But it came to pass that a Daemon (as popular opinion supposed) in his secret workshops devised certain abominable machines, to which he gave the name Motores.
The Daemon was popularly[1] believed[1] to be a demon who manufactured machines called Motores "in his secret workshops"[1] at Vaccipratum to block "the streets, asphyxiate the inhabitants, and finally explode".[2] The people of Bovadium later worshipped his[1] Motores "and the traffic jams blocking the roads in and around" Bovadium.[3] As a consequence, the city was destroyed.[2]
Etymology
Vaccipratum is a Latin name meaning "cow pasture",[1] "Cowley",[1] or "cow-meadow".[4]
Inspiration
In Humphrey Carpenter's 1977 biography of J.R.R. Tolkien, it is mentioned in a summary of The Bovadium Fragments that the "Daemon of Vaccipratum" is "a reference to Lord Nuffield and his motor-works at Cowley".[2]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 . "Morris Motors boss may have inspired Tolkien villain". The Telegraph. Retrieved 30 May 2025
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Humphrey Carpenter, “IV. 1925-1949(i): 'In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit',” in J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography (1977), Chapter VI: The Storyteller, p. 163 (footnote)
- ↑ Clyde S. Kilby, Tolkien & The Silmarillion, II. "Summer with Tolkien", "Some Notes on “Smith of Wootton Major”", p. 36
- ↑ . "Tolkien’s road goes on – but there’s traffic ahead at Bovadium". John Garth on Tolkien's life and works. Retrieved 30 June 2025