Finnish strongly influenced J.R.R. Tolkien’s invented language Quenya.
Tolkien developed Quenya as an Elvish language, drawing substantial inspiration from the sound and grammatical structure of Finnish. He had encountered Finnish through the national epic Kalevala, whose mythology and poetic style also fascinated him.
Quenya is associated especially with the High Elves and is often described within Tolkien’s world as an ancient, formal, or ceremonial language. It is not simply Finnish with altered vocabulary: Tolkien created its grammar, vocabulary, history, and relationships to other Elvish languages as part of a broader fictional linguistic family.
Welsh also influenced Tolkien, particularly the sound and development of Sindarin, another major Elvish language. This distinction causes frequent mix-ups. Quenya’s strongest real-world linguistic inspiration is Finnish, while Sindarin is commonly linked more closely with Welsh.