The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (80 page)

The intrusion of a suffix
ath
in
Arathorn
is not possible. The name contains an abbreviated form of
orono
(thorono) ‘eagle', seen in
Thoron- dor, Thorongil: Q. (
orno / sorno.
No human or elf could be called Two-tree King, with ref. to the Two Trees of Valinor. They were made & owned by the Valar, but both had perished, in the Darkening of Valinor.

I am afraid it is unfair on linguistically minded readers not to provide them with more material. I should like to. But though I may leave behind me sufficiently ordered matter, at 81 I have no time – not if I am ever to produce any more ‘legends'.

Well it is a long while now since Aug. 14! And I have only been able to compose all this at intervals. But I hope it may reach you as a sort of
Christmas Present – though it may alas! be like some of such, not quite (or at all) what you wanted.

Very best wishes for Yule.

J. R. R. Tolkien

An instance of how difficult it is to keep books correct – mine & the index are full of mistakes – you sign yourself
Jeffery
, but
Jeffrey
is the spelling in the [University] Residents' List. I am nearly always written to as
Tolkein
(not by you): I do not know why, since it is pronounced by me always -
keen
.

I am afraid this is largely illegible, and though longwinded and complicated, leaves much to be explained. And not all the words or names can be ‘explained': i.e. regularly referred to older forms of known meaning. In living languages (including Elvish langs.!) new words could be invented without any precise origin, or made up of existing elements in compounds that did not follow older phonetic habits. And in such cases ‘euphony' (or what seemed ‘euphonious' to a language and people at a given time) will then play a part. Also it has to be remembered that the
author
invented a very great number of names over a long period of time, and though he knew well enough the ‘styles' of the supposed languages, at an early period in this labour their phonetic history was not so precise in his mind as it is now!

For instance we have
Arnor
and
Gondor,
which he has retained because he desired to avoid
Ardor.
But it can now only (though reasonably) be explained after invention as due to a blending of Q.
arnanóre / arnanor
with S.
arn(a)dor
>
ardor.
The name was in any case given to mean ‘royal land' as being the realm of
Elendil
and so taking precedence of the southern realm.

6 March 1973

Galadriel, like all the other names of elvish persons in
The Lord of the Rings
, is an invention of my own. It is in Sindarin form (see Appendices E and F) and means ‘Maiden crowned with gleaming hair'. It is a secondary name given to her in her youth in the far past because she had long hair which glistened like gold but was also shot with silver. She was then of Amazon disposition and bound up her hair as a crown when taking part in athletic feats.

8 March 1973

I do not understand why you should wish to associate my name with TOLK, an interpreter or spokesman. This is a word of Slavonic origin
that became adopted in Lithuanian (TULKAS), Finnish (TULKKI) and in the Scand. langs., and eventually right across N. Germany (linguistically Low German) and finally into Dutch (TOLK). It was never adopted in English.

24 May 1973

Merton College, Oxford

My dear Chris:

I have (of course) meant many times, since you drew me from my lair in Bournemouth and took me to Milford, to write to you; and now I am dismayed by the speed of the passing of time The immediate reason for actually writing is this: in sorting some piles of letters and marking a few for keeping, I came across a letter (received in
May '72
) from whom? None other than C. V. L. Lycett, and from Los Angeles!. . . . . His letter. . . . [is] full of reminiscences of K[ing] E[dward's] S[chool] Here is an excerpt from his letter: ‘As a boy you could not imagine how I looked up to you and admired and envied the wit of that select coterie
^fn142
of J.R.R.T., C. L. Wiseman, G. B. Smith, R. Q. Gilson, V. Trought, and Payton. I hovered on the outskirts to gather up the gems. You probably had no idea of this schoolboy worship.'. . . .

Well: here I am now established in Merton; still fairly lively and active though I have had a longish bout of poor health since my 81st birthday party on Jan 3rd (a mere sequel in time & not due to the party!). After having my inside X-rayed extensively (with on the whole v.g. reports) I am now deprived of the use of
all
wines, and on a somewhat restricted diet; but am allowed to smoke & consume the alcoholic products of barley, as I wish.

If you care to take up the glove, and reply I shall be delighted.

With my very kind regards & good wishes to your wife. Your most devoted friend.

Yrs.

JRRT. TCBS.

[Postmarked 29 May 1973]

[Merton College]

My dearest Chris.

I was very glad to get your letter of May 17 (p.m. 18). For I guessed that something untoward, beyond some vagary of the French posts,
must have happened. I can deeply sympathize with the horror of your arrival – having several times in my earlier days suffered similar things, especially in the period from John's birth in 1917 to 1925 incl., which now in retrospect seems like a long nomadic series of arrivals at houses or lodgings that proved horrible – or worse: in some cases finding none at all!. . . . You went away about the same time as Prisca went to Crete. This seems to have been the most successful jaunt she has ever made. She came back looking and feeling really well and full of delight, but you must hear of that at first hand. For the first time since '68 I felt a real tug of desire to go and ‘see places' or this one at any rate. But I am afraid I must now live on travellers' tales.

A lot of course has been happening to me since Easter – but mainly of the sort that takes longer to report in writing than it is worth: chiefly a record of unending pressure: social, literary, professional & financial. . . . . I fled from the overcrowded days of the summer term to Bournemouth from May 16–22 incl., and returned much the better. I had some good plain food, a room with a private balcony, and saw a good deal of my dear friends the Tolhursts; and I had good weather (which Oxford did
not
get). . . . . How long are you staying at Bargemon? All will I hope go on well or better while you are there. You are
all
in my constant thoughts, and this place seems rather empty without you. Much love my dearest Chris & Baillie & + A[dam] & + R[achel]. Daddy.

