Letter 243

The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
Letter 243
Recipient	Michael Tolkien (b. 1920)
Date	December 19, 1962
Subject(s)	Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl and Sir Orfeo

Letter 243 is a letter written by J.R.R. Tolkien and published in The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien.

Summary

Tolkien wished Mick a merry Christmas. After his retirement, so the Professor told, he was short of money, but Allen & Unwin paid his royalties for the very popular The Adventures of Tom Bombadil (8,000 copies sold prior to publication) in advance. Arcrene Wisse was in the process of being printed, and Gawain and Pearl were to be, the following year. Tolkien looked forward to working on the legends of Númenor. Also, a "Festschrift" was in the works, containing a prefatory ode by W.H. Auden, and contributions by 22 Anglists. It was the plan of Rayner Unwin and Norman Davis (Tolkien's successor), to commemorate Tolkien's 70th birthday, the following January 3.

Notes

• The translations of Gawain and Pearl would not come out until 1975.
• The Festschrift is titled English and Medieval Studies Presented to J.R.R. Tolkien on the Occasion of his Seventieth Birthday, edited by Norman Davis and Charles Leslie Wrenn (London: Allen & Unwin, 1962).