The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien
Language: English
Pages: 480
ISBN: 0618056998
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
J.R.R. Tolkien, cherished author of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion, was one of the twentieth century's most prolific letter writers. Over the years he wrote a mass of letters -- to his publishers, his family, to friends, and to fans of his books -- which record the history and composition of his works and his reaction to subsequent events.
By turns thoughtful, impish, scholarly, impassioned, playful, vigorous, and gentle, Tolkien poured his heart and mind into a great stream of correspondence to intimate friends and unknown admirers all over the world. From this collection one sees a mind of immense complexity and many layers -- artistic, religious, charmingly eccentric, sentimental, and ultimately brilliant.
Now newly expanded with a detailed index, this collection provides an invaluable record that sheds much light on Tolkien's creative genius, his thoughts and feelings about his own work, and the evolution of his grand design for the creation of a whole new world -- Middle-earth.
by the fact that some, more pious and learned than I, have found nothing harmful in this Tale or its feignings as a ‘myth’. . . . . To conclude: having mentioned Free Will, I might say that in my myth I have used ‘subcreation’ in a special way (not the same as ‘subcreation’ as a term in criticism of art, though I tried to show allegorically how that might come to be taken up into Creation in some plane in my ‘purgatorial’ story Leaf by Niggle (Dublin Review 1945)) to make visible and physical
of hope and desire to the greater spirits, who knew something of their form and nature and the mode and approximate time of their appearance in the realization. But they also realized that the Children of God must not be ‘dominated’, though they would be specially susceptible to it. It was because of this pre-occupation with the Children of God that the spirits so often took the form and likeness of the Children, especially after their appearance. It was thus that Sauron appeared in this shape.
nearest to the central point. I am afraid I must leave that enigmatic, as I have not time, at the moment, to enlarge upon it.1 279 From a letter to Michael George Tolkien 30 October 1965 I think it unlikely that we shall move from Oxford. Anywhere in sight of the sea proves too vastly expensive, while the service problem (our chief trouble) is as bad or worse than here. I am not ‘rolling in gold’, but by continuing to work I am (so far) continuing to have an income about the same as a
Author J. R. R. Tolkien, creator of the fabulous Middle-earth as recorded in his masterpieces The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, was one of the most prolific letter writers of this century. Over the years he wrote to his publishers, his family, his friends (including C. S. Lewis, W. H. Auden and Naomi Mitchison) and to fans of his books. The letters present a fascinating and highly detailed portrait of the man in many of his aspects: as storyteller, scholar, Catholic,
of Joseph Wright, editor of the English Dialect Dictionary (‘E.D.D.’). Tolkien had studied philology with Wright at Oxford.] 13 February 1923 The University, Leeds Dear Mrs Wright, I am very grateful to you for the offprint – and also for your kind remarks about the glossary. I certainly lavished an amount of time on it which is terrible to recall, and long delayed the Reader bringing curses on my head; but it was instructive. I need hardly say that I am quite convinced by your article and