J.R.R. Tolkien Autograph Letter Signed and Annotated Old English Literature Questionnaire.
$48,000 · Offered by Biblio
First edition · Signed
1920. Rare autograph letter signed by the author of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, J.R.R. Tolkien regarding a list of 50 questions he has composed examining Old English Literature. The one-page autograph letter signed by Tolkien reads in full, "1 Alfred Street St. Giles Oxford Mar: 17th 1920. Dear Miss Duncan, I enclose a 'mixed bag' of 50 questions on the OE period - some of them on 'Beowulf' (exclusive of special points of commentary), some more general. A few may be of use to you (many are culled from past papers etc.: those of last year are marked). They are not intended to by models of clear questioning , but to suggest enquiries. The easily available critical writings that might help are all 150 few. I hoped some time to make out something like a select bibliography but I am enormously pressed for time this vacation, and I am ever afraid no such thing will have been done by me in time to be of use to you. I am yours sincerely JRR Tolkien." The three-page typed list of 50 questions with autograph emendations by Tolkien is entitled "Old English Literature Questions." Tolkien has inserted a comedic addition "lumbering about in potbellied equanimity" to the question: "A gluttonous race of Jutes and Angles, capable of no grand combinations not dreaming of heroic toll, and silence, and endurance, such as lead to the high places of this universe, and the golden mountain tone where dwell the spirits of the dawn' (Carlyle). How far would your reading of Old English poetry land y
- Year: 1920
- Edition: First Edition
- Binding: unknown
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