The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (85 page)

[203]
1.
The text of this letter is taken from an article in
Mallorn
10, p. 19, with silent emendation of the uncharacteristic ‘that's', ‘there's', etc., to ‘that is', ‘there is', which was Tolkien's normal usage.

[204]
1.
Almqvist & Wiksell Förlag AB, Stockholm, one of Tolkien's Swedish publishers.
2.
The translator of the Swedish edition of
The Lord of the Rings
.
3.
The translator of the Dutch edition.
4.
Björnavad
: ‘Bear-ford'.
Gamleby
: ‘Old village'.
MÃ¥nbergen
: ‘Moon-mountains'.
Ljusa slätterna
: ‘Bright plains'. In fact
MÃ¥nbergen
seems not to have been used, but the River Lune and the Gulf of Lune were translated
MÃ¥nfloden, MÃ¥ngolfen
.

[205]
1.
Christopher Tolkien said in his lecture: ‘In the hosts of Attila there went men of many Germanic peoples. . . . . Indeed, his name itself appears to be Gothic, a diminutive of
atta
, the Gothic for “father”.'
2.
‘A star shines on the hour of our meeting' (
The Lord of the Rings
, Book I, Chapter 3). The reading in the letter,
omentielmo
, is the same as in the first edition of the book, but Tolkien later changed it to
omentielvo
. The Elvish language Quenya makes a distinction in its dual inflexion, which turns on the number of persons involved; failure to understand this was, Tolkien remarked, ‘a mistake generally made by mortals'. So in this case, Tolkien made a note that the ‘Thain's Book of Minas Tirith', one of the supposed sources of
The Lord of the Rings
, had the reading
omentielvo
, but that Frodo's original (lost) manuscript probably had
omentielmo
; and that
omentielvo
is the correct form in the context. (The Ballantine paperback edition of
The Lord of the Rings
has the erroneous reading ‘omentilmo'.)

[206]
1.
The publishers of the Dutch edition of
The Lord of the Rings
.
2.
Professor Piet Harting of Amsterdam University, a friend of Tolkien for many years.
3.
See further
Biography
pp. 225–6.

[207]
1.
Forrest J. Ackerman, agent for the film company; see no. 202.

[210]
1.
‘Gandalf was shorter in stature than the other two; but his long white hair, his sweeping silver beard, and his broad shoulders, made him look like some wise king of ancient legend. In his aged face under great snowy brows his dark eyes were set like coals that could leap suddenly into fire.'
2.
i.e. in the inn at Bree.
3.
‘The darkness was breaking too soon, before the date that his Master had set it.'
4.
The slaying of the Lord of the Nazgûl by Éowyn.
5.
‘The
lembas
had a virtue without which they would long ago have lain down to die. . . . . It fed the will, and it gave strength to endure, and to master sinew and limb beyond the measure of mortal kind.'
6.
‘But here and there bright sunbeams fell in glimmering shafts from the eastern windows, high under the deep eaves.' ‘The sunlight was blotted out from the eastern windows; the whole hall became suddenly dark as night.'

[211]
1.
This reading was adopted in later printings.
2.
In Appendix A to
The Lord of the Rings
(III. 315) the King of Númenor preceding Ar-Adûnakhôr was Tar-Calmacil; the mention here of Tar-Atanamir seems to be no more than a slip. See further
Unfinished Tales
pp. 226–7.
3.
Elsewhere Tolkien called the other two wizards Ithryn Luin, the Blue Wizards; see
Unfinished Tales
pp. 389–90.
4.
In the Index to
The Silmarillion
the names
Elrond, Elros
, and
Elwing
are translated ‘Star-dome', ‘Star-foam', and ‘Star-spray'. These interpretations of the names are later than those in the present letter.
5.
This paragraph is taken from another text of the letter (a draft). The version sent is more brief on this point.
6.
‘The regions in which Hobbits then lived were doubtless the same as those in which they still linger: the North-West of the Old World, east of the Sea.'

[212]
1.
In
The Silmarillion
(pp. 43–4) there is no mention of the ‘six mates'.

