The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (30 page)

When I have a moment to turn round I will collect the
Silmarillion
fragments in process of completion – or rather the original outline which is more or less complete, and you can read it. My difficulty is, of course, that owing to the expense of typing and the lack of time to do my own (I typed nearly all of
The Lord of the Rings
) I have no spare copies to let out. But what about
The Lord of the Rings
? Can anything be done about that, to unlock gates I slammed myself?

I feel very conscience-stricken about you. I know you have married. I knew the date. But though indeed I wished you well, and wished to write, I did not. I never recovered from the confusion of my affairs when I had a terrible bout of fibrositis and neuritis of the arm last October, and cd. not write at all (or bear myself) for a month. I have been chasing lost days ever since. And somehow I always postponed because (I suppose) I wished to deal with my wretched literary affairs as well as your personal ones. It is a great blessing to have importunate and determined friends who will not let one relapse into permanent silence. I am most grateful to you for writing again.

My wife and Priscilla send you our best wishes. Do call again! I'll find time, whatever I am doing.

Yrs sincerely

J. R. R. Tolkien.

I enclose the only copy I can find of the R.V. of ‘Errantry'.

29 August 1952

I am at last turning to my own affairs. The situation is this: I am anxious to publish
The Lord of the Rings
as soon as possible. I believe it to be a great (though not flawless) work. Let other things follow as they may. But as the expense of typing proved prohibitive, I had to do it all myself, and there is only one (more or less) fair copy in existence. I dare not consign that to the post, and in any case I am now going to devote some days to correcting it finally. For this purpose, I am retiring tomorrow from the noise and stench of Holywell to my son's cottage on Chilterntop while he is away with his children.
¹
. . . . I shall return on September 10th. After that I could call with my burden at Museum Street
²
on some date convenient to you. . . . or, if that is not asking too much, you could call on me (as you so kindly suggest might be possible). . . . .

I have recently made some tape-recordings of parts of the Hobbit and The Lord (notably the Gollum-passages and some pieces of ‘Elvish') and was much surprised to discover their effectiveness as recitations, and (if I may say so) my own effectiveness as a narrator, I do a very pretty Gollum and Treebeard. Could not the BBC be interested? The tape-reel is in the possession of George Sayer (English Master at Malvern) and I am sure he would forward it for your or anyone else's trial. It was unrehearsed and impromptu and could be improved.
³

I should love to come to London, if only for the purpose of seeing you and meeting your wife. But I am cutting even the ‘seventh International Congress of Linguists' (Sept 1), of which I am an official – time is so miserably short, and I am tired. I have on my plate not only the ‘great works', but the overdue professional work I was finishing up at Cambridge (edition of the
Ancrene Wisse
); the W. P. Ker lecture at Glasgow;
Sir Gawain;
and new lectures! But your continued interest cheers me. I have a constant ‘fan-mail' from all over the English-speaking world for ‘more' – curiously enough often for ‘more about the Necromancer', which the Lord certainly fulfils.

24 October 1952

I regret very much (in some ways) having produced such a monster in such unpropitious days; and I am very grateful to you for the trouble you are taking. But I hope very much that you will be able before very long to say ‘yea' or ‘nay'. Uncertainty is a great weight on the heart. The thing weighs on my mind, for I can neither dismiss it as a disaster and turn to other matters, nor get on with it and things concerned with it (such as the maps).

£3.10.0 (or more) would certainly be a very big price for any book, even today. Were you to contemplate publishing a monster at such a price, what number would you print? And how many must you sell to indemnify you, at the least? There are, of course, a larger number of people than might be supposed who are avid of such fare; they are usually delighted with length, and sometimes able to pay for it – esteeming one large book better than four small, and not surprised to find it 4 times as expensive as one small book. But I would not like to hazard a guess at their total numbers, or the chance of making contact with them!

I am at last after three weeks incessant labour of the most exacting and dreariest sort, getting into rather calmer water. I have shuffled off the Chairmanship of the Board, and concluded a number of tasks, and now, barring lecturing and teaching, have only to face (before preparation for Schools begins in February) examination of a tiresome thesis (on Fairy Tales!), reading and editing a monograph for a series, producing a contribution to ‘Essays and Studies' by December 2nd,
¹
completing my edition of
Ancrene Wisse
, and writing the W. P. Ker Lecture for Glasgow.
²
And also (if I can) finding somewhere else to live and moving! This charming house has become uninhabitable – unsleepablein, unworkable-in, rocked, racked with noise, and drenched with fumes. Such is modern life. Mordor in our midst. And I regret to note that the billowing cloud recently pictured did not mark the fall of Barad-dûr, but was produced by its allies – or at least by persons who have decided to use the Ring for their own (of course most excellent) purposes.
³

24 March 1953

99 Holywell, Oxford

Dear Rayner,

I have intended for some time to write to you, as the ‘contract day', 25 March, steadily drew nearer, and found me still enmeshed in troubles that gathered upon me the moment I had signed. And here I am on the eve.

