Sauron is having something of a renaissance. But that’s to be expected because in most modern The Lord of the Rings adaptations, he spent most of his time as a big old eyeball. But Amazon’s The Rings of Power changed all that. The series brought us a Sauron that took on a more human, some might say, more attractive form. So it stands to reason that it’s a good time to involve ourselves with Sauron’s tongue of choice, The Lord of the Rings‘ Black Speech. And what better way to do that than with a Black Speech keycaps for our keyboard?
This isn’t the first The Lord of the Rings keyboard that Drop has brought to us. We’ve loved the company’s elven and dwarvish keyboard sets. And, okay, fans of The Lord of the Rings will know that we don’t actually know too much about Black Speech when it comes to words or script. As the description for these evil Lord of the Rings keycaps shares:
Crafted by Sauron himself, “black speech” is a language without script, spoken only by Orcs, Wraiths, and others loyal to the Dark Lord—and written (seldomly) in the Elvish script Tengwar. That’s how it appears most infamously on The One Ring: in a scrawl that can only be described as sinister. It’s in this style that Matt3o created the legends for MT3 Black Speech, retaining the wording from MT3 Elvish, but rendering it in a twisted font befitting of Middle-earth’s most evil tongue.
Don’t you just feel a little cooler with an evil keyboard, though? The Black Speech keycaps require you to build your own keyboard. But happily, Drop has also released a full version of this The Lord of the Rings keyboard. And it is magnificent. The full Black Speech keyboard is now available for pre-order and costs $199. A release shares, “the new Black Speech keyboard reflects the darkness and gloomy lands of Mordor and features notable icons including the Eye of Sauron, the Shards of Narsil, a lone Nazgul – and, across the spacebar, the famed inscription on The One Ring.” What’s not to love?
For something extra special, you can also add an artisan keycap featuring Sauron and the One Ring to your keyboard.
We need Sauron’s eye looking at us from our escape key. And a space bar that has the full script of the One Ring’s inscription is also a must. One keyboard to rule them all. That’s what I always say in my letters to Mount Doom, Mordor.
Originally published on February 7, 2023.
