The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (31 page)

Well, now I must, as usual, forcibly break my concentration for a while and turn to something else: in this case the
moralitas
of
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
.
⁴

But I see I have forgotten the matter of Publicity. To save me a separate letter would you be so kind as to apologize to the Department, if I seemed rather rude? I was much bothered when I received their letter. I tried to do something, without much success, even though I took about 300 words. The result, such as it is, I now send. If it is legible, it might be of some use.

I also applied to my friend George Sayer, English Master at Malvern, as the most normal reader and liker of the work that I could think of; and he sent in a blurb of 95 words. I send you his letter and the blurb – not that it will do, but perhaps a phrase or two might serve, and it may give a
hint of what such folk as like this sort of thing like in
The Lord of the Rings.
He surprised me. I did not think he would be overheated! But though ‘greatest living poet' is absurd, at least I am comforted in the thought that the verses are up to standard, and are (as I think) adequate and in place; though C. S. Lewis regards them as on the whole poor, regrettable, and out of place. When I tried once to explain briefly to a friend what it was all about, I found that with the exercise of severe economy I took 41 pages and 10,000 words.
⁵
He was sufficiently interested to get the thing typed. You might like to see it sometime; and den again you moutn't.

With many thanks, and best wishes,

Yours sincerely,

J. R. R. Tolkien.

4 August 1953

The galleys are proving rather a bore! There seem such an endless lot of them; and they have put me very much out of conceit with parts of the Great Work, which seems, I must confess, in print very long-winded in parts. But the printing is very good, as it ought to be from an almost faultless copy; except that the impertinent compositors have taken it upon themselves to correct, as they suppose, my spelling and grammar: altering throughout
dwarves
to
dwarfs
;
elvish
to
elfish
;
further
to
farther
; and worst of all,
elven-
to
elfin.
I let off my irritation in a snorter to A. and U. which produced a grovel.

8 August 1953

I wrote in rather a hurry in the Spring, and did not take a copy of my letter of 24 March. If I could have it back, or a copy, it would help me. I am, however, opposed to having separate titles for each of the volumes, and no over-all title.
The Lord of the Rings
is a good over-all title, I think, but it is not applicable specially to Volume I, indeed it is probably least suited to that volume. Except possibly in the matter of cost, I cannot see the objection to:

 

It is, surely, only by the use of a single over-all title that the confusion that you speak of can be certainly avoided.

I am not wedded to any of the suggested sub-titles; and wish they could be avoided. For it is really impossible to devise ones that correspond to the contents; since the division into two ‘books' per volume is purely a matter of convenience with regard to length, and has no relation to the rhythm or ordering of the narrative. . . . .

What is the position about the reproduction of the burned pages of the ‘Book of Mazarbul' belonging to the opening of Chapter V of the second book? The text as it stands is rather pointless without them. I still hold the original ‘facsimiles'. I also hold the drawing of the secret door, which is required to face, or to be included in the text, corresponding to the bottom of Galley 98, towards the end of Chapter IV of the second book. I shall attempt to re-draw and improve that and send it along as soon as possible, as I have now finished the correction of the galleys on the rough sheets.

I am sorry I have delayed the re-drawing of the essential maps; but I really have not had a day off from drudgery. I am turning to them at once.

17 August 1953

It was extremely kind of you to come and see me and clear things up. It was only after I had seen you on to the bus that I recollected that you had in the end never had any beer or other refreshment. I am sorry. Very much below hobbit standards, my behaviour, I am afraid.

I now suggest as titles of the
volumes,
under the over-all title
The Lord of the Rings
: Vol. I The Fellowship of the Ring. Vol. II The Two Towers. Vol. III The War of the Ring (or, if you still prefer that: The Return of the King).

The Fellowship of the Ring will do, I think; and fits well with the fact that the last chapter of the Volume is The Breaking of the Fellowship. The Two Towers gets as near as possible to finding a title to cover the widely divergent Books 3 and 4; and can be left ambiguous – it might refer to Isengard and Barad-dûr, or to Minas Tirith and B; or Isengard and Cirith Ungol.
¹
On reflection I prefer for Vol. III The War of the Ring, since it gets in the Ring again; and also is more non-committal,
and gives less hint about the turn of the story: the chapter titles have been chosen also to give away as little as possible in advance. But I am not set in my choice.

Reconsidering our conversation: I doubt if
red
letters are now sufficiently important for the fire-letters of the Ring in Book I ch. 2 (Galley 15) to be worth the expense of alteration. I think it would be a good thing to have the last Runic page of the Book of Mazarbul (Book II ch. 5) reproduced, as a frontispiece (?). The last page because, though less well forged, perhaps, it closely concerns the actual narrative.

I will bring in person the Copy for Vol. II on September the 1st. It already seems pretty well in order. I am now turning to the Maps – and the Foreword.

Excuse red: it does not represent any fiery emotion. Mere economy. I now type such a lot for my hand's sake that type-reels are a consideration; and the red on this one is hardly used!

9 October 1953

The Maps. I am stumped. Indeed in a panic. They are essential; and urgent; but I just cannot get them done. I have spent an enormous amount of time on them without profitable result. Lack of skill combined with being harried. Also the shape and proportions of ‘The Shire' as described in the tale cannot (by me) be made to fit into shape of a page; nor at that size be contrived to be informative. . . . .

