Seaside Tolkien Home For Sale

[Lalwendë]

Well after saying how you can get books owned by Tolkien or his family, it's come true. davem was after a set of Gibbons' The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire after enjoying the easily available abridged version; he was looking at a full set of paperbacks in Blackwell's in Oxford but didn't buy them. We since found out that a dealer had a set which came from Michael Tolkien's library, and he's bought them. They are a lovely set of books, and they will not just be put on a shelf but will be read and enjoyed. They were actually bought by Tolkien himself and given as a birthday gift to his son - they have bookplates in each volume.

I find it a bit weird to hold books that had been bought by Tolkien, books he'd chosen and handled. Looking at the bookplates it struck me how Tolkien was not just a mythic name, a personality to be dissected, he was as real a person as I am. He'd also leafed through the very same pages...Kind of a spooky sensation...

[Bêthberry]

I don't suppose Michael or even Tolkien pere was the sort to leave pencilled marginalia? Now wouldn't that be fun to find!

Tell davem I'm glad he got the books he wanted. Were there any other of Michael's books which he choose not to buy?

Once upon a time I lived near the shore of this side of the Atlantic. I recall summers spent almost constantly in fog, with no bird song but the constant drone of the foghorns. This English fascination for the sea is a bit beyond me--all that lapping, sloshing sea like nausea in the stomach. Give me a forest or mountain any day or even a river.

signed,
hewer of wood, drawer of water

[Child of the 7th Age]

Is there anyone out there who found the 1 million pound price tag on this seaside house a bit high, but are still searching for an alternative? For a mere fraction of the cost, you could add this fireplace to your holiday list:

J. R. R. Tolkien Memorabilia
~ Original Tolkien Fireplace ~

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892–1973).

This original tiled fireplace surround from the former Master Bedroom of J. R. R. Tolkien's home at: 76 Sandfield Road, Headington, Oxford, UK is for sale.


Books published whilst J. R. R. Tolkien lived here include:
'The Fellowship of the Ring' (1954), 'The Two Towers' (1954), and 'The Return of the King' (1955).

Wow! This beautiful, original, fireplace surround is a one off that can never be repeated.
It can only be copied!
What would you give to have this original in your lounge, where it would rightly fascinate your friends?


Price: $250,000

For a picture, see this C.S. Lewis website.

Wonder what JRRT would have thought of paying a quarter of a million for the honor of owning his fireplace? Some of that money would surely have helped when he was strapped doing extra tutoring and exams in order to pay the medical bills instead of having time to write. The little ironies of life...

[Lalwendë]

If anyone buys that at that outrageous price then they ought to go and get some therapy. An old tiled fireplace whether its from Tolkien's house or not is not worth that amount of money! The amusing thing is, the 'master' bedroom, meaning the largest, is at the front of the house, while Tolkien will have likely not used that room as a bedroom anyway, as Sandfield Road was extremely noisy during his time there. He complained at one point that some of his neighbours were practising as a 'beat group' and making a lot of noise.