Letters from Father Christmas

Letters from Father Christmas
Литагент HarperCollins

This new ebook version of Tolkien's timeless classic presents readers with a plethora of full colour images of the original letters alongside the transcribed text, offering a truly engrossing reading experience.Every December an envelope bearing a stamp from the North Pole would arrive for J.R.R.Tolkien’s children. Inside would be a letter in strange spidery handwriting and a beautiful coloured drawing or some sketches. The letters were from Father Christmas.They told wonderful tales of life at the North Pole: how all the reindeer got loose and scattered presents all over the place; how the accident-prone Polar Bear climbed the North Pole and fell through the roof of Father Christmas’s house into the dining-room; how he broke the Moon into four pieces and made the Man in it fall into the back garden; how there were wars with the troublesome horde of goblins who lived in the caves beneath the house!Sometimes the Polar Bear would scrawl a note, and sometimes Ilbereth the Elf would write in his elegant flowing script, adding yet more life and humour to the stories. No reader, young or old, can fail to be charmed by the inventiveness and ‘authenticity’ of Tolkien’s Letters from Father Christmas.This ebook version of the letters brings Tolkien's creation alive, providing readers with a truly engaging experience.

J.R.R. TOLKIEN

Letters From Father Christmas

Edited by Baillie Tolkien

Contents

Title Page (#u59aa5ee6-f496-5873-9486-10bc2dcc61f6)

Introduction (#u7a21cfee-e75e-554d-b9f7-1ba38de64f21)

1920 (#ulink_afd43420-541b-51ba-899b-2797427b9613)

1923 (#ue8908b18-e7a7-5808-908f-28462cfd922b)

1924 (#uc928e379-9c9e-5b11-a9b4-97588a85f0a3)

1925 (#u0f4f3738-b72a-5a2a-86eb-11ca2ad27edc)

1926 (#u3ad012b6-3df3-5ddb-a2c0-50d3b7f769f4)

1927 (#ufb6892d2-8941-5df8-9efa-3a7d22c879c4)

1928 (#ua901605f-29bf-5904-87f5-d888da62042b)

1929 (#ub3897dc9-0086-5a51-951e-28c0becb488c)

1930 (#litres_trial_promo)

1931 (#litres_trial_promo)

1932 (#litres_trial_promo)

1933 (#litres_trial_promo)

1934 (#litres_trial_promo)

1935 (#litres_trial_promo)

1936 (#litres_trial_promo)

1937 (#litres_trial_promo)

1938 (#litres_trial_promo)

1939 (#litres_trial_promo)

1940 (#litres_trial_promo)

1941 (#litres_trial_promo)

1942 (#litres_trial_promo)

1943 (#litres_trial_promo)

Works by J.R.R. Tolkien (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

Introduction (#ulink_49d9577e-401a-509c-8b9f-972826cb2bc9)

To the children of J. R. R. Tolkien, the interest and importance of Father Christmas extended beyond his filling of their stockings on Christmas Eve; for he wrote a letter to them every year, in which he described in words and pictures his house, his friends, and the events, hilarious or alarming, at the North Pole. The first of the letters came in 1920, when John, the eldest, was three years old; and for over twenty years, through the childhoods of the three other children, Michael, Christopher and Priscilla, they continued to arrive each Christmas. Sometimes the envelopes, dusted with snow and bearing Polar postage stamps, were found in the house on the morning after his visit; sometimes the postman brought them; and the letters that the children wrote themselves vanished from the fireplace when no one was about.

As time went on, Father Christmas’ household became larger, and whereas at first little is heard of anyone else except the North Polar Bear, later on there appear Snow-elves, Red Gnomes, Snow-men, Cave-bears, and the Polar Bear’s nephews, Paksu and Valkotukka, who came on a visit and never went away. But the Polar Bear remained Father Christmas’ chief assistant, and the chief cause of the disasters that led to muddles and deficiencies in the Christmas stockings; and sometimes he wrote on the letters his comments in angular capitals.

Eventually Father Christmas took on as his secretary an Elf named Ilbereth, and in the later letters Elves play an important part in the defence of Father Christmas’ house and store-cellars against attacks by Goblins.

In this book are presented numerous examples of Father Christmas’ shaky handwriting, and almost all the pictures that he sent are here reproduced; and also included is the alphabet that the Polar Bear devised from the Goblin drawings on the walls of the caves where he was lost, and the letter that he sent to the children written in it.

1920 (#ulink_c335cccc-1b92-57ec-b917-6be5a96603ab)

Christmas House,

North Pole

22nd December 1920

Dear John

I heard you ask daddy what I was like and where I lived. I have drawn me and my house for you. Take care of the picture. I am just off now for Oxford with my bundle of toys - some for you. Hope I shall arrive in time: the snow is very thick at the North Pole tonight. Your loving Father Christmas

1923 (#ulink_5b55f0ee-1fa4-54b2-ad88-81c77f9f00c7)

North Pole

Christmas Eve: 1923

My dear John,

It is very cold today and my hand is very shaky—I am nineteen hundred and twenty four, no! seven! years old on Christmas Day,—lots older than your great-grandfather, so I can’t stop the pen wobbling, but I hear that you are getting so good at reading that I expect you will be able to read my letter.