As Tolkien strove to create a world that would feel authentic, he realized that for that to be possible, he must invent accompanying scripts for his languages.

Therefore, he set out to create a series of scripts for the elves as well as for the humans and dwarves that would indicate a certain degree of evolution and development.

[1] Known as the first writing system of Arda, Sarati was in the fiction invented by the Ñoldorin chronicler Rúmil of Valinor in the Valian Year of 1179.

It was he "who first achieved fitting signs for the recording of speech and song"[2] The writing system is officially called Sarati as each letter of the script represents a "sarat".

[1] Upon marrying and getting a job as an assistant on the Oxford English Dictionary, Tolkien began to keep a diary that was written exclusively using the "alphabet of Rúmil".

As Sarati was created for the Eldar who were ambidextrous, the script can be written right-to-left; left-to-right; top-to-bottom, from the right or left; or boustrophedon (back-and-forth).