The Book of the Foxrook is a manuscript by J.R.R. Tolkien, likely composed around 10 June 1909 (this date was added to the title-page).[1]
It consists of a 16-page notebook containing "the key to a secret code consisting of a rune-like phonetic alphabet and a sizable number of ideographic symbols".[2] The invented script is called Privata Kodo Skauta (Modern English: "Private Scout Code").[3] The book also contains comments on Esperanto.[2]
The existence of this manuscript was apparently first mentioned by Humphrey Carpenter in his J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography (p. 37).[2] A page from the Book of the Foxrook was reproduced in the exhibition catalogue J.R.R. Tolkien: Life and Legend. An analysis and transcription of the same page appeared in the article "Tolkien and Esperanto" (cf. pp. 29–34), published in SEVEN, Volume 17.
The Book of the Foxrook is kept at the Bodleian Library (Family papers 1/29(3), fol. 1r).[2]
References
- ↑ Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond (2006), The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide: I. Chronology, p. 15
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Arden R. Smith, Patrick Wynne, "Tolkien and Esperanto", in SEVEN, Volume 17, p. 29
- ↑ Arden R. Smith, "Writing Systems", tolkienestate.com, accessed 27 December 2016