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It has recently
been announced
that Tolkien’s story
«The Bovadium Fragments»
(or «The End of Bovadium»)
is going to be published this autumn.
I feel moved to write a few lines about this.
I have twice looked at the manuscripts
for the story at the Bodleian Library:
once in the 80s when they were not restricted, and once again in 2013,
when I had not yet learnt that they had become restricted and the staff forgot it.
So while I have not properly read it, I have skimmed it and read parts.
To me it seemed eminently publishable,
and I wrote to the Estate in 2014
lobbying for its publication:
«‘The Bovadium Fragments’
is a funny, thought-inspiring and ingeniously constructed story,
and the punch at its end lifts it from narrowly localized satire to universal relevance.
It is very desirable that it should be published, the more so as the story is a finished one,
in the sense of having a beginning, an end and no gaps in between.»
Thus the present news is for me a wish fulfilled.
And I am especially touched to learn that it was edited
by the very best, Christopher Tolkien.
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