A previously unpublished work by JRR Tolkien has been unearthed in the University of Oxford’s archives.
The Lord of the Rings author’s translation of a medieval religious text from the early 13th century had lain forgotten in the Bodleian Libraries’ collections until now.
His reworking of Sawles Warde, an early Middle English prose homily, which he titled Soul’s Ward in his calligraphic hand on the typescript, is to be published for the first time. It is an allegory in which the body is represented as a house.
As a significant new text from Tolkien, who died in 1973, it is likely to draw interest from both the public and scholars, given his enduring popularity, with more than 150 million copies of his fantasy novels sold.
The 10-page typescript, which bears additions and emendations in Tolkien’s hand on every page, was found among the Bodleian’s myriad Tolkien papers by Andoni Cossio, a visiting fellow at St Catherine’s College, Oxford, and an assistant professor at the University of the Basque Country.
