ex L257 To Christopher Bretherton
16 July 1964
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Well, there you are. I hope it does not bore you. .... [Of his use of the name 'Gamgee':] It started with a holiday about 30 years ago at Lamorna Cove4 (then wild and fairly inaccessible). There was a curious local character, an old man who used to go about swapping gossip and weather-wisdom and such like. To amuse my boys I named him Gaffer Gamgee, and the name became part of family lore to fix on old chaps of the kind. At that time I was beginning on The Hobbit. The choice of Gamgee was primarily directed by alliteration; but I did not invent it. It was caught out of childhood memory, as a comic word or name. It was in fact the name when I was small (in Birmingham) for 'cotton-wool". (Hence the association of the Gamgees with the Cottons.) I knew nothing of its origin.
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[ October 18, 2002: Message edited by: HerenIstarion ]