In brief what has happened to me is above all my wife's increasing ill health, which has involved me in various distresses since November. On a doctor's ultimatum I was obliged to spend most of what time I could spare from duties in finding and negotiating for the purchase of a house on high dry soil and in the quiet. I am in fact now in ‘articulo mortis', or it almost feels like that – in fact in the very act of a household-removal. Nothing could be more disastrous. In addition the ill will of Mordor decreed that I myself should lose most of the vital Christmas Vacation being ill. There was no chink in the armour of last term; and I am now still involved as chairman in controlling the setting of all the honours English papers for June, and a week behind at that.

I am afraid I must ask for your lenience in the matter of the date. But I see some hope in your letter, since it appears that the
first 2 books
would suffice to keep the ball rolling. I practically completed a detailed revision of these before disasters overtook me; and I can let you have them by the end of this month.

Would it be useful if I sent now at once the
first book
(the longest of all), which is quite ready, and is matched by a spare corrected copy? If you care to wire or phone me, I could despatch Book I tomorrow.

I am v. sorry to be a nuisance; but you may guess how painful it is to me that what should be a labour of delight should have been transformed into a nightmare, by the gathering upon 1953 of so many duties and troubles.

Between 23 April and June 171 hope to have enough leisure to put the bulk of the later books (which need little revision) into order, so as not to hold things up once started. But I go into a tunnel of examinations from 17 June to 27 July which will give me 12 hours work a day. After that I shall lift my battered head, I hope. I am resigning from Exams anyway; but I could not get out of it this year.

If you could give me any hints as to what your publicity department requires, it would help my battered wits. How can I describe the book clearly and emphasize its special interest in a hundred words? Perhaps I could get someone else who has read it, like C.S.L., to help?. . . .

Yours ever

J. R. R. Tolkien.

P.S. I have given some thought to the matter of sub-titles for the volumes, which you thought were desirable. But I do not find it easy, as the ‘books', though they must be grouped in pairs, are not really paired; and the middle pair (III/IV) are not really related.

Would it not do if the ‘book-titles' were used: e.g.
The Lord of the Rings:
Vol. I
The Ring Sets out
and
The Ring Goes South
; Vol. II
The Treason of Isengard
, and
The Ring goes East;
Vol. III
The War of the Ring
, and
The End of the Third Age?
¹

If not, I can at the moment think of nothing better than: I
The Shadow Grows
II
The Ring in the Shadow
III
The War of the Ring
or
The Return of the King
. JRRT.

11 April 1953

76 Sandfield Road, Headington, Oxford

Dear Rayner,

I am extremely sorry that it is already eleven days after the end of the month (March)! But I have had a very bad time indeed, far worse even than I feared. In spite of every care the move proved disastrously dislocating, and instead of two days I have spent ten in endless labour; and I still cannot lay my hands on many papers and notes that I need. In addition things have gone wrong with the examination business which is under my unhappy charge; and I leave on Tuesday morning for Glasgow to deliver a W. P. Ker Lecture which is still only half prepared.

I have at last completed the revision for press – I hope to the last comma – of Part I:
The Return of the Shadow
: of
The Lord of the Rings
, Books I and II. I have unfortunately missed the posts today; but I will send the MSS off in two packets on Monday.

I am sending in the original Foreword, which of course need not be printed yet, since I cannot find my note of the additions or alterations which you thought would be required in view of the publication of the work in three volumes. Also, the matter of ‘appendices' at the end of volume III, after the final and rather short sixth ‘book', has not been decided. It is no good promising things that are not going actually to appear; but I very much hope that precisely what is here promised, in however reduced a form, will in fact prove possible.
¹

I am not at this time returning, re-drawn, the design required in Book II Ch. iv,
²
since I have not had a chance to re-draw it. But I will attend to that as soon as it is needed.
^fn27

As for the ‘facsimiles' of the burned and torn pages of the Runic Book, originally planned to appear at the beginning of Book II Ch. v,
³
I am retaining them for the present. I think their disappearance is regrettable; but in spite of what you have said, I think line-blocks are for this purpose impracticable. A page each is required, or the things will be too illegible to be interesting (or too unveracious to be worth inclusion). I earnestly hope it may be found possible to include them in the ‘appendix'.

I shall not make such heavy weather with the remainder of the work. The first two books were written first a very long time ago, have been often altered, and needed a close consideration of the whole to bring them into line. As a result the later parts are nearly done; and two more books can follow as soon as you want them (that is, Vol. II). Can you give me any idea when anything will be likely to need my attention, such as proofs or what not? After such long delays I, of course desire nothing more than to press on, once publication has begun. But I am horribly trammelled this year. I shall have a little elbow-room until about the 20th of June; after that no time at all for anything but exam-scripts until about August 1. I shall then be tired, but my time will be free (more or less) during August and September.

Maps are worrying me. One at least (which would then have to be rather large) is absolutely essential. I think three are needed: 1. Of the Shire; 2. Of Gondor; and 3. A general small-scale map of the whole field of action. They exist, of course; though not in any form fit for reproduction – for of course in such a story one cannot make a map for the narrative, but must first make a map and make the narrative agree. 3 is needed throughout. 1 is needed in the first volume and the last. 2 is essential in vols II and III. Shall I try and draw them in suitable form as soon as ever I can, and let you have them for the consideration of the Production Department?