MADISON, Wis. -- David Salo is an expert in languages that exist only in the imaginary world of hobbits and elves. He has immersed himself in Quenya and Sindarin, languages created by author J.R.R.

J.R.R. Tolkien’s love of languages played a large part in the development of The Lord of the Rings and his other books, says Bradley J. Birzer, an assistant professor of history at Hillsdale College.

'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power' creators JD Payne and Patrick McKay discuss including Tolkien's fictional languages on the show. There are plenty of orcs throughout Lord of the Rings: The ...

David Salo’s colleagues and classmates at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have absolutely no idea how he spends his free time. It’s not that the 32-year-old linguistics grad student is ashamed of ...

Sarah Shippobotham, associate professor and head of the University of Utah’s Actor Training Program, was a dialect coach in New Zealand on the set of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, based on the ...

Linguistics is one of the degrees most often dragged through the mud for being "useless," but The Lord of the Rings, one of the highest-grossing franchises of all time, might not have been possible, ...