The WELA, in collaboration with the Associazione Italiana Studi Tolkieniani opened last October, 15th the exhibition entitled Mazarbul:svelati i secreti dei Nani at the Tana del Drago in Dozza (Italy).

Tolkien in the Lord of the Rings, through the voice of Gandalf, reports some passages from the Book of Mazarbul, found by the Fellowship of the Ring in the mines of Moria. This book, however, exits the pure literary fiction as Tolkien actually made three pages of it. Although these manuscripts were only published posthumously, the author's aim was to involve the reader in a philological game in which, unraveling between Tolkien-invented writing systems and non-traditional orthography, the reader could decipher more than Gandalf himself.

In the exhibition, the complete transcriptions of the pages of Mazarbul, their transliteration in Latin characters and the Italian translation will be exhibited. Moreover the transcription, and the phonetical and the orthographical transliterations of all preparatory manuscripts of the Book of Mazarbul know up to date will be presented for the first time. 

44 years after the first publication of these pages, the WELA has managed to make new discoveries and unveil passages from the Book of Mazarbul that have never been deciphered until now. Visitors to the exhibition will thus be accompanied to discover what really happened to the company of the Dwarves at the reconquest of Moria and will be able to learn more about Tolkien's creation, the alphabets and the very concept of language according to Tolkien.