A Secret Vice: Tolkien on Invented Languages. Andrew Higgins

his use of these languages in The Lord of the Rings and would be the source for the paratextual information Tolkien would give readers in Appendices E and F, which focus on the languages. Tolkien’s constant ‘niggling’ and re-conception of his languages can be further seen in the major change he made in the early 1950s, while working on these appendices. He re-conceived Noldorin, together with its attendant history, redeveloping it into the language that is known by readers of The Lord of the Rings as Sindarin (see Peoples, pp. 61–2). With the publication of his seminal work, Tolkien’s own language invention would not only continue as a private pleasure but would gradually fascinate his readers, many of whom would write to the author eager for more information about his now not-so-private language invention (see also ‘Coda’).

      ‘A Secret Vice’ was, therefore, an important linguistic exposition that allowed Tolkien to reflect on his own language invention thus far, as well as develop his theoretical ideas on imaginary languages. The positive reception of his Elvish languages (albeit by a small audience; see pp. xxxii-xxxiii below) and the self-reflection that writing this paper afforded him may have also encouraged Tolkien to continue practising and perfecting his ‘secret vice’. The period immediately following the delivery of the lecture represents the next major phase in the development of the Elvish languages that would first appear in The Lord of the Rings. In this phase, Tolkien not only continued to consolidate, develop and refine the two major Elvish languages, Qenya and Noldorin, but also, in line with his developing mythic narrative of the Elves, expand his nexus of Elvish languages to include other variant dialects (some only sketched in a few words or names, and others merely mentioned).

      Firstly, Tolkien developed other elements of Qenya, such as the c.1936 ‘Bodleian Declensions’, which added five fully declined noun classes to Qenya (VT 28, pp. 9–30). Other examples of Qenya would appear in the untitled song of Firiel from Tolkien’s time-travel story, The Lost Road (Lost Road, p. 72). A little later, Tolkien also composed the ‘Koivieneni Manuscript’, two Qenya prose sentences, one concerning the awakening of the Elves and the other the planting of the Two Trees of Valinor (VT 14, pp. 5–20). An inscription in Noldorin would also appear on an early version of Thror’s map in The Hobbit (Artist, p. 92).

      Secondly, in c.1937 Tolkien wrote The Lhammas (Noldorin for ‘Account of the Tongues’), in which he sketched out a narrative and internal history of the descent of all the Elvish tongues from (at this conceptual stage) the language of the Valar, the Gods of his invented mythology (Lost Road, pp. 166–98). Along with this work Tolkien also visually outlined the aforementioned ‘Tree of Tongues’, which demonstrated how each of his imaginary languages related to each other and to languages of other races, such as Men and Dwarves (ibid., pp. 196–7). Tolkien’s ‘Tree of Tongues’ was clearly reproducing the Indo-European genealogical tree model (see Fimi 2008, pp. 101–2) and put into practice the idea that imaginary languages should have a ‘pseudo-historical background’ (p. 25). Tolkien’s work during this period culminated in The Etymologies, a document from c.1937–8, which revisited his earliest concept of developing words from base roots. It presented a series of Eldarin base roots, out of which he constructed related words in the twelve Elvish languages or dialects he had devised: Danian, Doriathrin, Eldarin, Exilic Noldorin, Ilkorin, Lindarin, Noldorin, Old Noldorin, Ossiriandeb, Qenya, Primitive Quendian and Telerin (Lost Road, pp. 347–400).

