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The J. R. R. Tolkien Companion and Guide: Volume 1: Chronology
Christina Scull

Wayne G. Hammond


Volume 1 of the most comprehensive in-depth companion to Tolkien’s life and works ever published, including synopses of all his writings, and a Tolkien gazetteer and who’s who.The J. R. R. Tolkien Companion and Guide is a comprehensive handbook to one of the most popular authors of the twentieth century.One of two volumes comprising this definitive work, the Chronology traces J.R.R. Tolkien's progress from his birth in South Africa in 1892, to the battlefields of France and the lecture-halls of Leeds and Oxford, to his success as the author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, until his death in 1973.It is the most extensive biographical resource about Tolkien ever published. Thousands of details have been drawn from letters, contemporary documents in libraries and archives, and a wide variety of other published and unpublished sources. Assembled together, they form a revealing portrait of Tolkien in all his aspects: the distinguished scholar of Old and Middle English, the capable teacher and administrator, the devoted husband and father, the brilliant creator of Middle-earth.


















Copyright (#ulink_77c6f994-2442-55a4-b1e9-0e5fcfa35533)

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Published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2017

Copyright © Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond 2006, 2017

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Dedication (#ulink_4170bc6d-b287-5948-aeab-b3ce85343ce1)

In Memory of

RAYNER UNWIN

Mentor and Friend


Contents

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COPYRIGHT (#ulink_27d82989-e317-55e9-a924-aa19fabf9e7a)

DEDICATION (#ulink_2aaae61f-3c8d-528f-bfad-cd92246c956a)

I

PREFACE (#ulink_e34840ab-b326-5943-b118-ef3918e9c32d)

CHRONOLOGY (#ulink_510cb219-7c56-598a-86ad-2753674663b6)

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1911 (#ulink_e64a9c32-9fc4-514f-b060-f5854b40c0bc)

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1918

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1925

1926

1927

1928

1929

1930

1931

1932

1933

1934

1935

1936

1937

1938

1939

1940

1941

1942

1943

1944

1945

1946

1947

1948

1949

1950

1951

1952

1953

1954

1955

1956

1957

1958

1959

1960

1961

1962

1963

1964

1965

1966

1967

1968

1969

1970

1971

1972

1973

NOTES

INDEX

II

PREFACE

LIST OF ARTICLES

READER’S GUIDE A–M

III

READER’S GUIDE N–Z

FAMILY TREES

BIBLIOGRAPHIES

Published Writings & Art

Poetry & Translations

WORKS CONSULTED

INDEX

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

OTHER BOOKS BY

ABOUT THE PUBLISHER


Preface (#ulink_ae66a93b-ae39-5480-9ee2-2681d5724d1d)

THIS BOOK has been designed, in both its original edition (2006) and the present revised and expanded edition, to serve as a reference of (at least) first resort for the study and appreciation of the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. It is meant to be a companion to his readers, and a basic guide to his writings and ideas, his life and times, his family, friends, and colleagues, and the places he knew and loved. It is not, despite a similarity of titles, a handbook of his invented lands and characters in the manner of Robert Foster’s Complete Guide to Middle-earth or J.E.A. Tyler’s Complete Tolkien Companion. Nor is it a substitute for standard works such as Humphrey Carpenter’s J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography and Christopher Tolkien’s History of Middle-earth, or for the vast body of critical literature about Tolkien. Although it often will be found useful by itself, in particular where it presents new research and scholarship, its purpose is equally to point to other resources in which a subject is more fully considered or differing points of view are expressed.

The length of this work may surprise readers who, familiar with The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, have been less aware of Tolkien’s other writings, or who, perhaps misled by the biographies of our subject that have followed Carpenter (and are largely derived from his book), have thought that Tolkien lived in a simple circumscribed world in which little happened beyond his writing, his teaching, his immediate family, and the Inklings. In fact his life was remarkably full, his circle of friends was wide and varied, and his tales of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins exist alongside other works of fiction and poetry, not least the ‘Silmarillion’ mythology, and next to significant contributions to Old and Middle English studies. In consequence, there is so much to say about Tolkien that we have had to divide our book into parts, two volumes in the original edition, and now three.

The first volume is an extensive Chronology of Tolkien’s life and works. This has allowed us reasonably to assemble – as a biographical essay would not have done, demanding more selection and brevity – many of the miscellaneous details about Tolkien we have gathered in the course of research, details which individually may be of little moment, but in relation to one another can be illuminating. Altogether these form a picture of a extraordinarily busy man: Tolkien the scholar, Tolkien the teacher and administrator, Tolkien the husband and father, Tolkien the creator of Middle-earth. His critics have not always appreciated how busy he truly was – those who claim that he should have published more in his academic fields had he not wasted his time writing fantasy, or those who fault him for not completing The Silmarillion as if he had nothing else to do even in his retirement. One of our aims in this book is to show that Tolkien neither wasted his time nor shirked his responsibilities – to document how much, on a regular basis, duties in connection with his academic career (lectures, classes, supervision of postgraduate students, examinations, committee meetings) occupied his waking hours; how often he and his family were beset by illness and injury; how, to pay doctors’ bills in the years before the National Health Service was established (in 1948) and to provide for his children’s education, he added to an already heavy workload; how he was almost constantly under the threat of deadlines, and if he did not meet them all it was not because he did too little, but because he did so much.

The Chronology also allows us to see when, as sometimes happened, Tolkien’s many responsibilities came into collision. In April 1937, for instance, within the space of a day or two he received for correction proofs of both The Hobbit and his British Academy lecture, Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics; while in the summer and autumn of 1953 he prepared simultaneously The Lord of the Rings for publication and his translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight for radio broadcast, and also wrote two talks to accompany the latter.

The Chronology is not – could not be – a complete day-to-day reconstruction of Tolkien’s life; nevertheless we have been reasonably inclusive, according to the information available to us, for the sake of a fuller picture. This is particularly so during the period from 18 January 1944 to early 1945, when Tolkien frequently described his daily chores, as well as the progress of The Lord of the Rings, in a series of letters to his youngest son, Christopher, then posted abroad in the Royal Air Force (see Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, pp. 67 ff.).

Although the most private of Tolkien’s surviving papers remain private, a great deal else has been open to us, published and unpublished. These papers have been useful not only in adding to our knowledge of J.R.R. Tolkien, but in verifying details previously accepted as fact. We found, for instance, in assembling information for 1952 that there was no possible opportunity for Tolkien to travel to Kerry in Ireland that year, as authorities (even ourselves) previously reported. This led, as we investigated further, to a vivid recollection by Tolkien’s daughter Priscilla that the visit was, rather, in 1951, and that she herself had been a participant.

