Letter to Father Francis Morgan
From Tolkien Gateway
On 8 August 1904, J.R.R. Tolkien wrote a letter to Father Francis Morgan.
- Description: The letter, a "remarkable code letter" written by the 12-year-old Tolkien, is kept at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, and ends with the limerick seen below.[1]
- Publication: An excerpt of the letter was published in The Invented Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien: Drawings and Original Manuscripts from the Marquette University Collection.[1] The full letter in colour was published in Beyond Bree, October 2020 issue, together with a commentary by Denis Bridoux.[2]
Excerpt[edit | edit source]
There was an old priest named Francis
Who was so fond of "cheefongy" dances
That he sat up too late
And worried his pate
Arranging these Frenchified Prances
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "The AB Language Lives" by Arne Zettersten in The Invented Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien: Drawings and Original Manuscripts from the Marquette University Collection (2004)
- ↑ "Tolkien's 1904 Rebus letter to Father Morgan", Tolkien Collector's Guide (accessed 29 October 2020)