Yesterday [the North Polar Bear] was snowballing the Snow-man in the garden and pushed him over the edge of the cliff so that he fell into my sleigh at the bottom and broke lots of things – one of them was himself. I used some of what was left of him to paint my white picture.
–The Father Christmas Letters
Tolkien writes such profound stuff and then you just come across a passage like this… It’s whimsical. It’s hilarious. It’s also mildly disturbing. 😀
Also, it’s St Nicholas Day! So, Gelukkige Sinterklaasdag!
Benita J. Thompson 
Oh yeah! As one of the ten or so Finnish students on this continent, I love the Finnish names Tolkien gave the polar bears in The FCL: Karhu (bear), Paksu (fat), and Valkotukka (white-fur). In fact, the whole concept of flying reindeer comes from the mythologies of the indigenous people of Finland, the Sami, and the Evenki people (natives of Siberia), both of which were reindeer herders and domesticators.
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Also, ‘valkotukka’ is now officially one of my favourite words. The K’s feel cool in the back of my throat 😀
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Finnish is full of double K words 😀
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Another language I’ll have to learn someday, then! K is my favourite letter 😀
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Hehe. I’ve read the Father Christmas letters. My favorite part is when he and the North Polar Bear beat the snot out of the goblins. Why can’t more Christmas stories have stuff like that in them? 😀
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Oh gosh, that part was the funniest thing in the world when I was little 😀
That’s really cool that Tolkien just translated those words into Finnish – I didn’t know that! It really is the best way to name things, though. It makes the name fit the person or place, and most people reading will never know. Finnish actually sounds like an ancient version of Quenya, now I look at it. (Which I suppose makes sense since my tired waking brain just realised that he BASED Quenya on Finnish… my brain doesn’t really work till after 9am.)
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I was reading Finnish out loud to my family one time, and the first thing they said was “It sounds like weird Elvish.” In the first Hobbit movie when Galadriel says “I will come” she says something like “tulithon,” and the first thing I thought was “Ooo! It sounds like tulla (‘to come’ in Finnish)!” 😀
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That’s really cool! I wonder just how much Finnish and Welsh inspired Quenya and Sindarin beyond verb forms and so on – like with tulla/tulithon!
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Never read the Father Christmas letters. I may have to get me a copy!
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Do! They’re delightful. 🙂
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Thank you for sharing Benita! I have never read any of “Snowman’s” work before, yes, it brought a smile to my face as I visualized the broken up snow man now all over the page! Snowman’s Demise:)
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You should read the entire Father Christmas Letters if you liked this! The book is by J.R.R. Tolkien but has nothing to do with Lord of the Rings so if you’re not into fantasy you will probably still enjoy it! It’s a great Christmas read.
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