Sometimes, however, evidence has been lacking, and even when present is not always complete or clear-cut. To give only a few examples: we can say that Tolkien attended particular meetings of the Inklings because the facts are mentioned, chiefly in letters by his friend C.S. Lewis, in diaries kept by Warren Lewis, and in letters that Tolkien wrote to his son Christopher. We can list which lectures he was scheduled to give as an Oxford professor, because they were announced prior to each term in the Oxford University Gazette. We know that he was present at certain meetings because minutes are preserved, chiefly in the Oxford University archives. But we know about only some of the holidays he took, from a handful of letters and dated paintings and drawings, and about only some of the society meetings and other events he attended (or could have attended) at King Edward’s School, Birmingham and at Oxford, through secretaries’ minutes, magazine reports, and printed timetables. On occasion, his Oxford lectures were cancelled or rescheduled, but a published announcement of that fact has not always come to our attention; and as for the lectures Tolkien gave at Leeds, such schedules of these that survive in the Leeds University archives name only their subjects, not the lecturers themselves, in consequence of which we have indicated only those lectures that Tolkien seems likely to have given (based partly on the statement he wrote when he applied for the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford in 1925). We know as well that Tolkien marked School Certificate papers for many years, to augment his professor’s salary, and sometimes acted as an external university examiner, but these activities seem to be little documented.

We have also included in the Chronology references to some, but no more than a fraction, of the personal and professional correspondence that consumed another large portion of Tolkien’s time. He received many requests from colleagues for information, or comments on their ideas; requests from colleagues or former students for letters of reference when applying for academic positions; and requests from publishers for his opinion of books under consideration. He was often sent, in addition, offprints of scholarly papers and copies of books, most of which would have required at least an acknowledgement, if not reading and criticism: these amounted to hundreds of titles during his working life. And then, after the publication of The Hobbit and especially The Lord of the Rings, he received thousands of letters expressing appreciation, asking questions, or requesting his autograph. His publishers too were in frequent touch with him about various literary, financial, and legal matters. And all of this was in addition to letters he wrote to and received from his family and intimate friends.

Tolkien’s correspondence with his publisher George Allen & Unwin in particular has been of immense value to us. In many of his letters he writes of personal activities, of academic pressures, and of his or his family’s health, as well as about business at hand. These documents, however, became less frequent in his later years, reflecting increased face to face contact with publisher’s staff and use of the telephone.

Perhaps our greatest difficulty in writing the Chronology has been to decide where to place events which cannot be firmly dated, such as the emergence of the Inklings. Many of Tolkien’s works, moreover, can be placed only within a range of years, and only roughly in order of writing. In doing so, we have relied on internal as well as external evidence – on handwriting, paper, and typefaces, and on the state of development of the work in question. Where Christopher Tolkien as a result of his own extensive research into the history of his father’s writings has been able to group works in a sequential order, we have placed the grouping at the start of the relevant time span, rather than insert the writings in question arbitrarily into the Chronology. We have also made use of dates of composition inscribed by Tolkien on his writings and art, keeping in mind that some of these were added after the fact, sometimes many years later, and that memory can err; but statements by the creator of a work can hold significant weight. In a few instances there is conflicting evidence for dates, most notably for the origin and writing of The Hobbit, and in such cases we have made multiple entries in the Chronology, with cross-references, and have discussed the matter at greater length in the second part of the Companion and Guide.

That part, which we have called the Reader’s Guide, comprises in the course of two volumes a ‘What’s What’, a ‘Where’s Where’, and a ‘Who’s Who’ of Tolkien, arranged in alphabetical order and in a single sequence. It includes, as appropriate, articles or brief entries on:

¶ Tolkien’s academic writings and his works of poetry and prose fiction, with summaries, concise backgrounds or histories, brief surveys of reviews and criticism (in so far as these exist), and miscellaneous commentary. Separate articles are provided for published works; unpublished works are noted as appropriate in topical articles, or in articles on other, related works. We have written separate articles for those of Tolkien’s poems that are published in whole or in large part (i.e. more than a few lines), and are not integral with a larger literary work, e.g. the poems of The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings, but have omitted separate entry for clerihews and for all but one of the songs (The Root of the Boot, under The Stone Troll) contributed by Tolkien to Songs for the Philologists. Also omitted are entries for letters sent by Tolkien to newspapers or journals.

¶ Key ideas in Tolkien’s writings, such as eucatastrophe and sub-creation, and general topics such as his religion, his views towards women, his invented languages and writing systems, his reading, and disputes over the American copyright of The Lord of the Rings.

¶ Places that Tolkien lived, worked, or visited, the colleges and universities with which he was associated, pubs and bookshops he frequented, and so forth. It should be assumed by the reader that the places named in this book are in England unless otherwise stated, that English counties are referred to generally according to the names and boundaries that existed in Tolkien’s lifetime (before the reorganization of local governments in the later twentieth century), and that while coverage is full, it is not exhaustive: we have not attempted to list every place in which Tolkien set foot. Nor have we attempted to account for every claim by towns and regions (in Britain and elsewhere) to Tolkien’s presence, or as an inspiration for The Lord of the Rings, put forth with the rise in his popularity: some of these are exaggerated, others dubious at best. In all cases we have preferred to rely on documentary evidence such as letters, guest books, and diaries, rather than on assumptions and reported ‘tradition’. It should be noted also that while some of the places described in this book are open to the public, others are not. Readers therefore who wish to follow in Tolkien’s footsteps should take care not to trespass on private property, including college grounds when not open to visitors.

¶ Members of Tolkien’s family; friends and colleagues, especially in Birmingham and at Leeds and Oxford; fellow members of the Inklings and other groups or societies to which he belonged; publishers and editors; notable teachers and students; and major correspondents. Here too, our coverage is selective. Tolkien had many friends and acquaintances, some of whom figured mainly, or wholly, in his private life, and do not appear in published letters or biographies. Our aim has been to give an individual entry to anyone whom we know to have been particularly significant in Tolkien’s life or to the production of his works, or for whom a biographical note gives us the opportunity to describe, more fully than in the Chronology, an important or particularly interesting aspect of Tolkien or his writings. Other persons with whom Tolkien was concerned are mentioned in passing, in various contexts in the Companion and Guide: references to these may be found in the comprehensive index at the end of each volume.

In the Reader’s Guide also, appended to the second volume, are genealogical charts (family trees) of the Tolkien and Suffield families; a bibliographical list of Tolkien’s published writings; a list of his published paintings, drawings, doodles, and maps; a list of his poems, published and unpublished, by title and first line; and a list of his works with the languages into which they have been translated. In addition, we have provided (in the Reader’s Guide only, also in the second volume) a bibliography of the various resources and archives we have used in the writing of the Companion and Guide. A comprehensive index to all three volumes appears both in the Chronology and the second volume of the Reader’s Guide.

A few general notes are in order. J.R.R. Tolkien is sometimes referred to in this book as ‘Ronald’, to distinguish him from other Tolkiens or when reference by his surname seemed inappropriate in construction, and also generally for the young Tolkien, before he went up to Oxford in 1911.

In the Reader’s Guide all entries for persons whose surname begins ‘Mc’ or ‘Mac’ are alphabetized as if the name begins with ‘Mac’; thus the article for R.B. McCallum appears before that for Gervase Mathew. Although articles in the Reader’s Guide are generally alphabetized in the usual fashion, we have made an exception for those concerned with the Tolkien family in general, its members in particular, and the Tolkien Estate which is a family enterprise: these are presented in this order, intellectual rather than mechanical.

