Isengard in Oxford Christian Kriticos explores J. R. R. Tolkien’s long-lost satire of a motorized world. By Christian Kriticos December 17, 2025 SF
Fiction
The Bovadium Fragments by J. R. R. Tolkien . William Morrow , 2025. 144 pages.
Double your support for LARB. Every donation between now and December 31 will be matched up to $100,000. Donate today to double your support. Give to LARB.
READERS OF J. R. R. Tolkien are used to dealing with fragments. In the half century since the author’s death, dozens of his unfinished works have been released, including everything from early draft materials to abandoned stories. But despite its title, the latest posthumous Tolkien publication, The Bovadium Fragments (published in November by William Morrow), is a complete work. Given Tolkien’s enduring popularity, it is remarkable that it has taken so long for it to be released.
Tolkien originally tried to have the short story published in the 1960s. His longtime publisher Rayner Unwin was supportive, suggesting he submit it to a magazine. By the end of the decade, however, Tolkien had declared that he no longer had any intention of publishing it, his mind apparently changed by Clyde Kilby, a friend who deemed the work “unpublishable.” Perhaps Kilby’s position had some merit at the time, when only a handful of works had been released under Tolkien’s name, but today, as Tolkien’s bibliography stretches to some 50 volumes, Kilby’s objections seem totally unfounded, and The Bovadium Fragments seems a worthy addition to his corpus.
Anyone who has read Tolkien’s letters will know that he is at his funniest when filled with rage, and The Bovadium Fragments is a work brimming with Tolkien’s fury—specifically, ire over mankind’s obsession with motor vehicles. Tolkien’s anger is expressed through a playful satire told from the perspective of a group of future archaeologists who are studying the titular fragments, which tell of a civilization that asphyxiated itself on its own exhaust fumes. Tolkien’s fictional fragments use the language of ancient myth, reframing modern issues like traffic congestion and parking with a grandeur that highlights their total absurdity. It is Tolkien at his angriest and funniest, making The Bovadium Fragments a minor treasure in his ever-growing catalog.
Of course, “minor” is the operative word, because the shortness of the work makes for a very slender volume. The page count for the story itself is around 50, but much of that is in Latin. (Tolkien presents some sections of the story in the ancient language, before repeating the same content in English.) And several pages are taken up by editorial notes, interspersed between each section to explain Tolkien’s more obscure allusions and philological references.
Outside the story, we also have a publisher’s note, an introduction, and a lengthy essay explaining the context that inspired Tolkien to write it, bringing the total number of pages to around 140. This supplementary material builds additional layers around the story’s frame narrative, creating a dizzying construct of frames within frames. If the reader is not careful, it is easy to get lost in this nested structure, but if you can keep your bearings, the extra content provides a historical backdrop that adds richness to Tolkien’s creation.
Of the three contributors of this supplementary material, Christopher Tolkien’s input is the most welcome. As longtime literary executor and editor for his father, the younger Tolkien is familiar to anyone who has dipped into his father’s posthumous works. But most fans will have assumed that his voice had been silenced by his death in 2020. Even before then, he had declared The Fall of Gondolin (2018) to be his final editing job. So, it seems something of a miracle to have another of his editorial efforts appear. It is also a testament to the extraordinary longevity of the Tolkien publishing industry. We are now at a point where we are receiving not only posthumous works by Tolkien but also posthumous edits by his son.
... continue reading