{"id":121395,"date":"2026-02-02T11:57:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T16:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/?p=121395"},"modified":"2026-02-01T23:57:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T04:57:25","slug":"tolkiens-lament-against-car-culture-rediscovered-available-now-in-new-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/2026\/02\/02\/121395-tolkiens-lament-against-car-culture-rediscovered-available-now-in-new-book\/","title":{"rendered":"Tolkien’s lament against Car Culture rediscovered – Available now in new book"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Bovadium Fragments is long-lost short story from J.R.R. Tolkien lamenting car culture makes for a snarky and sneaky release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Found via Slashdot<\/a>, it looks like Tolkien’s got another new work to read – this time its satire! The Bovadium Fragments: Together with The Origins of Bovadium <\/a>is a fictional retort to Tolkien’s real world dilemma of the automobile revolution changing his beloved Oxford. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Amazon description reads: As Christopher Tolkien notes in his Introduction, The Bovadium Fragments was a “satirical fantasy” written by his father, which grew out of a planning controversy that erupted in Oxford in the late 1940s, when J.R.R. Tolkien was the Merton Professor of English Language and Literature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

JRR Tolkien vs the Automobile<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Written initially for his own amusement, Tolkien\u2019s tale was a private academic jest that poked gentle fun at the pomposity of archaeologists and the hideousness of college crockery. However, it was at the same time expressing a barbed cri de coeur against the inexorable rise of motor transport that was overwhelming the tranquility of his beloved city. Interest in publishing it in the 1960s ultimately foundered, and the text remained hidden for 60 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n