Titles of works are given as found, except that we have regularized the capitalization of hyphenated titles where variation occurs in practice, e.g. On Fairy-Stories, The Sea-Bell. Titles of discrete works given them by Tolkien, including poems, essays, and the individual tales of The Book of Lost Tales, are italicized following Christopher Tolkien’s example in The History of Middle-earth, while titles of chapters or other subsections of text, and titles assigned to Tolkien’s works by others (such as ‘The Ambidexters Sentence’), for the most part are expressed in quotation marks. Excepted are a few titles assigned by Christopher Tolkien which he himself chose to italicize, such as Of Tuor and His Coming to Gondolin in Unfinished Tales, rather than its author’s choice, Of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin (there is a distinct entry for this title, in quotation marks, as that of the twenty-third chapter of The Silmarillion), and Gnomish Lexicon rather than the unwieldy I·Lam na·Ngoldathon. But it is to be understood that ‘The Silmarillion’, so expressed, refers to Tolkien’s mythology in general, and The Silmarillion, so italicized, generally to the book edited by Christopher Tolkien and first published in 1977, except in a few instances (understood in context) to the book that Tolkien wished to complete. All other titles are given in italics or in roman within quotation marks, as appropriate, following common conventions of style, except that we have preferred, on purely aesthetic grounds, not to distinguish titles of books within titles of books by reversion to roman or by quotation marks.

In the Reader’s Guide works whose titles begin ‘Of’ or ‘Of the’ are entered under the next significant word, e.g. ‘Of Beren and Luthien’ is alphabetized as if ‘Beren and Luthien’, and ‘Of the Beginning of Days’ is alphabetized under ‘Beginning’, omitting both ‘Of’ and the definite article.

For the most part, each discrete work by Tolkien, or collection of works, is given a separate article in the Reader’s Guide. But because of the close relationship between Völsungarkviða and Gudrúnarkviða, we have found it convenient to treat them together with, and under the title of, the volume in which they are published, The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún; and because Tolkien’s early work The Story of Kullervo is closely related to the Kalevala, we have chosen to deal with the former within the article for the latter (while providing a separate entry for the 2015 volume entitled The Story of Kullervo).

Direct quotations follow their source in spelling and punctuation, but we have silently corrected the occasional misspelled word or other minor error. For all quotations, page references are given whenever possible.

Because of the multiplicity of editions, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are cited only by chapter and by book and chapter, respectively. For these we have quoted from current corrected texts; for most other books by Tolkien, we have used and cited first editions unless otherwise stated. The same is true for Humphrey Carpenter’s biography of Tolkien (1977) and his book on the Inklings (1978). On Fairy-Stories and Leaf by Niggle, however, have been quoted most often from the edition of Tree and Leaf first published by Unwin Hyman, London, in 1988, or from the expanded edition of 2008. Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics and other works have been quoted most conveniently (as indicated) from The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays (1983). Contributions by Tolkien to books and periodicals, or discrete works by Tolkien otherwise contained in a larger work (for instance, as the Ainulindalë is contained within The Silmarillion), are cited in their separate entries in the Reader’s Guide with inclusive page numbers according to (as a convenient point of reference) the first printing of the first edition.

The evolution of the stories of Tolkien’s ‘Silmarillion’ mythology is traced in entries for each chapter of the ‘Quenta Silmarillion’ in the published (1977) Silmarillion. Each entry begins with a synopsis or summary of the published chapter, then traces the evolution of this part of the larger ‘Silmarillion’ from its earliest appearance.

We have assumed that our reader has some knowledge of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, so that we may refer (say) to ‘Bilbo’ or ‘Frodo’ without further explanation. The Silmarillion, as the central work among Tolkien’s writings on Middle-earth, should be as well known, but is not; nonetheless, it has not been feasible to gloss in the Companion and Guide, from entry to entry, every mention of every character or place in the mythology, these being legion. For assistance in this respect, we advise the reader to consult Robert Foster’s invaluable Complete Guide to Middle-earth. It also should be noted that in writing his stories Tolkien sometimes altered the names of characters, places, etc. from text to text, or applied multiple names within a story, e.g. Melko > Melkor > Morgoth, and in our accounts of Tolkien’s fiction we refer to names as he used them in the particular text under discussion.

The titles of several books about Tolkien frequently referred to in the Companion and Guide are abbreviated for convenience:

The Art of The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull (2011) as Art of The Hobbit.

The Art of The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull (2015) as Art of The Lord of the Rings.

J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull (1995; corrected edn. 1998) as Artist and Illustrator.

J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography by Humphrey Carpenter (1977) as Biography.

Brothers and Friends: The Diaries of Major Warren Hamilton Lewis, edited by Clyde S. Kilby and Marjorie Lamp Mead (1982) as Brothers and Friends.

J.R.R. Tolkien: A Descriptive Bibliography by Wayne G. Hammond with the assistance of Douglas A. Anderson (1993) as Descriptive Bibliography.

The Inklings: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams and Their Friends by Humphrey Carpenter (1978) as The Inklings.

J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment, edited by Michael D.C. Drout (2006) as J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia.

Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, selected and edited by Humphrey Carpenter, with the assistance of Christopher Tolkien (1981), as Letters.

J.R.R. Tolkien: Life and Legend by Judith Priestman for the Bodleian Library (1992) as Life and Legend.

Pictures by J.R.R. Tolkien, with a foreword and notes by Christopher Tolkien (1979; 2nd edn. 1992), as Pictures.

The Lord of the Rings: A Reader’s Companion by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull (2005; 3rd edn. 2014) as Reader’s Companion.

The Tolkien Family Album by John and Priscilla Tolkien (1992) as The Tolkien Family Album.

In the Chronology BBC radio broadcast times are given according to the schedule applying to London and the South-east. Also in the Chronology, where the direction See note is given, the reader should consult the section of explanatory or supplemental notes beginning on p. 817.

Although selected cross-references are provided in the main sequence of boldfaced headings in the Reader’s Guide, for full direction to the many names, titles, and topics mentioned in this book the reader is advised to consult the index.

An asterisk (*) before names, titles, words, or phrases in the Chronology indicates that a corresponding entry may be found in the Guide; and in using the Guide, the reader may wish to consult the Chronology for a more detailed view of a particular segment of time. We have also used asterisks in the Reader’s Guide for internal cross-referencing, but selectively – not, for example, applying an asterisk to every instance of the name ‘Oxford’ (the city or the university), only where it seemed potentially most useful.

In general, we have applied the recommendations of the Oxford Style Manual, except where guided by personal bibliographic or typographic taste. Citations within the text are shortened appropriately; full citations are given in the general bibliography (‘Works Consulted’) in the Reader’s Guide. Omissions from quoted matter, except for brief extracts, are indicated by ellipses (…).

As in the original edition of this book, we apologize for typographical errors and inconsistencies of practice or form. We have tried to spot these during writing, revision, and indexing, but in a work of this length and complexity (now even longer and more complex than it was) they seem inevitable. No doubt we will hear about them from readers, and will acknowledge genuine errors and attempt to correct them in the appropriate pages of our website, www.hammondandscull.com.

