The Elvish Linguistic Fellowship is a "Special Interest Group" of the Mythopoeic Society devoted to the study of the constructed languages of J. R. R. Tolkien, today headed by Carl F. Hostetter. It was founded by Jorge Quiñónez in 1988. The E. L. F. publishes two journals, Vinyar Tengwar, edited by Hostetter, and Parma Eldalamberon, edited by Christopher Gilson. There is also an online journal, Tengwestië, edited by Hostetter and Patrick H. Wynne; and it also sponsors the Lambengolmor mailing list. In 1992, Christopher Tolkien appointed the editors of the E.L.F. to order, edit, and then publish his father's writings concerning his constructed languages. They have worked from photocopies of the materials sent to them and from notes taken by the group's members in the Bodleian and Marquette University Tolkien manuscript archives. It was agreed by all parties that the best way to do this was chronologically, as Tolkien's writings are often fully explicable only in light of his earlier writings, and often are dependent on those earlier writings for their context. This main course of publication is being carried out in the journal Parma Eldalamberon.There are, however, some writings that are largely independent, and/or whose context has been sufficiently established by Christopher Tolkien's own chronological publication efforts in The History of Middle-earth, and so do not have to be presented in the normal chronological flow of the larger project. Such materials are being published in the journal Vinyar Tengwar. Members include: Christopher Gilson, Carl F. Hostetter, Arden R. Smith, Bill Welden, and Patrick H. Wynne.
''Parma Eldalamberon''
Parma Eldalamberon was founded in 1971 as a fanzine devoted to a variety of invented literary languages, published under the auspices of the Mythopoeic Society. Today it is an irregular publication dedicated to the editing of Tolkien's manuscripts describing his Elvish Languages. It is edited by Christopher Gilson. It has no ISSN or ISBN number. Parma Eldalamberon is sold on a per-issue basis only, it is not found in bookstores. In 1995, with the support of Christopher Tolkien and permission of the Tolkien Estate, Parma was reinvented as a series of standalone volumes publishing in full material from Tolkien's manuscripts relating to languages and scripts. Much of this material was previously unpublished or published only in heavily edited form. For a list of material by Tolkien published in Parma Eldalamberon 1995 to date, see Tolkien research. The latest issue of the journal is number 22, published in June 2015.
''Vinyar Tengwar''
Vinyar Tengwar is a journal published by the Elvish Linguistic Fellowship, dedicated to the study of the invented languages of J. R. R. Tolkien. The publication is indexed by the Modern Language Association. "Vinyar Tengwar" is broken Quenya for News Letters. The latest issue of the journal is number 50, published in March 2013.
Issues
Vinyar Tengwar first appeared in 1988, at first edited by Jorge Quiñónez and later taken over by Carl F. Hostetter. It appeared in bimonthly intervals at first, but after July, 1994, issues appeared more irregularly, roughly once a year, and has stopped after June 2007. The journal is dedicated primarily to the editing of Tolkien's linguistic texts, some of which were mentioned in volumes of The History of Middle-earth, edited by Christopher Tolkien, but not published in that series owing to their specialist nature. Back issues of the journal are published in collections of ten issues on a per-order basis; issues 1-10, the last to be converted to this format, became available in March 2007.
