Tolkien's Letters from Father Christmas as related to his Middle Earth writings

[TThurston]

In my previous post, I included a link to some notes I made about this topic after briefly studying a 2004 printing of Tolkien's Letters from Father Christmas. I'm not sure people were able to use that link, so I attach an PDF file containing an updated version of those notes here.

I've also scanned several of the pictures from those letters that seem relevant. But as it's late now, I'll add them later.

In brief, I believe that a study of Letters from Father Christmas is helpful for understanding Tolkien's Middle Earth writings. That book contains not only Father Christmas, but a magical, man-like bear, fireworks, gunpowder, goblins, goblin caves and cave art, battles with goblin extending over several years, various distinct elven groups, some silly and others serious, poetry (and commentary on it), various languages and writing forms, including some that are clearly part of Middle Earth. It includes Tolkien's illustrations of goblins and elves, revealing how he pictured them at the time that The Hobbit was published and he was beginning The Lord of the Rings. There is a lot there, and I believe it worth exploring.

As far as I can tell, when you click on my attached document, it will download a copy and then you have to look at your downloads to find and read it. I hope people do so.

 

[TThurston]

Tolkien's picture of Father Christmas (FC) chasing his reindeer who are frighted by the huge firework set off by North Polar Bear (NPB).

I show this because it explains something I never understood when I read the first chapter of The Hobbit. We see FC's hood (as he calls it) flying off his head, and his cloak or cape flying back from his shoulders. This is very different from what I though a detachable hood would look like. It illustrates in a small way that Letters from Father Christmas can help us (or at least me) better understand Tolkien's Middle Earth writings.

 

[TThurston]

NPB's writing english in the style of Arktik. He also includes what he says is an arktik phrase, but which I understand is early Quenya. Apparently, the world of FC shares some language and writing aspects with Middle Earth. Also note that NPB's true name is Finnish for "bear".

 

[TThurston]

Tolkien's illustrations of FC, NPB, and Cave Bear in the goblin tunnels. We set FC holding one of his special sparkling torches for light, which reminds me of the light from Gandalf's staff in Moria. It shows pictures on the walls of the caves, very much like we see in the goblin tunnels in LOTRO. In the middle we see a picture of a goblin on the back of a drasil (a dwarf 'dachshund') - rather like the goblins of The Hobbit riding on wolves. (I wonder if riding wolves rather than drasil's indicates that those goblins are larger than the one pictured here.) We also see a few lurking goblins around the caves, small black creatures about half the height of FC. On the far left side of the picture we see an image that reminds me of the goblin picture on the wall of the passage to Gollum's cave in LOTRO.

The lower picture shows FC's planned party planned for St Stephen's Day, December 26. It is interesting to me that all the creatures in these two pictures seem to be about half the size of FC and NPB when he stands upright.

I suspect that these images of events in goblin caves would have been very much in the mind of Tolkien's children when they read The Hobbit.

 

[TThurston]

A picture of NPB fighting and defeating the goblins who've invaded FC's store-cellars. The goblins here are much smaller than half NPB's height. It is interesting to me that the Red Gnomes helping him all seem to be about the size of the goblins. We aren't told much about them here except that they are the goblin's greatest enemies. In The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings there are no gnomes, but apparently in Tolkien's other Middle Earth writings there are. Perhaps someone familiar with the gnomes of Middle Earth can comment.

 

[TThurston]

Two pictures from Christmas, 1936, less than a year before The Hobbit was published. In the first upper picture we see the flood in FC's English Delivery Room caused by NPB falling asleep in the bath upstairs with the water running. It's interesting to me that FC is clearly standing deep in the water, but his helpers are not. We read that lots of red and green elves had moved in FC's house to help with packing, so I suspect that FC's helpers here are red elves. These helpers (elves?) seem to be much smaller than FC, but perhaps that is a perspective issue. But they don't seem to be standing in the water like FC. Perhaps elves who can run on the surface of snow can also stand on the surface of water.

The lower part of this picture shows NPB teaching the elves about the new number system for keeping track of deliverys to children. Here the elves are clearly smaller than NPB.

