In the late 1910s, J. R. R. Tolkien developed the script "Sarati", which was already a bit similar to tengwar. The tengwar were probably developed in the late 1920s or in the early 1930s. The first published sample of tengwar writing was 1937 in "The Hobbit", to so-called "The Lonely Mountain Jar Inscription". The full explanation of the tengwar was published in 1955 in Appendix E of "The Lord of the Rings". 