[214]
1.
Mr Nunn's letter called Tolkien ‘a model of scholarship'.
2.
See
The Lord of the Rings
III 413 (Appendix F).
3.
A derivative of Anglo-Saxon
byrd,
‘birth'.
4.
Two
Pontos
are named in the family tree of
Baggins of Hobbiton
(
The Lord of the Rings
III 380), the first being an ancestor of Peregrin Took and Meriadoc Brandybuck.
5.
Lalia the Great
is not mentioned in
The Lord of the Rings
, but her husband
Fortinbras II
appears in the family tree of
Took of Great Smials (The Lord of the Rings
III 381).

[220]
1.
Federated Superannuation Scheme for Universities.
2.
As an examiner to the National University of Ireland.

[224]
1.
Latin, ‘therefore I will keep silent'.

[228]
1.
Ake Ohlmarks, translator of the Swedish edition of
The Lord of the Rings
; he had included a biographical article about Tolkien in his translation of the book.

[229]
1.
Swedish, ‘mastery, masterly skill'.

[230]
1.
‘I am. . . . of the race of the West [i.e. Numenor] unmingled' (III 249).
2.
‘Laurelindorean lindelorendor malinornélion ornemalin.'
3.
‘Taurelilómëa-Tumbaletaurëa Lómëanor.'
4.
From Glorfindel's greeting to Aragorn: ‘Ai na vedui Dúnadan! Mae govannen!' (I 222).
5.
‘A vanimar, vanimálion nostari!' (III 259).
6.
The following lines are translated by Tolkien in the letter. Line 2: ‘Cuio i Pheriain anann! Aglar'ni Pheriannath!' Line 4: ‘Daur a Berhael, Conin en Annûn! Eglerio!' Line 6: ‘Eglerio!' Line 7: ‘A laita te, laita te! Andave laituvalmet!' Line 9: ‘Cormacolindor, a laita tárienna!'

[232]
1.
i.e. in the tales of ‘Saki' (H. H. Munro).
2.
A story entitled
Woorroo
, published by Joyce Reeves under the name of Joyce Gard (Gollancz, 1961). She had sent a copy to Tolkien.

[234]
1.
‘with silver tipped at plenilune / his spear was hewn of ebony' (
The Adventures of Tom Bombadil
p. 27). ‘At plenilune in his argent moon / in his heart he longed for Fire' (ibid., p. 36).
2.
Jane Neave had written to Tolkien: ‘The Pied Piper
never
palls! It is asked for every day of every visit when the children are here. But yours would be so much more welcome.'
3.
Probably not a poem included in
The Adventures of Tom Bombadil
; most of the verses in that book were composed some years before it was published.

[235]
1.
‘However good in themselves, illustrations do little good to fairy-stories. The radical distinction between all art (including drama) that offers a
visible
presentation and true literature is that it imposes one visible form. Literature works from mind to mind and is thus more progenitive.' (‘On Fairy-Stories', Note E.)

[236]
1.
The paragraph in Appendix F beginning ‘It is to mark this that I have ventured to use the form
dwarves
…'
2.
The printers of the Puffin edition.
3.
The printers of
The Lord of the Rings
(3-volume hardback, first and second editions).
4.
Founder and Chairman of Penguin Books, of which Puffin is a division.

[237]
1.
‘ “Your mother if she saw you, / she'd never know her son, unless ‘twas by a whisker.” ' (
The Adventures of Tom Bombadil
, p. 19.) Cf.: ‘The Aesir handed over the treasure to Hreidmar, stuffed the otterskin full and set it on its feet. Then the Aesir had to pile the gold alongside and cover it up. When that was completed, Hreidmar went up and saw a single whisker, and told them to cover that.' (
Völsungasaga
, Chapter 14; translation by R. G. Finch.)
2.
‘queer tales from Bree, and talk at smithy, mill, and cheaping'. (
The Adventures of Tom Bombadil
, p. 21.) Cf.: ‘From mulne ant from chepinge, from smiððe ant from ancre hus me tidinge bringeð.' (‘From mill and from market, from smithy and from anchor-house one hears the news.') (
Ancrene Wisse,
edited by J. R. R. Tolkien, Early English Text Society, 1962, p. 48; translation from
The Ancrene Riwle
by M. B. Salu, Burns and Oates, 1955, p. 39.)

