The Gallant Edith Bratt

The Gallant Edith Bratt
Publication Information
Author	Nancy Bunting and Seamus Hamill-Keays
Publisher	Walking Tree Publishers
Released	19 August 2021
Format	Paperback
Pages	258
ISBN	978-3-905703-46-7
Series	Cormarë Series
Preceded by	Tolkien and the Classical World
Followed by	Nólë Hyarmenillo

The Gallant Edith Bratt is a biographical work on Edith Tolkien by Nancy Bunting and Seamus Hamill-Keays. The book re-examines Edith's role in J.R.R. Tolkien's life, looking at documentary evidence and the role Edith played in Tolkien's literary creation. It was published as No. 46 in the Cormarë Series.

Contents

• Series' Editors Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: In the Beginning
• Chapter 2: Childhood
• Chapter 3: Dresden House, 1903-1907
• Chapter 4: The Faulkners', Birmingham, 1908-1910
• Chapter 5: Charlton Kings, 1910-1913
• Chapter 6: Waiting in Warwick, 1913-1915
• Chapter 7: Waiting in Warwick, 1915-1916
• Chapter 8: Edith Bratt Tolkien Confronts the War, 1916
• Chapter 9: Edith Bratt Tolkien's Wanderings, 1917
• Chapter 10: Edith: Creation, Subcreation, and Tinúviel/Lúthien
• Epilogue
• Appendix Concerning Tolkien and Sanskrit

From the publisher

Who was Edith Bratt? Millions saw Hollywood's fantasy version of J.R.R. Tolkien's one and only love, Edith Bratt, in the 2019 movie, Tolkien. Fact, though, is stranger than fiction, and more interesting. Edith's story reveals a gallant heroine suffering under "The Shadow of the Past." Edith was Ronald's "lover," and much like her mother, Edith risked all for the man she loved. New research finds a financially independent and strong woman who was not only John Ronald's equal, but his muse, his anchor of stability in the present, and his hope for the future.

Admirers, enthusiasts, and students of Tolkien will find much new material to enrich their understanding and appreciation of Tolkien. Placing the development of John Ronald Tolkien's Elvish languages, mythology, and art during the crucial years of 1916-18 in a new biographical context that includes the importance and significance of Edith Bratt culminates in the pivotal story of Lúthien and Beren with new unsuspected sources and the complementary artwork of The Fair Towns of Holy Tol Eressëa. A fresh awareness of the compelling and pervasive influence and effect of Tolkien's biography on his oeuvre suggests new views and possibilities for further investigations.

Reception

The book was reviewed by Shaun Gunner, Chair of The Tolkien Society in the journal Mallorn. In reviewing the book, Gunner said he felt the authors had done a "genuinely thorough job in looking into Edith’s early life and upbringing, teaching about her family, education, wealth and accommodation." However, he critiqued the book as "incomplete" for only covering her life from her birth to 1917, for making their own suppositions, and for "pointed" critiques of Humphrey Carpenter's biography of Tolkien. He concluded he could only "partially" recommend the work.

Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond, writing in the Journal of Tolkien Research, took a similar line to Gunner saying that the authors "usefully expand our sources of information on Edith’s early life. Their industry in doing so is commendable". However, Scull and Hammond were similarly frustrated by the "concentrated siege" on Humphrey Carpenter, and concluded: "Bunting and Hamill-Keays’s book [..] is haphazardly argued, excessively speculative, and sometimes vituperative, and cannot be recommended except for the few new facts it firmly documents."

External links

• Official product page
• Review by Giovanni Carmine Costabile for Journal of Inklings Studies
• Review by María Fernández Portaencasa in Mythlore
• Review by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull in Journal of Tolkien Research