Unless otherwise stated, the opinions expressed in this book are our own.

*

WE ARE PLEASED to be able to prepare this much revised and enlarged text more than ten years after the first edition of our Companion and Guide. By 2016 stocks of the book were exhausted, and we agreed with our editors at HarperCollins, David Brawn and Chris Smith, who thought that a new edition would be better than a reprint. Because the existing Reader’s Guide was already more than 1,200 pages, and we estimated off the cuff that we would be able to add to it at least 100 pages (in the event, more than 300), it was clear that the new edition would need to expand from two volumes to three, with the Chronology remaining one volume. And because the Chronology itself was long, and would itself grow by more than fifty pages, we needed to move appended material (family trees and bibliographies) previously in the Chronology to the end of the expanded Reader’s Guide.

There was no lack of new material to be considered. In the decade since 2006 at least a standard shelf of new works or new editions of works by Tolkien were published, and at least three shelves of works about him (with no sign of this ceasing anytime soon). And as we reviewed our existing text, we saw that some portions needed to be enlarged, and a few points reconsidered. We also saw that here and there we could improve readability by dividing long paragraphs.

As in 2006, we had to choose not only what to include in our coverage but what to omit. Was an event of sufficient moment? Was a person or place of sufficient importance in Tolkien’s life? No doubt some of our necessarily subjective decisions will seem arbitrary, perhaps even to us once this new edition is in print. We might, for instance, have included a biographical article for Ursula Dronke (née Brown) as we did for Stella Mills, both students of Tolkien, but Mills was demonstrably close to Tolkien and his family, and in the end one has to set some limits, according to one’s judgement at the moment. In any case, we have added a number of articles to the Reader’s Guide, for persons associated with Tolkien, influences and analogues, and concepts such as ‘authorial presence’ and Tolkien’s manner of composition in writing.

At the beginning of our preface to the Companion and Guide we state that although our book ‘often will be found useful by itself … its purpose is equally to point to other resources in which a subject is more fully considered or differing points of view are expressed’ (p. ix). That is, we cite works of reference or criticism upon which we drew for our text or which expand upon what we wrote, by authors whose points of view may differ one from the other. In doing so, we have tried not to impose a particular interpretation – in cases of interpretation rather than of fact – and were careful not to cite only those references which support our personal views, if we have any. We could not, of course, cite every work which touches upon a given subject, and we felt that in choosing works to cite we should apply our expertise in Tolkien studies and mention only those resources which were especially useful, cogent, or well written – and so to this extent, at least (and in our notation of important writings in our list of ‘Works Consulted’), we express our own opinion.

We would also like to point out, in reply to a criticism we received after publication of the Companion and Guide, that it is in no way feasible to cite our precise source for every piece of data. We have done so to the extent possible, identifying sources of quoted matter and documenting (at some length) the printed and principal online resources upon which we relied; but to do more would have needed another volume for that purpose alone. A single sentence in the Chronology, for instance, might be drawn from two or three sources, while some Reader’s Guide articles are based on dozens.

As always, we are grateful to members of the Tolkien family for their assistance and support. For the original edition, Christopher Tolkien acted as our mentor, a greater task than could be imagined when this book was first proposed (as a single volume), and with his sister Priscilla shared memories of their father. Priscilla Tolkien also read parts of the first edition text in draft, and suggested valuable additions and improvements. Joanna Tolkien, Michael George Tolkien, and Simon Tolkien were also of assistance.

We would like to thank David Brawn at HarperCollins for his suggestion that we write for J.R.R. Tolkien the equivalent of Walter Hooper’s excellent C.S. Lewis: A Companion & Guide, and Chris Smith for help in matters of production. Thanks are due as well to Cathleen Blackburn of Maier Blackburn, legal representatives of the Tolkien Estate, who has guided us in matters related to copyright and permissions to quote from Tolkien’s writings.

Also for the original edition, we owe special thanks to Arden R. Smith, who kindly read most of the book in typescript and advised us especially on matters concerning Tolkienian linguistics; to Douglas A. Anderson, for reading parts of the Companion and Guide, for sharing with us information about Tolkien’s early poetry, and for supplying other useful details; and to John Garth, for allowing us to read an early draft of part of his Tolkien and the Great War (2003) and for saving us time during our own early research in the National Archives by supplying us with pertinent reference numbers.

We are deeply grateful to the highly knowledgeable staff of many libraries and archives, including: Owen Dobbs, Blackwell’s Bookshops; Neil Somerville, BBC Written Archives Centre, Caversham Park, Reading; Philippa Bassett, University of Birmingham Archives; Sandy Botha, Bloemfontein Cathedral; Judith Priestman, Colin Harris, Catherine McIlwaine, and other staff of the Department of Special Collections and Western Manuscripts, Bodleian Library, Oxford; the staff of Duke Humfrey’s Library, Bodleian Library; the staff of the Bodleian Law Library; Angela Pusey, British Academy; the staff of the Department of Manuscripts, British Library, London; John Wells, Department of Manuscripts and University Archives, Cambridge University Library; the staff of the Centre for Oxfordshire Studies, Oxford Central Library; Richard Hamer, Vincent Gillespie, and Judith Curthoys of the library of Christ Church, Oxford, for the Early English Text Society archive; the staff of Christie’s, South Kensington; Thomas Lecky and Francis Wahlgren of Christie’s, New York; Christine Butler, archives of Corpus Christi College, Oxford; Susan Usher, the English Faculty Library, Oxford; Paul Cavill, the English Place-Name Society; Lorise Topliffe and John Maddicott, Exeter College Library, Oxford; Natalie Milne, Glasgow University Archive Services; the staff of HarperCollins, London; the staff of the Houghton Library, Harvard University; Ólöf Dagný, Hið íslenska bókmenntafélag (Icelandic Literary Society), Reykjavík; Kerry York, King Edward’s School, Birmingham; Ann Farr and Sarah Prescott, Brotherton Library, the University of Leeds; Mark Shipway, Leeds University archives; Charles Elston, Matt Blessing, William Fliss, and others in the Department of Special Collections and University Archives, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Fiona Wilkes and Sarah Bendall, Merton College Library, Oxford; the staff of the National Archives, Kew (formerly the Public Record Office); Tony Cadogan, National Sound Archives, British Library, London; John Foley, National University of Ireland; Simon Bailey and Alice Blackford, Oxford University Archives; Martin Maw and Jenny McMorris, Oxford University Press Archives; Rob Wilkes, Oxford Theses (Humanities), Bodleian Library; Naomi Van Loo and Ellena J. Pike, McGowin Library, Pembroke College, Oxford; the staff of the Radcliffe Science Library, Oxford; Michael Bott, Department of Archives and Manuscripts, University of Reading; Meic Pierce Owen, University of St Andrews Library; David Smith, St Anne’s College Library, Oxford; Carolyn Warne, St Leonard’s School, Fife; Claire Goodwin, Simmons College Archives, Boston, Massachusetts; Roger Dalrymple, Society for the Study of Mediaeval Languages and Literature; Sister Helen Forshaw, archives of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus; Phillip Errington, Sotheby’s, London; the staff of the Staffordshire Archives Service; the staff of the Taylor Institution Library, Oxford; Lucy Wright, the library of University College, London; Kirsten Williams, Viking Society for Northern Research; Christopher Mitchell, Marjorie Mead, and the staff of the Marion E. Wade Center, Wheaton College, Illinois; the libraries of Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts; and Joanna Parker, Worcester College Library, Oxford.