I feel that the maps ought to be done properly. The ‘burned manuscripts', which readers had found engaging, have disappeared, – making the text of Book ii, Ch. 5 at the beginning rather absurd, and losing the Runes which seem a great attraction to readers of all ages (such as are foolish enough to read this kind of thing at all). Even at a little cost there should be picturesque maps, providing more than a mere index to what is said in the text. I could do maps suitable to the text. It is the attempt to cut them down and omitting all their colour (verbal and otherwise) to reduce them to black and white bareness, on a scale so small that hardly any names can appear, that has stumped me.

2 December 1953

76 Sandfield Road, Headington, Oxford

My dear Rob,

It was wonderful to get a long letter from you this morning. . . . . I am sorry if casual words of mine have made you labour to criticize my work. But, to tell you the truth, though praise (or what is not quite the same thing, and better, expressions of pleasure) is pleasant, I have been cheered specially by what you have said, this time and before, because you are more perceptive, especially in some directions, than any one else, and have even revealed to me more clearly some things about my work. I think I know exactly what you mean by the order of Grace; and of course by your references to Our Lady, upon which all my own small perception of beauty both in majesty and simplicity is founded.
The Lord of the Rings
is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision. That is why I have not put in, or have cut out, practically all references to anything like ‘religion', to cults or practices, in the imaginary world. For the religious element is absorbed into the story and the symbolism. However that is very clumsily put, and sounds more self-important than I feel. For as a matter of fact, I have consciously planned very little; and should chiefly be grateful for having been brought up (since I was eight) in a Faith that has nourished me and taught me all the little that I know; and that I owe to my mother, who clung to her conversion and died young, largely through the hardships of poverty resulting from it.

Certainly I have not been nourished by English Literature, in which I do not suppose I am better read than you; for the simple reason that I have never found much there in which to rest my heart (or heart and head together). I was brought up in the Classics, and first discovered the sensation of literary pleasure in Homer. Also being a philologist, getting a large part of any aesthetic pleasure that I am capable of from the
form
of words (and especially from the
fresh
association of word-form with word-sense), I have always best enjoyed things in a foreign language, or one so remote as to feel like it (such as Anglo-Saxon). But that is enough about me.

I am afraid it is only too likely to be true: what you say about the critics and the public. I am dreading the publication, for it will be impossible not to mind what is said. I have exposed my heart to be shot at. I think the publishers are very anxious too; and they are very keen that as many people as possible should read advance copies, and form a sort of opinion before the hack critics get busy. . . . .

I was sorry to hear that you are now without a 'cello, after having got
some way (I am told) with that lovely and difficult instrument. Anyone who can play a stringed instrument seems to me a wizard worthy of deep respect. I love music, but have no aptitude for it; and the efforts spent on trying to teach me the fiddle in youth, have left me only with a feeling of awe in the presence of fiddlers. Slavonic languages are for me almost in the same category. I have had a go at many tongues in my time, but I am in no ordinary sense a ‘linguist'; and the time I once spent on trying to learn Serbian and Russian have left me with no practical results, only a strong impression of the structure and word-aesthetic. . . . .

Please forgive the apparent unfriendliness of type! My typing does not improve. Except in speed. I am now much faster than with my laborious hand, which has to be spared as it quickly gets tired and painful. I have no doubt that you will also be hearing shortly from Edith.

With much love to you

Ronald Tolkien.

22 January 1954

I am sending now Book III, first half of Vol. II, carefully corrected. Book IV is nearly done and shall follow on Monday.

I have also revised Vol. III and can let you have the MS. of that (as far as the end of the story) as soon as you wish. The matter for the extra 50 pages
¹
I shall not be able to do just yet.

I am not at all happy about the title ‘the Two Towers'. It must if there is any real reference in it to Vol II refer to
Orthanc
and the
Tower of Cirith Ungol.
But since there is so much made of the basic opposition of the Dark Tower and Minas Tirith, that seems very misleading. There is, of course, actually no real connecting link between Books III and IV, when cut off and presented separately as a volume.

25 April 1954

76 Sandfield Road, Headington, Oxford

Dear Mrs. Mitchison,

It has been both rude and ungrateful of me not to have acknowledged, or to have thanked you for past letters, gifts, and remembrances – all the more so, since your interest has, in fact, been a great comfort to me, and encouragement in the despondency that not unnaturally accompanies the labours of actually publishing such a work as
The Lord of the Rings
.
But it is most unfortunate that this has coincided with a period of exceptionally heavy labours and duties in other functions, so that I have been at times almost distracted.

I will try and answer your questions. I may say that they are very welcome. I like things worked out in detail myself, and answers provided to all reasonable questions. Your letter will, I hope, guide me in choosing the kind of information to be provided (as promised) in an appendix, and strengthen my hand with the publishers. Since the third volume will be rather slimmer than the second (events move quicker, and less explanations are needed), there will, I believe be a certain amount of room for such matter. My problem is not the difficulty of providing it, but of choosing from the mass of material I have already composed.