Tolkien's Least Favorite Holiday?

So, I've now had time to read through the Hilary Tolkien book (#II.2768]. It's v. slight, and is less a book of stories than some remembered local characters and escapades of youth slightly recast in semi-fictional form (for example, one page is devoted to Fr. Francis Morgan's dog). In a way, it reminds me slightly of my great-grandfather (Rev. Newton Smith)'s memoirs which he wrote as a v. old man in that the organization is associational. Like those memoirs, there are striking bits in passing that bring vividly to life a vanished world. In this case, these come more towards the middle and end of the book than the beginning, which is a bit precious in its attempt to strike a bedtime-story mode. Particularly chilling is his laconic summary of his World War I experience:

"Somme, Vimy Ridge, Arras, Sanctuary Wood, Oppy Wood, Italy, Nieppe Forest, Merville, Amiens, Namur, Longueval, Falfemont Farm, Bethune, Ypres, Bray sur Somme, Albert, Mons, Charleroi, and home"

--Not being a WWI scholar, I've only heard of about half of these battles, but I hadn't realized there was anyone (that is, any single person) who survived all of them while serving all the way from 1914 to 1919.

The best parts for a Tolkienist are the photos near the end of Mabel T. (whose hair looks to have already been going grey in her mid-thirties, something I'd not known before), a pair of Hilary & his wife Magdalen, and best of all a photo of the two brothers looking, well, like brothers, arm in arm, both smoking pipes. Even better are two small snippets from a 1971 letter by JRRT in which he inveigles against Guy Fawkes Day:

"As for Bonfire Night -- that was a great Festival with us when the children were young. But I hit on the excuse of making it a 'continuous birthday' jamboree for the boys (Oct 22, Nov 16, 21), and also a carrying on of the ancient Incoming of Winter Festival, so that no shadow of that abominable business of 1605 was allowed to fall on it. Certainly one of the wickedest, cleverest, and most successful pieces of Government propaganda in history! . . . When I lived in Yorkshire the 5th was not remembered; but the old Mischief Night with larks and rowdyism went on. All the same I should be sorry if the new propagandists against fireworks were successful! I would rather have my Catherine Wheels and backarappers, and squibs and all that domestically than all the municipal display in parks. But I know such domestic fun needs a stern and competent manager! We used to hoard large quantities of horse-chestnuts, and fill our small bonfire with them: they provided quite a lot of unexpected pops and bangs"
(pages 70-71, emphasis mine).

--this ties in with two references by Hilary, the first on page 52, about how during the WWII "You couldn't have bonfires unless they were put right out and nothing showing" (his orchard was only twenty miles from Coventry, wh. was destroyed by German bombs), and the second on page 42, about what a great bonfire they had the year when he lost a lot of trees to a windstorm. I hadn't thought of it before, but now I see that asking an English Catholic to celebrate Guy Fawkes' Day is rather like asking a Southerner to celebrate Lincoln's Birthday -- some might not be bothered by it, since most of us don't think too hard about our holidays, but the keener a sense of history the person had the more likely there'd be objections.

Still, a nice little nugget to add to our knowledge of JRRT, and it's pleasant to finally get to hear Hilary's voice, especially in the latter parts of this book. I'll be looking forward to the second, companion, book w. interest.

--JDR
current reading: POE'S BROTHER: THE POEMS OF WM. HENRY POE, ed. Mabbott & Allen [1926]

The New Arrival: Hilary's book

So, today's mail brought my copy of BLACK AND WHITE OGRE COUNTRY: THE LOST TALES OF HILARY TOLKIEN, edited by Angela Gardner and illustrated by Jef Murray. It's a slim little book, only seventy-three pages, but in addition to some reminiscences of early days cast into semi-fictional form like bedtime stories it has a brief biographical section in the end which publishes for the first time several wonderful photographs of not just Hilary but also Mabel Tolkien (looking like she was going grey early), the two brothers Hilary and JRRT together, and a family shot (circa 1955) that includes both brothers and Aunt Jane. And one real little treasure: two snippets from a previously unpublished Tolkien letter written in 1971.
More later.

--JDR

Hilary Tolkien's book

So, while it's not as big a bit of news as word that Tolkien's SIGURD poem(s) are being published at last, there's none the less another welcome announcement about a forthcoming book by a Tolkien within the last few days.

This time, it's not JRRT but his brother Hilary who's the author. Even though Hilary died just a few years after his older brother, in 1976, the family has decided to publish some reminiscences he'd jotted down about his early years, including their growing up together in Birmingham. Titled BLACK & WHITE OGRE COUNTRY: THE LOST TALES OF HILARY TOLKIEN (after the Tolkien Brothers' nickname for the two Father-and-Son millers who ran Sarehole Mill in their day), it's to be a slim volume of some eighty pages, edited by Angela Gardner and illustrated by Jef Murray, and due to be released the end of this month.

What's more, this is the first of two planned books by H.T., the other, which should follow in a few months' time, being a collection of letters and photographs. This shd go v. well with the recent TOLKIEN'S GEDLING 1914, which focuses on the Tolkiens' Aunt Jane but has a few photographs and reminisces about a young Hilary T., and the promised forthcoming book by the same authors on Aunt Jane's farm known as 'Bag End'. We're getting more and more of these pieces about people who were important to Tolkien, and they're helpful in giving us bits and pieces that help fill in the picture.

BLACK & WHITE OGRE COUNTRY doesn't seem to be available (?yet) from amazon, but I was able to order a copy through ACD Books (http://www.adcbooks.co.uk/); for more information about the Hilary Tolkien books, see Jef Murray's 'Mystical Realms' newsletter for January

(http://groups.google.com/group/Mystical_Realms/browse_thread/thread/6bb6011b0f9c0c10)

as well as the write-up on TolkienBooks.net (http://www.tolkienbooks.net/?p=121)

There are also at least two new works of Tolkien scholarship on the way that sound interesting; more on these later. But in general it looks like 2009 will see some interesting new Tolkien releases.

--JDR