The German publishing firm of Rutten & Loening contacted Allen & Unwin in 1938 (the publishers of The Hobbit) and wanted to negotiate with them for a German translation of the book. But first and foremost, they wanted to know if Tolkien was of “arisch” origin. (Aryan) Tolkien wrote a brief note to Stanley Unwin, saying that he wanted to refuse to give them an answer. He didn’t want to add to “the wholly pernicious and unscientific race-doctrine” by comfirming or denying. However – he didn’t want to ruin his chances of The Hobbit being read in Germany. He submitted to Mr. Unwin two drafts of letters to the German publishers, and left it up to Unwin to decide.
Here is one of the drafts:
25 July 1938
To Rutten & Loening Verlag
Dear Sirs,
Thank you for your letter … I regret that I am not clear as to what you intend by arisch. I am not of Aryan extraction: that is Indo-iranian; as far as I am aware none of my ancestors spoke Hindustani, Persian, Gypsy, or any related dialects. But if I am to understand that you are enquiring whether I am of Jewish origin, I can only reply that I regret that I appear to have no ancestors of that gifted people. My great-great-grandfather came to England in the eighteenth century from Germany: the main part of my descent is therefore purely English, and I am an English subject – which should be sufficient. I have been accustomed, nonetheless, to regard my German name with pride, and continued to do so throughout the period of the late regrettable war, in which I served in the English army. I cannot, however, forbear to comment that if impertinent and irrelevant inquiries of this sort are to become the rule in matters of literature, then the time is not far distant when a German name will no longer be a source of pride.Your enquiry is doubtless made in order to comply with the laws of your own country, but that this should be held to apply to the subjects of another state would be improper, even if it had (as it has not) any bearing whatsoever on the merits of my work or its sustainability for publication, of which you appear to have satisfied yourselves without reference to my Abstammung.
I trust you will find this reply satisfactory, and remain yours faithfully
J.R.R. Tolkien
As a child, I was obsessed with The Hobbit. That first chapter is one of the best first chapters of all time. It thrilled me on such a deep and satisfying level it was almost overwhelming. I read Lord of the Rings and even parts of The Silmarillion, but nothing came close to how The Hobbit grabbed me. I was more into the Narnia books, the Anne of Green Gables and Emily series, Madeleine L’Engle’s books and Enid Blyton books. There was plenty to keep me busy.
I reviewed both Desolation of Smaug and Battle of the Five Armies for Rogerebert.com (reviews at the links).
I went through a big Tolkien phase in 2003-2004, mainly because I was reading his correspondence. The correspondence is truly extraordinary, because he was so eloquent about his thought process in re: creating that world, and there are times you get the sense that all of it was unfolding in front of HIS eyes as well. There’s even a sense, at times, that he knows he is not in charge of it at all. IT’S in charge of HIM.
Exhibit A on that score:
Tolkien’s publisher Allen & Unwin wrote to Tolkien, asking for progress on the sequel to The Hobbit. Tolkien replied at length on August 31 1938, and here’s an excerpt:
I have begun again on the sequel to the ‘Hobbit’ – The Lord of the Ring. It is now flowing along, and getting quite out of hand. It has reached about Chapter VII and progresses towards quite unforeseen goals. I must say I think it is a good deal better in places and some ways than the predecessor; but that does not say that I think it either more suitable or more adapted for its audience. For one thing it is, like my own children (who have the immediate serial rights), rather ‘older’. I can only say that Mr. [C.S.] Lewis (my stout backer of the Times and T.L.S.) professes himself more than pleased. If the weather is wet in the next fortnight we may have got still further on. But it is no bed-time story.
“getting quite out of hand”
“quite unforeseen goals”
“no bed-time story”
Wonderful.
Fans of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis seem to fall into such distinctive camps. After reading The Hobbit in eighth grade, I was firmly a Tolkien fan while my best friend hated those books and loved Narnia. We spent so much time trying to convince each other that the other one was right. It wasn’t until I was an adult and read about their friendship and how their backgrounds and personal experiences in war flavored those books that my appreciation deepened for both authors. Fascinating stuff.
BTW I use the search function more frequently than tags as well.
Paula – interesting! And yes, the friendship between these two men – who created two of the most popular book-series in the 20th century – being colleagues and friends – it’s almost too good to be true!!
I’m not sure why the Narnia books touched me more than The Hobbit. I think because there was an element of humanity in it – the kids in the house, WWII, siblings … stumbling on a magical world. The Tolkien stuff doesn’t have that, so it just didn’t have the same KIND of appeal to me. I like little regular everyday kids who stumble onto something … the complex world-building of Tolkien is impressive, but it just didn’t hook me in the same way.
Good to know my Search function works. I have Tags for everything!! It’s like my own little Dewy Decimal system.
//Regular everyday kids// is the difference and made the Narnia stories more relatable. Their POV is ours. My friend always wanted to be Susan while I was that OCD kid immersed for hours in Tolkien maps trying to figure out exactly how far Minas Tirith was from Rohan. Once I started on works by an author like Tolkien it was like a freight train with no stops. Same with Guy Gavriel Kay or Frank Herbert or George RR Martin. 10000s of pages of worldbuilding. Yikes.
I can’t agree more, Paula, I am a LOTR girl, an appendices girl, a Silmarillion girl. Nothing pleased me more than that episode of the Colbert Report where James Franco foolishly challenged Colbert to name two Valar. It makes me feel so RIGHTEOUS!
Yes, righteous is the word! Nothing makes me happier than to see an appendix with family trees and etymology guides for made-up languages. One of my favorite words is glossopoeia which I believe Tolkien created to describe the creation of a language. This image of him painstakingly scratching out the words, playing around with how they would be pronounced, what the script and lettering would look like is like word porn to me.
