Middle-earth Journeys

I love the Father Christmas Letters! I treated myself to the book last Christmas and it's just wonderful. I love the North Pole as a proper pole (as, or course, it really should be) and the fact that it can be broken by the North Polar Bear. I love the decorations inside Father Christmas's house. I think Father Christmas's spidery handwriting is so much fun - it must have taken Tolkien an age to write them like that but think how much pleasure he must have got from his children's delight.

Lucky, lucky children.

Iolanthe wrote:Lucky, lucky children.

Weren't they just? I finished it this afternoon - there are reproductions of about eight of the envelopes on the back, each with a North Pole stamp and in some cases a handwritten postmark. The attention to detail is staggering. Many of the illustrations consist of two or three miniature works of art, especially the watercolours. I love the way Tolkien includes the Northern lights (which FC refers to as Rory Bory Ayliss) wherever he can.

I was quite choked up when I reached the last letter to Priscilla - when she would have been about thirteen or fourteen, the age at which all Tolkien's children stopped hanging up their stockings (and incidentally the age at which they would have been confirmed). Because "Father Christmas" had decided it would be the last time (she'd started a new school and hadn't written to him that year, I think), Tolkien painted her a wonderful watercolour of the night sky, the earth surrounded by stars. I imagined him feeling quite sad that he wouldn't be doing this again until he had grandchildren. Or perhaps I was just sad myself that I'd reached the end of the book!

I love all that detail on the envelopes too. Tolkien, as usual, creating 'authenticity' even for his children .

Pricsilla was asked about the Father Christmas Letters at the Tolkien Conference (how glad I am I went to that). This is the annecdote I posted on the Conference thread:

Iolanthe wrote:Someone asked Priscilla about the Father Christmas letters and she said how much they all looked forward to them (of course, who wouldn't!). They started writing their letters to Father Christmas at the beginning of November, the excitement was so intense. One year, just as she was beginning to suspect that Father Christmas and Tolkien were one and the same person, she asked for a whole set of books by an author she'd come accross and liked very much. After she'd sent her letter, she overheard her father telling someone how worried he was - he'd looked everywhere and couldn't find them for her because the author was no longer in print. Alas, she never got that full set of books but with 'Father Christmas' for a dad she couldn't have been too disappointed.

Thanks for posting that, Iolanthe - I had a feeling there was a FC anecdote somewhere on these forums but couldn't remember where!

Song of the Galadhrim

O, the queen of all trees!
Sing praise to the mallorn,
Lothlorien people,
The home of the first-born.

O, Caras Galadhon,
Our fair city of green
Living towers and great,
Great majesty unseen.

Living green in the spring,
Fallow gold in the fall,
On their stems of silver,
O, sing praise to them all.

Laita te, laita te,
A eglerio!
Andave laituval-
met, A eglerio!

A galadhremmin en-
norath le linnathon,
A Galadriel,
Si nef aearon!

O, Galadriel Queen,
Hear us all as we sing.
Maybe you have found peace
At the end of the Ring.


(A little late for Christmas, but it takes us non-creative people a little longer! I sometimes imagine the elves of Lothlorien after Galadriel is gone, maybe gathering around her mallorn to sing their hymns and wish their Lady well in her new life. I've borrowed some Sindarin from a couple of sources that I think might fit!)

It's wonderful, Merry ! I've been hoping for a long time that you'd try another poem - I loved your Gandalf one so much.

Like your last one it's made me think about something that I've never considered before - all the people of Lothlorien left behind in a new and changing world. Not only has the power of her Ring gone, but her very presence.

Beautiful and not regretful, but wishing her peace.

Merry, this is a lovely poem! thank you for sharing it with us.

(A little late for Christmas, but it takes us non-creative people a little longer! I sometimes imagine the elves of Lothlorien after Galadriel is gone, maybe gathering around her mallorn to sing their hymns and wish their Lady well in her new life. I've borrowed some Sindarin from a couple of sources that I think might fit!)

Yes, I also wondered how it would be in Lothlorien after she had left. Your vision is a lot happier than I would have given it. Lovely piece Merry thanks for sharing it with us non-professionals.

WONDERFUL Merry...the MeJ poets are re-emerging.