Letter 349

The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
Letter 349
Recipient	Mrs. E.R. Ehrardt
Date	8 March 1973
Subject(s)	Rejecting the association of Tolkien with TOLK

Letter 349 is a letter written by J.R.R. Tolkien and published in The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien.

Summary

Tolkien told Mrs. Ehrardt he did not understand her wish to associate his name with TOLK, an interpreter or spokesman. A word of Slavonic origin, adopted in Lithuanian (TULKAS), Finnish (TULKKI), and in Scandinavian languages, across Northern Germany, and finally into Dutch (TOLK). However, it had never been adopted into English.