[238]
1.
American critic, who visited Tolkien and Unwin in the summer of 1962.
2.
The broadcast was actually on 7 August 1936. It was initiated by Guy Pocock, who had seen the MS. of Tolkien's translation while he was with the publishing house of Dent, to whom it was offered. Pocock later joined the staff of the BBC.
3.
The poem is ‘The Nameless Land', published in G. S. Tancred (ed.),
Realities, an anthology of verse
(Leeds, at the Swan Press; London, Gay & Hancock, 1927), p. 24. It is written in the
Pearl
stanza, and begins:

There lingering lights do golden lie

On grass more green than in gardens here. . . .

[239]
1.
Two words are in question: (1) Greek
gnōmē
, ‘thought, intelligence' (and in the plural ‘maxims, sayings', whence the English word
gnome,
a maxim or aphorism, and adjective
gnomic
) – and (2) the word
gnome
used by the 16th-century writer Paracelsus as a synonym of
pygmaeus
. Paracelsus ‘says that the beings so called have the earth as their element. . . . through which they move unobstructed as fish do through water, or birds and land animals through air'
(Oxford English Dictionary,
s.v.
Gnome
²
). The O.E.D. suggests that whether Paracelsus invented the word himself or not it was intended to mean ‘earth-dweller', and it discounts any connection with the other word
Gnome
.

[240]
1.
‘suddenly. . . . there appeared above the reeds an old battered hat with a tall crown and a long blue feather stuck in the band'.
2.
‘He made no secret that he owed his recent knowledge to Farmer Maggot, whom he seemed to regard as a person of more importance than they had imagined.'
3.
Sir Thomas Browne,
Vulgar Errors
, III Chapter 10: ‘That a Kingfisher, hanged by the bill, showeth where the wind lay.'
4.
See note 1 to no. 237.
5.
See note 2 to no. 237.

[241]
1.
On p.3 of ‘English and Welsh' Tolkien writes: ‘[A] story. . . . which I first met in the pages of Andrew Boord [sic], physician of Henry VIII. . . . tells how the language of Heaven was changed. St Peter, instructed to find a cure for the din and chatter which disturbed the celestial mansions, went outside the Gates and cried
caws bobi
, and slammed the Gates to again before the Welshmen that had surged out discovered that this was a trap without cheese.'
2.
‘My college. . . . was shocked when the only prize I ever won. . . . the Skeat Prize for English at Exeter College, was spent on Welsh.' (‘English and Welsh', p. 38.)
3.
‘. . . . not presuming to enter the litigious lists of the accredited Celtic scholars. . . .'
4.
Lady Agnew, a resident of Northmoor Road.
5.
But in the foreword to
Tree and Leaf
(1964), Tolkien wrote: ‘It was suddenly lopped and mutilated It is cut down now.'

[242]
1.
The book was reviewed in the
Times Literary Supplement
on 23 November 1962 (p. 892) and in the
Listener
on 22 November 1962 (p. 831). The latter review was very enthusiastic, and talked of Tolkien's ‘superb technical skill. . . . something close to genius'.

[244]
1.
‘Faramir. . . . held out a white rod; but Aragorn took the rod and gave it back, saying: “That office is not ended, and it shall be thine and thy heirs' as long as my line shall last.”'

[246]
1.
‘And there was Frodo, pale and worn, and yet himself again; and in his eyes there was peace now, neither strain of will nor madness, nor any fear. . . . . “The Quest is achieved, and now all is over,” [said Frodo].'
2.
Paragraphs 3 and 4 of the first page of the chapter ‘Many Partings' (Book VI Chapter 6); and this passage: ‘We can't go any quicker, if we are going to see Bilbo. I am going to Rivendell first, whatever happens.'
3.
Elrond's blessing to Frodo at the end of Book VI Chapter 6.
4.
‘His mind was hot with wrath. . . . . It would be just to slay this treacherous, murderous creature. . . . . But deep in his heart there was something that restrained him: he could not strike this thing lying in the dust, forlorn, ruinous, utterly wretched.'
5.
‘Wild fantasies arose in his mind; and he saw Samwise the Strong, Hero of the Age, striding with a sword across the darkened land, and armies flocking to his call as he marched to the overthrow of Barad-dûr.'