Edited by Trotter on 2021-4-25 6:30:47 AM UTC Edited by Trotter on 2021-4-25 6:31:11 AM UTC Edited by Trotter on 2021-4-25 6:57:58 PM UTC Edited by Trotter on 2021-4-25 6:59:30 PM UTC Edited by Trotter on 2021-4-25 7:05:30 PM UTC Edited by Trotter on 2021-4-26 5:39:58 AM UTC Edited by Trotter on 2021-4-26 6:19:08 AM UTC Edited by Trotter on 2021-5-2 5:07:52 AM UTC Edited by Trotter on 2024-4-25 6:16:04 AM UTC
2021-4-25 6:01:18 AM UTC
The team is in sunny-then-rainy north Wales at the lushly beautiful, National Trust-owned Bodnant Garden, where experts examine an eclectic treasure trove of finds.
A gentleman brings along a treasured and delightful letter from JRR Tolkien, written to him after, as a 14-year-old, he’d sent the Lord of the Rings author fan mail. It’s “precious” in more ways than one.
Elsewhere, there is a pipe inscribed by its owner during a spell as a prisoner of war in Italy and Germany after he was captured at Tobruk. And there is what an expert describes as a “silent witness” to history, a soup ladle found after a dive to a wrecked steam clipper.
For those in the UK you can watch it at 7pm tonight or on the BBC iPlayer at 55 minutes into the programme. The letter was valued at £10,000.
Hi Trotter! Did you watch the BBC show yesterday? I can't watch it from Italy, apparently. Could you tell us more, please?
I read on the web the letter ("Dear Charles...") is dated "3 May 1957" and has been valued £10.000 by their expert. Here a link with two photos of the letter: Link no longer works
Partial transcription of the letter, I'm not sure about a few words which are replaced by "?":
Dear Charles,
Thank you for your letter. I am glad to hear that you enjoyed the "Ring" books.
Your runic letter was correct and readable. But the runes used in *The Hobbit* are not my invention. Just as the language of the time was turned into English, so were the runes of the day. So I used a selection, more or less applicable to modern English spelling, of the runes formerly used by the English in England. Owing to the ? of the Latin letter the runes went out of use, were never in fact used for writing books except the two letters borrowed from the Runic Alphabet and used in writing *English*: ᚦ and ᚹ, written forms þ and ƿ ( ? from ƿ =p ). þ was used for *th*, -- or rather, represented the *sounds* we shall have in *thin*, *this*, until it was replaced by *th* in the 14th. century. It lingered on ( broken down in shape to y, [two more cursive variants]) in the abbreviations *yͤ* *yͭ* = *the*, *that*, of [continued on the back page]
[half page not shown] not the z in their own language, except occasionally for *ts* (? German).
Variant signs occur which seem to be used for *x* (=ks): among them Ψ.
Of course the Runes were properly used to spell by *sound* and they do not fit modern English very well. The *Angerthas* at the end of Vol iii will give you plenty of signs for all the sounds of English, and more -- or for the letters and most common ? ?, if you care to ? them.
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