a bankable note
 

As subtle as "derry dol", my good Númenor. :D

You have invested your time in the Letters as wisely as Tolkien invested his pension. Pray, give us a fair rate of return on a surety of your own, and see what interest it gathers. :smokin:

Low interest rates
 

What exactly did J.R.R. Tolkien feel was his philological colleagues' reaction to his writing & publishing The Lord of the Rings?

He said that they told him:

The last sentence sounds just like my parents. :rolleyes:

The floor is yours, Madame Estelyn. :smokin:

Tolkien was delighted to receive a letter from someone who chanced to have the same name as one of his characters. Who was it?

Mr Cotton Wool ...
 

Erm, off the top of my head, it was Sam Gamgee, wasn't it?

If the top of your head suffices for this question, what could the whole head accomplish?! ;) You have both the correct answer and the floor, Saucy.

OK, next up ...
 

Thanks Esty. :)

The whole head would have been able to look it up if the book had been in the possession of the hands. Other than that, it would have been pretty useless. ;)

Name at least two film stars that Tolkien met. (I am aware of only two, but there may have been more, so a bonus point for every additional film star named over and above two.)

I'm going to venture a guess at one name, since I wasn't able to find any information in the biography. (None of the names in the index looked like a familiar film star name to me.) However, I do remember hearing that Christopher Lee once met Tolkien, so I assume he's one of the stars you mean. Can you give a clue as to where I can search for another one?

Christopher Lee was one of the film stars I had in mind, so you are halfway there. :)

The other one is mentioned in one of the Letters ...

Sorry, but a complete reading of the index of 'Letters' hasn't helped me either - I give up! Unless you think someone else will give it a try before the 10 days are up, you can solve it and pose a new one...

A BIG hint
 

Try Letter #267 ...

OK, thanks to that help, I found the name - it was Ava Gardner (and yes, I could have seen it in the index but didn't...). Interesting that she has a name so similar to Sam's family name later on!

In re-reading that particular letter I came across some amusing sentences:

Yes, that one amused me too. It's comments like that which really bring the man to life in one's mind when reading his Letters.

You are of course correct, Estelyn. :) Please carry on.

Traditionally, the Tolkien family manufactured which product? was inscribed on the lid of one...

This is of personal interest to me - I wish I had an opportunity to try one of them!

They used to make pianos, although they were long out of that business by the time JRRT arrived on the scene.

That's right, Squatter; I wonder if any Tolkien pianos still exist? In playable condition, even?

Which biographer of Tolkien held an academic position vacated by his subject, and where?

a possible Leed...
 

Would that be Thomas A. Shippey, author of The Road to Middle Earth and JRR Tolkien: Author of the Century, who not only taught Old English at Oxford but who also held the Chair of English Language and Medieval Literature at Leeds University?

It certainly would. Bêthberry.

More on Tolkien's academic work...
 

Most of us are aware of Tolkien's ground-breaking essay Beowulf: the Monsters and the Critics. What other essay of his is required reading for students of fourteenth century English?

Would that be On Translating Beowulf?

Beowulf is older than that, Esty. Eighth century or thereabouts.

It's Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; a published form of his 1953 W.P. Ker memorial lecture at the University of Glasgow.

oops! Live and learn, as my old Gaffer says. (...or, that's what you get for guessing...)

some other fourteenth century author
 

I am aware of Tolkien's and Gordon's translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knightwhich Tolkien humorously disparaged to his students, but I was not thinking of the Ker article, Squatter (which I cannot find referenced in Appendix C of the Carpenter biography, although my answer is). Try again, if you would.

Could it be Gawain, Pearl and Sir Orfeo, his translations of those three fourteenth-century poems?

Alas, no, Squatter. As I suggested, some other fourteenth century author, if we can take Carpenter at his word.

The most likely candidate that I can see is 'Chaucer as a Philologist: The Reeve's Tale', Transactions of the Philological Society (1934)

Indeed, the very one which Carpenter claims is still required reading for students of fourteenth century Engish dialects. And now, Squatter.

Which useful honorary position did Tolkien hold from 1972 until his death?

In 1972, Tolkien received an honorary doctorate from Oxford, and was in the same year dubbed a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire by the Queen of England.

Those were great honours, to be sure, but were they useful? I think his honorary resident Fellowship in Merton College was of more practical worth to Tolkien, since it allowed him rooms in a college house, with a scout and his wife to look after him. He was also entitled to free lunches and dinners in the college.

Fie on your gongs and doctorates
 

Estelyn's right: the honorary fellowship at Merton was the most useful of those awards, and for the reasons given.

I don't think we've had this question on the thread yet: Name the members of the T.C.B.S.

That would be Robert Q Gilson, Christopher Wiseman, Geoffrey B Smith and JRR Tolkien himself of course.

Wasn't davem also a member? :D ;)

Mariska has it right! Bb, I'm not quite sure - perhaps you have an obscure 'Letters' reference for that name? ;)

An easy one, but I'm not that inspired today...
Name two more school clubs that Tolkien founded.

Not that easy - it took a bit of research! I hope these are the two you mean:

the Apolausticks ('those devoted to self-indulgence') - started as a feshman at Oxford the Viking Club - founded together with E. V. Gordon at Leeds University Some of the verses the two men wrote were later published privately as Songs for the Philologists - wouldn't it be fun to read them?!

Those were the ones I had in mind, Estelyn!