For assistance in ways both large and small, we are grateful to Mikael Ahlström; Chris Anderson; Pauline Baynes; Paula Bergstrom; Craig Bowen; David Bratman; Denis Bridoux; Hugh Brogan; John Buckelew; Maggie Burns; Marjorie Burns; Raymond Chang; Joe R. Christopher; Oronzo Cilli; ‘Darkstone’; David ‘Hisilome’; Merlin DeTardo; Michaël Devaux; ‘diedye’; David Doughan; Brad Eden; Jeremy Edmonds; Julian Eilmann; John Ellison; Andrew Ferguson; Jason Fisher; Matt Fisher; Timothy Fisher; Michael Flowers; Troels Forchhammer; Mike Foster; Steve Frisby; Christopher Gilson; Diana Pavlac Glyer; Nelson Goering; David M. Gransby; Colin Harper; John Hayes; David Henshall; William C. Hicklin; ‘hisataka’; Mark Hooker; Carl F. Hostetter; Charles A. Huttar; Jeff Kinder; David King; Stuart Lee; R.G. Leonberger; Josh B. Long; Julia Margretts; Jeremy Marshall; Fiona Mercey; Ed Meskys; Gregory Miller; Peter Miskech; Andrew H. Morton; Matthias Nauhaus; Rumas Nicholas; Ed Pierce; Juha-Matti Rajala; John D. Rateliff; Alan and Louise Reynolds; Paolo Romeo; René van Rossenberg; Elena Rossi; William A.S. Sarjeant; Marek Srodziemie; Simon Stacey; Vivien Stocker; Beregond (Anders Stenström); Yvan Strelzyk; Richard Sturch; Agnieszka Sylwanowicz; Makoto Takahashi; Tonny ten Dam; Paul Edmund Thomas; George H. Thompson; Morgan Thomsen; Johann Vanhecke; Tony Wearing; Richard C. West; Diana and Barry Willson; Susan Wood; and Jessica Yates. Our apologies to anyone whose name we have missed.

Too many of the kind readers, dear friends, and valued colleagues acknowledged here are no longer with us; to them we give special thoughts and thanks for their contributions. Most especially, we remain indebted to the dedicatee of this book, the late Rayner Unwin, for advice in the writing of the Companion and Guide and for many years of friendship and encouragement.



Christina Scull & Wayne G. Hammond

Williamstown, Massachusetts

April 2017


Chronology (#ulink_450fcdd1-4c2e-5e69-a42d-52ac0716dc87)

IN ADDITION to matters with which J.R.R. Tolkien was directly concerned, the Chronology includes selected events from the wider history of the world, as useful points of reference. Subjects marked with an asterisk (*), for the most part only at their first mention, are treated more fully in the Reader’s Guide volumes of the Companion and Guide. Dates are given as precisely as possible, qualified if approximate (c. = circa) or uncertain (?). Here it has seemed appropriate to refer to the young Tolkien as ‘Ronald’ before he went up to Oxford (October 1911), and thereafter usually as ‘Tolkien’. Unless otherwise noted, ‘Gilson’ refers to Robert Q. (Rob) Gilson, ‘Smith’ to Geoffrey Bache (G.B.) Smith, and ‘Wiseman’ to Christopher Wiseman, three of Tolkien’s closest friends during his schooldays and the First World War.


1857 (#ulink_69cd0a61-db38-5d0a-a5b4-48c6e684897e)

18 February 1857 *Arthur Reuel Tolkien, son of John Benjamin and Mary Jane Tolkien (see *Tolkien family), is born in Handsworth, then in Staffordshire, England, near *Birmingham.


1870 (#ulink_72fec586-e677-50c5-b0e0-7f914e48687b)

January 1870 Mabel Suffield (*Mabel Tolkien) is born in Yardley, Warwickshire, to John and Emily Jane Suffield (see *Suffield family).


1888 (#ulink_7d0928fa-ac43-5e71-b8e3-a018b0c1196f)

1888 Arthur Tolkien and Mabel Suffield become engaged, but because of her youth Mabel’s father forbids a formal betrothal for two years. Arthur and Mabel will see each other only at family parties and, with the help of Mabel’s younger sister Emily Jane (*Emily Jane Neave), exchange letters in secret.


1889 (#ulink_3c27f856-c072-51c8-a786-18dbd233d067)

1889 Arthur emigrates to *South Africa to work for the Bank of Africa in the Cape colony.

21 January 1889 Edith Mary Bratt (*Edith Tolkien) is born in Gloucester, England to Frances (‘Fannie’) Bratt of Wolverhampton and Alfred Frederick Warrillow of Handsworth. She will be brought up in that Birmingham suburb together with her cousin *Mary Jane (‘Jennie’) Grove.

13 February 1889 Edith Bratt is baptized in the Wesleyan Methodist chapel in Gloucester. The register records her surname as Bratt, her mother’s name as Fanny, and her father’s name as Frederick.


1890 (#ulink_08ef662d-fc7e-5ab3-883a-0632f74b4ff7)

1890 Arthur is appointed manager of the Bloemfontein (Orange Free State) branch of the Bank of Africa.


1891 (#ulink_b98dc2c2-571a-571f-b8b3-f48faa0876ba)

March 1891 Only a few weeks after her twenty-first birthday, Mabel Suffield travels to South Africa on the ship Roslin Castle. See note.

12 March 1891 Alfred Frederick Warrilow dies. In his will he has named Frances Bratt, ‘Spinster’ and his ‘friend & Housekeeper’, sole executrix as well as his principal beneficiary, leaving her the bulk of his estate ‘including my trade or business of a Paper Dealer’, with a net value of £5,837 4s 8d.

16 April 1891 Arthur Tolkien and Mabel Suffield are married in Cape Town Cathedral.


1892 (#ulink_cbf64d31-afc7-536f-a4c5-efd7a52074e4)

3 January 1892 John Ronald Reuel Tolkien is born to Arthur and Mabel Tolkien at Bank House, Maitland Street, in Bloemfontein.

4 January 1892 Arthur Tolkien writes to his mother that ‘the baby is (of course) lovely. It has beautiful hands and ears (very long fingers) very light hair, “Tolkien” eyes and very distinctly a “Suffield” mouth…. The boy’s first name will be “John” after its grandfather [John Benjamin Tolkien], probably John Ronald Reuel altogether. Mab wants to call it Ronald and I want to keep up John and Reuel …’ (quoted in Biography, p. 12). It was the custom in the Tolkien family for the eldest son of the eldest son to be called ‘John’; ‘Reuel’ apparently was taken from the surname of a family friend (see Letters, pp. 397– 8, and *Names).

