Introduction to The Waldman Letter (Silmarillion Study, Part 1)
If you’re following along with our Tea with Tolkien book club, this week we are beginning with our The Silmarillion read-along! If you’d like to sign up, you can do so here.
Before we dive into the The Silmarillion next week, I thought it would be helpful to spend a bit of time reading and discussing The Waldman Letter.
The Waldman letter is a letter written to Milton Waldman, an editor and advisor to publishers in London, who had expressed and interest in The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion after the widespread success of The Hobbit. For context, The Hobbit was published in 1937, this letter was written in 1951, and The Fellowship of the Ring would not be published until 1954.
Tolkien had hoped to published LOTR and The Silmarillion together and this letter reflects his belief that the two were interdependent.
The letter can be read in a few places:
In part, on the Tolkien Estate Website (there is a large chunk missing in the middle in which Tolkien writes about the creation of his world and its history through the Second Age)
In the preface to The Silmarillion (second edition only)
This letter is important because it pieces together all of Tolkien’s stories concerning Middle-Earth, showing how they are all a part of the same great tale.
What’s in the Waldman Letter?
“My dear Milton, You asked for a brief sketch of my stuff that is connected with my imaginary world…”
Tolkien writes that he can’t remember when he wasn’t building his imaginary world or its languages, noting that almost all the names in his world are derived from these languages. This gives his works a specific kind of consistency which others may not have.
Tolkien has always been passionate about myth, desiring a myth that could be uniquely English.
Tolkien addresses that three major themes of his works are Fall, Mortality, and Machine.
He then goes on to write about the Magic of the Elves as Art versus the enemy’s use of Machine
After that, he launches into a summary of his world’s history, from its creation all the way through its third age, which I will not attempt to summarize myself for the sake of brevity and in hopes of simply encouraging you to read this letter for yourself.
