“In any good bookshop or library you will find plenty of books concerned with the life of J.R.R. Tolkien. It would be much harder, however, to find information about one of the most important people in his life: his brother.”[1] This embarrassment to Tolkien scholarship should soon be rectified. Thanks to Hilary’s grandson, Chris Tolkien, Hilary’s life is now being opened to the public, Tolkien scholar or not. A biography on Hilary, which will be filled with details of the Tolkien family, is in the works (not only giving us a full account of Hilary’s life, it should contain unpublished letters, artwork done by Hilary, and photographs from Hilary’s side of the Tolkien family tree as well). Before that is published, an edition of “tales” Hilary wrote down, based upon events in his life has been released. They were found in an old notebook stashed in the family attic, whereupon Chris Tolkien, realizing their significance, had Angela Gardner transcribe and edit them, and turn them into the small, but interesting volume, Black & White Ogre Country: The Lost Tales of Hilary Tolkien.
Picking up the book, one should not expect more than what is contained within it: very short reminiscences written down by Hilary, based upon the adventures he had by the time he quickly wrote them down. And yet, these short snippets of memory are more than mere recollections, for they are transformed with that touch of magic which shows Hilary was clearly Ronald’s brother. One gets a sense that these stories really took place, although, written down with the way Hilary and Ronald first saw their activities, where there was danger in every corner, and evil men and women capable of doing anything to little children if they ever caught them. It is clear that Hilary and Ronald liked to get in mischief, going on adventures into the yards of their neighbors, with or without their permission, just like Frodo did at Farmer Maggot’s.[2] Four significant characters make their appearance early on: the Black Ogre, who apparently, could get violent, the White Ogre, who, not being so violent nor really evil like the Black Ogre, disliked it when children wandered through his cornfields, the Black Witch, who it was believed turned children into stone, and the White Witch, who loved children and would help them if they got in trouble with the Black Witch.[3] We hear of Hilary’s training for World War I, and how he became a decent bugler, but never played a note after he left the military.
What is also interesting is that Hilary, like his brother, obviously had a love for trees. In their youth, Hilary and Ronald would “live a big part of the summer up trees, particularly a certain sycamore, where we collected all our squirrel supplies of nice things to munch…”[4] When he was older, Hilary “live all alone in the midst of a wood,”[5] which had, one night, over forty trees blow down, causing what he thought was one of the biggest bonfires he had ever seen. Damascene trees, mushrooms, and berries all find themselves being mentioned several times throughout the book. One can just picture Hilary, like Ronald, as a Hobbit. And perhaps there was a bit of Hilary in Tolkien’s Shire. For, as the short biography at the end of the book points out, Hilary bought a fair piece of land in Blackminster, which he used for a market garden. Hilary was apparently quite fond of a set of plum trees he planted in the 1920s, even when he was an old man in his eighties. Was there a hint of Hilary in Samwise? Perhaps, although Ronald would have considered his brother to be of a higher class than Sam.
For the Tolkien scholar, this book gives great hints of things to come, when the full biography on Hilary is released. Indeed, it should generate some excitement. C.S. Lewis scholars have long been given a chance to know Jack’s brother, Warnie, and see his influence on him; now Tolkien scholars will get a better glimpse of Hilary. It is clear they shared much in common. It will now be interesting unraveling Hilary’s influence on Tolkien’s legendarium. Hopefully someone will find and release new information of their mother, Mabel, and her conversion to Catholicism. Now that is a story which many would like to know more about.
I would recommend this book to anyone seriously interested in J.R.R. Tolkien, although they must realize it does not come cheap (10 pounds sterling, before shipping and handling, and this for a 73 page volume). It’s a tantalizing volume, showing us the beginning of the Tolkien journey, and showing us how, even as adults, both Tolkiens were able to keep the magic alive, even if the world around them could no longer see stars as:
living silver made that sudden burst
to flame like flowers bencath an ancient song.[6]
Footnotes
[1] Hilary Tolkien, Black & White Ogre Country. The Lost Tales of Hilary Tolkien. ed. Angela Gardener. Illustrated by Jef Murray (Moreton-in-Marsh, Great Britain, 2009), iv. This is from Angela Gardener’s introduction to the book.
[2] Instead of mushrooms, it seems Hilary was attracted to a kind of berry which one found by going through the “White Ogre’s” yard.
[3] I suspect, now that this book has been released, much will be said about each Ogre and Witch; we knew of these adventures before, thanks to Carpenter’s biography of Tolkien, but now we Hilary’s first-hand reminiscences of them, which should open up new areas of Tolkien scholarship.
[4] Hilary Tolkien, Black & White Ogre Country. The Lost Tales of Hilary Tolkien. ed. Angela Gardener. Illustrated by Jef Murray (Moreton-in-Marsh, Great Britain, 2009), 28.
[5] Ibid., 36
[6] J.R.R. Tolkien, Mythopoeia.
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