[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Guinevere

I observe that in all the works of Tolkien there are marginal figures that are not essential to the plot, but often have names, even if they make just a short appearance. In my opinion this adds to the sensation of reality of these imaginary worlds! Seals can swim under the ice, but must of course return to some "breathing hole" from time to time. So it's not really logical that the "Great Seal" could be "waked up". But I don't think of him as an evil creature.

I never said he was meant to be evil! But a mysterious big creature living in a lake - I think Tolkien might have something for lake-dwellers, one way or another

Here is the content of the Polar Bear's letter for you:

* is a rune like an upright arrow that I cannot type. All the "Arctic" letters are rune-like.
It is interesting to see how Tolkien's love for creating languages and writings appears here too! (the Arctic sentence and PB's secret name sound kind of Finnish to me, or what do you think?)

Thanks! And yes, the sentence is rather quenyan, but the name actually IS Finnish - it means, plainly and simply, "Bear". The names of the small polar cubs, as mentioned later, also come from Finnish (and they indeed mean what they are said to be).

It is interesting that my edition mentions PB's real name and quotes the Arctic greeting - but only in an "appendix", since it does not quote the letter.

Well, I don't know about the map,(and I can't see it very clearly in my edition, it's too small) but in the letter Father Christmas names the countries he specially looks after: Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Germany. (And of course North America and Canada)

Then those would roughly cover the area on the map - with the bonus of the British Isles (and what appears to be malformed Iceland), and minus the North America, of course.