Tolkien poetry unearthed in school magazine

Two poems by Lord of the Rings author J R R Tolkien have been unearthed in an old school magazine, according to the Guardian.

The two poems, "Noel" and "The Shadow Man", were discovered in the 1936 annual of Our Lady’s School in Oxfordshire after US Tolkien scholar Wayne Hammond contacted the school’s headteacher, Stephen Oliver. Hammond had found a note from Tolkien in which the author said he had published two poems in a magazine he called the Abingdon Chronicle.

Hammond and Oliver eventually found the magazine featuring the poems in the archives of the Sisters of Mercy, the convent that founded the school in 1860.

“My excitement when I saw them was overwhelming. I am a great Tolkien fan and was thrilled to discover the connection with the school,” said Oliver.

"Noel" is a Christmas poem set in a wintry landscape, whilst "The Shadow Man" is about two people who find each other, thus creating one shadow. It is an early version of a poem that Tolkien later published in his 1962 collection The Adventures of Tom Bombadil (George Allen & Unwin).

The discovery of the poems follows other new Tolkien publishing announced in recent months. Harper Collins published The Story of Kullervo, which had previously only appeared in academic papers, as a novel in 2015, and Tolkien’s translation of Beowulf in 2014.