Decades ago, when J. R. R. Tolkien wrote his fantasy book series; "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings", he described races of Elves, Dwarves and Men possessing a rich history, language and culture. Early in their history they devised alphabets for writing their languages. One of the earliest was written with pens or brushes. It was called the Tengwar. The Tengwar were a very flexible writing system that was easily adapted by the many different races of Middle-earth for use with their languages.

During the First Age, Elvish craftsmen in Beleriand began developing an informal alphabet for use with their Sindarin language. This alphabet became known as the Cirth (meaning: "runes"). The Cirth alphabet in Middle-earth fulfills the same role as Germanic, Norse and Anglo-Saxon runes in our history.

Towards the end of the First Age in Beleriand, Daeron, the Minstrel and Loremaster of King Thingol of Doriath, organized the Cirth into what became known as the Angerthas Daer Read more ... on. Daeron's alphabet was originally used by the Grey Elves (Sindar) in Beleriand. Later the Deep Elves (Noldor) in Eregion adopted the Cirth and added several more runes to the system. These additional letters were used to represent sounds not found in the Elvish Sindarin, but in the tongues of the other people living in the area. The Angerthas Daeron was used primarily for carved inscriptions. For most other forms of written communication the Tengwar were used.