The Professor.

You knew it was coming, right? The  happy-birthday-dear-Tolkien post smack in the middle of Christmas. According to the Tolkien Society, all admirers of the Professor  are supposed to offer up a birthday toast to him at 9 pm this evening. We fill our glasses with goodly drink, stand and say, "The Professor!" Yes, I am going to do that. With my Christmas whisky, which is very good indeed. Yes it is quirky of me. I don't care. 

In honour of Christmas and Tolkien, I am presenting you with the lyrics for a carol entitled All Mydle Erthe It Shall Fulyll - and yes, that really is Middle Earth. Tolkien didn't invent that term, he adopted it. (Fans of Thor might be familiar with Midgard. It means the same thing.) I have not bothered to update the spelling, nor replace "u" with "v" (that word is venite)

A voyce from heven to erth shal com:
"Uenite ad iudicium."

This voyce both sharp and also shryll
Shall be herd from heuen to hell
All mydle erthe it shall fulfyll
    Uenite ad iudicium.
        A voyce. etc.

Uenite is a blyssed song
For them that for ioye dooth longe
And shall forsake paynes strong
    Uenite ad iudicium
    A voyce. etc.

Glad in hert may they be
Whan Chryst sayeth Uenite
Ye blyssed chyldren come to me
    Into vitam eternam
        A voyce. etc.

Whan I hongred ne gaue me meat
Ye clothed me agaynst the weat
In trouble ye dyde me not forgeat
    Uenite ad iudicium
        A voyce. etc.

Ye socoured me at your doore
And for my sake gaue to the poore
Therfore wyll I you socoore
    Uenite ad iudicium.
        A voyce. etc.

Sory in hert may they be
That hereth this heuy worde, Ite
Ye cursed chyldren go fro me
    In to ignem eternum
        A voyce. etc.

Whan for nede that I dyde crye
Confortlesse ye lete me dye
Therfore now I you deny
    Uenite ad iudicium
        A voyce. etc.

For by me ye set no store
Ye shall abye ryght dere therfore
In hell with deuyls for euermore
    Uenite ad iudicium
        A voyce. etc.

            Finis.

And since I know that was a lot of archaic language to skim through, I am also providing two Christmas Carols. O Come All Ye Faithful  in Sindarin (which is the elvish you mostly hear spoken in the Lord of the Rings movies)

And also In Dulce Jubilo - a macaronic carol, originally in Latin and German, but in this case, Latin and Quenya - Quenya being High Elvish, and the language Galadriel used when she sang Namarie:

And lastly, this rather lovely little thing - Ve Eärendil vanima . Click on "show more" for the translation, and to find out more about it. Just do it. You'll not be sorry.