Inspiration Behind Unpublished Tolkien Villain

Door Jam: June 9, 2025

The Door Jam is a place to squeeze in articles about C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, their work, adaptations of their fantasy worlds, news from other franchises, and interesting articles. Unless otherwise stated, I’m not endorsing (or criticizing) any of these but merely sharing them with you.

In possibly the last of J.R.R. Tolkien’s unpublished works to be published, the creator of some iconic villains fashioned another bad guy that was a little closer to home.

William Morris, Viscount Nuffield | Hulton Archive

Smaug the dragon, Sauron the dark lord, and … Daemon of Vaccipratum? While most everyone is familiar with the first two as the villains of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, few have read Tolkien’s depiction of evil that lived in Oxford instead of Middle-earth. Until now.

This fall, a previously unpublished and mostly unknown Tolkien satirical fantasy, The End of Bovadium, will be released in The Bovadium Fragments.

Bovadium is a Latinized version of Oxford, meaning cow pasture. The Daemon of Vaccipratum is the demon of Cowley, which was home to Morris Motors. William Morris, the man behind the automobile plant, likely inspired the villain. Tolkien biographer Humphrey Carpenter said the character was a reference to Morris.

Tolkien wrote:

“But it came to pass that a Daemon (as popular opinion supposed) in his secret workshops devised certain abominable machines, to which he gave the name Motores.”

Morris began building cars at a disused military training college in Cowley, Oxford. By 1925, his plant was producing 56,000 vehicles each year after introducing Henry Ford’s mass production techniques to England.

Due to the increased cars on the roads near Oxford in the 1940s, a plan to alleviate traffic was devised—“building a dual carriageway across Christ Church Meadow, an ancient open space in the heart of Oxford,” according to The Telegraph. Tolkien likely opposed this embattled idea that was eventually dropped in the 1960s.

It wasn’t merely his disturbing of the Oxford countryside that made Morris a likely villain. In the early 1930s, he supported British fascists and funded anti-Semitic newspapers and political candidates. “It is a well-known fact that every government in my England is Jew controlled, regardless of the Party in power,” he wrote in his personal papers.

The Bovadium Fragments, which include the satirical story attacking the Daemon of Vaccipratum and an essay, “The Origin of Bovadium,” by author and Oxford librarian Richard Ovenden, is available for pre-order and will be released on November 18, 2025.

Sources:

• The Telegraph

• Oxford Mail

• Tolkien Gateway

• Wikipedia

Not Safe But Good

C.S. Lewis quote of the week

We are told that Christ was killed for us, that His death has washed out our sins, and that by dying He has disabled death itself. That is the formula. That is Christianity. That is what has to be believed.

Mere Christianity

Tumnus’ bookshelf

More books by or about Lewis or Tolkien

Novels and Stories, this significant collection of several fiction works from Lewis, includes:

• The Screwtape Letters

• The Great Divorce

• Letters to Malcolm, Chiefly on Prayer

• The Pilgrim’s Regress

• Out of the Silent Planet

• Perelandra

• That Hideous Strength

• The Dark Tower

• Till We Have Faces

Normally, the ebook is $99.99, but it is currently 90% off at $9.99.

Other works on sale:

• The C. S. Lewis Collection: Essays and Speeches (The Weight of Glory, God in the Dock, Christian Reflections, On Stories, Present Concerns, The World’s Last Night) (ebook) — $5.99 (-90%)

• Selected Literary Essays by C.S. Lewis (ebook) — $1.99 (-80%)

• Christian Reflections: Essays by C.S. Lewis (ebook) — $1.99 (-87%)

• English Literature in the Sixteenth Century (Excluding Drama) (hardcover) — $15.00 (-62%)

• The Lord of the Rings Collector’s Edition Box Set (hardcover) — $49.45 (-53%)

• The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien Box Set (hardcover) — $69.40 (-44%)

Behind the Wardrobe

Sneak peek at the bonus articles

Below, paid subscribers will read about a trip to Oxford and important places for the Inklings, one of Lewis’ most well-known images expands outside of the West, a misunderstanding of Tolkien, the place that potentially inspired the two towers in The Lord of the Rings, the man who reshaped the American judiciary is looking to do the same to the entertainment industry, a new Star Wars villain, and more.