31 January 1892 John Ronald Reuel Tolkien is baptized in the Anglican Cathedral, Bloemfontein. See note. His godparents are Mabel’s elder sister, Edith Mary ‘May’ Incledon (see *Incledon family); George Edward Jelf, Assistant Master in St Andrew’s College (diocesan high school for boys), Bloemfontein; and Tom Hadley, the husband of Arthur’s sister Florence.

15 November 1892 Arthur, Mabel, baby Ronald in the arms of his nurse, and two native household servants pose in the garden of Bank House for a photograph, which the Tolkiens send with Christmas greetings to friends and relatives. At some time in 1892 or 1893 the houseboy Isaak, shown in the picture, steals baby Ronald for a time, to show off a white baby at his kraal. Despite the turmoil this causes, Isaak is not dismissed. See note.


1893 (#ulink_a3c72043-e621-5d75-bea1-da0739f2683b)

Autumn (southern hemisphere) 1893 Mabel’s elder sister May and her husband, Walter Incledon, a Birmingham merchant, with their daughter Marjorie, come to Bloemfontein. May and Marjorie stay at Bank House through the southern winter while Walter travels on business.

Summer (southern hemisphere) 1893–1894 Ronald spends the cooler parts of the day in the garden and often watches his father planting vines or trees. One day Ronald is bitten by a tarantula and runs away in terror; his nurse snatches him up and sucks out the poison. In later life he will recall running through the grass, but not the spider itself. – Ronald now shows an interest in drawing, often scribbling with pencil and paper when he visits his father’s offices downstairs in Bank House. But his health suffers in the heat, and he is bothered by teething.


1894 (#ulink_54a9a203-a521-50b2-b554-12398729ac1a)

17 February 1894 Ronald’s younger brother, *Hilary Arthur Reuel Tolkien, is born.

November 1894 Mabel takes her sons on a long train journey to the coast near Cape Town so that Ronald can be in cooler air. He will retain a faint memory of running from the sea to a bathing hut across the sands. On their return to Bloemfontein preparations are made for the family to visit England. Although Arthur is happy in South Africa, Mabel is irritated with Bloemfontein life and dislikes the hot climate, which also poses a risk to Ronald’s health.

Christmas 1894 ‘My first Christmas memory is of blazing sun, drawn curtains and a drooping eucalyptus’ (Tolkien, letter to W.H. Auden, 7 June 1955, Letters, p. 213).


1895 (#ulink_5f640ccb-6aa8-589e-8d9b-4f336de3cce9)

1895 The heat of South Africa having affected Mabel and Ronald so badly, she and Arthur decide that, rather than wait until they can travel together to England on home-leave, she should go on ahead with the boys, and Arthur will join them later, when he feels able to leave the bank.

Late March or early April 1895 Ronald watches his father paint ‘A.R. Tolkien’ on the lid of a cabin trunk.

Beginning of April 1895 Mabel Tolkien, Ronald and Hilary, and the boys’ nurse embark on the steamer Guelph at Cape Town. A comparatively new vessel on the Union Steamship Company’s Southampton-to-South Africa ‘intermediate service’ (that is, designed to transport cargo at an economical speed, as well as passengers), it has a boat deck above the bridge-house



where passengers are allowed to promenade. The ladies’ music saloon is forward, while under it is the first-class dining saloon, arranged for 45 passengers. On the upper deck, ranged along either side of the ship, are the first-class cabins, the smoking-room being aft. The second-class passengers are housed in the poop [raised section at the stern] on the upper deck, with dining saloon and drawing-room, while the steerage passengers are below on the main deck. A special feature is a large dormitory right forward, occupying the full width of the ship, where 64 men can be accommodated, the fare being 10 guineas. [‘Passengers v. Freight Steamships’, Engineering, 12 October 1894, p. 495]

Much later in life, according to The Tolkien Family Album, Tolkien will remember from the long voyage to England ‘two brilliantly sharp images: the first of looking down from the deck of the ship into the clear waters of the Indian Ocean far below, which was full of lithe brown and black bodies diving for coins thrown by the passengers; the second was of pulling into a harbour at sunrise and seeing a great city set on the hillside above, which he realised much later in life must have been Lisbon’ (p. 18). When the family arrive in Southampton three weeks later they are met by Mabel’s sister Jane, and together travel to Birmingham. They stay with Mabel’s parents, Jane, and their brother William at 9 Ashfield Road, Kings Heath (see *Birmingham and environs). Ronald now will also meet his Tolkien relatives and become part of a much larger family circle, although throughout his life he will feel himself more a Suffield than a Tolkien.

Spring–summer 1895 Ronald’s health improves. Arthur Tolkien writes to say that he misses his wife and children, but his departure for England is always delayed.

November 1895 Arthur Tolkien, still in South Africa, becomes ill; some later reports will call his illness rheumatic fever, others typhoid fever. Although he seems to recover, he does not think it wise to undertake the long journey home and then face an English winter.

Christmas 1895 Ronald enjoys his first wintry Christmas with a real Christmas tree.


1896 (#ulink_b6633366-dba0-574e-ba9d-df840afb6ece)

January 1896 Mabel hears that Arthur is still in poor health, and decides that she must return to Bloemfontein to take care of him. She books passage to South Africa for herself and the boys, to leave on 2 March.

14 February 1896 Ronald dictates to his nurse a letter to his father: ‘I am so glad I am coming back to see you it is such a long time since we came away from you…. I am got such a big man now because I have got a man’s coat and a man’s bodice…. Auntie Gracie [Grace Mountain née Tolkien] has been to see us I walk every day and only ride in my mailcart a little bit’ (quoted in Biography, p. 16). On that same day Mabel receives a telegram that Arthur has suffered a severe haemorrhage. Ronald’s letter is never sent.

15 February 1896 Arthur Tolkien dies in the afternoon. See note. The funeral service is held in the Cathedral in Bloemfontein, and he is buried in the Anglican cemetery. Arthur’s estate will bring Mabel an income of only some thirty shillings per week, from shares in South African mines; to this Walter Incledon will add a little. She and the boys are unable to stay in the Suffield house permanently, and in any case Mabel thinks that country air will benefit her sons.

Summer 1896 Mabel Tolkien rents a cottage at 5 Gracewell Road in *Sarehole, a hamlet south of Birmingham. At the impressionable age of four and a half, for the first time Ronald experiences life in a green countryside. He and Hilary explore the surrounding area: Sarehole mill with its water-wheel, meadows, and a tree-lined sandpit; they paddle in the stream; they pick wildflowers and mushrooms and gather blackberries, and are sometimes chased by irate millers or farmers when they trespass. They also climb trees, including a willow which overhangs the mill pond; Ronald will not forget that one day this tree was cut down and simply left lying on the ground. He and Hilary make friends with some of the local children and learn a little of the local dialect, but are sometimes mocked for their middle-class accents, long hair, and pinafores.