       ‘A Secret Vice’ and its Immediate Context

      ‘A Secret Vice’ was first published by Christopher Tolkien in The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays (Monsters, pp. 198–223), alongside six other essays by his father. Christopher notes that the paper:

      exists in a single manuscript without date or indication of the occasion of its delivery; but … the Esperanto Congress in Oxford^fn2, referred to at the beginning of the essay as having taken place ‘a year or more ago’, was held in July 1930. Thus the date can be fixed as 1931. (Monsters, p. 3)

      The ‘Secret Vice’ papers include other indications of an early 1930s date. For example, in the same folder there is a standard printed postcard from the Curators of the Examination Schools at Oxford, relating to the use of lecture rooms and dated Saturday 7th June (MS Tolkien 24, folio 53v), which indicates that the year is 1930 (Trinity Term). Also included is a list of marks for students at the University of Reading (MS Tolkien 24, folio 47r), some of whom graduated in 1932 and 1933 (University of Reading, 1973; Tolkien served as an external examiner for the University of Reading). A more secure terminus ad quem can be found in the ‘Essay on Phonetic Symbolism’, in which Tolkien mentions Sir Richard Paget and his work on sound symbolism (see pp. 68, 83). Tolkien can only be referring to one of two of Paget’s books that explore this subject, and both were published in 1930: Human Speech: Some Observations, Experiments, and Conclusions as to the Nature, Origin, Purpose and Possible Improvement of Human Speech; or Babel, or The Past, Present, and Future of Human Speech.

      Further research at a number of Oxford University archives has disclosed that Tolkien indeed delivered ‘A Secret Vice’ in 1931, as Christopher Tolkien had hypothesized. The minutes of the Johnson Society at Pembroke College reveal that Tolkien read ‘A Secret Vice’ to the Society on 29th November 1931, at 9pm. The Society was founded in 1871 in memory of Samuel Johnson (1709–1784), author and lexicographer. Although originally a literary society, by the early twentieth century it had become ‘practically the J.C.R.^fn3 meeting for an (alleged) literary purpose’ (Pembroke College Archives Catalogue). Indeed, the contemporary records (1927 and 1932) of the Johnson Society at the time Tolkien delivered ‘A Secret Vice’ show that topics were wide and varied, including early modern literature, as well as contemporary British, European and American writers.

      Tolkien’s association with the Johnson Society goes beyond the delivery of ‘A Secret Vice’. Tolkien became a Fellow of Pembroke College as part of his role as Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon, to which he was appointed in 1925. The Society attempted on more than one occasion to invite Tolkien as a guest to one of their formal dinners in the late 1920s. In the minutes for 19 June 1927, it is recorded that Messrs R.G. Collingwood and John Masefield were unable to attend the Society dinner, and therefore ‘it was decided that the following two gentlemen be invited, Messrs. Ralph Straus and J.R. Tolkien [sic]’ (Johnson Society Minute Book, PMB/R/6/1/6 1927–9). In the event, neither attended the Dinner, which was held on 23 June. The following year, the minutes of 13 May 1928 show that both R.G. Collingwood and Tolkien were suggested as guests for the dinner of 20 June, but ‘the society voted in favour of Mr. Collingwood’ (Collingwood by that time had given two papers to the society on Jane Austen, both of which were greeted with enthusiastic reports in the minutes). However, Collingwood was unable to attend and Tolkien was duly invited instead. According to the minutes: ‘the society listened to various speeches, which, with the exception of that of Professor Tolkien, were remarkable for their singular lack of wit. Professor Tolkien then entertained the society with a series of amusing stories’ (Johnson Society Minute Book, PMB/R/6/1/6 1927–9).

      The minutes for the meeting of 29th November 1931 record that:

      In Public Business Professor Tolkien read one of the most ingenious papers that the Society has ever heard. The “Secret Vice”, which gave the paper its title, turned out to be the study & invention of obscure living languages, or codes. After a peculiar conversational opening, in which he touched on such elementary new languages as those produced by adaptation of already-existing languages, – he cited an example one in which the names of animals were used to denote certain words or phrases, & a whole new language built up on this principle, – Professor Tolkien went on to discuss those languages which were composed of words entirely their own, whether derived phonetically, or from some other (probably dead) language. The most interesting example of the phonetic type of language is that spoken in the island of Fonway, which apparently has no connection whatever with any other known language, nor is it spoken or understood elsewhere than in this one small island. Professor Tolkien finally regaled the Society with works of his own, written in an original phonetic language. He had, he said, on one occasion been surprised & rather dismayed