I was cruising the autosurfers today, and this post popped up.
One of those was Michael White’s biography of JRR Tolkien (Abacus 2001). White discusses in some detail the Inklings Club that met regularly at the Eagle and Child pub in Oxford, as well as his Catholic conversion and complex relationship he had with ‘Jack’ (CS Lewis).
Of course, most people know JRR Tolkien as the author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. It is less known that he was actually an Oxford professor and a philologist.
I knew that he was a Bible Translator, but nothing beyond that – use to wow the hobbits with that tidbit. He actually translated the Book of Jonah in the Jerusalem Bible. The publishers will be releasing the original manuscript sometime soon – Here in the U.S. and here in Europe.
You will note the rather large price difference. Anyway, thought it might be interesting for some of you.
Ransom in Lewis’ Space Trilogy is based off of Tolkien. The character is a philologist taken to other planets, that’s how I knew about it.
I knew about his day job, but not his bible translation. Very interesting!