Roverandom

by J. R. R. Tolkien, Wayne G. Hammond

Overview

In 1925, four-year-old Michael Tolkien lost his beloved toy dog on the beach. To console him, his father, J.R.R. Tolkien, improvised a story about Rover, a real dog who is magically transformed into a toy and is forced to seek out the wizard who wronged him in order to be returned to normal. This charming tale, peopled by a sand-sorcerer and a terrible dragon, by the king of the sea and the Man-in-the-Moon, endured several drafts over the years. Now, more than seventy years later, the adventures of Rover are published for the first time. Rich in wit and wordplay, Roverandom is edited and introduced by Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond and illustrated with Tolkien's own delightful drawings.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780395957998
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	06/30/1999
Pages:	128
Sales rank:	221,862
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.37(d)
Age Range:	8 - 10 Years

About the Author

J.R.R. Tolkien (1892–1973) was a distinguished academic, though he is best known for writing The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion, plus other stories and essays. His books have been translated into over sixty languages and have sold many millions of copies worldwide.

WAYNE G. HAMMOND is a leading expert on Tolkien and coauthor of the acclaimed The Art of The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator,The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion, and The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide with Christina Scull.

Date of Birth:

January 3, 1892

Date of Death:

September 2, 1973

Place of Birth:

Bloemfontein, Orange Free State (South Africa)

Place of Death:

Oxford, England

Education:

B.A., Exeter College, Oxford University, 1915; M.A., 1919

Table of Contents

	Introduction	ix
	Roverandom	3
	Notes	91
	Illustrations
	House Where 'Rover' Began His Adventures as a 'Toy'
	Rover Arrives on the Moon
	The White Dragon Pursues Roverandom & the Moondog
	Lunar Landscape
	The Gardens of the Merking's Palace

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"There's still no one quite like Tolkien, and this utterly charming tale will please readers of all ages." School Library Journal

Editorial Reviews

"There's still no one quite like Tolkien, and this utterly charming tale will please readers of all ages." School Library Journal —

From the Publisher

There's still no one quite like Tolkien, and this utterly charming tale will please readers of all ages.

School Library Journal

In 1925, Professor Tolkien and his family went for a seaside holiday in Yorkshire, where little boy Two (Michael Tolkien) was given a toy dog which he treasured but subsequently lost on the beach. His father wrote Roverandom to console him. Now published with a thoughtful introduction and extensive notes by two Tolkien scholars, the story tells of the puppy Rover, who unwittingly bites a hole in the pants of an irritable wizard, Artaxerxes. He is turned into a toy, lost on the beach, and sent to the moon by a sand wizard, Psamathos Psamathides (obviously a relative of Nesbit's Psammead). He flies on the back of Mew, a great gull, and is welcomed by the Man-in-the-Moon and his dog, Rover. Renamed Roverandom by the Man-in-the-Moon, to avoid confusion, and given wings, he has many adventures with the moon dog, Rover. He has further adventures under the sea with a sea dog, also Rover, before being turned back into a real dog and returning to little boy Two. The story as a whole is only modestly entertaining, with a rambling and unconnected plot. It reads like exactly what it is-the written form of an improvised story for children, never really polished or carefully edited. But readers familiar with Tolkien will find many passages and characters that will put them in mind of his more famous works, especially The Hobbit. The three wizards all show some resemblance to Gandalf; there are dragons, sly and dangerous, and spiders that weave sticky webs to catch errant moonbeams and anything else that comes their way; and there are puns and allusions galore. A handful of illustrations, also by Tolkien, depict the familiar lonely mountains and fantasy landscapes of his other creations. Tolkien fans will appreciate this opportunity for examining this early fantasy work and the subtle forerunners of characters and themes found in his later great works.

Horn

In 1925, the Tolkien family took a vacation at the beach, where four-year-old Michael lost his favorite object, a tiny toy dog. So to console him, father J.R.R. improvised the tale of a dog magically transformed into a toy. The story was rejected by Tolkien's publisher in 1937 and has lain neglected ever since. With good reason. It tells of young and impolite puppy Rover, who bites the wizard Artaxerxes's trousers; as a punishment, the wizard transforms him into a toy. Deposited in a toyshop, Rover is bought by a boy named Two, who loses the dog on a beach; but soon Rover meets Psamathos the sand-sorcerer. Psamathos sends Rover off on the back of Mew the gull to visit the Man-in-the-Moon. But the Man-in- the-Moon already has a moon-dog named Rover, so our Rover becomes Roverandom. Yessir, this is real edge-of-the-seat stuff. After various cutesy doings, Roverandom learns that Artaxerxes has taken a job under the sea, so he rides inside Uin the Right Whale to plead with Artaxerxes to change him back into a real dog. Which, after more fluffy bits—yes, there's a mer-dog named Rover—the wizard does, and Roverandom returns to Two. Even for Tolkien scholars, these are awfully thin bones to pick over.

Kirkus Reviews