This article is part of a larger feature called The Fairy Tales of J.R.R. Tolkien.
![Wayne Hammond and Christina Scull published the first pictures from Roverandom in J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist & Illustrator. Wayne Hammond and Christina Scull published the first pictures from Roverandom in J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist & Illustrator.](https://images.xenite.org/tolkien/jrrt-artist-illustrator-cover.jpg)
An enchanting romp through imaginary realms under the sea and on the Moon, Roverandom will be a classic among J.R.R. Tolkien fans and scholars. Roverandom first came to my attention when I read J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist & Illustrator by Wayne Hammond and Christina Scull. All five of the pictures Tolkien created for this story are reproduced in that book.
The story is based on an incident that occurred in 1925. Tolkien took his wife and sons (Priscilla had not yet been born) to the beach on vacation. Michael, the second son, then about five years old, had a small metal dog to which he was quite attached. I assume from the story that it was shaped like a dog sitting up and begging.
Michael took the dog with him everywhere, and he lost it at the beach (apparently) one day. JRRT and his older sons spent the better part of two days looking for the dog but never found it.
To help his son get over the tragic loss of his favorite toy, Tolkien made up the story about Rover, a real dog turned into a toy by a wizard. He cleverly worked Michael in as “little boy Two” and explained why they couldn’t find the toy. He was whisked away to the moon on the back of a gull named Mew. Since the Man in the Moon already had a dog named Rover, he called the toy-dog Rover Roverandom, and the name sticks throughout the rest of the story (most likely because Roverandom tells everyone about his adventures on the Moon).
![The cover for Roverandom, a children's story J.R.R. Tolkien wrote Circa 1925. The cover for Roverandom, a children's story J.R.R. Tolkien wrote Circa 1925.](https://images.xenite.org/tolkien/roverandom-cover.jpg)
Tolkien made up many stories for his children, but so very few of them have survived. Roverandom was apparently prepared for publication in the 1930s and submitted to Allen & Unwin soon after The Hobbit, but they became so engrossed in THE HOBBIT’s success that Roverandom was forgotten. Only in recent years was the effort to get the story published revived, so this is the first “new” or previously unpublished “finished” work from J.R.R. Tolkien in decades.
Most of what I’ve presented above is condensed from the very lengthy and interesting Introduction that Hammond and Scull put into Roverandom. The book contains all five of the Tolkien illustrations (one of which is reproduced on the Houghton Mifflin dust jacket).
Roverandom is set in the modern era (20th century) and in fact makes reference to a number of actual events, according to the introduction. There are also some curious passages which may be interpreted as presaging or perhaps even alluding to Tolkien’s better-known works.
The story is not so much about the dog Rover as the world into which he enters because he happens to be just a little too rambunctious as a pup. Rover foolishly annoys the old wizard Artaxerxes, and the old fellow turns the dog into a toy. What’s worse, Artaxerxes goes off on his own set of adventures and forgets all about the dog. So even when Rover has learned his lesson thoroughly, he has a difficult time reminding and persuading Artaxerxes to change him back.
Rover is sent by a considerate sand-wizard to the Moon for a while so he can stay out of Artaxerxes’ way. In the mean-time the sand-wizard (Psamathos, be sure to pronounce the “P”) does a little match-making to help Artaxerxes cool down and forget his anger. The particulars of dealing with wizards in Roverandom is an important theme. Each wizard has his own peculiarities, and Roverandom must learn to cope with each wizard he meets. The Man in the Moon is rather kindly but busy. And perhaps a little absent-minded.
Roverandom finds out that his name, “Rover”, is not really his. It belongs to many dogs and they all claim it as their own. So in a way the humiliation of being renamed grants him a special distinction of being uniquely named. He is the first Roverandom, and no other dog can take that away from him.
Rover also learns that no matter how much fun he has, whether it be flying around the moon with magical wings or coursing beneath the waves in the body of a fish-dog, he is really not cut out to be an enchanted creature. He comes to know and love Little Boy Two and strives to find a way home to him. The way home just happens to wind around the world and close to a few dragons.
Tolkien has fun with this story, throwing in asides that poke fun at various matters taken seriously by adults, and mentioning events and places which he and his family encountered. Hammond and Scull provide 76 end notes to explain many of the references, some of which will be understand by readers in the United Kingdom more readily than people in other parts of the world. But there are many 20th century archaism as well, references that will be obscure to any reader.
The adult humor does not overwhelm the wonder of the story, and it will doubtless amuse and entertain children of all ages. The five illustrations are really too few to keep the attention of children who want to see pictures, but they demonstrate how vivid Tolkien’s imagination was. And they underscore the fact that he told visual stories, not just narratives. With Tolkien, every aspect of the world comes alive in Faërie and Roverandom illustrates this quality as well as any of his other works.
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