The Unpublished Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

The Unpublished Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien is a project which hopes to record and archive any and all letters written by J.R.R. Tolkien which have not been published within The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien.

Individual Letters

• September 1955 to Mr(s?) Souch

June 4th, 1949 to Pauline Baynes

"I ought to have written to you before to tell you of the great pleasure that your drawings in illustration of "Farmer Giles" have given me. My friends, very justly, said after seeing them that they had reduced the text to a commentary on the pictures. I am hoping soon to get some larger works published, and in a more ample fashion; and if so, I hope you might be interested, or at least have time to consider them. One, a long romance in sequel to The Hobbit, is finished after some years of work, and is being typed. It is held up at the moment, since I am immersed in examinations and other weary business; but when it's done, I wonder if I could prevail on you to glance at it." - J.R.R. Tolkien

• Comment: A letter from J.R.R. Tolkien to his illustrator, Pauline Diana Baynes, June 4th 1949, following the completion of his manuscript of The Lord of the Rings. The letter comes from a collection of the Swiss lawyer Albin Schram. When he died in 2005, he left behind an extraordinary collection of letters by some of Western civilisation's greatest minds.
• Authencity: High
• Publication: This excerpt was published in the article The greatest letters ever written (unknown author/editor) on 27 June 2007, in the online edition of The Independent.
• Web link: The greatest letters ever written

1951 to Milton Waldman

• Comment: A part of this letter was orginally published as Letter 131 in The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien.
• Authencity: Very High
• Publication: The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion

1956-58, to Peter Alford

• Comment: (See Sotheby's)
• Authencity: High
• Publication: None.

October 21, 1963 to Mrs. Munby

• Comment & excerpts: supposedly from Henry Gee, author of The Science of Middle-earth: "The letter came up for sale at an auction at Sotheby's in London on 11 and 12 July, 2002. It is dated 21 October 1963, and is addressed to a Mrs Munby in response to a number of questions posed by her son Stephen about The Lord of the Rings. The letter is long, but in one place reads as follows: 'There must have been orc-women. But in stories that seldom if ever see the Orcs except as soldiers of armies in the service of the evil lords we naturally would not learn much about their lives. Not much was known'. Tolkien also goes on to discuss the use of the word 'goblin': 'In The Hobbit 'goblin' is used... but goblin is a fairly modern word, and very vague in its application to any sort of bogey in the dark.'"
• Authencity: Medium/Low
• Publication: None.
• Web link: Green Books (TheOneRing.net)

c. December 16, 1963 to Baronne A. Baeyens

• Comment: From the seller Simon Finch Rare Books (London, United Kingdom): "Autograph letter signed ('J.R.R. Tolkien') to Baronne A. Baeyens ('Dear Madame') on writing The Lord of the Rings: Two leaves, 225 x 175 mm, one with blind-stamped letterhead '76, Sandfield Road, Headington, Oxford', four pages of autograph script, small area of rust at staple-holes; and a brief typewritten note, signed by Tolkien. An unpublished and unusually detailed letter, over 1000 words long, in which Tolkien candidly discusses the process of writing The Lord of The Rings. Tolkien states that his intent was 'to write a story that would be "exciting" and readable, and give me scope for my personal pleasure in history, languages, and "landscape".' Tolkien rules out the allegorical reading of his books, remarking that he has 'never found books on myths and symbolism attractive. for me they miss the point and destroy the object of their enquiry as surely as a vivisectionist destroys a cat or rabbit'. Instead he chose 'deeply rooted "archetypal" motifs' and put them 'into an entirely new setting, carefully devised, that gives the sense of reality'. Tolkien discusses at length how characters arise 'out of the necessities of narrative. whatever may really happen, this sensation is rather that of someone getting to know strangers and observing, often with surprise and sometimes with charm, their revelation of themselves - which one is helpless to alter'. He describes the origin of Aragorn and being 'astounded as slowly the revelation of the majesty of his lineage. and the weight of his doom unfolded', and being particularly fond of writing this perilous kind of character: 'if you become slack. and treat them as something soft (like India rubber) you find that that is only insulation covering a live wire connected with a dynamo - and you get anything from a smart titillation to a severe shock'. Tolkien addresses his critics, comparing his treatment to a chemical analysis, 'Alas! there are so many people who cannot "enjoy" anything,' and writes here also on a number of other subjects: his sympathy for Gollum; the value of verse in The Lord of the Rings and how it escapes most readers; the trilogy's non-alignment with any existing religion; and writing the prequels."
• Authencity: Medium
• Publication: None.
• Web link: AbeBooks.com

Christmas 1963 to Nancy Smith

• Comment: In the Newsletter (Fall 2002) for the Manuscript Repositories Section of the Society of American Archivists, it is said that Marquette University Libraries bought an "unpublished letter written by J.R.R. Tolkien to Nancy Smith" which "offers revealing insights about the Oxford professor's fantasy fiction."
• Authenticity: High
• Web link: Manuscript Repositories Section Newsletter

May 30th, 1964 to J. Sibley

• Comment: A letter from Tolkien to a reader, miss Jane T. Sibley of Haddam, Connecticut. It informs the reader than the runes in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are not the same set. Typed on Tolkien's own, preprinted paper (selfadressed to 76 Sandfield Road. Signed and accompanied by a handwritten note suggesting further reading. Copyright by the Tolkien Trust.
• Authenticity: High
• Publication: A photocopy reproduction of the letter was featured on the back of Vinyar Tengwar 6 (July 1989), and commentaries and a transcription (by Jane T. Sibley) was given on pages 7-8.

