A fascinating insider's interview

[Lalaith]

The interview appeared in 1999 and the lady in question, named Arndis but known as ‘Adda’, was a doctor’s daughter from the West Fjords, who went to work with the Tolkiens when she was twenty, in 1930. She got the job because the Tolkiens had two mothers' helps from Iceland previously, Aslaug and Runa, and Aslaug had been a classmate of Adda’s.
Tolkien collected her from Oxford station and greeted her in Icelandic.
She then talks about her working conditions – she was meant to be one of the family, but she never had a holiday. The youngest of the children (presumably Priscilla) was in her second year.
She says that the Professor was a really lovely man, very easy and comfortable to be around, he loved nature, trees and everything that grew. The house they had just bought had an asphalt tennis court and the first thing they did was rip it up and put down grass. This is an example of how JRR and Edith hated modern things – another thing they both hated was central heating and boilers.
Edith loved flowers, and not only had splendid flower beds in her new home but kept going back to the old one to get plants.
Adda puts this down to English upper class eccentricity – the Tolkiens she says, loved flowers and writing letters. She has lots of letters from them, including decorated Christmas cards from the Tolkien children.
The oldest son, Johnny, was now 14 and in the new house he had his own room. The rest (including Adda) kept themselves to the nursery. The lady of the house (Edith) had a difficult nature, she wasn’t sociable and disliked most people.
Then Adda talks about how she was meant to come there to learn English and help Tolkien practice Icelandic but Edith got jealous if they talked in a language she didn’t understand. “She was never unkind to me, but she was never a friend either. And she was very over-protective.”
Adda says Oxford was at that time completely class-ridden – professors were a class unto themselves. Edith was also a snob – when the char (cleaning lady) went awol for a fortnight, Edith was furious when Adda decided to wash the doorstep. “You’re one of us, you must never be seen doing work suitable for servants.”
The Tolkiens rarely if ever entertained, and Adda was not impressed with their hospitality...”once a couple who were old friends, just back from many years in India, called round and they hadn't seen them for years, but just gave them tea in the morning room, with only one cake!”
Adda thinks that Tolkien was much more sociable by nature than Edith. She got to know Edith’s lovely old nanny, a Miss Gro (? not sure they got this name right) who joked that Edith would always have a migraine whenever there was a university ‘do’. Miss Gro also explained why Edith was so difficult – she blamed their traumatic courtship years. They faced opposition for years and ended up having to practically elope. They had stood firm together against all the odds, even though they may not have had much in common.
Adda said Edith spent a lot of time upstairs during the day but didn’t know what she actually did. She was a very promising pianist at the time when she married, had become an organist in a church. There was a parlour in the house which no-one ever went into, there was a piano there but Edith never touched it. None of the children learnt an instrument.
Whenever Tolkien had had a drink or two he was not allowed to sleep in the bedroom, he had to go into the guest room. She couldn’t stand the smell of drink on him. Tolkien was a lovely, comfortable man, didn’t talk much. He always came home to lunch every day, and went into his study after the meal. He would have a bottle of beer and a dry biscuit.

[Lalaith]

Precis Part two

Adda was very fond of the children. She took them fishing in a nearby canal, put them in the bath every night and put them to bed, they loved to hear Icelandic folk tales about trolls and such, and often Tolkien would come and listen too. “He took lots of ideas from Icelandic folk stories...and he really believed that all of nature was alive. He lived in a kind of adventure/fantasy world.”
Adda still loves reading the Hobbit (which he started writing at the time she was working for him).
Tolkien always wore a tweed jacket and pale grey trousers, but loved to wear colourful waistcoats. And he always wore white tie (tails) at the Oxford dinners. He always wanted to go to Iceland but thought he couldn’t afford it.

Adda eventually left because of the restrictive life she was forced to lead.
She got friendly with a girl called Betty, one of Tolkien’s students, who invited her to go punting but Edith never found it convenient to let her go, even on a Sunday.
Edith once showed Adda her wardrobe upstairs, it ran along an entire wall and was completely full of clothes. But she never went anywhere at all, except perhaps to the library.
She sometimes did go with me and the older boys to a matinee (afternoon theatre performance). The Tolkiens thought the theatre an acceptable leisure activity but hated the cinema, and they really hated the Morris car factory that had been recently opened south of Oxford.
John, at 14, was most like his father. Edith stopped Adda from bathing him. (editor’s note – I should hope so too!) Michael, the next son, was such a beautiful child, that people would stop his mother in the street to admire him. His mother wanted him to be a priest. Christopher was often squabbled over by his parents. He was a rather whiny child, fussy with food. But his father adored him and realised that he needed different handling than the others. Tolkien had started writing the Hobbit while I was there but was really writing it for Christopher, reading him out chapters.

