Map of the Region

A collection of hypertext references I've amassed over the years, including many documents residing on this site.

Art & Architecture

The Timeless Way
An essay about how Tolkien's Elves viewed creativity, and what that means for us.
Boundaries
An unfinished essay on liminality and contrast at the root of all things.
Emptiness
An essay on the necessity of caring for space.
Genius
An essay on the origins of obnoxious architecture.
Videos on Art and Architecture
Introductions to Christopher Alexander, for the YouTube-prone.

Food

Lembas
My attempt at an authentic recreation of the fabled Elven waybread.
Soy Sauce Lentil Soup
One of my go-to recipes for a hearty dinner.

Games

The Quest for the Imperial Treasures
My re-translation of the rules for the classic cut-out-and-play board game “Search for the Emperor's Treasure” by Tom Wham

Humor

Lalaith (Mirth)
The stuff that cracked me up circa 2004.

Languages and Linguistics

The Conlang List
A giant list of constructed languages from around the web. Not even close to complete!
Richard Kennaway's Conlang List
The inspiration for my own conlang list. Not maintained; many of the links are dead.
Langmaker.com (2005 Archive)
Once the authoritative source for all things conlanging, Langmaker.com sadly is no more. But you can still browse this archive, and marvel at the splendor that once was...
Cuio Edhellen!
A textbook I'm writing to teach J.R.R. Tolkien's Elvish language Sindarin. A work in progress, but there are several completed chapters covering pronunciation, tengwar writing, and basic phrases.
What's a Conlang?
An introduction to the hobby.
Zompist's Language Construction Kit
A guide to making your own language, for the perilously interested.
Keneak
A conlang I made in college. It tries to be a somewhat-artistic logical language.
Gnomish
A complex cipher of English that yielded a language with its own quirky grammar.
The Viking Society of Nordic Research
A website with many resources for learning Old Norse. Recommended: A New Introduction to Old Norse, which has separate Grammar, Reader, and Glossary PDFs.
OldEnglishTranslator.co.uk
An Old English / Modern English Bilingual Dictionary, including inflected forms of nouns and verbs.
Glǽmscrafu
A site about J.R.R. Tolkien’s languages, including audio recordings of Tolkien himself speaking Elvish.
RealElvish.net
Fiona Jallings’ site on Tolkien’s elvish languages, providing English-to-Elvish translations.
A Fan's Guide to Neo-Sindarin
Fiona Jallings’ Sindarin textbook.
Eldamo.org
Paul Strack’s ELvish DAta MOdel, aiming to catalog all the Elvish words gleaned from Tolkien's works and created by fans in an annotated cross-referenced database. An awe-inspiring work of scholarship, not aimed at beginners.
Parma Tyelpelassiva
The Book of Silver Leaves. Thorsten Renk’s site with excellent Quenya and Sindarin courses available for download.
Gwaith-i-Phethdain
The Fellowship of the Word-Smiths, with information about the Elvish dialogue, inscriptions, and lyrics in the Lord of the Rings movies.
Sindanórie
A site with many articles about Elvish languages and poems in several rare Elvish dialects.
Amanye Tenceli
The Writing Systems of Aman, Måns Björkman’s site covering the Elvish tengwar script, plus a few others less well-known—like Rumil’s sarati.
Creole Typology I: Comparative Overview of Creole Languages
A paper describing how creoles differ morphologically and syntactically from other types of languages.
Scots Online
Pittin the Mither Tongue on the Wab! Includes audio recordings and a Scots translation of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Music

Elvish Songs and Poems
Music of an Elvish bent, from many climes, decades, and centuries.
Nirnaeth
A chronological list of songs that have made me cry.
The Din of a Feast
PARTY AT THRANDUIL'S HOUSE
Lovesongs
Are mix CDs still a thing? A list of songs I've given to or received from crushes.
NIGHTFORESTBLACK
The brutal heart of the woods.

Myth

Old Tales
A few readings/chantings of the ancient classics.
Beowulf
My attempt at translating an abridged reading of the Old English epic poem.
Synesthesia Symbiosis
Rialian’s site on otherkin and the elven experience in particular.
LotR Videos
The mythos and magic of The Lord of the Rings—both the books and the movies.

Philosophy

Reasserting Innocence
A series of essays by valleanenowe
Huna
The esoteric wisdom of Polynesia.
So How Do I Look Inside, Anyway?
An essay by Syleniel on introspective meditation.
The Vast Dark of My Dreaming
An essay by mystic and multi-instrumentalist B'eirth, on the many forms of consciousness.

Programming and Software Engineering

Dreamsongs.net
The website of Richard Gabriel, containing poetry and essays on software.
The Jargon File
A compendium of hacker culture
The C2 Wiki
The original wiki, by Ward Cunningham
Dat
A peer-to-peer protocol, with NodeJS and browser interfaces
Wayback Machine Downloader
A must-have for the amateur archivist.
Cognitive Computing
An archive of information about various language models, including token sets and training data.

Miscellaneous/Other

The Garden Path
A “random” button for my ever-growing collection of links.