Tolkien not only created fictional meetings for the Notion Club Papers; he also created a fictional history for the manuscript of the papers. According to the papers, the meetings occurred in the 1980s; they even mention events that occurred in the 1970s and 1980s. About one-fourth of the papers were found among sacks of waste paper in 2012 at Oxford by a Mr. Green. Mr. Green published a first edition containing excerpts from these papers, indicating that they were written during the 1980s by one of the participants. Two scholars read the first edition, asked to examine the manuscripts, and then submitted a full report. The "Notes to the Second Edition" mentions the contradictory evidence in dating the manuscripts, and an alternative date is presented: they may have been written in the 1940s. These papers remind one of C.S. Lewis' commentary to Tolkien's poem Lay of Leithian, in which Lewis created a fictional history of scholarship of the poem and even referred to other manuscript traditions to recommend changes to the poem.
From Tolkien is included; The Fall and Drowning of Numenor, The Athrabeth Findrod Ah Andreth, The Death of Saint Brendan,Leaf by Niggle, and Smith of Wootton Major.
From C.S. Lewis is included; A Christmas Sermon for Pagans, manuscript fragments for Mythonomy, and what remains of what was once much anticipated Language and Human Nature (a joint work with Tolkien.)
Additionally, Et in Sempiternum Pereant by Charles Williams, whose influence is said to have inspired The Notion Club Papers, and The Froedi by J.R. Emry.
Available only from September 8th to the 12th.
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