TCG Letter #1841

Tolkien replies to Susan Dagnall's letter. ^{Letter from Susan Dagnall to J.R.R. Tolkien • 4 December 1936 (#1840)[1]} He includes the blurb for publicity on the Hobbit. He does not like the star ornament at the beginning of the chapters. He also includes an alternate text from C.S. Lewis.

In a note for this day, Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull mention that "In his draft letter to Mr Thompson, 14 January 1956,^{Carpenter #180: Letter from J.R.R. Tolkien to Mr. Thompson • 14 January 1956 (#529)[2]} Tolkien recalled that ‘without thought’ he wrote in his Hobbit blurb ‘of the time between the Elder Days and the Dominion of Men. Out of that came the “missing link” [between the First and Third Ages of his mythology]: the 'Downfall of Númenor', releasing some hidden 'complex'".