November, 7 1966 to Gene Wolfe

7th November 1966

Dear Mr Wolfe,

Thank you very much for your letter. The etymology of words and names in my story has two sides: (1) their etymology within the story; and (2) the sources from which I, as an author, derive them. I expect you mean the latter. Orc I derived from Anglo-Saxon, a word meaning demon, usually supposed to be derived from the Latin Orcus -- Hell. But I doubt this, though the matter is too involved to set out here. Warg is simple. It is an old word for wolf, which also had the sense of an outlaw or hunted criminal. This is its usual sense in surviving texts.* I adopted the word, which had a good sound for the meaning, as a name for this particular brand of demonic wolf in the story.

Yours sincerely,

J. R. R. Tolkien

*O.E. wearg

O. High German warg--

O. Norse varg-r (also = "wolf", espec. of legendary kind)

• Comment: Answer from Tolkien to a fan letter. Gene Wolfe: "The body of his letter is typewritten (I would judge on an electric typewriter) but the footnote is in script. I would like to express my appreciation to Douglas A. Anderson, who is familiar with Tolkien's hand and has very kindly corrected my missreadings of it."
• Authencity: Low
• Publication: The essay The Best Introduction to the Mountains, in which the trancription of the letter is contained, was offered by Mr Wolfe to the anthology Meditations on Middle-earth, edited by Karen Haber, but was rejected. Interzone magazine published the essay in December 2001. The essay can also be found on (external link)

1967 to Elise Honeybourne

[Excerpt:] "Thank you very much indeed for your generous and delightful letter, one of the most warming and comforting that I have received. As I said in the 'Foreword' to the American paperback edition (Ballantine Books), I wrote The Lord of the Rings because I wished 'to try my hand at a really long story that would hold the attention of readers, amuse them, delight them, and at times maybe excite them or deeply move them.' As a guide I had only my own feelings for what is appealing or moving; and it has been a great pleasure (and a surprise) to find that so many other people have similar feelings. But no one has written me a letter more warm, and few have come near it…."

• Authencity: High/Medium
• Publication: None (R&R Enterprises offered the item in their August auction of 2007).
• Web link: Tolkien Library

January 29, 1968 to Ken Jackson

• Excerpt: "Bag End [was] an old tumbledown manor house at the end of an untidy lane that led nowhere else"
• Authencity: High
• Publication: This small excerpt was published by Colin Duriez in J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment, p.455.
• Web link: The excerpt is also found on the online version of the book on GoogleBooks.

1969, May 28 to Anthony D. Howlett

• Comment: (See Sotheby's)
• Authencity: High
• Publication: None.

June 30, 1969 to Mr Paul Bibire

• Comment: Provided by Christopher Tolkien and Paul Bibire for Carl F. Hostetter's introduction to The rivers and Beacon-hills of Gondor.
• Authencity: Very High
• Publication: A transcription of the letter is found in Vinyar Tengwar issue 42, p. 6-7.

Rumours

The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (expanded edition)

On February 2nd, 2004, TheOneRing.net featured an article on the Tolkien Convention in Brussels. An expanded edition of The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien was promised:

"...on the occasion of TFY's presentation on January 19, Marco Respinti and Oronzo Cilli, in the presence of Elisabetta Sgarbi (Editorial Director of Bompiani), spoke of the possibility of a revision of the Italian edition of Tolkien's letters, gathered by his son Christopher and his official biographer, Humprey Carpenter. Bompiani decided to publish a new edition, revised and enlarged, and the Italian Tolkien Society is in contant with an english publisher to have an international version of the book. The volume will be introduced by an essay of Priscilla Tolkien and it will boast contributions by Tolkien experts as Mike Foster, Christopher Garbowski, Brian Rosebury, Andrew McMurry, Paolo Paron, Gianfranco de Turris, Adolfo Morganti, Marco Respinti, Oronzo Cilli, Stefano Giuliano, Jimmy Chavez, Jeroen Van Den Berg, David Beatene and many others. In fact Cilli has managed to obtain from the British Public Record Office the rights to the publication of some documents regarding Tolkien's experience in the First World War. The new edition might include these new documents (never published before in any book) and a short essay on Tolkien and the war."

The Tea Towel Letter

The web site Tolkien Collector's Guide has an article (on a rare tea towel) with a reference from a supposedly unpublished letter. The background is that George Allen and Unwin in 1971 commissioned the towel, featuring a map by Pauline Baynes, on the occasion of a celebration. The author of the article says: "[...] it is clear Tolkien was there, since I read in an (unpublished) letter he himself had received such a teatowel at the 'party' or 'meeting' and was very happy with it."

• External link: Tea Towel

Known hoaxes

The Letters, Part II

Throughout the early issues of Vinyar Tengwar, there was reference to "The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien part II", but it was revealed to be a hoax.

External links

• Marquette University collection of Tolkien letters