Letter to Father Francis Morgan

First page of the letter

Father Francis Morgan 8 August 1904 is a letter from J.R.R. Tolkien to Father Francis Xavier Morgan, composed on August 8th, 1904.

• Comment: The letter, a "remarkable code letter" written by the 12-year-old Tolkien, is kept at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, and ends with the limerick seen below.
• Authenticity: High
• Publication: An excerpt of the letter was published in The Invented Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien: Drawings and Original Manuscripts from the Marquette University Collection.

Excerpt

There was an old priest named Francis
Who was so fond of "cheefongy" dances
That he sat up too late
And worried his pate
Arranging these Frenchified Prances