Father Christmas Letters: 1938

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Estelyn Telcontar

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?)