QUENYA, SINDARIN, LORD OF THE RINGS, SILMARILLION, 'MY MONOMANIA'

TOLKIEN (JOHN RONALD REUEL, 1892-1973, writer) FINE LONG AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED, written in his elegant calligraphic hand, to the American zoologist, George Lewis Hersh, concerning The Lord of the Rings, ['The Lost Road'] and The Silmarillion, particularly discussing his work on his invented languages Quenya and Sindarin and the idea of issuing a 'glossary' to them ('...If...you mean a nomenclature (and a few phrases and snatches of verse deliberately limited in extent), I am afraid much is only in my head, but even such parts as are in writing are complex, long and technical treatises on the historical connection between Quenya and Sindarin, and their derivation from a common origin. Of course, I should love to publish such stuff, but I am afraid that even the moderate success...of The Lord of the Rings leaves it a mere dream...'), explaining his approach to Númenor ('...as I soon discovered when turning my mind to Númenor as an inspectable place with a shape, the shadow of Númenor is thus dispelled and must again leave its background of the half-known and unknown. And that (as you say with great perception in five words "equal the hints of it") is my great difficulty...'), commenting on The Silmarillion which he is currently working on ('...The "Silmarillion" matter was composed long before and used for specific purpose in The Lord of the Rings -- the effect of history and background and of things not told but known...'), reflecting upon his upbringing ('...in a largely scientific atmosphere...and happily not on Literature with a capital L...I retain...a deep interest in all the biological sciences...and at the other pole in astronomy...'), thanking Hersh for his encouraging letter ('...I seldom receive any praise cast in such simple and satisfying terms: "you write well, and other people know it." A writer is entitled to hope to hear that said by his peers; but not to desire more...'), but complaining about having to work too hard on academic tasks ('...My monomania landed me in some dreadful debts...') 2 full pages, small quarto, with the original envelope, [Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire according to the postmark'], 'as from 76 Sandfield Road, Headington, Oxford', 30 August 1960

This letter is not published in The Letters, edited by Humphrey Carpenter, 1981.

Tolkien had sketched a number of invented languages in his youth, developing some of them to a degree of complexity. Quenya, one of the early ones and heavily influenced by Finnish, became very sophisticated with a vocabulary of several hundred words. Sindarin, a second elvish language, contemporary with Quenya but spoken by different people, had its phonology modelled on Welsh. The elvish names in The Silmarillion were constructed almost exclusively from these two languages.

The legend of Númenor, a great island in the West given to the men who aided the elves in their wars against the Morgoth, combines the Platonic legend of Atlantis with the imaginative qualities of The Silmarillion. With the sinking of Númenor the shape of the world was bent, yet the Straight Road to the Ancient West remained for those who can find it. This was the 'Lost Road.'

£2,500††