Diplomatarium Islandicum. Íslenzkt fornbréfasafn. Volume One 834 - 1264. Kaupmannahöfn, 1857 - 76. Signed by J.R.R. Tolkien on a bookplate stuck on the marbled front end paper.

Loosely inserted are a couple of scraps of paper with notes by Tolkien.

Diplomatarium Islandicum. Íslenzkt fornbréfasafn. Volume One 834 - 1264. Kaupmannahöfn, 1857 - 76. Signed by J.R.R. Tolkien on a bookplate stuck on the marbled front end paper.

Bound in contemporary half calf. With the bookplate of the historian Charles Plummer, who died in 1927.
Below Plummer's armorial bookplate is a separate Scandinavian Collection label. Tolkien's ink additions on this label read "bt from" and "by J.R.R. Tolkien".

The medieval historian Charles Plummer was one of the electors to the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship of Anglo-Saxon on 21 July 1925. Tolkien was elected. This book belonged to Charles Plummer and was bought by J.R.R. Tolkien.

Loosely inserted are a couple of scraps of paper with notes by Tolkien.
The transcription of the bigger notes reads as follows:

"The appearance of the _Ethiopians_ at this point in the account is clearly, in part at least, due to a comparison of Psalm lxxiii with the book of Exodus. It is probable too that v. 16 of the psalm ("The day is thine, the night also is thine: thou hast prepared the light and the sun") was brought into relation with the mention, in Exod. xiii 21, of the pillars of cloud and fire immediately after _Etham_.

_byrig_ is probably plural, as noted above: 'the cities of the region of Etham'. See quot. in note p. 32. In any case, of course, _Etham_ (_Æthan_) is taken not as a city or place, but a region; _Æthanes byrig_ in O.E. does not mean 'the city of Etham', where city = Etham, but 'the city belonging to or in Etham'.

67 _mearelandum ón_ : a good example of a manuscript accent indicating emphasis and stress (here properly borne by the 'postponed' _on_ in archaic word order) and not quantity. The words render _in extremis finibus solitudinis_. [Vulgate Exodus 13:20]

68 _nearwe genyddon_ : it is a little difficult to interpret these words with"

The other paper holds some other notes by Tolkien, but since these papers are cut in half no transcriptions have been made so far.

Bound in tan half calf over dark textured boards, with raised bands, gilt spine decoration and a dark title label. Marbled endpapers and matching marbled page edges.
Rubbing and scuffing to the leather, particularly the joints, corners and spine ends, with surface marks to the boards. The paper is toned with scattered foxing and stains, including a conspicuous spot at the inner edge of the title page. Additional pencil catalogue notes occur on preliminary leaves.
The loose manuscript fragments have uneven or cut edges and are not complete manuscript leaves. Cancellation strokes cross part of the larger fragment.

A substantial Icelandic source volume linking the libraries of Charles Plummer and J.R.R. Tolkien, accompanied by manuscript notes.

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