Oxonmoot 2024

Tolkien’s whimsical Father Christmas Letters contain a fascinating amalgam of astronomical references (comets, eclipses, constellations, and aurora, among others), nods to real world events (the most important being World War II), descriptions of childhood diseases (whooping cough and mumps) and even cave art (noted by Scull and Hammond to have derived from books Tolkien had read). We also gain revealing glimpses of life in the Tolkien household, as the children grow older and Tolkien himself becomes more involved in worldbuilding Middle-earth through the writing of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. More work needs to be done on analyzing real-world connections to events in the Letters, comparing the Letters to others of Tolkien’s works (such as The Hobbit) and finding parallels with his talent for language-invention in his legendarium, as well as appreciating one of the most fascinating overarching aspects of the work, its own inherent worldbuilding. This talk highlights aspects of the world of Father Christmas and Karhu the Polar Bear (and friends) as an example of a Secondary World, although not nearly as detailed as Middle-earth, fascinating in its own right.