A Letter From J.J.R. Tolkien

You all know how much I like Tolkien and his books i.e.; The Lord of The Rings and The Hobbit. Well I thought you might get a kick out of a letter Tolkien wrote in 1967 to Lord of the Rings fan Elise Honeybourne and, after he reiterates his reasons for beginning the Lord of the Rings stories, sees Tolkien speculating on Miss Honeybourne's name and its origins. (Why is it most writers have terrible handwriting).

Here is the letter from a word processor:
If I dare say so a very hobbit-like kindness to send a present on your own birthday!

PROFESSOR J. R. R. TOLKIEN
Oxford 61639
76 SANDFIELD ROAD
HEADINGTON
OXFORD

September 18th. 1967.

Dear Miss Honeybourne,

Thank you very much indeed for your generous and delightful letter, one of the most warming and comforting that I have received.

As I said in the ‘Foreword’ to the American paper-back edition (Ballantine Books), I wrote The Lord of the Rings because I wished ‘to try my hand at a really long story that would hold the attention of readers, amuse them, delight them, and at times maybe excite them or deeply move them.’ As a guide I had only my own feelings for what is appealing or moving; and it has been a great pleasure (and a surprise) to find that so many other people have similar feelings. But no one has written me a letter more warm, and few have come near it.

I am specially grateful for your pleasure in the names: I took a great deal of trouble with them.

Your own name is a delightful one, and brings to me a suggestion of Kinship. It must be derived (as so very many English surnames) from a village name, but the only ones of that name that I know of are the adjacent villages of Church H (Worcs) and Cow H (Glo). These are not far from Blackminster where my brother has a small fruit-farm, in lands where my maternal ancestors (Suffield) can be traced far back.

It is such a good name that I must, in any future more complete map of the Shire (often asked for), find a place for it. It is one of the comparatively rare place-names that means what it says: a stream, of sweet water and/or flowing through flowery meads.

Yours sincerely and gratefully

J.R.R. Tolkien

Part of The Shire a.k.a. Hobbit Town

I leave you with one of Tolkien's many quotes

I hope I didn't bore you with my love of Tolkien for besides C.S. Lewis he was a Christian with Christian values. Until the next time dear friends be blessed.