Letter to Leila Keene and Pat Kirke
From Tolkien Gateway
On 3 August 1943, J.R.R. Tolkien wrote a letter to Leila Keene and Pat Kirke, two schoolgirls who had read The Hobbit.[1]
- Subject: Tolkien discusses runes, the Common Speech, and the adoption by the Dwarves of Erebor of the language of the Men of Dale.[2]
- Publication: The letter was first reproduced in Sotheby's Illustrated Books, Children's Books, Ephemera, Performing Arts & Related Drawings 4 May 1995.[3] Christopher Tolkien included a description and excerpts from the letter in The Peoples of Middle-earth.[2]
Excerpt
"... It was a sort of lingua-franca, made up of all sorts of languages, but the Elvish language (of the North West) for the most part. It was called the Western language or Common Speech; and in Bilbo's time had already passed eastward over the Misty Mountains and reached Lake Town, and Beorn, and even Smaug (dragons were ready linguists in all ages). ..."[2]
References
- ↑ Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond (2006), The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide: I. Chronology, p. 261
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Peoples of Middle-earth, "II. The Appendix on Languages", pp. 72-73
- ↑ "Sotheby's 1995 catalogue?", Tolkien Collector's Guide (accessed 8 July 2012)
