Where did Professor Tolkien find the Red Book of Westmarch?
This question has vexed me since I first read the Lord of the Rings forty years ago.
Was it secreted in the bowels of the Bodleian Library? Did Tolkien, then a spotty undergraduate, chance upon it while seeking a nook to nap in?
Perhaps, as a newly-minted second lieutenant anxiously awaiting his deployment to France, he found the Red Book in a mouldy second-hand bookshop in Lichfield.
Tolkien never revealed the source of the Red Book, and sadly the only other person who might have had an inkling, his son and literary heir Christopher, died a few years ago. Now that these two great men have passed on I think it’s highly improbable that the provenance of the Red Book will ever be known.
However it’s very important that Red Book research continues for two reasons :
- to increase the chances that another copy of the Red Book may be discovered, and
- to seek other primary textual sources from Middle-earth.
A new copy of the Red Book of Westmarch would be an incredible discovery, worthy of newspaper headlines (if not the front page then probably page five at least1).
The discovery of another copy of the Red Book would revive Middle-earth research, which for many years has been strangled by the vice-like grip of the Tolkien Estate.
As Austin Gilkeson revealed in his fascinating article “How I Defeated the Tolkien Estate”2 the original Red Book and its translation are jealously guarded by the Estate directors. Gilkeson found a tatty photocopied version of the Red Book in his college library and produced an unauthorised translation3. This achievement gave me hope that other undiscovered documents from Middle-earth may still exist.
There are so many gaps in our knowledge of Middle-earth. Readers are hungry to learn more about the Elder Days, the rise and fall of Númenor, and the mysterious Rhún and Harad. For many years the Red Book was the only source of knowledge we had, but the second-hand bookshops of the world contain many ancient and surprising marvels.
I’ve been fortunate to travel to many countries and comb through their eclectic vintage book merchants, op-shops and thrift stores. I’ve found some documentary relics that would make some Tolkien scholars sell their grandmothers to possess.
I’ll be revealing some of these remarkable documents from time to time on this blog. Subscribe if you like, so you’re alerted to the latest drop.
- I’m showing my age. Newspapers! Ha!
- Sadly now just a 404 error.
- What followed was a tragic yet hilarious legal battle between Gilkeson and the Tolkien Estate. I really hope Austin can restore his story to the web where it belongs.
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