Letter to Mr and Mrs Kloos

Mr. and Mrs. Kloos 18 April-6 May 1963 is a letter from J.R.R. Tolkien to anthropologists Anneke C. Kloos-Adriaansen and P. Kloos. Tolkien started writing the letter on 18 April 1963 and finished writing on 6 May (suffering from symptoms of fibrositis, he could not finish the letter at once).

• Subject: Replying to their letter from 23 March, Tolkien writes at length about "his sources and inspiration for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings".
• Publication: Excerpts from the letter were published in The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion.

Excerpts

"[The Old Took] has part of his origin in the fact that both my grandfathers were longeval. My father's father was in his eleventh year when Waterloo was fought; my mother's father, a much younger man, was born before Queen Victoria came to the throne, and survived till his ninety-ninth year, missing his 'hundred' (with which he was as much concerned as Bilbo was to surpass the Old Took) only because he mowed a large lawn that spring and then sat in the wind without a jacket."

― J.R.R. Tolkien

"[The incidents of the Witch-king's knife in Book I, Chapter 12, and of Merry's sword in Book V, Chapter 6] were intended to be integrated with the entire mytho-historical background, events in an agelong war. Frodo received his wound from the Witchking under Weathertop, the bulwark of the ancient fortified line made by the Numenoreans against his kingdom; Meriadoc's dagger was taken from the gravemounds of the same people. It was made by smiths who knew all about Sauron and his servants, and made in prophetic vision or hope of ending just as it did. [spellings sic]"

― J.R.R. Tolkien