I have spent many hours over the past years since I've read the Lord of the Rings, translating all the Elf and Dwarf Runes found in the books. Since the movie "The Fellowship of the Ring" has been released, I have found a whole community of people who are enamored with the writing...many (like me) have been working with the language for many years.
Since I can't find anything on the Internet with a literal translation of the words found on the Title pages of the Lord of the Rings, I thought I'd offer one myself. In addition, I've acquired the "Silmarillion" and "The Unfinished Tales" where Christopher Tolkien carries on in his father's tradition, adding Elvish to the Title page.
Here are the Dwarf Runes (and their translation)that appear above the words on the Title Page to the Lord Of the Rings:
A few notes on the transcription:
From Appendix E in the Return of the King, Tolkien states that in Sindarin each vowel is placed above the following consonant, and he defines the last word as "hobbits". Here, the Elvish letters are read from top to bottom, left to right. All spoken vowels appear above consonants. The word "IS" is represented by a dot above the rune for "S". If there is no consonant in the right place (the word "BY" for example), it is placed above a "carrier" (a non-spoken character that looks like a "j" for long vowels and an "i" for short vowels (see the word "REUEL" for one of the best examples of this...3 vowels in a row, 2 are above carriers).
Tolkien uses one symbol for the phrase "of the".
Double consonants (see the word "hobbits") are often written by placing a tilde below the doubled consonant. Also note that the plural is formed by using a little "s" symbol attached to the end of the word.
Also note that the word WAR is actually spelled WOR in the original Elvish; I have noted this by enclosing the A in brackets to indicate that the it is not an exact letter for letter translation.
Finally, note that JRR Tolkien uses an accent mark for "e" and a dot for "i". Christopher Tolkien writes Elvish for the Silmarillion using the accent mark for "i" instead of "e", as we can see from the top part of the title page from the Silmarillion:
Although usage of "e" and "i" varies, it is consistant within the document.
Also note that here, in the case of a silent vowel at the end of a word, it is represented by a dot below the preceding consonant. Thus "AGE" is written with "a" above the "g" rune, with "e" as the dot below.
Here are the runes from the bottom of the page, along with their translation:
Finally, the "Unfinished Tales" by Christopher Tolkien, in which he gives his own name and Elvish spelling. I have to assume that this is the way he wanted it.
The top part of the Title page for the Unfinished Tales:
And the bottom of the Title page:
The use of "carriers" for the vowels is quite different. Since JRR Tolkien meant to create a language that lived in his universe, it is logical that it would undergo changes during its history (especially as Tolkien himself was revising it). Christopher carries on in his father's style.
The fonts that I am using here are from Dan Smith's Fantasy Fonts for Windows. I am using the plain ones, Sindarin for the Elvish script and Cirth Erebor for the Dwarf.
You can find the Fonts here:
DWARF: http://www.gis.net/~dansmith/fonts/runes.htm
ELVISH SINDARIN: (Download the SECOND one on the page) http://www.gis.net/~dansmith/fonts/tengwar.htm
Once you install the fonts in your Fonts Directory (in Windows), you will find that the letters are in odd places.."a" on the keyboard does not bring up the Elvish rune for "a". I have made a keyboard diagram to help transcribe the Elf and Dwarf letters. Here is my ELVISH keyboard map. This map works for both Quenya and Sindarin). And this is the link for the DWARF runes, the Cirth Erebor. I'm certain that this keyboard will work for the other Dwarf Runes on Dan Smith's site, but I did not download them myself to make certain.