The End of Bovadium

Foreword

The story begins with a Foreword by Doctor Sarevelk discussing "a site of historical" importance "found at Vasti" "on the borders of the Southern Region", and two" "equally dead and obscure" languages that are referred to as "A and B". While Language B has been "almost entirely deciphered" at the time of the story using "the Rotzopny–Dwarf treatment", language A is not. In the second part of the Foreword, Dr. Gums summarizes the three fragments of the story proper and explains his method of translating them in a smug way.

Fragment I

The first of the three fragments discussed is "a chronicle or legend in language A" which Fragment II, according to Dr. Gums, is a translation of.

Fragment II

The second of the three fragments discussed is a translation and expanded version of Fragment I, describing the takeover of Bovadium by the Motores.

Fragment III

The third of the three fragments discussed is a text in Language B with inserts from language A that describes the aftermath of the end of Bovadium.

Postscript by the Editor

The story concludes with a fictitious Postscript by Dr. Gums.

Following the story, Christopher Tolkien describes two additional texts of Fragment II both entitled Domine defende nos contra hos Motores bos!. The first is a poem "in thirty-one octosyllabic couplets" while the second is a Latin text which Christopher Tolkien translated.

Sometime between mid 1957 and early 1960, Tolkien wrote a short "satire" entitled The End of Bovadium or The Bovadium Fragments. Tolkien initially wrote it "for his own amusement" as "a private academic jest" to gently satirize "pomposities of archaeologists" and the "hideousness of college crockery", being inspired by A.D. Godley's Motor Bus comic poem and a "recrudescence of the debate about Oxford roads".

On 25 October 1960, Tolkien sought (through his secretary Elisabeth Lumsden) to publish what is believed to be this writing (since it was described as "a sort of satirical fantasy") in the magazine Time and Tide. In a letter to Joan Anne Tolkien in November 1961, Tolkien mentioned the suffering of Oxford "from the ravages of the machine-worshippers". On 24 August 1966, Tolkien lent Rayner Unwin the manuscript, who wrote to Tolkien already the next day, thinking that he "should publish it in the Oxford Magazine". Later, around the same time, Clyde S. Kilby was also given a copy, being asked if the piece was worthy of publication.

On or before 29 November 1968, The End of Bovadium was included in a list of unpublished works that Tolkien had his secretary, Joy Hill, compile. In a letter to Rayner Unwin on 2 December, Tolkien commented that, though The End of Bovadium was on the list of unpublished works, he had "no intention of publishing" it to keep it from preventing him from working on his "proper work".

After Tolkien's death in 1973, Clyde S. Kilby would later recall the story in April 1976:

A few more details about the contents were provided in Humphrey Carpenter's summary dating from 1977, saying that: Carpenter also notes that the theme of "motor transport" connects the story to Mr. Bliss. In a footnote to Letter 181 in The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Carpenter speculated that Tolkien's statement that "the present design of destroying Oxford in order to accommodate motor-cars" is "a reference to the proposal for a ‘relief’ road through Christ Church Meadow". The writing was given to the Bodleian Library by The Tolkien Trust in 1985, where it was kept in the Department of Western Manuscripts (Mss. Tolkien, Series A, folder A62, pages 38–91). It is likely that the manuscript consists of 53 pages. The manuscript was reassigned in 2003 from "MS Tolkien A 62" to "MS. Tolkien B 62" alongside Sellic Spell, The New Shadow, and other notes, thereby making it not available for research. In 1992, The Bovadium Fragments was mentioned in Judith Priestman's J.R.R. Tolkien: Life and Legend in the entry about Tolkien's copy of A.D. Godley's Motor Bus poem. Tolkien kept "the poem with his typescript of" The End of Bovadium. On 8 September of 2010, John D. Rateliff stated on his blog that its "a pity" Tolkien decided "against publishing" The Bovadium Fragments "since an anti-car environmental message from Tolkien published in the mid-sixties might have done some good".

Around 3 May of 2025, it was announced that The End of Bovadium would be published as part of The Bovadium Fragments: together with The Origin of Bovadium on 9 October. On 9 May, David Bratman compared Humphrey Carpenter's description of the story to The Motor-cyclists, one of Tolkien's poems. On 24 May, John Garth explained in a blog post that Vaccipratum is a Latin name meaning "cow-meadow" and that Bovadium is a Latinized name Tolkien coined for Oxford. On 26 May, Jason Fisher claimed on his blog that the book isn’t likely to feel thin like some of the other "posthumous publications", but rather like "Farmer Giles of Ham, Smith of Wootton Major, Roverandom, and Mr. Bliss". On 27 May, Ronald Kyrmse noted in a comment to Fisher's blog post that the names Rotzopny, Dr. Gums, and Sarevelk could be read backwards as impostor, smug, and cleverass respectively. On 30 May, the story was described by Chris Smith, HarperCollins's Tolkien Publishing Director, as: On 27 June, Shaun Gunner noted in an article on the website of The Tolkien Society that The End of Bovadium is "Tolkien’s comment on industrialisation and environmental concerns" and is similar but different compared to Mr. Bliss. On 21 July, Nancy Steinman stated in an article on TheOneRing.net that The End of Bovadium reflected "Tolkien’s disdain of industrialism", comparing the story to "The Scouring of the Shire" chapter in The Lord of the Rings. On 3 October, Sam Leith wrote a harsh criticism of the 2025 book on the website of "The Telegraph". In another review, John Garth described "the vision of dead motorists reaching the River Styx and encountering the stygian ferryman Charon" with a "motor boat" was "particularly enjoyable".

1. Esta ficha se ha importado inicialmente de TolkienGateway.net el día 30/05/2026.