Monday, January 14
LENOX — In his original manuscript for "The Fellowship of the Ring," author J.R.R. Tolkien named his main character not Frodo Baggins, but, according to Tolkien scholar Wayne Hammond, Bingo Baggins.

"I think we can all agree we're glad Tolkien made that change," Hammond said dryly.

Hammond is assistant librarian in the Chapin Library at Williams College. He and his wife, Christina Scull, the former librarian of Sir John Soane'sMuseum in England, were at the Lenox Library yesterday discussing their favorite topic: Tolkien and his remarkable body of work.

The event, which attracted about 30, was part of the library's Distinguished Lecture series. It is hosted by Jeremy Yudkin, a professor of musicology at Boston University.

Tolkien was an English professor who is best known for his two books, "The Hobbit" and "Lord of the Rings," both of which have sold millions of copies worldwide. He died in England in 1973 at the age of 81.

Hammond and Scull are among the world's most celebrated experts on Tolkien. They have published numerous books on the author and on his world of Middle Earth.

One of their most recent was a massive, two-volume, 2,300-page tome, "The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide," which provides a lengthy chronology of Tolkien's life and work, checklists and descriptions of all his writings, and notes on significant persons, places, issues and events in his life.

"When

Advertisement
we began writing this, our publisher told us that we could not have more than 1,280 pages in any one volume, as that was the upper limit of what their binders could enclose," admitted Scull. "It seems kind of incredible that we had to actually edit the book to keep it within those limits."

Hammond is an American, Scull is English. The two came together because of their love of "Lord of the Rings," which Scull discovered in the 1950s and Hammond, in 1970.

They eventually became members of The Tolkien Society, an international Tolkien fan club, and became acquainted through the club. The couple married in 1994.

"When we announced our engagement," recalled Hammond, "other Tolkien scholars began circling us like vultures, asking us when we were going to get rid of our duplicate (Tolkien books.)"

It was not surprising. The couple have collected thousands of editions of Tolkien's works, in both English and other languages. They have more than 400 copies of "The Hobbit" alone.

Yesterday's lecture was in part a discussion of Tolkien's works and philosophy and a recounting of their research adventures while putting together Tolkien publications.

The detailed chronology in the "Companion and Guide" was written, said Hammond, "because we wanted to show that Tolkien was not a slacker. He did not put aside his academic work at Oxford to write "Lord of the Rings."

Hammond said that Tolkien was a teacher, tutor, lecturer and writer who served on many academic committees in his Oxford career.

The early reviews of Tolkien's work in the 1950s were mixed, said Scull, because many reviewers did not think a college professor should be writing "tales about elves. There wasn't really any such thing as 'fantasy' literature in those days."

But, she said, many readers thought his books were amazing: packed with fantastic creatures but with their own languages and 1,000 years of history behind them.

"He created a new world, with different languages and different races, and it was a wonderful place," she said.