s life (mid to late 1960’s).

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