Bill Stickers was a villain — a figure in a "long-running family epic" told by J.R.R. Tolkien to his children. The stories "revolved around the tireless efforts of Major Road Ahead to prosecute the villain".[1]
Bill Stickers was an "irrepressible villain" and "a huge hulk of a man who always got away with everything".[2]
Inspiration
Tolkien was inspired by "signs hanging on various Oxford gates",[1] saying "Bill Stickers Will Be Prosecuted".[2][note 1] Basing his discussion on a newspaper article revealing that C.S. Lewis was a member a secret gang during the 1920s,[3] David Bratman has speculated that Tolkien in addition might have been inspired by the gang member Margaret Pollard's (a friend of Lewis's) gang pseudonym, "Bill Stickers".[4]
The stories about Bill Stickers and Major Road Ahead were only told orally (possibly around 1926 and 1930[5]), and have thus not been recorded,[6] unlike, for example, Roverandom and Letters from Father Christmas.
Notes
- ↑ It's an old prank to paste up posters with 'Bill Stickers is Innocent' underneath these sign (cf. Bill Stickers is innocent).
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Humphrey Carpenter, J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography, Chapter 7
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 . "About J.R.R. Tolkien". HoughtonMifflinBooks.com. Retrieved 12 November 2013
- ↑ . "CS Lewis supported secret heritage gang". OxfordMail.co.uk. Retrieved 12 November 2013
- ↑ . "ten miscellanies make a blog post". Kalimac.livejournal.com. Retrieved 12 November 2013
- ↑ Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond, “chapter=I. Chronology,” in The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide (2006), p. 135 (entry "?1926-?1930")
- ↑ Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond, “II. Reader's Guide,” in The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide (2006), p. 162