Archie's Book and Film Club

Roverandom

Here’s a little treat by J.R.R. Tolkien that I bet’cha haven’t heard of! Woof! Well, to tell the truth (tail wagging), neither had I. But here it is. The tale of a small dog. Written by the author of the more illustrious and well-known The Hobbit .

The tale of Roverandom is that Rover was a regular little dog, white with black spots. Then he bit the seat of a wizard who had taken his ball. Fair’s fair. But the next thing Rover knew, he had been turned into a toy and was whisked away! Awoooo!

Rover’s adventures and travels take him over the edge of the world, to the moon, under the ocean and to the moon!

According to Wickipedia, Tolkien wrote the tale for his son Michael to amuse him upon the loss of his favourite toy — a little lead dog. They also provide clues as to why it is not more familiar. The story of Roverandom was submitted for publication in 1936 after the success of The Hobbit, but was not published for over sixty years — finally being released in 1998.

Another Tolkien website, devoted to all things Tolkienish, reports that the history of the writing and publication of Roverandom is complicated, but essentially sprang from a family holiday to the Yorkshire coast taken during the Autumn of 1925, shortly after Tolkien had accepted his appointment as Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford.

Tolkien’s children were eight (John), five (Michael), and nearly one (Christopher) at the time. The family rented a cliff-top cottage overlooking the sea and the beach near the town of Filey. At the time, Michael was very fond of a toy dog, made of lead and painted white and black. One fateful day while walking on the beach, the beloved toy dog was left on the shingle and could not be found – in spite of hours of searching.

Tolkien created a story around the lost toy, as a way of explaining its disappearance to his distraught son. Thus the story was not written down immediately, but rather, was told orally, night by night, as a bedtime story. (He was to do the same with the story of The Hobbit.)

Two years later, in September 1927, the Tolkiens were again on holiday, this time in Lyme Regis on England’s southern coast. It seems he returned to the holiday tale, and three of Tolkien’s illustrations for the novel date from this time. This makes it likely that Tolkien retold the tale on this vacation also. Following the retelling of Rover’s tale, Tolkien put the story to paper near the end of 1927.

The story was originally called The Adventures of Rover, but he later changed the title to Roverandom and it stuck. In 1936 the manuscript was submitted to Allen & Unwin Publishers, who accepted it, but then it seems the work got lost in piles of papers. It was finally rediscovered in Tolkien’s manuscript papers held at the Bodleian archives, Oxford, and published in the late 1990s.

Whewh! Well, it’s a good thing the story was finally unearthed in the end, even if it’s fame must be posthumous. I hope you enjoy it!

SuperWoof! Archibald, Esq.

Author: J.R.R. Tolkien
Binding: Hardcover
Pages: 128
Price: $17.00
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