The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (61 page)

28 November 1962

I have so far seen two reviews of ‘Tom Bombadil':
T. Litt. Suppl.
and
Listener:
¹
I was agreeably surprised: I expected remarks far more snooty and patronizing. Also I was rather pleased, since it seemed that the reviewers had both started out not wanting to be amused, but had failed to maintain their Victorian dignity intact.

Still, I remain puzzled, as before: wondering why if a ‘professor' shows any knowledge of his professional techniques it must be ‘waggery', but if a writer shows, say, knowledge of law or law-courts it is held interesting and creditable.

19 December 1962

76 Sandfield Road, Headington, Oxford

Dearest Mick,

A merry Christmas and God bless you all. I enclose for
you
a little somewhat that may help, I hope. It is made possible by the unexpected financial success of my verses (never mind the critics). Almost in ‘the red', I was, as being now practically ‘self-employed' I usually have to wait until May before ‘A & U' fork out proceeds for the past year. But they have made me an advance, since ‘T. B.' sold nearly 8,000 copies before publication (caught on the hop they have had to reprint hastily), and that, even on a minute initial royalty, means more than is at all usual for anyone but Betjeman to make on verse!. . . .

I am extremely weary after returning to term, amidst other labours (of which
T.B.
for all its slenderness caused quite a lot of sweat). My
Ancrene Wisse
also got between covers this week at last, but as it is only a text (with textual footnotes) in extremely archaic M. English, I do not think you would be amused by it. But when the translation of
Sir Gawain
and
Pearl
appears (early next year, I hope) you shall have a copy. Then ho! for
Númenor
and dark and difficult legends. I have also been honoured by a ‘Festschrift' – a volume of contributions by 22 ‘Anglists' with a prefatory ode by Auden for my 70th birthday. A plot
hatched and carried out by Rayner Unwin & Norman Davis (my successor) of which I knew nothing until a few weeks ago. . . . .

Well here comes Christmas! That astonishing thing that no ‘commercialism' can in fact defile – unless you let it. I hope, my dearest, that it will bring you some rest and refreshment in every way, & I shall remember you in communion (as always but specially) and wish that I had all my family beside me in the ancient patriarchal way!

Your own

Father.

Eowyn
: It is possible to love more than one person (of the other sex) at the same time, but in a different mode and intensity. I do not think that Eowyn's feelings for Aragorn really changed much; and when he was revealed as so lofty a figure, in descent and office, she was able to go on
loving
and admiring him. He was
old,
and that is not only a physical quality: when not accompanied by any physical decay age can be alarming or awe-inspiring. Also she was
not
herself ambitious in the true political sense. Though not a ‘dry nurse' in temper, she was also not really a soldier or ‘amazon', but like many brave women was capable of great military gallantry at a crisis.

I think you misunderstand
Faramir.
He was daunted by his father: not only in the ordinary way of a family with a stern proud father of great force of character, but as a Númenórean before the chief of the one surviving Númenórean state. He was motherless and sisterless (
Eowyn
was also motherless), and had a ‘bossy' brother. He had been accustomed to giving way and not giving his own opinions air, while retaining a power of command among men, such as a man may obtain who is evidently personally courageous and decisive, but also modest, fair-minded and scrupulously just, and very merciful. I think he understood Eowyn very well. Also to be Prince of Ithilien, the greatest noble after Dol Amroth in the revived Númenórean state of Gondor, soon to be of imperial power and prestige, was not a ‘market-garden job' as you term it. Until much had been done by the restored King, the P. of Ithilien would be the resident march-warden of Gondor, in its main eastward outpost – and also would have many duties in rehabilitating the lost territory, and clearing it of outlaws and orc-remnants, not to speak of the dreadful vale of Minas Ithil (Morgul). I did not, naturally, go into details about the way in which Aragorn, as King of Gondor, would
govern the realm. But it was made clear that there was much fighting, and in the earlier years of A.'s reign expeditions against enemies in the East. The chief commanders, under the King, would be Faramir and Imrahil; and one of these would normally remain a military commander at home in the King's absence. A Númenórean King was
monarch,
with the power of unquestioned decision in debate; but he governed the realm with the frame of ancient law, of which he was administrator (and interpreter) but not the maker. In all debatable matters of importance domestic, or external, however, even Denethor had a Council, and at least listened to what the Lords of the Fiefs and the Captains of the Forces had to say. Aragorn re-established the Great Council of Gondor, and in that Faramir, who remained
^fn91
by inheritance the
Steward
(or representative of the King during his absence abroad, or sickness, or between his death and the accession of his heir) would [be] the chief counsellor.

Criticism of the speed of the relationship or ‘love' of Faramir and Eowyn. In my experience feelings and decisions ripen very quickly (as measured by mere ‘clock-time', which is actually not justly applicable) in periods of great stress, and especially under the expectation of imminent death. And I do
not
think that persons of high estate and breeding need all the petty fencing and approaches in matters of ‘love'. This tale does not deal with a period of ‘Courtly Love' and its pretences; but with a culture more primitive (sc. less corrupt) and nobler.

25 June 1963

76 Sandfleld Road, Headington, Oxford

Dear Miss Beare,

The ‘cirth' or runes in the ‘L.R.' were invented for that story and, within it, have no supposed historical connexion with the Germanic Runic alphabet, to which the English gave its most elaborate development. There is thus nothing to be surprised at if similar signs have different values. The similarity of shapes is inevitable in alphabets devised primarily for cut[ting] or scratching on wood and so made of lines directly or diagonally across the grain. The signs used in the
cirth
are nearly [all] to be extracted from the basic pattern,
the possibilities being
decreased
by the avoidance of the juncture of a diagonal with the
bottom of an upright (the exceptions are few and limited to cases where as in
there is also juncture at the top). They are
increased
by the repetition on the opposite side of an upright of any diagonal appendage, & by repeating half the basic pattern:
hence
etc.

As for the Elves. Even in these legends we see the Elves mainly through the eyes of Men. It is in any case clear that neither side was fully informed about the ultimate destiny of the other. The Elves were sufficiently longeval to be called by Man ‘immortal'. But they were not unageing or unwearying. Their own tradition was that they were confined to the limits of this world (in space and time), even if they died, and would continue in some form to exist in it until ‘the end of the world'. But what ‘the end of the world' portended for it or for themselves they did not know (though they no doubt had theories). Neither had they of course any special information concerning what ‘death' portended for Men. They believed that it meant ‘liberation from the circles of the world', and was in that respect to them enviable. And they would point out to Men who envied them that a dread of ultimate loss, though it may be indefinitely remote, is not necessarily the easier to bear if it is in the end ineluctably certain: a burden may become heavier the longer it is borne.

I hope you will forgive pencil and a crabbed and not too legible hand. I am (temporarily, I hope) deprived of the use of my right hand and arm, and I am in the early stages of teaching my left hand. Right-handed pens increase the crabbedness, but a pencil accommodates itself.

Yours sincerely

J. R. R. Tolkien.

September 1963