Letter 315b

The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
Letter 315b
Recipient	Robert F. Cook
Date	26 August 1970
Subject(s)	Romance languages

Letter 315b is a letter written by J.R.R. Tolkien and published in The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien: Revised and Expanded edition.

Summary

In this letter Tolkien expresses his hesitancy about sharing an offprint of his only article in which he posed as a Romance scholar. Despite his expertise in philology, Tolkien admitted his spoken French was inadequate for such a role. The article was born out of necessity when Tolkien, an honorary "docteur" of the University of Liège, was sent by Oxford University to represent it at a conference of Romance Philologists.

Tolkien recounted the challenging atmosphere at the 1953 conference, noting a surprising hostility toward the English language. Despite the political tensions of World War II, French and German scholars pretended not to understand English, even though they were more receptive to the language of their former enemies.