Tolkien once termed Welsh 'the elder language of the men of Britain'; this talk explores how the sounds and grammar of Welsh captured Tolkien's imagination and are reflected in Sindarin, one of the two major Elvish languages which he created. Mark Williams, Fitzjames Research Fellow in Old and Middle English, Merton College, Oxford gives the second talk in the Tolkien: The Maker of Middle Earth lecture series. This lecture focuses on Tolkien and medieval welsh.

This series, convened by Dr Stuart Lee, presents five Oxford academics who examine the medieval languages that J.R.R. Tolkien studied and taught. Each lecture will present a short introduction to a language and its literature. The lectures will show how Tolkien's linguistic and philological scholarship inspired him to create names for characters and places in his literary works, and to invent the languages of Middle-earth.