A:    I've looked around a bit and asked a few people who might know such things, but to the best of my knowledge there is no book along the lines of Sam's Teach Yourself Quenya in 21 Days.  Given the popularity of "The Lord of the Rings" movie, that could well change, but at this point, if you're serious about learning Tolkien's invented Elvish language, the best resources I know are on the Elfish Language page on the Elf Lore reference center. The two top sites listed both have online language courses.

If you're looking for other resources, keep in mind that Tolkien was a linguist. His incredibly rich and deep Middle Earth has been the focus of much scholarly study, as the following book title suggests:  An Introduction to Elvish, and to other tongues and proper names and writing systems of the third age of the Western Lands of Middle-Earth as set forth in the published writings of Professor John Ronald Reuel Tolkien. (To go to the Amazon.com page for this book, click here.) The general reader, especially one without a background in linguistics, is in for a challenge. Another book, somewhat outdated but a little more approachable to the general reader is The languages of Tolkien's Middle-earth by Ruth S. Noel. Please note, however, that these are books ABOUT language, not how-to-speak-Elvish language courses. If fluency is your goal, your best bet would be the online language courses.  It's also worth noting that one of the premiere Tolkien language sites on the web recommends avoiding Ms. Noel's book.

Some folks asked about a language for the elves of the Forgotten Realms. As far I can tell, there isn't one.  You can find vocabulary lists in various Dragon Magazine articles and "dictionaries" of collected terms posted on fan web sites, but these are for the most part pieced together from references scattered through the lore, with newly-created filler added as needed. And I can assure you, being a chief offender in this regard, that most of the Elvish words used in FR books are created on the spot, with few other criteria than the need to "sound like something an elf might say."  This is a far cry from a "real" fantasy language such as Klingon, which has a logical and extensive vocabulary, grammar and syntax.  I know of no comparable, credible effort to develop a language for the FR elves.  And no, I have no plans to tackle such a project.  My background is music and history, not linguistics. 

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