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Thread: Tolkien honoured in Bloemfontein

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Grondmaster
has made 25465 posts and is a Dwarf from Glittering Caves and has sailed into the West.
Posted Sunday 29th February 2004 (03:37am)

Posted by Silmarill in Sept 2002
Quote:
If you've read the news on the front page, you'll know what I'm talking about.

It's about time he was recognized and honoured in the city of his birth!!


Agreed! Smile Smilier
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ProgHead777
has made 910 posts and is a Hobbit from Buckland and is not online.
Posted Thursday 1st January 1970 (12:00am)
Agreed also. Did Tolkien ever return to South Africa in his lifetime? I wonder...
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MelliotSandybanks
has made 1517 posts and is a Hobbit from Hobbiton and is not online.
Posted Thursday 1st January 1970 (12:00am)
Don't know about that. But I have ordered some books, and will do some checking around for you Prog.
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TomBombadillo
has made 2746 posts and is an Elf from Rivendell and is not online.
Posted Thursday 1st January 1970 (12:00am)
Three cheers for Tolkien! About time! Big Smile Smilie
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Samwisegamgee
has made 607 posts and is a Hobbit from Hobbiton and is not online.
Posted Thursday 1st January 1970 (12:00am)
Yes, it is definately time! For anyone interested in reading more about Tolkien's childhood in Bloemfontein, I highly reccommend the book 'Tolkien' by Humphrey Carpenter.

[Edited on 1/11/2002 by Samwisegamgee]
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Rednell
has made 1808 posts and is a Dunedain from Osgiliath and is not online.
Posted Thursday 1st January 1970 (12:00am)
I couldn't find any indication in his letters or biography that he had ever returned to Bloemfontein. In a letter to his son, Christopher he writes:
Quote:
I was much amused by your account of your journeyto Jo'burg on Maundy Thursday....If you fetch up at Bloemfontein I shall wonder if the if the little old stone bank-house (Bank of South Africa) where I was born is still standing. And I wonder if my Father's grave is there still. I have never done anything about it, but I believe my mother has a stone-cross put up or sent out. (A.R. Tolkien died in 1896). If not it will be lost now, prob., unless there are any records....

This letter was written in 1944, so I assume up to that time he had not returned.

Then in Carpenter's biography, p44 (HarperCollns Paperback edition ):
Quote:
..end of January1921 Caape Town offered him the post. In many ways he would have liked to accept. It would have meant a return to the land of his birth, and he always wanted to see South Arica again.


It is always possible that he may have visited Bloemfontein in his later years, but I somehow doubt it.

Quote:
I highly reccommend the book 'Tolkein' by Humphrey Carpenter.

Very good advice, Samwisegamgee. It is a very interesting book. I also recommend JRR Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator by Wayne Hammond and Christine Skull, as well as, The Inkings by Carpenter.



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