- 785
Tolkien, J.R.R. The Lord of the Rings. George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1955-1957
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Description
The Fellowship of the Ring. 1956, first edition, fifth impression; The Two Towers. 1957, first edition, fifth impression; The Return of the King. 1955, first edition, first impression (first state of first impression); 8vo, PRESENTATION COPIES INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR WITH ADDITIONAL LINE IN QUENYA on tipped-in slips, loosely inserted TYPED LETTER SIGNED BY TOLKIEN DISCUSSING THE PHRASE FROM HIS `ELVISH' LANGUAGE, 3 volumes, illustrations, maps including folding map at end of each volume, original red cloth, some browning and spotting, ownership inscriptions, bindings worn and soiled, slightly skewed, owner's annotations (3) This lot contains 1 item(s).
Catalogue Note
These copies are inscribed for ``MRR''. A friend and colleague of Tolkien's, M.R. Ridley was the first Fellow in English Literature at Balliol from 1920 until 1945. He wrote a number of scholarly works including Keats' Craftsmanship, he edited the `New Temple Shakespeare' and produced a Modern English translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Tolkien's old English edition of Sir Gawain was published in 1925 and is regarded as the standard edition. It is thought that Ridley was the probable model for Dorothy Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey.
The inscription includes three words in Quenya taken from Galadriel's song of farewell in The Fellowship of the Ring and is translated as ``Maybe thou shalt find Valimar'' (Valinor being the Blessed Realm, west of the sea). Tolkien's letter (1 page, 76 Sandfield Road, Oxford, 27 September 1961) thanks Ridley for his writing in `Elvish' praising it as ``very much better than the `Elvish' of those mis-guided correspondents who write to me in the script''. He then translates the phrase and includes a ``better rendering'':
...this is not very well translated ``maybe thou shalt find Valimar''; in Elvish nai with the Future expresses a wish rather than a doubtful statement. A better rendering is ``may you come to the Blessed Realm''.
Ridley has made several annotations noting typographical errors throughout the three volumes.
Sotheby's would like to thank Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull for their invaluable help with cataloguing this lot.
The inscription includes three words in Quenya taken from Galadriel's song of farewell in The Fellowship of the Ring and is translated as ``Maybe thou shalt find Valimar'' (Valinor being the Blessed Realm, west of the sea). Tolkien's letter (1 page, 76 Sandfield Road, Oxford, 27 September 1961) thanks Ridley for his writing in `Elvish' praising it as ``very much better than the `Elvish' of those mis-guided correspondents who write to me in the script''. He then translates the phrase and includes a ``better rendering'':
...this is not very well translated ``maybe thou shalt find Valimar''; in Elvish nai with the Future expresses a wish rather than a doubtful statement. A better rendering is ``may you come to the Blessed Realm''.
Ridley has made several annotations noting typographical errors throughout the three volumes.
Sotheby's would like to thank Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull for their invaluable help with cataloguing this lot.