J(ohn) R(onald) R(euel) Tolkien.
P.S. The book is not of course a 'trilogy'. That and the titles of the volumes was a fudge thought necessary for publication, owing to length and cost. There is no real division into 3, nor is any one pan intelligible alone. The story was conceived and written as a whole and the only natural divisions are the 'books' I-VI (which originally had titles).
[Most of the central portion of this autobiographical statement was incorporated into an article, 'Tolkien on Tolkien', in the October 1966 issue of the magazine Diplomat. This article included three paragraphs not in the text quoted above, which were presumably written area 1966:]
This business began so far back that it might be said to have begun at birth. Somewhere about six years old I tried to write some verses on a dragon about which I now remember nothing except that it contained the expression a green great dragon and that I remained puzzled for a very long time at being told that this should be great green. But the mythology (and associated languages) first began to take shape during the 1914-18 war. The Fall of Gondolin (and the birth of Erendil) was written in hospital and on leave after surviving the Battle of the Somme in 1916. The kernel of the mythology, the matter of Lthien Tinviel and Beren, arose from a small woodland glade filled with 'hemlocks' (or other white umbellifers) near Roos on the Holderness peninsula to which I occasionally went when free from regimental duties while in the Humber Garrison in 1918.
I came eventually and by slow degrees to write The Lord of the Rings to satisfy myself: of course without success, at any rate not above 75 percent. But now (when the work is no longer hot, immediate or so personal) certain features of it, and especially certain places, still move me very powerfully. The heart remains in the description of Cerin Amroth (end of Vol. I, Bk. ii, ch. 6), but I am most stirred by the sound of the horses of the Rohirrim at cockcrow; and most grieved by Gollum's failure (just) to repent when interrupted by Sam : this seems to me really like the real world in which the instruments of just retribution are seldom themselves just or holy; and the good are often stumbling blocks. ....
Nothing has astonished me more (and I think my publishers) than the welcome given to The Lord of the Rings. But it is, of course, a constant source of consolation and pleasure to me. And, I may say, a piece of singular good fortune, much envied by some of my contemporaries. Wonderful people still buy the book, and to a man 'retired' that is both grateful and comforting.
166 From a letter to Allen & Unwin
[The proofs of the Appendices to the third volume, The Return of the King, caused Tolkien much worry. They arrived late from the printers, and he found that the page intended to carry a phonetic 'key' to the Angerthas or Dwarf-runes had been printed without the phonetic symbols it was supposed to contain. He sent back this page with the symbols drawn in by hand, whereupon the printers reproduced this rough drawing in facsimile, which was not what he had intended; his wish was that they should set up the phonetic symbols in type. He was also anxious because he had not received page proofs of the narrative of The Return of the King incorporating revisions that he had sent to the printers some time earlier. The following letter, dealing with these matters, is typical of many harassed letters he wrote during these weeks.]
22 July 1955 I return in separate parcel the material sent to me (arrived mid-day Wednesday). I have done my best and quickest with it; but I fear I have missed today's post and this will not go until tomorrow. Time is short, and the material rather intricate!
I am still puzzled and dissatisfied with the procedure at any rate it makes my part much more laborious, and greatly increases the chances of errors and discrepancies still appearing in the published volume.
I know that I sent in corrections after the revised page proofs had been returned. But that is now a very long time back and I do not yet understand why I should now receive Queries, raised by the head reader in the course of his 'final reading of the main text' that are not based on the final text, but on one that does not incorporate numerous (and some extensive) revisions. Errors are almost certain to occur, or to have occurred, at some of these points. The compositors always make mistakes in setting from my handwriting!
I am also a little disturbed because though the selected pages of Queries are presented 'for Queries only', and contain corrections of small details (as well as Queries) throughout, there remain errors in these pages that are neither queried nor corrected. For instance the heading House of Healing throughout Bk. V Ch. 8 in spite of the chapter title.
