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View Full Version : One day only. Tolkien manuscripts at the Bodleian

davem
03-01-2010, 03:24 PM
The Bodleian Library is taking part in World Book Day 2010 by exhibiting a selection of JRR Tolkien’s original artwork which was used to illustrate The Hobbit.

A unique manuscript of Hobbit doodles and a rare first edition of the book will also be on display. The free-of-charge one-day display will take place in the Divinity School of the Bodleian Library on Thursday, 4 March 2010.

http://www.articleant.com/gen/13491-there-and-back-again--the-hobbit-at-the-bodleian-library.html
Rumil
03-01-2010, 05:12 PM
Interesting davem!

Don't think I can skive off to Oxford this Thursday, anyone thinking of going? Have the doodles ever been published, web or otherwise?
Bęthberry
03-01-2010, 08:55 PM
I don't think I'm going to fly over for one day. :p
Legate of Amon Lanc
03-02-2010, 03:14 AM
I don't think I'm going to fly over for one day. :p

Yes, I was thinking actually something similar. :)

I think they should make it an itinerant exhibition...
The Might
03-02-2010, 04:57 AM
One day only?

The article doesn't seem to offer any explanation for this either... maybe belonging to some collector who only wishes to lend them for one day?!
Mithalwen
03-02-2010, 12:14 PM
One day only?

The article doesn't seem to offer any explanation for this either... maybe belonging to some collector who only wishes to lend them for one day?!

Could be... or too fragile to be exhibited for long. Or just because it is linked to World Book Day . Insurance may be steep and I think it is a free event.
davem
03-04-2010, 04:06 PM
Have the doodles ever been published, web or otherwise?

Yep - the catalogue for the 1992 Bodleian Library Centenary Exhibition has a picture of it. Its a sheet of random scribbles ("Gandalf caused quite a stir in Alfaromdor by having his whiskers curled." & "In a hole in the ground lived a Hobbit, a curious & egregious little person as any of his friends would have told you" etc, etc) apparently 'written on the back of a torn sheet of minutes from an English Faculty Board meeting of 27th Oct 1939'. Pic of some of the exhibits here http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/yourtown/oxford/5043112.Tolkien_treasures_out_in_the_open/