The One Ring Inscription
The only example of "pure" Black Speech is the inscription upon the One Ring:
- Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul,
- ash nazg thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul.
When translated into English, these words form the lines:
- One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
- One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.
These are the first two lines from the end of a verse about the Rings of Power. This corresponds to the following table as explained by J.R.R. Tolkien.
| Black Speech | English |
|---|---|
| ash | one |
| nazg | finger ring |
| durb- | constrain, force, dominate |
| at | verb ending, like a participle |
| ulûk | verbal ending expressing object 3rd person pl. "them" (ul) (sic) in completive or total form "them-all". |
| gimb- | seek out, discover |
| thrak- | bring by force, hale, drag |
| agh | and |
| burzum | darkness |
| ishi | in, inside |
| krimp- | bind, tie |
Read more about this topic: Black Speech
Famous quotes containing the words the one, ring and/or inscription:
“The remedy for thirst? It is the opposite of the one for a dog bite: run always after a dog, he’ll never bite you; drink always before thirst, and it will never overtake you.”
—François Rabelais (1494–1553)
“He will not idly dance at his work who has wood to cut and cord before nightfall in the short days of winter; but every stroke will be husbanded, and ring soberly through the wood; and so will the strokes of that scholar’s pen, which at evening record the story of the day, ring soberly, yet cheerily, on the ear of the reader, long after the echoes of his axe have died away.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Gratefully accepting the proffered honor, [to inscribe a new legal work to him] I give the leave, begging only that the inscription may be in modest terms, not representing me as a man of great learning, or a very extraordinary one in any respect.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)