Stephen and Juli Pfeiffer are from the USA. Stephen was a D&D player and learnt about Tolkien's world during endless RPG sessions from a cousin of his, a big fan. He shares with Juli the same interest in fantasy and science fiction and wanting something unique for their wedding, Stephen thought engraving their rings with Tolkien's "runes" (as he calls the Tengwar).

He started looking for books where he could learn how to translate a desired text into Elvish and how to transcribe it into Tengwar, until he came up with Helge Kåre Fauskanger. Helge provided him with his translation and elvish inscription, which is closely based on Tolkien's hand (actually it's not handmade, but an editing job of Tolkien's own Ring Inscription). Helge suggested Stephen to contact Gwaith-i-Phethdain and publish their image there.

Stephen says: "I took that art and recreated it in Adobe Illustrator and printed high quality films to give to a man that I worked with by the name of James Fent. Mr. Fent is a director of purchasing and sourcing of jewelry and precious stones and metals for The Franklin Mint. Jim also helped me design and created my wife's engagement ring. Jim sent the artwork to an engraver in Russia who created master plates in which the rings could be fashioned from. Once the master plates were returned to him, he set about the task of fabricating the rings. I cannot tell you how pleased we were with the final results. So there you have it, the story of our rings."

The inscription is written in Quenya using Tengwar, and reads:
Yúli meldanyan, cuilenya ar melmenya

Back