The Icelandic Canadian - 01.09.1977, Síða 39

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
37
BOOK REVIEW
By Tom Oleson
An Unexpected Pleasure
FATHER CHRISTMAS LETTERS:
by J. R. R. Tolkien, edited by Baillie
Tolkien, unpaginated, Agincourt,
Methuen, $7.95.
This book is as fine a Christmas pre-
sent as one could wish for. It comes com-
pletely unexpected, unheralded by any
public fanfare (at least in this country).
It is almost as if the publisher wished to
give all J. R. R. Tolkien fans a pleasant
surprise for Christmas.
Tolkien, as everyone must surely
know, is the author of the Hobbit and
The Lord of the Rings along with sever-
al other less ambitious books. His books
are of the rarest quality; they have vig-
orous language, an almost unparal-
leled sweep of imagination and a magic
element that allows them to be enjoyed
by both children and adults.
They are books to be read and reread,
so rich and so inventive that every time
one returns to them there are new dis-
coveries to be made, discoveries that can
almost compensate for the fact that the
thrill of the first reading can never quite
be regained, although it is never for-
gotten. They are books, too, which
demand to be read to children—a long,
long but delightful duty, and while it is
being done one need never fear losing
the audience’s attention.
When J. R. R. Tolkien died, it was be-
lieved by his admirers that only one
book, The Silmarillion, which describes
events that prededed the story of The
Lord of the Rings, remained to be pub-
lished. Tolkien had worked on it for
years but it was still unfinished at his
death and the mammoth task of com-
pleting it fell to his son, Christopher.
(There have been rumors that it may
finally be published sometime in 1977.)
Thus this book, The Father Christmas
Letters, comes as a complete surprise.
It is not nearly so ambitious as The Lord
of the Rings or The Hobbit, but like
everything Tolkien wrote, it has been
done thoroughly and with great care and
an affection that is clearly revealed in
the writing.
The book consists of letters from
Father Christmas, written by Tolkien
and sent to his children. One arrived
each Christmas for about 20 years until
the youngest child had grown too old to
hang up a Christmas stocking. Each
letter would appear in the house, ad-
dressed in a shaky but ornate hand-
writing, bearing a North Pole stamp and
marked “Delivered by Elf Messenger”,
or by gnomes or reindeer express.
In them Father Christmas told the
Tolkien children about the events of the
past year at the North Pole: the troubles
caused him by the antics of his willing
but not too bright helper, the North
Polar Bear (a creation in the true
Tolkien tradition); more troubles caused
him by the antics of the North Polar
Bear’s two young nephews (“They seem
to be growing up to be just like their
uncle”, writes F. C. in a tone of affec-
tionate despair); battles with goblins
who are always trying to steal the Christ-
mas presents; and other adventures and
the domestic problems besetting the
busy Father Christmas as he prepares
for his yearly journey.
With each letter came some drawings
which illustrate the events it described,
done by Tolkien himself and reproduced