* Gautisk might have been an extrapolation from Gothic, but it was probably meant to be the tongue of the Geats of ancient Scandinavia, the language that the monster-slaying hero Beowulf would have spoken before his story was written down in Anglo-Saxon. Although Rob Gilson’s grasp of philology was confessedly poor, some of the sobriquets he used in his letters to his friends invite speculation that he was in on his friend’s language-invention game. Unfortunately deciphering them is also a matter of guesswork. Tolkien appears to be ‘Mr Undarhruiménitupp’ and G. B. Smith is ‘Haughadel’ or ‘Hawaughdall’.