Since you left (I think in each case), Warnie,
¹
Tom Dunning,
²
R. B. McCallum, Rosfrith M.
³
have died. (Warnie had a very warm obit. in the Times.)

5 June 1973

I am very pleased to know that an Icelandic translation of
The Hobbit
is in preparation. I had long hoped that some of my work might be translated into Icelandic, a language which I think would fit it better than any other I have any adequate knowledge of.

4 August 1973

You pile Weathertop on Erebor, as Bilbo might have said, with your other generosities. The whisky will be welcomed whenever it comes: it will be quite safe if sent to college, whether I am here or briefly away. When you retire I shall certainly beg your help. Without it, I begin to feel that I shall never produce any part of
The Silmarillion
. When you
were here on July 26, I became again vividly aware of your invigorating effect on me: like a warm fire brought into an old man's room, where he sits cold and unable to muster courage to go out on a journey that his heart desires to make. For over and above all the afflictions and obstacles I have endured since
The Lord of the Rings
came out, I have lost confidence. May I hope that perhaps, even amid your own trials and the heavy work which must precede your retirement, you could come again before so very long and warm me up again? I particularly desire to hear you read verse again, and especially your own: which you make come alive for me. Also I may send you ere long some copies of things which I have written to clarify my mind and imagination on such things as the relations of Elves the longeval and Men the short-lived – but which you need not let trouble you, not even to return.

I meant right away to deal with Galadriel, and with the question of Elvish child-bearing – to both of which I have given much thought. But I must not delay longer to send you this letter of gratitude. . . . .

Galadriel was ‘unstained': she had committed no evil deeds. She was an enemy of Fëanor. She did not reach Middle-earth with the other Noldor, but independently. Her reasons for desiring to go to Middle-earth were legitimate, and she would have been permitted to depart, but for the misfortune that before she set out the revolt of Fëanor broke out, and she became involved in the desperate measures of Manwe, and the ban on all emigration.

Wed. Aug. 29th. 1973

at 22 Little Forest Road, Bournemouth.

Dearest Prisca,

I arrived in B'th. about 3.15 yesterday, after a successful drive with most traffic going north not seawards, & a curry-lunch shared by Causier,
¹
Mrs C. and David. It was v. v. hot here & crowded. The Cs. then went off to find ‘accommodation' for 2 nights, and departed necessarily with all my luggage on what looked like a hopeless quest. They dropped me on the East Overcliff by the Miramar
²
which nostalgically attracted me; but I went into the town & did some shopping, including having a hair trim. I then walked back to the Miramar at 4.45 – and things then began to go wrong. I was told Causier had called to find me about 4 p.m. which made me afraid that he was in difficulties. I also found that I had lost my Bank Card & some money. ‘Reception' were surprised but welcoming, comforted me with a good
tea. Also assuming that I had been looking for something more than a tea, they told me they could have done nothing at all for me, but for a cancellation which would allow them to take me in on Tuesday Sep. 4 – but I said I would see. I took a taxi to 22 L.F.R. (which promptly lost its way) and arrived late to find the house crowded & lively – only the Dr. was away till evening. (Happy go-lucky folk.) Then I waited anxiously for Causier. It was nearly 7 before he (and Mrs C. & D) turned up – I suspect he too had lost his way – and said it had only taken him 15 mins to find v. g. rooms for 2 nights! In the meanwhile Martin Tolhurst (formerly of N[ew] College), now grown to an immensely tall, charming, and efficient man, had by telephone located my Bank Card etc. at
The Red Lion
Salisbury. So all was well, for the present. But I have accepted the
Miramar
offer, and shall not return to Oxford till Sep. 11. For various reasons: the chief being I wish to give Carr plenty of time to clean my rooms, which, and I too, were much neglected latterly; I wish v. much to visit various people here, also Chris Wiseman at Milford, and I am old enough to much prefer familiar surroundings.

My dearest love to you.

Daddy.

It is stuffy, sticky, and rainy here at present – but forecasts are more favourable.

[1]
1.
A Shakespeare and L. L. H. Thompson of Exeter College.
2.
Father Francis Morgan (1857–1934) of the Birmingham Oratory, the Catholic priest who became Tolkien's guardian after the death of his mother in 1904.
3.
L. R. Farnell, Rector (i.e. head) of Exeter College, 1913–28.
4.
Kenneth Sisam (1887–1971), who in 1914 was a research student and assistant to Professor A. S. Napier. He acted as Tolkien's tutor; see no. 318.
5.
Thomas Wade Earp, then an undergraduate at Exeter College; he later became known as a writer on modern painters. See no. 83 for Tolkien's reference to him as ‘T. W. Earp, the original twerp'; since Partridge's
Dictionary of Slang
records the first use of ‘twerp' as
circa
1910, it is possible that Earp's name and initials may have given rise to the word. Earp was one of the editors of
Oxford Poetry 1915,
in which one of Tolkien's first published poems, ‘Goblin Feet', was printed.
6.
Tolkien's reworking of one of the
Kalevala
stories, ‘The Story of Kullervo', was never finished, but proved to be the germ of the story of Turin Turambar in
The Silmarillion.
For Tolkien's account of this, see no. 163.
7.
Tolkien usually signed his letters to Edith Bratt ‘Ronald' or ‘R.', though he sometimes used his first Christian name, John.