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[millennial-tolkien-emails]

Letter 38

Hi Mr. Unwin,

I am THE WORST I am so sorry for not responding and getting this done — turns out I didn’t actually read your instructions carefully enough 🙃 But then also life got in the way (maybe you’ll be a little less mad if I explain that my wife’s health got MUCH worse, and I had to move out and go stay in a hotel all last semester because the pipes burst at my house, and then I got sick, and I’ve been barely able to cope with my actually insane workload at the university…)

I know you said “a word or two” would be enough for the foreword but like…if it’s going to have my name at the top then I should have something worth saying, you know?

I can’t find the letter that threw me, but here’s the thing. You really need a proper preface to this revised edition, and this “Introduction” is basically just a summary and is fundamentally useless to either a student or someone reading this translation instead of the OG Middle English. Soooooo I may or may not have written 17 fucking pages of commentary on translation….plus another 17 page metrical appendix 🙃

Anyway, that’s where I was in March, and then I got your letter yesterday and now I’m realizing that you literally just wanted me to write like ten lines. Whoops.

All I can do now is send you what I have. Obviously it’s way too long and I’m so so so sorry. It literally hurts my heart to do it, but I’ve marked in red the bits you could keep if you’re okay with a longer piece (1400 words), or if you want it shorter you could keep just the parts I’ve marked in blue (which is like 800 words). But maybe that’s still too long? IDK.

So

Sincerely

Sorry,

JRRT

[millennial-tolkien-emails]

Letter 37

Hey Mr. Unwin,

Ty for being so nice to me and lighting a fire under my ass. I have no excuse “for not at least … responding”. I had an accident and that, plus adulting generally, and I haven’t had any vacation, and I’m basically running this entire fucking department while no one in the entire university has a clue what’s going on, and then my wife got sick and it’s all just been a whole lot.

At least she doesn’t have cancer. I’m still a hot mess, though, and trying to run a household and get work done without her is basically impossible.

I’ll try to get my shit together and get a decent foreword written for Beowulf ASAP.

I’ve got sixteen chapters of LOTR written tho! 😁😁😁 I keep having to rewrite it because as the plot develops I realize that the previous bits don’t make sense anymore. So I don’t have a clean copy to send you 🫠

Sincerely,

JRRT

[millennial-tolkien-emails]

Letter 15 includes an addendum to a letter to his publisher, Allen & Unwin, in which he goes through the publisher’s remarks (what we would call cover copy/author blurb) and corrects them word for fucking word.

ACTUALLY WE NEVER HAD A NURSERY

ACTUALLY NURSERY AGE IS TOO YOUNG AND MY OLDEST WAS 13 WHEN HE READ THE HOBBIT

ACTUALLY I DIDN’T LEND THE MANUSCRIPT TO ANYONE I FORCED MY FRIENDS TO READ IT

ACTUALLY MY FIELD OF STUDY IS NOT FUCKING ABSTRUSE

ACTUALLY ANGLO-SAXON LITERATURE IS NOT ALL THAT DIFFERENT FROM IDK SPANISH IN TERMS OF ACCESSIBILITY OR RELEVANCE TO THE HUMAN CONDITION

ACTUALLY MY FIELD OF STUDY IS PHILOLOGY NOT ANGLO-SAXON LITERATURE

ACTUALLY LET ME BREAK DOWN FOR YOU ALL THE WAYS THAT YOU COMPARING ME TO LEWIS CARROLL DOESN’T HOLD UP UNDER CLOSE EXAMINATION

ACTUALLY LEWIS CARROLL WASN’T A PROFESSOR HE WAS A COLLEGE LECTURER AND TECHNICALLY A STUDENT

ACTUALLY IT’S FINE YOU SHOULD DEFINITELY KEEP THE LEWIS CARROLL COMPARISON JUST CHANGE IT TO THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS

[millennial-tolkien-emails]

Letter 4 (a fragment from a letter to Edith, from officers’ boot camp)

Gahhh military lecture notes are boring. I wish I could be working on my made up language but I don’t let myself because it’s so weird 😩