TCG Letter #2247

Tolkien drafts a reply to a letter from a reader^{Citation needed[1]} on the subject of Tom Bombadil and Treebeard. He says that Tom Bombadil is best left a mystery. He gives details on some word origin, Forn and Orald being of Scandanavian origin and that Orald is an Old English word meaning "very ancient".

In correspondence with Hammond and Scull it is noted that this draft letter is connected to their entry of 17 August 1968.^{See Chronology, p. 767, and also ?Late August 1968, p. 768[2]}

• Private correspondence can only date this draft letter to late 1968 but it is no earlier than late August given Tolkien received a letter which his draft was in reply to.