I have, however, v. little time left now, and could not deal with anything that arrived after Wed. morning next. Not being satisfied nor indeed (frankly) wholly reassured, I have made out a list of all the emendations, insertions, and corrections of the main text which do not yet appear in the proofs. I have made this list as clear as I can, and I hope it will be carefully checked with the text. ....
I can only hope that the Angerthas will come out all right in the wash! But I am rather anxious. Jarrolds appear to have adopted my suggestion and now propose to use the phonetic letter instead of my . But the Table in printable form that I sent in, & which you reported (on 'phone) was being adopted, used .
I hope care will be taken to use either or throughout. And also, please, NOT to replace ng by . I am alarmed by the Reader's query of ng at the end of (p. 404) line 23. This reveals that, for all his eagle eye, he has not understood the simple distinction that is being made; or so it would seem.....
I hope some of this is legible. I am v. tired.
167 From a letter to Christopher and Faith Tolkien
[Tolkien, with his daughter Priscilla, visited Italy from late July to mid-August.]
15 August 1955 I am still staggered by the frescoes of Assisi. You must visit it. We came in for the great feast of Santa Chiara and the eve Aug. 11-12. High Mass sung by Cardinal Micara with silver trumpets at the elevation!
I am typing out a diary. I remain in love with Italian, and feel quite lorn without a chance of trying to speak it! We must keep it up.....
On the whole for pure fun and pleasure, I enjoyed the first days at Venice most. But we lived v. cheap in Assisi, and I have brought about 50 back. Our opera was washed out by torrents all Thursday evening; but they put on a special extra on Friday (our last day in Venice) at which our tickets were good. So we had our Rigoletto. Perfectly astounding.
168 To Richard Jeffery
[A reply to a reader who had asked for a translation of the opening words of one of Treebeard's songs (Book III, chapter 4), and for an explanation of several names, including 'Onodrim', the Sindarin Elvish name for the Ents.]
7 September 1955 76 Sandfield Road, Headington, Oxford Dear Mr Jeffery, Thank you very much for your letter.... It came while I was away, in Gondor (sc. Venice), as a change from the North Kingdom, or I would have answered before.
At any rate your command of Elvish script (not Runes) is quite good enough to read. But there are, of course, no rules for the application to English, so it is impossible to make mistakes, unless according to your own system so I suppose your name is Richard, though you wrote , which on your system should be Rijard ( for ).However, there will be sufficient description of the 'letters' (tengwar) and of the 'runes' (certar) in Vol. III Appendices for any one who is interested.....
It has unfortunately not proved possible, as I had hoped, to give an index of Names (with meanings), which would have provided also a fair vocabulary of Elvish words. There were far too many and the space and cost were prohibitive. But I spent a long time trying to make a list, and that is one reason for the delay of Vol. III. ....
Most of the questions you ask will be answered in Vol. III, I think. .... Orofarne, lassemista, carnemrie is High-elven (the language preferred by Ents) for 'mountain-dwelling, leaf-grey, with adornment of red jewels'.
The 'correct' plural of onod was enyd, or general plural onodrim; though ened might be a form used in Gondor. But en, ened = middle, centre as in Endor, Endre Middle-earth (S. ennorath); and enedwaith = middle-people/ or region, as Forodwaith = north-region, &c. It was not a desert when the name was given; but became so during the Third Age. See the Chronology of the Second and Third Ages in Appendices to Vol. III. Peregrin is, of course, a real modern name, though it means 'traveller in strange countries'. Frodo is a real name from the Germanic tradition. Its Old English form was Frda. Its obvious connexion is with the old word frd meaning etymologically 'wise by experience', but it had mythological connexions with legends of the Golden Age in the North. ....