1 August 1896 John Benjamin Tolkien dies.

1896–1899 Mabel decides to teach her boys at home. Ronald had already learned to read by the age of four. He now develops a decorative style of handwriting indebted to his mother’s own, and an abiding interest in alphabets and scripts (*Calligraphy). He also begins to learn Latin and German, which he likes, and French which attracts him less. When he shows an aptitude for *languages, and an interest in the sounds, shapes, and meanings of words, his mother also begins to teach him etymology, in which she herself is interested. She tries to teach him to play the piano but has little success. He is more interested in drawing, especially landscapes and trees. He will develop a great interest in botany and come to know the subject well.

The only subject that Mabel does not teach him is geometry; this is taught by his Aunt Jane, Mabel’s sister. Ronald will later say that it was ‘to my mother who taught me (until I obtained a scholarship at the ancient Grammar School in Birmingham) that I owe my tastes for philology, especially of Germanic languages, and for romance’ (Letters, p. 218). He will also remark, of early interests that remained with him through the years: ‘It has always been with me: the sensibility to linguistic pattern which affects me emotionally like colour or music; and the passionate love of growing things; and the deep response to legends (for lack of a better word) that have what I would call the North-western temper and temperature’ (letter to W.H. Auden, 7 June 1955, Letters, p. 212).

It is probably in this period that Mabel takes the boys on at least one seaside holiday, and Ronald begins his first sketchbook: near the beginning is a childish drawing, Sea Weeds and Star Fishes (Life and Legend, pp. 12–13). – At this time Mabel is still a practising Anglican. Since her husband’s death, she has taken her sons with her every Sunday to a ‘high’ Anglican Church.

Ronald’s early reading includes the Alice books by Lewis Carroll, which amuse him; The Princess and the Goblin and The Princess and Curdie by *George MacDonald; the fairy books of *Andrew Lang, in particular ‘The Story of Sigurd’ in The Red Fairy Book which fires his interest in *dragons; and Stories for my Children by E.H. Knatchbull-Hugessen, especially the tale of ‘Puss Cat Mew’ (*Fairy-stories). He also likes Red Indian tales and Arthurian legends (*Arthur and the Matter of Britain). In later life, he will note that he did not enjoy Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, the stories of Hans Christian Andersen, or The Pied Piper by Robert Browning; and that while he read fairy-stories he did not develop a real taste for and appreciation of them until he was about eight. Nor was it until he began to study Latin and Greek at school that he developed any appreciation of *poetry. Even in early childhood his interests are more factual or scientific (*Science): history, astronomy, natural history (especially botany and zoology), palaeontology (he liked pictures of prehistoric animals), geology, grammar, and etymology. He will note several times that he was not particularly interested in or proficient at mathematics.

1896–1900 Much later, Tolkien will write to a group of primary school children in *Acocks Green, some two miles north-east of Sarehole: ‘I lived till I was 8 at Sarehole and used to walk to A[cocks] G[reen] to see my uncle. It was all “country” then …’ (17 October 1966, quoted in Sotheby’s, English Literature, History, Children’s Books and Illustrations, London, 16 December 2004, p. 274).


1897 (#ulink_6604c32a-583a-55f6-9674-bc6f9209c55b)

22 June 1897 Ronald will later recall walking through the river-meadows up the hill to the old college, Moseley Grammar School, which he saw illuminated with fairy-lights for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee.


1898 (#ulink_fa859d87-3435-54be-b51a-bda5935c8c1a)

1898–1899 Ronald will later recall that when he was about six or seven years old he wrote a story or poem about a dragon. ‘I remember nothing about it except a philological fact. My mother said nothing about the dragon, but pointed out that one could not say “a green great dragon”, but had to say “a great green dragon”. I wondered why, and still do. The fact that I remember this is possibly significant, as I do not think I ever tried to write a story again for many years, and was taken up with language’ (letter to W.H. Auden, 7 June 1955, Letters, p. 214). See note.


1899 (#ulink_f616dc14-7a71-5284-8dec-cb2cb54d4b5a)

9 October 1899 Beginning of the Boer War between Britain and the Boers of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State.

Mid-October 1899 Mafeking is besieged by the Boers. Because Ronald had been born in the Orange Free State, he and his mother would have a special interest in events occurring there. On 16 November 1914, not long after the First World War begins, he will write to his friend *Christopher Wiseman expressing patriotism and a fierce belief in nationalism, but denying that he is a militarist: ‘I no longer defend the Boer War! I am a more & more convinced Home Ruler’ (Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford).

November 1899 Ronald sits the entrance examination for *King Edward’s School, Birmingham, which his father had attended, but fails to obtain a place.

Late 1899 or early 1900 Mabel Tolkien begins to take her boys on Sunday to St Anne’s, a Roman Catholic church in Alcester Street, Birmingham.


1900 (#ulink_899f84a4-b686-5241-b5bc-7438f9cfd534)

?1900 Late in life Tolkien will recall that when he was ‘about 8 years old’ he ‘read in a small book (professedly for the young) that nothing of the language of primitive peoples (before the Celts or Germanic invaders) is now known, except perhaps ond – ‘stone’ (+ one other now forgotten)’ (letter to Graham Tayar, 4–5 June 1971, Letters, p. 410). See note.

Spring 1900 Mabel and her sister May, having decided to convert to Roman Catholicism, begin to receive instruction at St Anne’s.

16 May 1900 Mafeking is relieved after seven months of resistance. In England there will be widespread celebrations on 18–19 May.

June 1900 Mabel is received into the Catholic Church. The Suffield family, especially Mabel’s Unitarian father, and the Tolkiens who are mainly Baptists, are shocked. Mabel is now faced with hostility and the loss of financial help. Walter Incledon refuses to continue his support and forces his wife May to recant her decision to join the Church of Rome. Undeterred, Mabel begins to instruct her sons in the Roman Catholic faith.

26–28 June 1900 During this period Ronald sits the entrance examination for King Edward’s School a second time and obtains a place.

Autumn term 1900 Ronald begins to attend King Edward’s School. His fee of £12 per year is paid by a Tolkien uncle. He is placed in the the Eleventh Class under Assistant Master W.H. Kirkby, and in Section D7 (i.e. group D7 for the study of Mathematics and Arithmetic). The Thirteenth Class is the lowest at King Edward’s School and the First Class the highest, but after the Eighth Class there are three unnumbered classes: Lower Remove, Upper Remove, and Transitus. Above Transitus the School is divided into a Classical Side and a Modern Side, with more classes on the latter (the Classical Side did not include a Seventh Class). Pupils do not necessarily pass through all classes, but might skip ahead; nor do they spend a set amount of time in each class. According to the School curriculum published in 1906,



the nine Classes from the 13th upwards to the Transitus, inclusive, receive instruction in the ordinary elementary subjects of a liberal education, viz, Arithmetic and Elementary Mathematics, Scripture, English, History, Geography, French, Latin and Drawing. The boys are also (as far up as class 8) instructed in Botany, with the intention of training their powers of observation and evoking an interest in the objects and phenomena of nature…. All boys throughout the School are required to take physical exercises in the Gymnasium, unless forbidden to do so by a medical man.