 

[TThurston]

A picture from Christmas 1937, just a few months after The Hobbit was published, showing Ilbereth, FC's new elven secretary receiving his instuctions from FC, seated at his desk. He is much smaller than FC. We read that Ilbereth is a master of many alphabets - Arctic, Latin (which ordinary Europeans use), Greek, Russian, Runes, and Elvish. Although it doesn't say so, I assume that he can also write in the corresponding languages. With these skills, he reminds me a bit of Elrond as he appears in The Hobbit. I wonder if Tolkien's children would have thought so. After all, they would certainly have already read The Hobbit when they received this letter from FC.

 

[TThurston]

The end of the Christmas 1937 letter written by Ilbereth (with comments by NPB), with a bit added by NPB at the end. I include it because it shows a variety of writing. Near the end of Ilbereth's section, he writes a bit in elvish script. I cannot read it. Perhaps someone here can. Then NPB writes a bit in what he says is Runick. I also cannot read that. And then NPB mentions the Bingos; the name Bingo is important in LOTRO, but nearly was much more important in Lord of the Rings.

 

[TThurston]

A picture of 1935 showing one of FC's elves using his magic sparkler spears to scare goblins out of their wits. In this picture, elves seem to be a bit larger than goblins, but not by very much. It's also interesting to see that these goblins seem to have tails, and large upright ears on the top of their heads. It seems that goblins are more like rats than I had imagined. It reminds me of the Christmas battle against rats in Nutcracker.

 

[TThurston]

This forum is supposed to be for questions. Everything I've presented so far is context; now for my questions:

How do we account for the great difference between Tolkien's pictures of elves in the Father Christmas letters (around 1935), and the descriptions of elves written near the end of his life 35 years later and published in The Nature of Middle Earth? The pictures depict elves about half the size of Father Christmas (who I assume is the height of an adult man), but 35 years later we read that female elves are 6 feet tall and the male elves are half a foot taller.

I find it quite implausible that Tolkien expected his own children to read The Hobbit and picture elves as described in The Nature of Middle Earth. To me it is much more plausible to expect them to imagine elves more like those of his pictures. I've been re-reading The Hobbit to see what I find regarding this issue. Of course, I do not have access to the 1937 edition of The Hobbit. I understand one of changes relates to Elrond's identification of Thorin and Gandalf's swords. In my edition, he says that they are swords of the High Elves of the West, his kin. (It is interesting to me that he is introduced not as an elf, but an elf-friend, the chief of those who had both elves and the heros of the north ancestors.) Little Bilbo used a knife from the troll cache as a sword, but both apparently both Thorin and Gandalf were the right size for their swords. But the text here seems to indicate that it does not work for a small person to use a sword made for a much larger person.

When Thorin's company left Hobbiton, all the dwarves rode ponies, Gandalf rode a horse, and Bilbo had a very small pony; this suggests something about the relative size of the riders. But when they left Rivendell, Gandalf switched to riding a pony, so perhaps he wasn't too much bigger than the dwarves. (I ignore here Gandalf's later riding of Shadowfax, clearly no small pony; I'm just considering the text of The Hobbit.) When The Hobbit opens, the narrator reports that hobbits are about half our size, smaller than the bearded dwarves. We read that the hidden door to the Lonely Mountain was five feet high; I expect that means that dwarves were somewhat shorter than that. (I ignore here the assumption that "feet" is a standard unit of size; perhaps it was, but perhaps not.) Were the High Elves who made Thorin's sword about his height? Was he able to comfortably use a sword made for someone two feet taller than he was?

In The Hobbit, our first introduction to elves comes when the company enters the Rivendell valley; they are heard singing in the trees - the silly "tra-la-la-lally" song. One of them, a tall young fellow, comes out of the trees, greets Gandalf and Thorin, and provides directions to Elrond's house. In my opinion, those words - "tall" and "young" are ambiguous. When I first read The Hobbit at age 14, I imagined that to mean "tall compared to the present company" or "tall compared to me" and "young compared to the present company" or "young compared to me". The present company was dwarves, Gandalf, a hobbit, and other elves still hidden in the trees. Gandalf was probably tallest of the present company. Was that elf taller than Gandalf? He could be considered tall if he were taller than all the dwarves, but still shorter than Gandalf. How about all the other elves still hidden in the trees; perhaps he came forward because he was the tallest of the elves, even though he might have been shorter than any of the dwarves. Regarding the reading "tall compared to me": when the text first described hobbits in chapter 1 as "half our height" it suggests that I think of their size in comparison to my size; so perhaps the reading "tall compared to me" is the correct reading. Or perhaps the text means "tall compared to a man of the twentieth century" (which matches Tolkien's elf height from The Nature of Middle Earth). But (to be a bit silly) "tall young fellow" could mean, "someone as young as the reader, but tall for his age". When I read this at age 14, perhaps the elf was my age, but taller than me? Or just taller than other elves that age? Who can say?

