The Lord of the Rings

The following is a sample text of an Anglish translation of the first page of The Lord of the Rings using only Germanic vocabulary, and also using the Old English letters of Thorn, Eth & Wynn, as well as distinguishing the long vowel e in the word the using macrons like in modern Old English texts. Translated by: Wicing

Þe Lord of þe Rings

TIDE ONE

A LONG-FOREKNOǷN GAÞERING

Ƿhen Master Bilbo Baggins of Bag End made it knoƿn þat he ƿould shortly be marking his eleventy-first birðday ƿið a gaðering of great ƿonderfullness, þere ƿas much talk and bliss in Hobbiton.

Bilbo ƿas sorely rich and odd and had been þe ƿonder of þe Shire for sixty years, ever since his astonishing slip aƿay and unforeknoƿn comeback. Þe riches he had brought back from his farings had now become a homely folktale, and it ƿas ƿidely believed, ƿhatever þē old folk might say, þat þe hill at Bag End ƿas full of underground halls stacked ƿið riches. And if þat ƿas not enough for greatness, þere ƿas also his lengðened healðiness to gaƿk at. Þe tides ƿore on, but it seemed to have little burden on Master Baggins. At ninety he ƿas much þe same as at fifty. At ninety-nine þey began to call him ƿell-upheld; but unƿended ƿould have been nearer þe mark. Þere ƿere some þat shook þeir heads and þought þis ƿas too much of a good þing; it looked unfair þat anyone should have (as far as one knoƿs) everlasting youð as ƿell as (so folks say) boundless ƿealð. 'It ƿill have to be yielded for,' þey said. 'It isn't inborn, and ƿoe ƿill come of it!'

But so far ƿoes had not come; and as Master Baggins ƿas so giving ƿið his ƿealð, most folks ƿere ƿilling to forgive him his oddness and his good luck. He stayed on guesting bounds ƿið his kinsfolk (but not, as such, the Sackville-Bagginses), and he had many loving folloƿers among þe hobbits of poor and needy not-ƿorð-speaking-of households. But he had no dear friends, until some of his younger siblings' children began to groƿ up.

Þē eldest of þese, and Bilbo's dearest, ƿas young Frodo Baggins. Ƿhen Bilbo ƿas ninety-nine he took on Frodo as his next-in-line, and brought him to live at Bag End; and þe hopes of þe Sackville-Bagginses ƿere endly dashed. Bilbo and Frodo happened to have þe same birðday, Sevenðmonð tƿenty-and-tƿo. 'You had better come and live here, Frodo my lad,' said Bilbo one day; 'and þen ƿe can mark our birðday gaðerings ƿarmly togeðer.' At þat time Frodo ƿas still in his tƿeens, as þe hobbits called þe reckless tƿenties betƿeen childhood and coming of oldness at þirty-þree.

Tƿelve more years ƿent by. Each year þe Bagginses had given greatly lively bound birðday gaðerings at Bag End; but noƿ it ƿas understood þat someðing sorely unheard of ƿas being breƿed for þat fall. Bilbo ƿas going...