What these cards say about Tolkien
A new Chinese translation of the author's biography comes with an innovative idea involving a script rediscovered from ancient books and telling the reader how the writer himself was a Hobbit, Yang Yang reports.
Besides, they also re-created a map about Tolkien's path of life based on the existing ones and The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide.
As the only biographer who actually interviewed Tolkien and had access to his personal writings, Carpenter's work has been regarded as the most authoritative biography of Tolkien. The Chinese version has also been well received by readers, especially Tolkien fans.
On Douban, a major Chinese review aggregator, a fan named Norloth commented, "I'm not a fan of biographies. However, this biography is very engaging because the writer has described an incredibly vivid Tolkien, which lets us see clearly the connection between his daily life and experience and his creation. … It's such a refined translation".
For example, Mu says, readers can read what motivated Tolkien to create the Middle-earth.
On July 6, 1916, in the middle of the Battle of Somme, notoriously the most devastating and protracted battle during World War I, in northern France, 24-year-old Tolkien was "overwhelmingly relieved and delighted" to see one of his best childhood friends Geoffrey Bache Smith, turn up alive and uninjured.