This also explains an obsessive desire to hide out in the MoL Bunker studying Enochian and ancient runes and to create a detailed map of the Bunker layout. Perhaps I could write a companion piece to Supernatural one day with all these things, in neatly ordered appendices, of course.
Okay, I had never seen that clip and I am ROARING.
// Nothing makes me happier than to see an appendix with family trees and etymology guides for made-up languages. //
This is beautiful.
And the librarian’s daughter in me also wants to hang out in the bunker. We still need someone to make up floor plans – but we also need an index card filing system – like “the boys” clearly do.
When I was devouring Tolkien’s correspondence – I loved how the book was edited, because he wrote so many unfinished drafts of letters – and those are included, because it’s the glimpse of his thought process and its intricacies that is important – not that the letter reached the sender.
So through the rest of his life, post LOTR, fans would write to him asking about Orcs or morality of Hobbits or whatever, and he would write a 10-page letter in response. And then just stop writing, put it down, never send it, and move onto the next. What a fascinating man! Clearly a genius.
There’s one letter where he mentions something about one of his own passages – and sorry, Tolkien ladies, I won’t remember the exact section of LOTR but I imagine (hmmm, why would I get that impression?? ha) – that you will remember. In the book – there’s that section where they hole up in the fortress of the Elves (I think?) – and from across the gigantic plain they can hear the thunder of horses’ hooves – an army approaching.
And he answered somebody’s question about whether or not he LIVED these books – and how he felt when he was imagining his way into them – that that was the only passage he wrote where he felt transported AS he wrote it. A sense-memory experience – so vivid that it felt like a memory. Like something that had actually happened.
I found that just extraordinary (and not at all surprising.) Despite the fact that the details of the sequence are lost to me (since I haven’t read the book as many times as you all) – I DO remember that passage, and its momentous feeling, the sense of gigantic events curving across the earth – but grounded in the sensorial details of light on the plain, and sounds of hooves, and cold mountain air, etc.
He was an extraordinary creator.
// hile I was that OCD kid immersed for hours in Tolkien maps trying to figure out exactly how far Minas Tirith was from Rohan. //
Ha! I totally get it.
If the weather is wet in the next fortnight we may have got still further on.
OMG I FEEL YOU JRR.
Love this post Sheila. This guy is the best. I think your posts on his letters predate my presence here so I shall definitely use the tags! Tolkien is huge for me. I read The Hobbit when I was five or six; and I used to haul the 40th anniversary edition with Alan Lee illustrations to school in a plastic bag. That particular book is one of the most important textual experiences of my life. The feel of that book will always be a part of me — its weight, the ethereal and ominous Lee illustrations, the superthin crinkly paper that was like an old Macquarie Dictionary I also used to pore over, the maps, the family trees, the linguistic esoterica, and the WORDS!
Probably that book and Harry Harrison’s Stainless Steel Rat series are responsible for 50% of who I am today. I never said I was classy.
Jessie – beautiful!!
// The feel of that book will always be a part of me — its weight, the ethereal and ominous Lee illustrations, the superthin crinkly paper that was like an old Macquarie Dictionary I also used to pore over, the maps, the family trees, the linguistic esoterica, and the WORDS! //
I absolutely love the physical memory of books that I loved as a kid – I still own a couple of the books from my childhood that had that impact – my copy of Alice in Wonderland, an edition from the Victorian era – with slick smooth heavy pages, where the type indents the page – and Tenniel’s drawings also indent. Very very special book – a special story but the object itself has so much meaning to me too.
// Probably that book and Harry Harrison’s Stainless Steel Rat series are responsible for 50% of who I am today. //
So did you sob when Charlie read the book to her mother in the hospital bed? I know I did.
Jessie and Sheila- That is a great edition of a great book. Alan Lee’s illustrations helped me re-imagine Middle Earth.
When my kids were smaller, I used to read to them before bed, starting of course with picture books (Mo Willems and Rosemary Wells rock!) and then moving on to stuff like Bednobs and Broomsticks, Harry Potter, etc. Finally, one day, I pulled this edition off the shelf and offered it to them. The Hobbit is a book that was written to be read out loud–and I never realized it until I tried it! Tolkein’s way of describing Bilbo’s reactions to things, and his humorous asides to the audience, the way the words flow together. It was magical. It was also bittersweet, because it turned out to be the last book we read out loud together.
So yes, I cried when Charlie read the book to her mom in the hospital, too.
I think I have mis-typed and implied that it was The Hobbit that I used to haul around but it was in fact LOTR, and a spot of research informs me it was no special edition but just a one-volume hardback from 1991. Anyway. I have read the opening sentence to The Hobbit so many times that if I did not cry when Charlie started reading it I was very close indeed.
Barb — I know what you mean about reading it aloud! I tried to get my little sister into books by reading The Hobbit to her. We never made it far. Ah well. I am no Patrick Tull and Harry Potter got her eventually. And today she sent me a snapchat about finding an old box of books and clearing her afternoon for reading. ha ha ha sweet victory!!!!!
I’m glad the Search box is useful!
The talk of maps reminded me of this Russian illustration of Middle Earth from a Soviet edition of The Hobbit.
Aside from the beauty of the map (that wolf! that dragon!) the accompanying article on the cultural and political translations involved in creating the map is fascinating.
That Is very interesting, Helena, and something I’ve never seen before. Thank you for posting the map and article.
Helena – wow, that is amazing. I love maps, in general – and this is fascinating. I would love to read further research on this.
Never got into Tolkien, but my mother and grandmother were nuts about him. Question: Did Rutten & Loening ever publish him? I’m guessing that the great letter you include in this post isn’t the one that was sent. It is a fine letter, though.
You know what? I don’t know. Let me do some research – it would be really interesting to know the coda to all of this.