An early Lord of the Rings fan review

[Kuruharan]

I'm not terribly knowledgeable regarding the composition process of LoTR being more interested in the final creation than in the process of writing it, but a reading from late 1949 sounds like this particular reading was of a nearly complete if not completed version of the story, i.e. there were no more Trotters trotting about.

[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

By 1949 it was basically finished. There may have been some small differences from the published version, but nothing significant. Most of the time that passed between this version and publication was taken up with making a fair copy typescript, wrangling with publishers over issuing LR and The Silmarillion together (during which Tolkien tried to negotiate a deal with Collins to get the Sil in print) and the usual long process of typesetting and proofing.

The Lewis brothers had been enthusiastic listeners throughout Tolkien's readings from LR at Inklings meetings, so Warren Lewis' comments above about Frodo and Sam's journey to Mordor are similar to earlier comments about readings by the author. Interestingly, Dyson's veto over readings from LR was very unpopular with several Inklings members, including the Lewises. From Major Lewis' diary I got the impression of Dyson as a witty but ultimately quite unpleasant man, who preferred conversation over readings because he wrote little and was better at off-the-cuff humour and Shakespeare quotations.

[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

I thought I'd dredge up this fossil to add some Tolkien anecdotes that I found in the same place.

After we had chatted there [on the terrace in Exeter College gardens] for some time the party broke up, Tolkien, Dyson, J [C.S. Lewis], a little unobtrusive clergyman, and myself walking to Magdalen where we strolled in the grove, where the deer were flitting about in the twilight - Tolkien swept off his hat to them and remarked, "Hail fallow well met" - until ten o'c[lock]. T[olkien] told a good story about one of the old guard, the head of a house, I think within his own lifetime, who greeting a newly elected fellow of his college, observed "now that we have elected you, Mr. ---, I hope you mean to come amongst us as a gentleman, and not take up with any of these new fangled ideas about TEACHING".

Wednesday, 26th July 1933

J [C.S. Lewis] brought out with him today a copy of The Oxford Magazine for 9th Nov. which has a in it a faery poem ["Errantry"] by Tolkien, excellent in itself and also very interesting as being in an entirely new metre. I think it a real discovery.

Thursday 30th November, 1933

Tolkien accompanied the Lewis brothers on a walking holiday in August 1947.

Next day [5th August] , a bright sunny morning, we all three went down on the 11.28, travelling 1st [class] on 3rd tickets without being called upon to pay excess: sandwiches in the train and up to No.4 The Lees [Malvern], soon after 2pm. Tollers looked a little blank at the idea of sleeping on the divan, but we soon had him fixed up by taking Maureen's bed out of her room and setting it up in the nursery. Tollers fitted easily into our routine, and I think he enjoyed himself. His one fault turned out to be that he wouldn't trot at our pace in harness; he will keep going all day on a walk, but to him, with his botanical and entomological interests, a walk, no matter what its length, is what we would call an extended stroll, while he calls us "ruthless walkers".

Tuesday, 19th August 1947

Later in the diaries, we get a brief look at the success of LR and late work on the Silmarillion. Major Lewis' jealousy over Tolkien's success was probably caused by his continuing grief over his brother's death in 1963. I think the comments about what Clyde Kilby was doing in Oxford demonstrate how few people who knew him in private life understood what Tolkien was working on in his retirement and the vast scale of the project.

[Clyde S. Kilby] told me that last year Tollers' Ring sold over a quarter of a million copies in the U.S. I felt a swift and unworthy pang of envy that his success should have so far exceeded anything that ever came J's way. Kilby is over here to assist Tollers in some continuation of the Rings on which he is now engaged, but what form the assistance is to take I did not gather. He thinks Tollers himself quails at the magnitude of the task, whatever it is.

Sunday, 26th June 1966