Antiques Roadshow Sunday April 25th 7pm BBC1

The Hobbit looks to be later than a first-edition, interesting to see if it is signed. The manuscript letter looks very interesting, should be quite a high valuation from the expert Clive Farahar https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profi ... KqT8vzYczg4/clive-farahar

Hi Trotter!
Did you watch the BBC show yesterday? I can't watch it from Italy, apparently.
Could you tell us more, please?

I read on the web the letter ("Dear Charles...") is dated "3 May 1957" and has been valued £10.000 by their expert.
Here a link with two photos of the letter: Link no longer works

Mauro D86 wrote:

Hi Trotter!
Did you watch the BBC show yesterday? I can't watch it from Italy, apparently.
Could you tell us more, please?

Sent you a PM

Partial transcription of the letter, I'm not sure about a few words which are replaced by "?":

Dear Charles,

Thank you for your letter. I am glad to hear that you enjoyed the "Ring" books.

Your runic letter was correct and readable. But the runes used in *The Hobbit* are not my invention. Just as the language of the time was turned into English, so were the runes of the day. So I used a selection, more or less applicable to modern English spelling, of the runes formerly used by the English in England. Owing to the ? of the Latin letter the runes went out of use, were never in fact used for writing books except the two letters borrowed from the Runic Alphabet and used in writing *English*: ᚦ and ᚹ, written forms þ and ƿ ( ? from ƿ =p ). þ was used for *th*, -- or rather, represented the *sounds* we shall have in *thin*, *this*, until it was replaced by *th* in the 14th. century. It lingered on ( broken down in shape to y, [two more cursive variants]) in the abbreviations *yͤ* *yͭ* = *the*, *that*, of [continued on the back page]

[half page not shown]
not the z in their own language, except occasionally for *ts* (? German).

Variant signs occur which seem to be used for *x* (=ks): among them Ψ.

Of course the Runes were properly used to spell by *sound* and they do not fit modern English very well. The *Angerthas* at the end of Vol iii will give you plenty of signs for all the sounds of English, and more -- or for the letters and most common ? ?, if you care to ? them.

Yours sincerely

J.R.R.Tolkien

For Charles's letter, see https://www.tolkienguide.com/modules/n ... ewtopic.php?topic_id=4312

Various members help transcribe the letter in April after the programme was broadcast. These are the words that you have a ? for.

Owing to the competition of the Latin letter the runes went out of use.

( distinct from ƿ =p )

-- or for the letters and most common letter-combinations, if you can rearrange them

Trotter wrote:

Various members help transcribe the letter in April after the programme was broadcast. These are the words that you have a ? for.

Owing to the competition of the Latin letter the runes went out of use.

( distinct from ƿ =p )

-- or for the letters and most common letter-combinations, if you can rearrange them

Great, thanks! Do you also recognize the words in "(? and(?) German)" ?

Also the last sentence looks like "if you care to rearrange them" to me.

Trotter wrote:

Various members help transcribe the letter in April

Where is this transcription?

zionius wrote:

Great, thanks! Do you also recognize the words in "(? and(?) German)" ?

The word before “German” is “mod.” (modern German).

zionius wrote:

Also the last sentence looks like "if you care to rearrange them" to me.

Without a doubt, yes.

Also, a few minor corrections, in bold:

zionius wrote:

Owing to the ? of the Latin letter the runes went out of use, were never in fact used for writing books

Latin letters

went out of use, & were never

zionius wrote:

It lingered on ( broken down in shape to y, [two more cursive variants]) in the abbreviations *yͤ* *yͭ* = *the*, *that*, of

I don’t know what the last word on this page is, but not “of”.

zionius wrote:

Of course the Runes were properly used to spell by *sound* and they do not fit modern English very well.

, and they do not fit mod. English spelling very well

Side 1: last word is "which"

Side 2: "Various signs" (not "Variant signs")