It's Some Form Of Elvish, I Can't Read It

About

It's Some Form Of Elvish, I Can't Read It or Nothing… There's Nothing is an exploitable image macro meme based on a scene from The Lord Of the Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring in which Frodo attempts to read the writing on The One Ring but cannot because it's in Elvish, saying, "It's some form of Elvish. I can't read it." The earliest known example of the meme, which features an indecipherable or comedically absurd phrase on the ring, was posted to Facebook in 2012, with the format becoming increasingly popularized over the following years.

Origin

On November 3rd, 2012, Facebook^[1] user Everyone's Asian Friend posted a meme using images from a scene in The Lord Of the Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring in which Frodo tries to read the ring but can't, saying, "It's some form of Elvish. I can't read it." The meme places a math equation between two images of Frodo as he says the line (shown below).

Spread

The meme gained viral spread over the following years, inspiring new variations. On November 14th, 2012, the Facebook^[2] page Filthy Rich (Friendship is Magic) posted a version of the meme using a different quote from the scene in which Frodo says, "Nothing… there's nothing," garnering around six interactions in 12 years.

On July 24th, 2018, Redditor u/dicemaze posted a version of the meme to /r/dankmemes^[3] about an oversaturation of memes about EA Games, garnering over 2,000 upvotes in six years (shown below, left). On May 7th, 2020, Instagram^[4] user danklotrmemes posted a version of the meme about Elon Musk's son X Æ A-12, garnering over 6,000 likes in four years (shown below, right).

On February 8th, 2021, u/trodrig21 posted a meme to /r/lotrmemes^[5] following the format, garnering over 35,000 upvotes in three years (shown below). On September 23rd, another meme using the format was posted to /r/lotrmemes^[6] that garnered over 6,400 upvotes in the same span of time.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References