Bill Stickers
Bill Stickers was a villain — a figure in a "long-running family epic" told by J.R.R. Tolkien to his children. The stories "revolved around the tireless efforts of Major Road Ahead to prosecute the villain".[1]
Bill Stickers was an "irrepressible villain" and "a huge hulk of a man who always got away with everything".[2]
Inspiration
Tolkien was inspired by "signs hanging on various Oxford gates",[1] saying "Bill Stickers Will Be Prosecuted".[2][note 1] Basing his discussion on a newspaper article revealing that C.S. Lewis was a member a secret gang during the 1920s,[3] David Bratman has speculated that Tolkien in addition might have been inspired by the gang member Margaret Pollard's (a friend of Lewis's) gang pseudonym, "Bill Stickers".[4]
The stories about Bill Stickers and Major Road Ahead were only told orally (possibly around 1926 and 1930[5]), and have thus not been recorded,[6] unlike, for example, Roverandom and Letters from Father Christmas.
Notes
- ↑ It's an old prank to paste up posters with 'Bill Stickers is Innocent' underneath these sign (cf. Bill Stickers is innocent).
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Humphrey Carpenter, J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography, Chapter 7
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Austin Olney, "About J.R.R. Tolkien", HoughtonMifflinBooks.com (accessed 12 November 2013)
- ↑ Thomas Burrows, "CS Lewis supported secret heritage gang" dated 15 October 2013, OxfordMail.co.uk (accessed 12 November 2013)
- ↑ David Bratman, "ten miscellanies make a blog post" dated 5 November 2013, Kalimac.livejournal.com (accessed 12 November 2013)
- ↑ Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond (2006), The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide: I. Chronology, p. 135
- ↑ Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond (2006), The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide: II. Reader's Guide, p. 162