I've not progressed beyond "Over Hill and Under Hill" in my re-reading of The Hobbit as I explore this issue. Perhaps my views will change. But my current personal belief is that Tolkien's views about the nature of elves changed over the 35 years after the time The Hobbit was written and he drew pictures of elves for his children. I would be very interested to hear if Tolkien himself or Christopher Tolkien ever provided any clarification that would indicating an unchanging vs a changing view of the nature of elves.

Of course, one explanation is that since Ilbereth and Father Christmas' other elves are in the world of the 1930's, I shouldn't be surprised to find them different in stature from the elves of Middle Earth. After all, Galadriel stated that the elves who didn't depart would diminish. Perhaps this would include a reduced stature. But Tolkien does not provide this statement from Galadriel until The Lord of the Rings was published many years later.

A final note: when the company enters Rivendell Valley and encounters the elves in the trees, the text suggests that Bilbo's has a choice - on one hand staying with elves, listening to their singing, and perhaps learning their opinion of his adventure, or other other hand going to Elrond's house and losing out. The singing "tra-la-la-lally" elves are those outside in the trees, but they do not seem to be in Elrond's house. In the Hobbit, Elrond and his kin seem to be distinct from those silly elves. After all, he is described as noble and fair in the face as an elf-lord, but not as an actual elf-lord. In my opinon, the silly elves singing in the trees would not have have included noble elf-lords. I think the silly singing elves were distinct from noble elf-lords; perhaps of a different stature as well as different temperment. Other may disagree; I believe Corey does. But who can say with any certainty?

I imagine it seems that I have more than an academic interest in these questions. Perhaps I do. My mother's brother was a student at Oxford from the fall of 1936 for the next three years. The Hobbit was published and three of Father's Chrismas' letters to the Tolkien children were written while my uncle lived about 1.5 miles away from their house - but my uncle lived to the south, so Father Christmas may not have passed that way as he came from the north pole.

 

[Odola]

A picture of NPB fighting and defeating the goblins who've invaded FC's store-cellars. The goblins here are much smaller than half NPB's height. It is interesting to me that the Red Gnomes helping him all seem to be about the size of the goblins. We aren't told much about them here except that they are the goblin's greatest enemies. In The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings there are no gnomes, but apparently in Tolkien's other Middle Earth writings there are. Perhaps someone familiar with the gnomes of Middle Earth can comment.

View attachment 5550

Gnomes later become the Noldor in Tolkien's writings.

Regarding swords length - those are very variable, just as a dagger might be a full sword for a hobbit, a gladius type sword might be a Zweihänder for a dwarf?
Regarding the height of elves in the Hobbit, well - the raft-elves seem normal height? And is Bilbo mithril shirt not made for a small elvish princeling? If so, their children are hobbit size = the adults must be considerably higher.

 

[TThurston]

I've learned a bit since yesterday's post. For one thing, goblins and dragons were part of the ordinary culture of Oxford, not just something for fantasy literature. My uncle's college had both a goblin club (for men) and a faerie club (for women). And at least two of the Tolkien boys attended Dragon School. I wonder if anyone has explored or written about the Tolkien boys (small persons) going on an advenure to face a dragon (their school). It seems a bit like The Hobbit to me.

Odola's point about Bilbo's mithril mail coat is a good one. The text says it was wought for some young elf-prince. But again, young is ambiguous. If an elf lives centuries, when is he young, and when is he no longer young? I suppose when we meet Legolas, we meet a young elf-prince, since his father is an elf-king, and he is relatively young for an elf. But we meet him years later, in The Lord of the Rings, when Tolkien's ideas about elves may (or may not) have changed.

 

[Odola]

Odola's point about Bilbo's mithril mail coat is a good one. The text says it was wought for some young elf-prince. But again, young is ambiguous. If an elf lives centuries, when is he young, and when is he no longer young? I suppose when we meet Legolas, we meet a young elf-prince, since his father is an elf-king, and he is relatively young for an elf. But we meet him years later, in The Lord of the Rings, when Tolkien's ideas about elves may (or may not) have changed.

