Drop + The Lord of the Rings Black Speech ENTR Keyboard Review

mmorpg.com:

«It is said that the Black Speech was devised by Sauron in the Dark Years and that he had desired to make it the language of all those who served him, but he failed in that purpose.» — Appendix F, The Lord of the Rings

The Black Speech of Mordor is one of the fictional languages that make up the Ardalambion — the Tongues of Arda — yet it's one of the few languages Tolkien didn't flesh out a ton. However, it's arguably more famous than the tongues of Elves, Ents and Orcs (who don't actually speak the Black Speech, but a debased version) among even casual fans thanks to the One Ring's inscription:

"Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul, ash nazg thrakatulûk, agh burzum-ishi krimpatul"

Drop has added another keyboard to their collection of Lord of the Rings-themed keyboards, this time celebrating the Black Speech of Mordor. But because the Black Speech had no written language, it was oftentimes scratched down using a variant of the Elvish script Tengwar. And here that's carried on with keycaps adorned with the Tengwar itself, yet the body itself reminds you exactly who is always watching.

I spent the first few paragraphs setting the tone for this because other than the Sauron eye etched onto the space above the arrow keys, you might be remiss in thinking this was an Elvish-flavored keyboard. But because the Black Speech itself has no written language, and the only example we really do have in the LotR Lore is the Ring Inscription, the use of Tengwar here makes sense.

However, looking closely at the two keycaps, you'll see while the Elvish Drop keyboard has a classical Tengwar font, the script on the Black Speech looks more like the Elvish cursive we see on the Ring inscription. It fits the theme of the keyboard so well, and