The Hobbit and The Father Christmas Letters
2013; Mythopoeic Society; Volume: 32; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
0146-9339
Autores Tópico(s)Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies
ResumoAN OLD MAN FAMOUS FOR PREWORKS. A last homely house in a desolate landscape. Elves. Goblins. Dragons. A gruff but affable bear. These are all familiar story elements from The Hobbit, fantasy novel that earned J.R.R. Tolkien popular acclaim when it was first published in 1937. Before, during, and after his work on The Hobbit, Tolkien was also engaged in an annual holiday tradition of sending letters and pictures to his children in guise of Father Christmas. These Father Christmas Letters also featured an old man with fireworks, a homely house, elves, goblins, dragons, and a gruff but affable bear. The worlds of Bilbo Baggins and Nicholas Christmas are very different, yet they have several striking similarities in character-types, settings and plotlines. Tolkien famously discussed how new stories are constructed from bones of old legends, tales and history. He said the Pot of Soup, Cauldron of Story, has always been boiling, and to it have continually been added new bits (On Fairy-Stories [OFS] 125). Several scholars have shown how Tolkien himself made liberal use of great world Cauldron of Story to create his own, new tales. (1) But in addition to great Cauldron, Tolkien created his own Pot of Soup, recycling and recasting figures and devices from his personal legendarium into new and different stories. Elves and dragons, for instance, appear repeatedly in Tolkien's tales. The Hobbit recycles character- and place-names (such as Elrond and Gondolin) from bones of Tolkien's older Tales, stories and poems which would evolve into The Silmarillion. In their introduction to Tolkien's children's story, Roverandom, Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond remark that As more of Tolkien's works have been published [...] since his death, it has become clear that nearly all of his writings are interrelated, if only in small ways, and that each sheds a welcome light upon others (xix). Comparing The Hobbit to early Christmas letters--those written prior to and during Tolkien's work on The Hobbit--interrelationships become apparent in at least three different ways: 1. both Father Christmas Letters and The Hobbit contain story elements which have common roots in Tolkien's early Lost Tales and poems; 2. some story elements in Father Christmas Letters appear to have been borrowed from The Hobbit; and 3. a few story elements in The Hobbit appeared in Father Christmas Letters first, suggesting that borrowing may have gone both ways. Like master chef who uses similar ingredients to create two very different flavors of soup, a master storyteller can use same character-types, settings, and plotlines to create different stories. Analyzing these three types of interrelationships between The Hobbit and Father Christmas Letters may shed light--if only in small ways--on Tolkien's creative process, how he added to and drew from his legendarium, his own Cauldron of Story, to produce new tales. Father Christmas and Letters Each winter from 1920-1943, envelopes bearing hand-drawn stamps from North Pole arrived for Tolkien's children. Inside were letters and pictures he created in guise of Father Nicholas Christmas or one of his companions. At first these were simple greetings, but over years Tolkien added colorful characters and exciting stories. The family preserved these artifacts and, after Tolkien's death, published them as Father Christmas Letters in 1976. The collection has been revised and republished several times with latest edition, Letters from Father Christmas, in September 2012. (2) Father Christmas was, of course, already a familiar figure in England's Cauldron of Story, personification of Christmas spirit in British Isles. Some have pointed to a pagan origin (a perceived resemblance to Saturn, Neptune and Odin), but term comes into use only in 15th century in Christmas carols (Bowler). …
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