Yours sincerely,
J. R. R. Tolkien
169 From a letter to Hugh Brogan
11 September 1955 Your discovery of 'Numinor' in C.S.L.'s That Hideous Strength is discovery of a plagiarism: well, not that, since he used the word, taken from my legends of the First and Second Ages, in the belief that they would soon appear. They have not, but I suppose now they may. The spelling Numinor is due to his hearing it and not seeing it. Nmenre or Nmenor means in High-elven simply West-land. As for the shape of the world of the Third Age, I am afraid that was devised 'dramatically' rather than geologically, or paleontologically. I do sometimes wish that I had made some sort of agreement between the imaginations or theories of the geologists and my map a little more possible. But that would only have made more trouble with human history.
170 From a letter to Allen & Unwin
30 September 1955 When is Vol. III likely now to appear? I shall be murdered if something does not happen soon.
171 To Hugh Brogan
[In December 1954, Brogan wrote to Tolkien criticising the archaic narrative style of parts of The Two Towers, especially the chapter 'The King of the Golden Hall' ; he called this style 'Ossianic', and said he agreed with a critic's description of it as 'tushery'. At the time, Tolkien made no reply to this; but when on 18 September 1955 Brogan wrote again, apologising for being 'impertinent, stupid, or sycophantic', Tolkien began to draft what follows. In the event he did not send it, but instead wrote a brief note saying that the matter of archaism 'would take too long to debate' in a letter and must wait until their next meeting.]
[September 1955]
Dear Hugh, .... Don't be disturbed: I have not noticed any impertinence (or sycophancy) in your letters; and anyone so appreciative and so perceptive is entitled to criticism. Anyway, I do not naturally breathe an air of undiluted incense! It was not what you said (last letter but one, not the one that I answered) or your right to say it, that might have called for a reply, if I had the time for it; but the pain that I always feel when anyone in an age when almost all auctorial manhandling of English is permitted (especially if disruptive) in the name of art or 'personal expression' immediately dismisses out of court deliberate 'archaism'. The proper use of 'tushery' is to apply it to the kind of bogus 'medieval' stuff which attempts (without knowledge) to give a supposed temporal colour with expletives, such as tush, pish, zounds, marry, and the like. But a real archaic English is far more terse than modern; also many of things said could not be said in our slack and often frivolous idiom. Of course, not being specially well read in modern English, and far more familiar with works in the ancient and 'middle' idioms, my own ear is to some extent affected; so that though I could easily recollect how a modern would put this or that, what comes easiest to mind or pen is not quite that. But take an example from the chapter that you specially singled out (and called terrible): Book iii, "The King of the Golden Hall'. 'Nay, Gandalf!' said the King. 'You do not know your own skill in healing. It shall not be so. I myself will go to war, to fall in the front of the battle, if it must be. Thus shall I sleep better.'
This is a fair sample - moderated or watered archaism. Using only words that still are used or known to the educated, the King would really have said: 'Nay, thou (n')wost not thine own skill in healing. It shall not be so. I myself will go to war, to fall . . .' etc. I know well enough what a modern would say. 'Not at all my dear G. You don't know your own skill as a doctor. Things aren't going to be like that. I shall go to the war in person, even if I have to be one of the first casualties' - and then what? Theoden would certainly think, and probably say 'thus shall I sleep better'! But people who think like that just do not talk a modern idiom. You can have 'I shall lie easier in my grave', or 'I should sleep sounder in my grave like that rather than if I stayed at home' if you like. But there would be an insincerity of thought, a disunion of word and meaning. For a King who spoke in a modern style would not really think in such terms at all, and any reference to sleeping quietly in the grave would be a deliberate archaism of expression on his part (however worded) far more bogus than the actual 'archaic' English that I have used. Like some non-Christian making a reference to some Christian belief which did not in fact move him at all.
Or p. 127, as an example of 'archaism' that cannot be defended as 'dramatic', since it is not in dialogue, but the author's description of the arming of the guests which seemed specially to upset you. But such 'heroic' scenes do not occur in a modern setting to which a modern idiom belongs. Why deliberately ignore, refuse to use the wealth of English which leaves us a choice of styles without any possibility of unintelligibility.
