Oxford

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The name Oxford refers to more than one character, item or concept. For a list of other meanings, see Oxford (disambiguation).
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Oxford is the city in which J.R.R. Tolkien spent a great deal of his life living in. Both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings were written in North Oxford.

The Tolkien family resided in 20 Northmoor Road and in March 1947 they moved to 3 Manor Road.[1]

In Tolkien's writings[edit | edit source]

Early legendarium[edit | edit source]

Main article: Taruithorn

Later legendarium[edit | edit source]

Tolkien signed as Arcastar Mondósaresse ("Tolkien in Oxford") in a 1968 letter to the producer of the BBC documentary Tolkien in Oxford.[2] Therefore, Mondósar is the proper Quenya name for "Oxford", probably a compound of mundo ("bull, ox") and root THAR.[3]

In the abandoned The Notion Club Papers, the Notion Club and its members are based in Oxford.

According to a map of Middle-earth annotated by Tolkien, Hobbiton was at approximately the same latitude as Oxford.[4]

See also[edit | edit source]

References

  1. Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull (eds), The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion, p. lxxiv
  2. Christie's, Valuable Printed Books and Manuscripts, Sale 7275, lot 152. See also Mellonath Daeron Tengwar Specimen #70
  3. Paul Strack, "Q. #Mondósar loc.", Eldamo - An Elvish Lexicon (accessed 23 April 2020)
  4. "Tolkien’s annotated map of Middle-earth transcribed" dated 10 November 2015, The Tolkien Society (accessed 3 April 2016)