"J.R.R. Tolkien - The History of Middle-Earth - 12" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tolkien J.R.R)

him by Galadriel'. A large X is also written, but it is not clear whether
this relates to the whole page or only to a part of it.
Mr Gilson observes that this text, clearly to be associated with work

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on the Tale of Aragorn and Arwen (see p. 263), seems to be the only
place where the name Aragorn is translated; and he mentions my
father's letter of 17 December 1972 to Mr Richard Jeffery (Letters no.
347), who had asked whether Aragorn could mean 'tree-king'. In his
reply my father said that it 'cannot contain a "tree" word', and that
'"Tree-King" would have no special fitness for him'. He continued:

The names in the line of Arthedain are peculiar in several ways; and
several, though Sindarin in form, are not readily interpretable. But
it would need more historical records and linguistic records of
Sindarin than exist (sc. than I have found time or need to invent! ) to
explain them.




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PART ONE.

THE PROLOGUE
AND APPENDICES TO
THE LORD OF THE
RINGS.

I.

THE PROLOGUE.

It is remarkable that this celebrated account of Hobbits goes so far
back in the history of the writing of The Lord of the Rings: its earliest
form, entitled Foreword: Concerning Hobbits, dates from the period
1938 - 9, and it was printed in The Return of the Shadow (VI.310-14).
This was a good 'fair copy' manuscript, for which there is no prepara-
tory work extant; but I noticed in my very brief account of it that my
father took up a passage concerning Hobbit architecture from the
chapter A Short Cut to Mushrooms (see VI.92, 294 - 5).
Comparison with the published Prologue to The Lord of the Rings
will show that while much of that original version survived, there was