Forward to the Second Edition: Fellowship of the Ring

He had better things to do during this time and he’s letting the readers know. This is very much acknowledging he took his time with the books and does not make apologies.

In this forward he states that he started on the Fellowship of the Rings soon after The Hobbit. He really likes the history of this world he built and wrote. He does make it clear that WWI had only a little inspiration to his story. Such littler inspiration he uses the word slender to describe this inspiration.

It also was surprising to me that he had to handwrite his work and then type it himself.

“And it had to be typed, and re-typed: by me; the cost of professional typing by the ten-fingered was beyond my means.” <– Its ten degrees chillier in this sentence due to the shade thrown at the typist.

Ten-fingered just gave me the image of someone with very long fingers clothed in dark robes typing away charging an ungodly amount coins for their services.

And…Tolkien passed away in 1973, this wasn’t that long ago. I suppose this piece of information regarding the type writer has shocked me more than it should have.

Wholesome moment: He would send his stories (shorts) to his son when he was in the RAF. His son passed away in 2020, but he spent decades organizing and publishing unpublished works by his father. Amazing.

I wish I had known of Christopher Tolkien sooner so I may have been aquatinted to his work before he passed.

It’s such a strange time then. Tolkien lived through a time where type writing was high tech and trench fight. His son got to see laptops and Tesla’s … they literally watched the world change so much.

I enjoyed this forward it gave me a moment with Tolkien, as if he was chatting with his readers over tea. Short explanations to the why, what and where of it all.

Good Night.