Letter 289c

The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
Letter 289c
Recipient	Donald Swann
Date	14 October 1966
Subject(s)	Errantry

Letter 289c is a letter written by J.R.R. Tolkien and published in The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien: Revised and Expanded edition.

Summary

Tolkien described a letter from a woman in England that asked if he knew of the source of some verses she had enclosed. The verses were from Tolkien's poem Errantry The woman said she had heard the verses orally from a friend. Tolkien was particularly interested in the oral transmission of the poem. He noted that the word sigaldry had been preserved in the oral transmission of the poem.

A larger excerpt from this letter can be found in The Treason of Isengard.