''A Secret Vice'' is the title of a talk written by J. R. R. Tolkien in 1931, given to a literary society entitled 'A Hobby for the Home', in which he first publicly revealed his interest in

invented languages A constructed language (sometimes called a conlang) is a language whose phonology, grammar, and vocabulary, instead of having developed naturally, are consciously devised for some purpose, which may include being devised for a work of fiction. ...

. Some twenty years later, Tolkien revised the manuscript for a second presentation. It deals with constructed languages in general and the relation of a

mythology Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narra ...

to its language. He contrasts

international auxiliary language An international auxiliary language (sometimes acronymized as IAL or contracted as auxlang) is a language meant for communication between people from all different nations, who do not share a common first language. An auxiliary language is primaril ...

s with

artistic language An artistic language, or artlang, is a constructed language designed for aesthetic and phonetic pleasure. Language can be artistic to the extent that artists use it as a source of creativity in art, poetry, calligraphy or as a metaphor to address ...

s constructed for aesthetic pleasure. Tolkien further discusses

phonaesthetics Phonaesthetics (also spelled phonesthetics in North America) is the study of beauty and pleasantness associated with the sounds of certain words or parts of words. The term was first used in this sense, perhaps by during the mid-20th century and ...

, citing Greek, Finnish and Welsh as examples of "languages which have a very characteristic and in their different ways beautiful word-form".

Content

Tolkien's opinion of the relation of

and language is reflected in examples cited in

Quenya Quenya ()Tolkien wrote in his "Outline of Phonology" (in '' Parma Eldalamberon'' 19, p. 74) dedicated to the phonology of Quenya: is "a sound as in English ''new''". In Quenya is a combination of consonants, ibidem., p. 81. is a constructed l ...

and Noldorin, the predecessors of Quenya and

Sindarin Sindarin is one of the fictional languages devised by J. R. R. Tolkien for use in his fantasy stories set in Arda, primarily in Middle-earth. Sindarin is one of the many languages spoken by the Elves. The word is a Quenya word. Called in E ...

. The essay contains three Quenya poems, ''Oilima Markirya'' ("The Last Ark"), ''Nieninque'', and ''Earendel'' as well as an eight-line passage in Noldorin. A notable passage from the essay comes in a context in which Tolkien relates how he randomly met a fellow language inventor in the army: Andrew Higgins writes that the "secret vice" was echoed in his text "Dangweth Pengolod" ("The Answer of Pengolod"), which showed Elves "practi ingand enjoy ngthe same aesthetic pleasure in language invention that Tolkien did".

Publication history

''A Secret Vice'' was first published in '' The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays'' (1983), together with six other essays by Tolkien, edited by his son Christopher. A new, extended

critical edition Textual criticism is a branch of textual scholarship, philology, and of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification of textual variants, or different versions, of either manuscripts or of printed books. Such texts may range in da ...

was published by

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News C ...

in 2016, edited by

Dimitra Fimi Dimitra Fimi (born 2 June 1978) is a Scottish academic and writer and since 2020 the Senior Lecturer in Fantasy and Children's Literature at the University of Glasgow. Her research includes that of the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien and children's ...

and Andrew Higgins. The new edition contains previously omitted passages from the original essay, Tolkien's drafts and notes, and a hitherto unpublished work on sound and language by Tolkien, "Essay on Phonetic Symbolism".

Reception

Of the edited book

The book review in ''VII'' notes that in the essay Tolkien describes constructing a language as "an art, not merely a utilitarian endeavor", and that the product is "tied both to the creator's personal preferences and to a mythology". It comments that the essay sheds light on what Tolkien thought about "creating stories in fantastic worlds".

Of Tolkien's essay

The Norwegian linguist and Tolkien scholar

Helge Fauskanger Helge Kåre Fauskanger (born 17 August 1971) is a Norwegian author and philologist. In Norway he is known as a crime novelist; elsewhere, he is best known as a Tolkien scholar with an interest in Tolkien's constructed languages. Education Faus ...

writes that "In 1931, Tolkien wrote an essay about the somewhat peculiar hobby of devising private languages. He called it 'A Secret Vice'. But in Tolkien's case, the 'vice' can hardly be called secret anymore." Fauskanger comments that Tolkien spent his whole life "toying with enormous linguistic constructions, entire languages that have never existed outside his own notes? For one thing must be perfectly clear: He made very much more of these languages than he could ever hope to include in his stories." He notes, for example, that Tolkien created at least 12,000 words in his constructed languages. Fauskanger sees as significant Tolkien's statement in "A Secret Vice" that "The making of language and mythology are related functions", and that "Your language construction will ''breed'' a mythology."

References

Sources

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External links

Tolkien's Not-So-Secret Vice
{{DEFAULTSORT:Secret Vice, A Essays by J. R. R. Tolkien Constructed languages resources 1930 speeches