Father Christmas Letters: 1938

[Estelyn Telcontar]

The picture that goes with the 1938 Christmas letter is incomplete - appropriately, it's titled "Setting Out". It's a line drawing (coloured pencil) of Father Christmas in the sleigh, pulled by two reindeer. In the letter, he writes that he did not have time to draw a big picture and is therefore sending some rhymes instead.

The letter is addressed to "Priscilla and all others at your house", so by this time, she must be the only one who still corresponds with FC. Christopher is mentioned, with hopes that he is better, so apparently he was ill. His present is mentioned - a book about astronomy and telescopes. We know Tolkien had some interest in astronomy, and apparently the children did as well.

Priscilla's bears are mentioned, several of them by name - they number 60 or more!

The poem itself is written by Father Christmas with some additions and interruptions by the North Polar Bear and Ilbereth. This is no great literary poetry, but simple rhymes, not even necessarily accurate ones. It's meant to be fun, with word playing such as "You're half past nine", meaning Priscilla's age, interrupted by Ilbereth with "She is not a clock!" NPB calls Ilbereth "thinuous" instead of "fatuous", as he is thin, not fat.

The letter is embellished and some of its letters illuminated. I haven't been able to find an image of the one page that is reproduced in my book, so I hope those of you who have it will comment!

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

The letter is addressed to "Priscilla and all others at your house", so by this time, she must be the only one who still corresponds with FC. Christopher is mentioned, with hopes that he is better, so apparently he was ill. His present is mentioned - a book about astronomy and telescopes. We know Tolkien had some interest in astronomy, and apparently the children did as well.

Priscilla's bears are mentioned, several of them by name - they number 60 or more!

I realise my edition of the book is really robbing me of all this - the 1938 letter in my book contains only the poem and not any letter itself (and so of course, I have lived in the belief that this is all there is in the letter. At least the pictures are preserved).

The poem itself is written by Father Christmas with some additions and interruptions by the North Polar Bear and Ilbereth. This is no great literary poetry, but simple rhymes, not even necessarily accurate ones. It's meant to be fun, with word playing such as "You're half past nine", meaning Priscilla's age, interrupted by Ilbereth with "She is not a clock!" NPB calls Ilbereth "thinuous" instead of "fatuous", as he is thin, not fat.
I really like the poem, though! And exactly all those PB's jokes. Since, like I said, I don't have the original, but only the translation, it is probably somewhat different, but still funny.

Question: I assume it is so also in the original, but let me just ask - does the PB also make grammatical mistakes in English? (If so, could you give an example?)

[Estelyn Telcontar]

Yes, the PB does make spelling and grammar mistakes. Let me look up a few examples:

1940: Ar having verry DIFFICULT time this year but ar doing my our best.
1933: Only ther was more like 1000 goblins than 15.
1931: Father Christmas has wakt up.
Spelling mistakes: bizy/bisy, sez, haz, kurrants, kood, hevy, langwidge, reely, exploashion, wot, leest...

In searching, I noticed that the first letters which include the North Polar Bear don't have spelling or grammar mistakes - apparently that trait was developed in time, perhaps when the children were old enough to read the letters themselves.

[Guinevere]

I absolutetly adore FC's poem! It's so funny with all those additions by the squabbling PB and Ilbereth! :D
Perhaps this is no "literary poetry", but I actually think it is much more deserving of the title "poem" than modern so-called poems which don't rhyme, have no rythm at all and are in reality just prose, written in short lines!!
(a propos funny poems, I am a bit reminded of Christian Morgenstern...don't know if you know him, Esty)

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Thanks for the examples, Esty! Anyway I think I will make it one of my objectives to get some English (and most of all, complete) edition of FC...

(a propos funny poems, I am a bit reminded of Christian Morgenstern...don't know if you know him, Esty)

Everybody has to know him! Some of his poems have even been translated (yes, translating such kind of poems... but good for me, since I don't know any German) - and only as a curiosity, since I'm already talking about this, several of the translations had been even put into music by one Czech band, for instance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAGTF7ev5sA

[Guinevere]

I scanned the facsimile of the poem and try to give a link to it (with the help of my husband & son) I hope this works, I think you have to click on it to enlarge it.

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/4381/img368w.th.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/215/img368w.jpg/)