December 05, 2020

21. The Princess Bride But with Santa.

1 hour 4 minutes

Jared, Oriana and Ned talk about Jared’s choice of topic: The Father

Christmas Letters. Literally a hundred years ago this month, Tolkien began

what would be a running series of letters into the early 1940s where he wrote

to his children in the guise of Father Christmas at the end of each year.

Never meant for publication or even sharing beyond his immediate family, the

many letters, collected and republished since his passing a number of times,

grow over the years from brief notes to increasingly elaborate creations,

featuring original artwork, created languages, and multi-narrator stories and

adventures from Father Christmas himself and his many assistants: Karhu the

North Polar Bear, his rapscallion nephews Paksu and Valkotukka, and his chief

elf helper Ilbereth, with a running focus on their continuing struggles with

the evil Goblins. What is the folkloric background of Father Christmas

himself, and how does he appear in other noted literary figures’s work, either

before Tolkien or contemporaneously with him? What elements of both Tolkien’s

own particular creative processes and his specific artistic interests can be

seen to have multiple connections to his main work in Middle-earth? Are the

letters themselves ultimately too personal in ways, perhaps providing an

insight that, even with the family’s participation, could almost be seen as

voyeuristic for later readers? Or is it simply the fact that the sincerity

throughout goes up against any reflexive feelings of irony? And just how

absolutely goofy and great is Karhu, the ultimate slapstick screwup and big

hero at the same time?

Show Notes.

Jared’s

doodle, a

masterpiece of perspective. (Check the shadows.)

Photos

of the new forthcoming edition of The Silmarillion with more Ted Naismith

illustrations.

TheOneRing.net’s debut of the

news about the 4K edition of

the Peter Jackson films.

The formal publisher announcement about The Nature of Middle-earth.

The Father Christmas

Letters entry in

Wikipedia

The centenary edition of the

letters, specifically titled Letters from Father

Christmas.

A quick English-language

article

on Venezuelan Christmas traditions, per Oriana’s note.

Quite literally the only mention of an Anglican guilt

complex on the Net is via Ned.

Father Christmas himself,

per Wikipedia.

The Narnia Father Christmas is

definitely not Tolkien’s.

Santa Claus Village in Finland, should you

so desire to learn more.

The Great British Bake

Off is, how you

say, well known.

Epistolary novels are pretty

big in the older canon.

The staircase

illustration

Ned describes.

The cave painting

illustration

Oriana mentioned, with the Oxford illustration at the top Jared describes.

Baillie Tolkien is indeed

still with us.

A formal term for a name that replaces a forbidden name, such as is the case

for ‘bear,’ is a noa-name. Here’s a

brief piece with more specific

information in that case.

The Karhu Concept Store in Helsinki.

Our previous episodes on

imperialism and Farmer Giles of

Ham.

Dickens’s A Christmas Carol’s Ghost of Christmas

Present.

The Muppet Christmas

Carol is next-level, forever.

Medieval marginalia is the best.

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By Jared Pechaček, Oriana Scwindt, and Ned Raggett

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