She then says that she had close contact through letters with the family until the war disrupted the correspondence.


Right, that's basically it. Hope you find it interesting...

[Lalwendë]

So the Tolkiens had an au pair!

You get the impression there was a little friction between mother and her helper, with the talking in Icelandic banned, and the lack of days out permitted. I wonder if being financially restricted caused them to be a bit frugal with the entertaining too? That part about the one cake reminded me of Bilbo's flapping at the start of The Hobbit.

[Lalaith]

I think it's all very sad though....the dresses never worn, the piano never played.

[Rumil]

My word,

what a find Lalaith! The psychologists would have a field day!

A few thoughts off the top of my head.

Social position in those days often brought insecurity with it, doubly so in a place such as Oxford I should imagine. Was Edith perhaps frightened in a way of 'letting down' her husband with his highly prestigious position as Professor? No doubt the dons were a difficult bunch to interact with socially, even for a respectable married woman. Seems very sad as Lalaith says, but 30s Britain was class-concious to an extreme, most intimidating no doubt.

Still there are worrying tones of Lobelia.

I love the Prof's colourful waistcoats! I hope he replaced the brass buttons with big gold ones like Bilbo's after the books became successful.

I wonder if Adda was stereotypically Icelandic - blonde hair, blue eyes etc, no wonder Edith kept a close eye! Was Adda proto-Eowyn perhaps??

[Lalaith]

Judging from the family snaps, Adda was quite pleasant-looking but not a stunner - short darkish bob rather than blonde tresses...

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Lalaith

Judging from the family snaps, Adda was quite pleasant-looking but not a stunner - short darkish bob rather than blonde tresses...

More of a Bjork type then?

I'm wondering why the piano was never touched. Because the Prof wanted quiet in order to work or because Edith herself didn't want to play it? As for the wardrobes full of frocks, I can understand that, she was probably a hoarder. Though not going to social functions suggests she had a big lack of self confidence - something you can appreciate given the high level of intelligence people might have displayed in Tolkien's social circle, it might have been very intimidating trying to make chit chat with professors and their brilliant wives!

[Lindale]

Originally Posted by Lalaith

I think it's all very sad though....the dresses never worn, the piano never played.

typically Victorian-English, a tropical girl thinks. a bit Jane Eyre-ish, on the reverse. keep those feelings inside until you're sure there's nobody who would see you cry or something.

But then didn't society at that time encourage ladies of class to know how to play piano and play it for guests, family affairs, or just for recreation?

[Mithalwen]

Originally Posted by Lindale

typically Victorian-English, a tropical girl thinks. a bit Jane Eyre-ish, on the reverse. keep those feelings inside until you're sure there's nobody who would see you cry or something.

But then didn't society at that time encourage ladies of class to know how to play piano and play it for guests, family affairs, or just for recreation?

Unfortunately Edith was brought up in a world where showing your emotion wasn't really done... and while ladies were expected to be accomplished and learn an instrument to provide entertainment in the days when if you wanted music you ahd to play it. However it seems that Edith had a talent beyond the competence needed for a sing a long or whatever. There is a world of difference between someone who can amuse their family and themselves (such as my mother playing nursery rhymes and old songs for me as a child) and a concert standard executant such as my great aunt and potentially Edith who would be no more fulfil their talent by playing for their family than a great chef would be by boiling an egg. Sadly the musical talent skipped me - I have done some choral singing but I don't have a "voice" alas, but have friends who are professional and it is a different league.

The practice is not a always pleasure for a casual listener oir even an interested one. It can be hours of repetition of a single phrase in the room with the best acoustics - not really practical with an academic husband and four small children. And why bother if you aren't going to perform.

[Lush]

Thanks for this, Lalaith. It's so intimate. It scares me how much I can identify with the Edith portrayed here.

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Mithalwen

Unfortunately Edith was brought up in a world where showing your emotion wasn't really done... and while ladies were expected to be accomplished and learn an instrument to provide entertainment in the days when if you wanted music you ahd to play it. However it seems that Edith had a talent beyond the competence needed for a sing a long or whatever. There is a world of difference between someone who can amuse their family and themselves (such as my mother playing nursery rhymes and old songs for me as a child) and a concert standard executant such as my great aunt and potentially Edith who would be no more fulfil their talent by playing for their family than a great chef would be by boiling an egg. Sadly the musical talent skipped me - I have done some choral singing but I don't have a "voice" alas, but have friends who are professional and it is a different league.

The practice is not a always pleasure for a casual listener oir even an interested one. It can be hours of repetition of a single phrase in the room with the best acoustics - not really practical with an academic husband and four small children. And why bother if you aren't going to perform.

The thought did cross my mind that the reason she didn't bother with the piano much might have been that they had bought a Wireless