Man behind the Mythology

[Bêthberry]

As subtle as "derry dol", my good Númenor.

You have invested your time in the Letters as wisely as Tolkien invested his pension. Pray, give us a fair rate of return on a surety of your own, and see what interest it gathers.

[Son of Númenor]

What exactly did J.R.R. Tolkien feel was his philological colleagues' reaction to his writing & publishing The Lord of the Rings?

[Estelyn Telcontar]

He said that they told him:

Now we know what you have been doing all these years! Why the edition of this, and the commentary on that, and the grammars and glossaries, have all remained "promised" but unfinished. You have had your fun and you must now do some work.

[Son of Númenor]

The last sentence sounds just like my parents.

The floor is yours, Madame Estelyn.

[Estelyn Telcontar]

Tolkien was delighted to receive a letter from someone who chanced to have the same name as one of his characters. Who was it?

[The Saucepan Man]

Erm, off the top of my head, it was Sam Gamgee, wasn't it?

[Estelyn Telcontar]

If the top of your head suffices for this question, what could the whole head accomplish?! You have both the correct answer and the floor, Saucy.

[The Saucepan Man]

Thanks Esty.

The whole head would have been able to look it up if the book had been in the possession of the hands. Other than that, it would have been pretty useless.

Name at least two film stars that Tolkien met. (I am aware of only two, but there may have been more, so a bonus point for every additional film star named over and above two.)

[Estelyn Telcontar]

I'm going to venture a guess at one name, since I wasn't able to find any information in the biography. (None of the names in the index looked like a familiar film star name to me.) However, I do remember hearing that Christopher Lee once met Tolkien, so I assume he's one of the stars you mean. Can you give a clue as to where I can search for another one?

[The Saucepan Man]

Christopher Lee was one of the film stars I had in mind, so you are halfway there.

The other one is mentioned in one of the Letters ...

[Estelyn Telcontar]

Sorry, but a complete reading of the index of 'Letters' hasn't helped me either - I give up! Unless you think someone else will give it a try before the 10 days are up, you can solve it and pose a new one...

[The Saucepan Man]

Try Letter #267 ...

[Estelyn Telcontar]

OK, thanks to that help, I found the name - it was Ava Gardner (and yes, I could have seen it in the index but didn't...). Interesting that she has a name so similar to Sam's family name later on!

In re-reading that particular letter I came across some amusing sentences:

I am neither disturbed (nor surprised) at the limitations of my 'fame'. There are lots of people in Oxford who have never heard of me, let alone my books. But I can repay them with equal ignorance: neither wilful nor contemptuous, simply accidental.

[The Saucepan Man]

Yes, that one amused me too. It's comments like that which really bring the man to life in one's mind when reading his Letters.

You are of course correct, Estelyn. Please carry on.

[Estelyn Telcontar]

Traditionally, the Tolkien family manufactured which product?

Manufactured Expressly for Extreme Climates

was inscribed on the lid of one...

This is of personal interest to me - I wish I had an opportunity to try one of them!

[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

They used to make pianos, although they were long out of that business by the time JRRT arrived on the scene.

[Estelyn Telcontar]

That's right, Squatter; I wonder if any Tolkien pianos still exist? In playable condition, even?

[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

Which biographer of Tolkien held an academic position vacated by his subject, and where?

[Bêthberry]

Would that be Thomas A. Shippey, author of The Road to Middle Earth and JRR Tolkien: Author of the Century, who not only taught Old English at Oxford but who also held the Chair of English Language and Medieval Literature at Leeds University?

[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

It certainly would. Bêthberry.

[Bêthberry]

Most of us are aware of Tolkien's ground-breaking essay Beowulf: the Monsters and the Critics. What other essay of his is required reading for students of fourteenth century English?

[Estelyn Telcontar]

Would that be On Translating Beowulf?

[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

Beowulf is older than that, Esty. Eighth century or thereabouts.

It's Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; a published form of his 1953 W.P. Ker memorial lecture at the University of Glasgow.

[Estelyn Telcontar]

oops! Live and learn, as my old Gaffer says. (...or, that's what you get for guessing...)

[Bêthberry]

I am aware of Tolkien's and Gordon's translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knightwhich Tolkien humorously disparaged to his students, but I was not thinking of the Ker article, Squatter (which I cannot find referenced in Appendix C of the Carpenter biography, although my answer is). Try again, if you would.

[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

Could it be Gawain, Pearl and Sir Orfeo, his translations of those three fourteenth-century poems?

[Bêthberry]

Alas, no, Squatter. As I suggested, some other fourteenth century author, if we can take Carpenter at his word.

[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

The most likely candidate that I can see is 'Chaucer as a Philologist: The Reeve's Tale', Transactions of the Philological Society (1934)

[Bêthberry]

Indeed, the very one which Carpenter claims is still required reading for students of fourteenth century Engish dialects. And now, Squatter.

[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

Which useful honorary position did Tolkien hold from 1972 until his death?

[Son of Númenor]

In 1972, Tolkien received an honorary doctorate from Oxford, and was in the same year dubbed a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire by the Queen of England.

[Estelyn Telcontar]

Those were great honours, to be sure, but were they useful? I think his honorary resident Fellowship in Merton College was of more practical worth to Tolkien, since it allowed him rooms in a college house, with a scout and his wife to look after him. He was also entitled to free lunches and dinners in the college.

[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

Estelyn's right: the honorary fellowship at Merton was the most useful of those awards, and for the reasons given.

[Estelyn Telcontar]

I don't think we've had this question on the thread yet: Name the members of the T.C.B.S.

[Mariska Greenleaf]

That would be Robert Q Gilson, Christopher Wiseman, Geoffrey B Smith and JRR Tolkien himself of course.

[Bêthberry]

Wasn't davem also a member?

[Estelyn Telcontar]

Mariska has it right! Bb, I'm not quite sure - perhaps you have an obscure 'Letters' reference for that name?

[Mariska Greenleaf]

An easy one, but I'm not that inspired today...
Name two more school clubs that Tolkien founded.

[Estelyn Telcontar]

Not that easy - it took a bit of research! I hope these are the two you mean:

the Apolausticks ('those devoted to self-indulgence') - started as a feshman at Oxford

There were papers, discussions, and debates, and there were also large and extravagant dinners.

the Viking Club - founded together with E. V. Gordon at Leeds University

...which met to drink large quantities of beer, read sagas, and sing comic songs.

Some of the verses the two men wrote were later published privately as Songs for the Philologists - wouldn't it be fun to read them?!

[Mariska Greenleaf]

Those were the ones I had in mind, Estelyn!