02-04-2006, 12:00
L’exemplaire personnel de Tolkien de « Medium Aevum », volume 3, n°2 (Juin 1934), dans lequel il avait publié son essai « Sigelwara Land », II a récemment été vendu aux enchères par Sotheby’s (Lot 123-459). De ce que j’ai pu en grappiller, Tolkien a annoté plusieurs passages des autres contributions de ce recueil, en particulier le suivant, dans l’essai « Elfin Elements in Ancient Litterature » :
Nor should it be forgotten that Elves, who are getting on in years, have experience, and it is only experience that sets the seal of perfection on their natural gifts. They repair by their toilet the ravages of time, and by the care they take of themselves manage to conceal their age.
Tolkien note sur la page blanche suivante:
They know all the different attitudes of Hope and will assume them at their pleasure. No pictured representation can rival them in voluptuousness. With them pleasure comes naturally, without provocation, the pleasure which is sweeter than all, the pleasure which is shared equally by the Man and the Elf. They hate those who offer themselves because they ought to do so, and, cold and dry, think of their threads when they are making love. How sweet it was for Beren to hear Luthien’s voice quaver as she told him the joy she felt, and to hear her imploring him to slacken his speed so as to prolong her bliss. How he loved to see her, drunk with delight, gazing with swooning eyes upon him, or, languishing with love, keeping him a long while at arms' length.
Etonnant non?