J.R.R. TOLKIEN’S OWN COPY OF THE BOOK OF THE DEAD IN EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHICS, A RESEARCH SOURCE FOR LORD OF THE RINGS, EACH VOLUME SIGNED BY HIM

(TOLKIEN, J.R.R.) BUDGE, E.A. Wallis. The Chapters of Coming Forth by Day or the Theban Recension of the Book of the Dead. The Egyptian Hieroglyphic Text Edited from Numerous Papyri. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1910. Three volumes. Small octavo, original brown cloth; housed in a custom slipcase.

Second edition of the hieroglyphic text of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, the copy belonging to noted philologist and author J.R.R. Tolkien, with his ownership signature in each volume.

The ancient Egyptian hymns and religious texts provided in this edition “form a representative collection of the compositions which the Egyptians inscribed upon the walls of tombs, sarcophagi, coffins, stelae, amulets, etc. to ensure the well-being of their dead in the Other World. Taken together they are known generally as the Book of the Dead.” These hymns and texts were “believed to give the dead strength to resist the attacks of foes, and to withstand the powers of darkness and of the grave, and enabled them to enjoy everlasting happiness.” Noted Egyptologist Budge was the Keeper of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities in the British Museum; “among Egyptologists Budge was the best Semitic scholar of his generation” (DNB).

Tolkien had a firm grasp on the history of the two Egyptian kingdoms and their symbols. In a letter to Rhona Beare dated 14 October 1958, concerning questions (“What clothes did the peoples of Middle-earth wear? Was the winged crown of Gondor like that of a Valkyrie, or as depicted on a Gauloise cigarette packet?”) put to Tolkien for a gathering of Lord of the Rings enthusiasts, he wrote: “The Númenóreans of Gondor were proud, peculiar, and archaic, and I think are best pictured in (say) Egyptian terms. In many ways they resembled ‘Egyptians— the love of, and power to construct, the gigantic and massive. And in their great interest in ancestry and in tombs…I think the crown of Gondor (the S. Kingdom) was very tall, like that of Egypt, but with wings attached, not set straight back but at an angle. The N. Kingdom had only a diadem (III 323). Cf. the difference between the N. and S. kingdoms of Egypt” (Letters, 281).

The similarities between Tolkien’s oeuvre and ancient Egyptian writings have been noted: “Egyptian authors were especially fond of embedding text fragments from one genre within a textual frame from a different genre… A more familiar example is the biblical book of Genesis, which embeds genealogy, myth, liturgy, song, poetry, onomasticon, history, folk tale, blessing formula, dream text testament, and novella within its two major frames of primeval history (chapters 1-11) and ancestral narrative (chapters 12-50). The same techniques can also be found in modern literary works, especially those which deliberately mimic ancient forms; a prominent example in modern English is J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings” (Black, Instruction of Amenemope, 147). First published in 1897.

Light wear to spine ends, light soiling to original cloth. A near-fine copy with an exceptional association.