The Lord of the Rings author penned letters to his children under the name Father Christmas. Now they have been translated into Chinese. Xing Yi reports.

Most Chinese know J.R.R. Tolkien as the author of the Lord of the Rings who created the fantasy world of Middle Earth and all the epic quests of the hobbits. However, few know that Tolkien had a holiday tradition of writing letters to his four children under the name of Father Christmas.

A book containing those letters, Letters from Father Christmas, was recently translated into Chinese. The book contains letters that Tolkien wrote to his children every year between 1920 and 1943.

"Father Christmas" describes his life and adventures in the Arctic in a child-friendly tone. He describes his ice igloo near the North Pole, and how he packs and delivers gifts on Christmas Eve. Father Christmas and his mischievous helper Polar Bear battle goblins who try to steal their toys with the help of red elves.

Tolkien's first few letters are short and simple, while his later ones are longer and have more extensive plots. Paul H. Kocher, a scholar who wrote extensively on the works of Tolkien, suggests the creatures in the letters may have been the inspiration for those that appeared in Tolkien's later works such as the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

The book includes copies of Tolkien's original letters, which were written in a shaky but elegant handwriting, as Father Christmas is "nineteen hundred and twenty-four, no! seven! years old".

"If John (Tolkien's eldest son) can't read my old shaky writing, he must get his father to," Tolkien wrote.

Each letter was sent by "Chimney Post" and delivered by "direct Reindeer" from the "cliff house on top of the world" with "North Pole postage".

The stories of Father Christmas are full of interesting details. For example, Tolkien - who was a professor of English philology and learned dozens of languages - invents a new language, Arktic, which is spoken by Polar Bear. The elves also speak an odd language of elves, and the goblins use a hieroglyphic alphabet.

Besides being a creative storyteller, Tolkien also proves to be a dedicated painter. He enclosed the letters with lovely and vivid illustrations. His drawings are full of color, rich in details and filled with imagination.

Tolkien didn't publish the letters; they were first released posthumously on Sept 2, 1976, on the third anniversary of his death.

Christine Huang, 8, who stars in the reality TV show, Dad! Where Are We Going?, and her close friend Linda Liu, 12, worked on the Chinese edition with the help of Christine's father, Huang Lei, also a famous Chinese actor.

"The girls used ... their childish language to translate the letters," says Huang Lei. "I am just a porter of their innocent words."

"To communicate with children through words and to leave these words as the best gifts to them is the happiest and worthiest thing in the world," Huang writes in the afterword of the book.

"Therefore I think the Letters from Father Christmas is the most valuable of Tolkien's works."

Naturally there are doubts about whether the girls are capable of translating Tolkien's works. The book's publisher, Horizon Media, says the girls are fluent in English as they attend international schools, and the language Tolkien used in the letters is simple.

To ensure the quality of the translation, Lai Shengchuan, an award-winning playwright and director who was born in the United States and received a doctoral degree from the University of California, Berkeley, was invited to be the girls' adviser and proofread the translation.

Zhang Jianhua brought his 3-year-old daughter to a release party for the book on Dec 21 in Beijing, so it could be signed by the girls and Huang Lei.

"Though my daughter cannot read the book, I will read for her and I hope she likes it," says Zhang. "Few people write letters with a pen nowadays, but I think we should retain our feeling with paper and cherish the time with our kids."

Contact the writer at xingyi@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 12/24/2014 page20)