We do not meet Legolas in the Hobbit book, at least not consciously... It is not as if Bilbo was introduced to the court... and Tranduil is modelled after Elu Thingol (both names even share the same tree letter stem "TNL")- and as far I know Thingol already exited in Tolkien's mind. And Thingol was reportedly tall.

 

[Flammifer]

Good stuff TThurston!

JRRT was obviously mixing up a lot of mythic themes and other influences, in these letters to his children.

I would say the predominant mythic theme was the familiar and traditional English Christmas myths, of Father Christmas, living at the North Pole, delivering presents with the assistance of reindeer, having the help of elves (gnomes). However, he could not help (as in The Hobbit, or, more deliberately in TLOTR) letting elements of his legendarium seep in. The letters were also influenced by whatever was going on that Christmas in the Tolkien household, and what his children had written in their letters to Father Christmas.

I wonder if there was a faint influence from JRRT's earlier ambitions to 'create a mythology for England'? Here, I wonder about the red uniforms of his gnomish soldiers who fight the goblins. Of course, red is a traditional color for Father Christmas, but also the traditional uniform of the British Army - the 'thin red line'. (Though in JRRT's own WWI army, this had changed to khaki of course.)

I also note the NPB's reference to 'messengers', and their fate (buried or lost). JRRT was interested in 'messengers', from his poem 'Errantry' onwards. And some of his 'messengers' were lost, at least to those from Middle-earth (Earendil, Frodo, Bilbo).

I don't think that JRRT intended the elves in his Father Christmas letters to be the same elves as those in his legendarium. No, those were the elves from the English Christmas mythology. Nor do I think that his children would have been particularly confused by elves in The Hobbit. Kids learn quickly; different story, different mythology. In one story bears might be benevolent, kindly, and good (and even diminutive, like Paddington), in the next story, they might be dangerous, fierce, huge, and very scary! Same is true for elves.

 

[TThurston]

It seems that Tolkien himself was not the only illustrator that showed elves having a smaller stature than an adult man. Pauline Baynes, who illustrated several of his books made the following illustration of the fellowship:



This illustration was from the top of a poster published by Allen and Unwin in 1970. It shows the stature of each member of the fellowship about as I always imagined them, with Boromir and Aragorn the tallest, Legolas significantly shorter and quite slender, Gandalf a bit shorter, Gimli shorter still, and then the hobbits all a bit shorter than the two men's waists. Although Tolkien is reported to have been pleased with many of her illustrations, he is said to have been less happy with how she depicted some of his heros - as perhaps we see here.

But this picture clearly shows how it would make sense for Legolas with Gimli behind him to ride together on a horse that would normally carry one man - as they so often did after entering Rohan. It also fits many of the other accounts of elves in The Hobbit and LotR. For example, when Bilbo, the dwarves and Gandalf first enter Rivendell and are met by a tall young elf, an elf of Legolas' stature would be taller than any of that company while still being much shorter than a full-sized man. When large, heavy Aragorn and Boromir ploughed through the deep snow on Caradhras, a lithe elf as Legolas is here pictured can easily be imagined to run lightly over the surface. In the same way, this Legolas lightly runs up the rope ladder of Haldir's talan in Lothlorien. For me, all these things are much harder to envison when Legolas is taller than most adult men, and not this slight, slender, lithe elf. Tolkien may have eventually come a vision of elves 6 and half feet tall and well-muscled, but the text LotR and The Hobbit allow one to easily picture an elf like Legolas in Pauline Bayne's picture of the fellowship.

In the same way, while Gandalf is clearly much larger than a hobbit in her picture, he is much smaller than the men. He might still be able to visit with Bilbo or Frodo in Bag End, which would be quite a challenge if he were the size of a full-grown man. Imagine a giant 12 or more feet tall visiting with you in your house; that's what it would be like for a full sized man to visit the home of a hobbit - not very easy to sit and chat together in the parlour.

Another illustration of Pauline Baynes was used as cover art for a 1974 paperback illustration of LotR, as follows:



If you examine the bottom right corner, you'll see all 9 members of the fellowship with the same relative sizes as in the larger picture above. Apparently, Tolkien's publishers were as confused as me regarding the stature of his elves and Gandalf, at least until the mid 70's.