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The Bovadium Fragments: Together with ‘The Origin of Bovadium’ by Richard Ovenden O.B.E

Uploaded by onthetrail on 11 Sep, 2025

Author

J. R. R. Tolkien, Richard Ovenden

The Bovadium Fragments, first noted in J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography^{p. 163, H. Carpenter[1]} has remained unpublished until in May 2025 it was announced as being published in November of the same year. Little was known about the story other than the few minor mentions. Said by Carpenter to be " a parable of the destruction of Oxford (Bovadium) by the motores manufactured by the Daemon of Vaccipratum (a reference to Lord Nuffield and his motor-works at Cowley) which block the streets, asphyxiate the inhabitants, and finally explode." In 1992, Judith Priestman included a mention of it as item 248, p. 86, in J.R.R. Tolkien: Life and Legend with an illustration on the following page of A.D. Godley's poem 'Motor Bus', of which Tolkien had a copy.

As is remarked on in the press release, this work is edited by Christopher Tolkien.

The Bovadium Fragments: Together with ‘The Origin of Bovadium’ by Richard Ovenden O.B.E. Hardcover – 9 Oct. 2025 by J. R. R. Tolkien (Author), Christopher Tolkien (Editor)

World first publication of a previously unknown short satirical fantasy by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by his son, Christopher Tolkien, and accompanied by illustrations from the author together with an essay, The Origin of Bovadium, by Richard Ovenden OBE.

Clyde S. Kilby in his book, Tolkien and The Silmarillion remarked on the this story that;

Though the reading of The Silmarillion was proving about as much as I could handle during that summer of 1966, Tolkien from time to time handed me other shorter pieces and asked me about their publishability. One was called ‘’The Bovadium Fragments,” a satire written long before and having as its main point the worship of the Motores, i.e., automobiles, and the traffic jams blocking the roads in and around Oxford. It was full of the inventiveness to be expected of Tolkien. Some of the characters are Rotzopny, Dr. Gums, and Sarevelk. I judged that it had two elements that would make it unpublishable. One was the more than liberal use of Latin, and the other the probability that a reader’s eye would focus on its playfulness rather than its serious implications. Actually it was an early comment on the commercialization of our world.^{p. 36[2]}

The manuscript for 'The End of Bovadium' was deposited with the Bodleian in 1985 by the Tolkien Trust, but in 2003 was reassigned as MS. Tolkien B 62 and therefore is not accessible for research. Included in the file are also 'Sellic Spell', 'The New Shadow', and various notes. No further information is known about the file due to it being closed to access.^{Private correspondence[3]}

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