I can see no more reason for not using the much terser and more vivid ancient style, than for changing the obsolete weapons, helms, shields, hauberks into modern uniforms.
'Helms too they chose' is archaic. Some (wrongly) class it as an 'inversion', since normal order is 'They also chose helmets' or 'they chose helmets too'. (Real mod. E. 'They also picked out some helmets and round shields'.) But this is not normal order, and if mod. E. has lost the trick of putting a word desired to emphasize (for pictorial, emotional or logical reasons) into prominent first place, without addition of a lot of little 'empty' words (as the Chinese say), so much the worse for it. And so much the better for it the sooner it learns the trick again. And some one must begin the teaching, by example.
I am sorry to find you affected by the extraordinary 20th.C. delusion that its usages per se and simply as 'contemporary' irrespective of whether they are terser, more vivid (or even nobler!) have some peculiar validity, above those of all other times, so that not to use them (even when quite unsuitable in tone) is a solecism, a gaffe, a thing at which one's friends shudder or feel hot in the collar. Shake yourself out of this parochialism of time! Also (not to be too donnish) learn to discriminate between the bogus and genuine antique as you would if you hoped not to be cheated by a dealer!
[The draft ends here.]
172 From a letter to Allen & Unwin
[Allen & Unwin proposed to publish The Return of the King on 20 October 1955.]
12 October 1955 Don't fail of 20 October! The last possible day. On the 21st. I have to give the first 'O'Donnell Lecture' (overdue), & I must hope that a large part of my audience will be so bemused by sitting up late the night before that they will not so closely observe my grave lack of equipment as a lecturer on a Celtic subject. Anyway, I want to tactfully allude to the book, since a part of what I wish to say is about 'Celticness' and in what that consists as a linguistic pattern.
173 From a letter to Katherine Farrer
[The Return of the King was duly published on 20 October.]
24 October 1955 Since (in spite of being laid up with a throat that made lecturing impossible until last Friday) I have actually managed to deliver the O'Donnell Lecture on English and Welsh (Friday), and am no longer a college official, and the Book is complete except for an errata slip for the reprint already required for Vol. III, to cover the important errors of the whole: I shall be a great deal freer after this week. ....
I am indeed surprised at the reception of the 'Ring', and immensely pleased. But I don't think I have started any tide. I don't think such a small hobbitlike creature, or even a Man of any size, does that. If there is a tide (I think there is) then I am just lucky enough to have caught it, being just a bit of it. ....
I still feel the picture incomplete without something on Samwise and Elanor, but I could not devise anything that would not have destroyed the ending, more than the hints (possibly sufficient) in the appendices.
174 To Lord Halsbury
[Lord Halsbury, at that time Managing Director of the National Research Development Corporation, wrote to suggest that The Silmarillion might be published by subscription, if Allen & Unwin were unwilling to under-take it on a commercial basis.]
10 November 1955 Merton College, Oxford Dear Lord Halsbury, It was kind of you to write, & I was pleased to have your approval and interest. I was also grateful for your suggestion of an edition by subscription.
However, the surprising welcome given to The Lord of the Rings will probably make this procedure unnecessary; and has justified the publishers' firm resolve to issue the present work first; though I wanted to present the matter in 'chronological order'. For one thing, it would have lightened and quickened the narrative of the Third Age!
I do not think that anything is referred to in The L. of the R. which does not actually exist in legends written before it was begun, or at least belonging to an earlier period - except only the 'cats of Queen Berthiel'. But I am afraid that all the matter of the First and Second Ages is very 'high-mythical' or Elvish and heroic, and there is no 'hobbitry' at all: an ingredient that seems to have made the present mixture more generally palatable.
Since the publishers are now pressing for the Silmarillion &c. (which was long ago turned down), I do intend as soon as I can find time to try to set the material in order for publication. Though I am rather tired, and no longer young enough to pillage the night to make up for the deficit of hours in the day....