[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Aiwendil

I have the 1993 Harper Collins edition, and though I (alas!) am currently separated from it by a few hundred miles, I'm pretty sure it is just as you described your Czech edition: it has a picture of the 1920 letter and a few pictures of stamps and such from 1920 - 1924, but it only prints the full text of the letters starting from 1925. If I recall correctly, it's also missing the penultimate letter.

Yes, that would be probably it then, so thanks for clarification. And which "penultimate letter" do you actually mean?

Originally Posted by Estelyn Telcontar

Nice to see Legate joining the seasonal avvie club with the FCL picture!

Well, like I said, it's my classic Christmas pic which I've had already for more than four years (or, now it is the fifth) every Christmas - so that is, of course, only natural. Only this time it very nicely coincides with this thread

As for the "reindeer over Oxford" picture - I find it worth mentioning at least: did anybody of you think of the symbolism of numbers which seems to be pointed out in the accompanying letter? FC emphasises that the kids should note he has seven pairs of reindeers instead of the generally acknowledged six - any idea why to give such a strong importance to this? Isn't it curious? Such a random thing? My personal belief is that this has a lot to do with Tolkien's personal feeling, and I would very much like to know more about it even in general. FC says in the letter that "fourteen is such a nice number" and that is what I believe is Tolkien's personal, and very strong, feeling, in fact. I mean: we also have fourteen Valar, seven and seven, just like the reindeer pairs. Coincidence? By no means, in my opinion.

It continues to intrigue me, and it has been intriguing me for a long time, so that's maybe why I noticed this also here, but why? Yes, fourteen is two times seven, and seven is really a nice number. But wouldn't it be even better, for example in the case of Morgoth and the Valar, to have twelve Valar (and now given that Tolkien was a devout Christian, make it similar e.g. to the twelve apostles...) and Morgoth with the ominous number thirteen, which is generally seen as "evil number" (unlike 15, which is just random)? Might he have wanted to avoid the possible "evil connotations" of number 6? Or what else might have been behind that?

I see this could do for a separate thread - but let me just remark here that I consider this deliberate choice and underlining of the fact that "hey, I don't have 12 reindeers, but 14" rather interesting. Especially in this case: like I said, for Tolkien, a devout Christian, the number 12 should have a very positive metaphorical value; it appears in the Bible and in Christianity in general so many times (the abovementioned 12 apostles, 12 tribes of Israel, all things related to salvation and New Jerusalem in the book of Revelation are expressed in metaphors with numbers that are multiplies of 12, or 12 times 12, etc etc...) in the most positive connotations that there should not be any reasons for him to specifically reject it.

I mean, personally, I also very much like the number 14 - although I am rather strongly convinced that it is, in fact, Tolkien's influence - but why to devote such a large part of the letter devoted to this topic? One would say there might have been more important things to write.

Unless he was trying to teach the children numbers

Originally Posted by Guinevere

As for the "Nicholas" part and the red coat (which I think originates perhaps in the red Bishop's cloak of Saint Nicholas) I have just recently read a lot in the internet about the origins of Father Christmas and St. Nicholas, and how elements of the two have merged. Coming from a country where there is no tradition of a "Father Christmas" or "Weihnachtsmann", but a "Samichlaus" (= St. Nikolaus) visiting the children on Dec. 6th with sweets and nuts (but also reprimanding them if they haven't been well-behaved!), I never had examined the "Father Christmas" or Weihnachtsmann tradition until now - I thought that he was just St. Nicholas visiting on Christmas instead of on his name day !

Now that is just an interesting remark - I wasn't aware that the St. Nicholas 6th Dec tradition exists in other countries beside where I live. And I must confess I had been also similarly confused about the origins of the Christmas tradition of Father Christmas.

Relatedly, I might contribute with what is perhaps just a curiosity, but nonetheless maybe interesting for some - the name of the book (and the name of the character) has been translated, in the book which I have (so, in Czech) as "Děda Mráz", i.e. "[Grand]father Frost", which is the Russian character who is the one responsible for giving presents over there. Since here, we don't have Santa Claus or any similar "old man" figure (we have the Baby Jesus tradition related to giving presents), but the Father Frost figure is known to people around here (especially after recent past, when an unsuccessful and, I must say rather terribly done attempt was made in the 1950's to install here the at that time Soviet-Russian Father Frost in order to suppress any Christian relations to Christmas; but there's also a very nice Russian movie "Father Frost" which they are showing every Christmas and most people love it), I guess the translator chose to translate "Father Christmas" as this "Father Frost", instead of trying to make any weird neologisms or translating it as Santa Claus (which would be also known by people nowadays, but equally inappropriate, if not even more).