Letters Discussion >> Discuss Letter from J.R.R. Tolkien to The Catholic Herald on 10-11 February 1945 "The Name Coventry"
Discuss Letter from J.R.R. Tolkien to The Catholic Herald on 10-11 February 1945 "The Name Coventry"
12 May
2024-5-12 1:47:26 PM UTC
2024-5-12 1:47:26 PM UTC
Letter link: Letter from J.R.R. Tolkien to The Catholic Herald • 10-11 February 1945 (#121)
The Catholic Herald web site has posted an (apparently) complete transcript of this letter here.
I see that it has at least one error, giving the surname of Eilert Ekwall as "Ekwell" (which also appears to be the form in the transcript that backs the entry in the "Guide to Tolkien's Letter").
I was also struck (for the first time; I may not ever have read the full transcript before) by Tolkien's statement that: "In Cofa and Dafa we have specimens of an ancient type of English personal name: a simple stem, unlike the more 'aristocratic' double-barrelled names familiar in later history, such as Ead-weard or Æthel-red." This immediately brings to mind the nicknames Tida and Totta (for Tidwald and Torhthelm, respectively) in The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth.
Carl
The Catholic Herald web site has posted an (apparently) complete transcript of this letter here.
I see that it has at least one error, giving the surname of Eilert Ekwall as "Ekwell" (which also appears to be the form in the transcript that backs the entry in the "Guide to Tolkien's Letter").
I was also struck (for the first time; I may not ever have read the full transcript before) by Tolkien's statement that: "In Cofa and Dafa we have specimens of an ancient type of English personal name: a simple stem, unlike the more 'aristocratic' double-barrelled names familiar in later history, such as Ead-weard or Æthel-red." This immediately brings to mind the nicknames Tida and Totta (for Tidwald and Torhthelm, respectively) in The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth.
Carl
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