– For a while, Ronald walks most of the way to school, which is in the centre of Birmingham four miles from home, because Mabel cannot afford train fares, and the cheaper trams do not run as far as Sarehole. But before the end of September 1900 Mabel and her sons will move to 214 Alcester Road, Moseley, closer to King Edward’s School and on a tram route. Ronald will find being in the city ‘dreadful’ after the peace and green of Sarehole (quoted in Biography, p. 25). During his first term, ill health will keep Ronald away from school on several occasions; the December 1900 class list, compiled following the autumn term, will record him as ‘absent’. – Hilary continues to be taught at home by his mother.

Late 1900 or early 1901 Mabel Tolkien and her sons move to a terrace house, 86 Westfield Road in Kings Heath, close to the new Roman Catholic church of St Dunstan’s but backing onto a noisy railway line. On the far side of the line, however, are green fields, and flowers and other plants grow on the banks of the cutting. Ronald is not at all attracted by the trains themselves, but becomes fascinated by the strange Welsh names on the coal trucks they pull: the Welsh language will come to play an important part in his writings. He tries to learn more about it, but the only books available are still too advanced for him. See note.


1901 (#ulink_71d2c1ec-dfa4-59c8-85db-67e981abdbb0)

22 January 1901 Queen Victoria dies. Edward VII succeeds to the throne.

Spring and summer terms 1901 Ronald continues in Class XI under W.H. Kirkby, and in Section D7. He will be ranked thirteenth among twenty-two boys in the School class list dated July 1901.

Autumn term 1901 By now, Ronald has advanced to the Eighth Class, under Assistant Master A.W. Adams, and to Section D5 for Mathematics and Arithmetic. He will be ranked twenty-first among twenty-three boys in the School class list dated December 1901.


1902 (#ulink_f4e42c96-4e15-5098-b66e-6d37a759fe85)

Early 1902 Dissatisfied with the house in Kings Heath and with St Dunstan’s, Mabel looks elsewhere. She finds the *Birmingham Oratory more to her taste, and is able to find a house to rent nearby, at 26 Oliver Road in Edgbaston. Ronald and Hilary now will be able to attend St Philip’s, a Catholic grammar school attached to the Oratory. See note. Ronald will not have to make the long journey into the centre of Birmingham, and the fees are lower than at King Edward’s School. One of the Oratory Fathers, *Francis Xavier Morgan, who acts as parish priest soon becomes a close and sympathetic friend of the family.

31 May 1902 The Boer War ends with the Peace Treaty of Vereeniging. The Boers accept British sovereignty.

?Summer 1902 Ronald having outpaced his classmates, Mabel removes him and Hilary from St Philip’s School and once again teaches the boys at home.

9 August 1902 Coronation of King Edward VII.

November 1902 Ronald sits the entrance examination at King Edward’s School and is awarded a Foundation Scholarship; therefore no fees will have to be paid for his education. The Scholarship will be renewed in 1904, 1906, and 1908.


1903 (#ulink_c8491273-3635-5260-ab20-6381651681e4)

14 April 1903 Frances Bratt dies. In her will she has named her brother, Ernest William Bratt, and her solicitor, Stephen Gateley, as executors, and has set up a trust on behalf of her mother, Jane Bratt, ‘for and during the term of her natural life she thereout maintaining educating and bringing up my Child Edith Bratt by Alfred Frederick Warrillow until she marries’, and with monies held in trust for Edith until she is twenty-one, or marries at a younger age, ‘for her sole and separate use and free from marital control’. She further allowed that if, at the time of Jane Bratt’s death, Edith should be living, under the age of twenty-one, and unmarried, then the monies held in trust should be paid to her guardian ‘to and for the maintenance and education of my said Child until she shall attain the age of twenty one years or marry under that age and any unapplied income shall be accumulated at interest and added to the said capital monies’. The net value of Frances’ estate is £3,797 2s 11d.

With the death of Jane Bratt in 1904 (as it seems), Stephen Gateley will become Edith’s guardian, and will send her to Dresden House School, a boarding school run by two sisters named Watts who place a particular emphasis on music. There Edith will develop her talent for playing the piano.

Spring term 1903 Ronald re-enters King Edward’s School in January 1903. He is placed in the Lower Remove Class under Assistant Master R.H. Hume, and in Section D5.

July 1903 In the School class list of this date, Ronald is placed eleventh out of twenty-four in the Lower Remove.

Autumn term 1903 Ronald advances from the Lower Remove. After leaving one of the Removes or Transitus, pupils have a choice. The School Curriculum of 1906 states that



above Transitus, the average age of which is about 14, though an able boy will usually pass through it quite a year earlier than that, the School is divided into a Classical or Literary, and Modern, or rather Scientific Side. The Modern Side do not learn Greek, nor (except in a Voluntary Class) do the Classical Side learn Science. The amount of time given to Mathematics on both sides is the same, and Modern Languages are also studied on both Sides. Boys who have any prospect of proceeding to Oxford or Cambridge should take the Classical Side, and it is especially desirable that boys who show mathematical promise should do so. All who contemplate a Degree in Arts at any University will naturally take this Side.

Ronald is on the Classical Side, and since there is no Seventh Class on that Side, he moves into the Sixth Class, under Assistant Master *George Brewerton. There he will begin to study Greek, he will be introduced also to *Shakespeare and *Chaucer (and encouraged to read the latter in the original), and with the aid of a primer lent him by Brewerton, he will begin to learn Old English (*Languages). During this term he is in Section B6 for Mathematics and Arithmetic. He will be ranked eighteenth among twenty-three boys in the School class list dated December 1903.

Christmas 1903 Mabel Tolkien sends drawings made by Ronald and Hilary to the boys’ Tolkien grandmother, and comments on how hard Ronald has worked on them since school broke up on 16 December:



Ronald can match silk lining or any art shade like a true ‘Parisian Modiste’. – Is it his Artist or Draper Ancestry coming out? – He is going along at a great rate at school – he knows far more Greek than I do Latin – he says he is going to do German with me these holidays – though at present [with a lingering illness] I feel more like Bed. One of the clergy, a young, merry one, is teaching Ronald to play chess – he says he has read too much, everything fit for a boy under fifteen, and he doesn’t know any single classical thing to recommend him. Ronald is making his First Communion this Christmas – so it is a very great feast indeed to us this year. [quoted in Biography, p. 28]

At his confirmation Ronald takes the additional name ‘Philip’ but will rarely use it. – At about this time, Ronald buys a copy of Chambers’s Etymological Dictionary, ‘the beginning of my interest in German Philology (& Philol[ogy]. in general)’ (note by Tolkien, dated 1973, in his copy of the book, quoted in Life & Legend, p. 16).


1904 (#ulink_04feaf1e-19a7-5032-acc9-e953f5f8111b)

January 1904 Ronald and Hilary have measles followed by whooping cough. Hilary also develops pneumonia. The strain of nursing the boys proves too much for Mabel’s health. – From 1 January, motor-cars in Britain have to be licensed and fitted with number plates; 23,000 cars are registered. The speed limit is 20 miles per hour. Tolkien will later remark on the spread of the motor-car with consequent noise and fumes (see *Environment; *Progress in Bimble Town).

Spring and summer terms 1904 The King Edward’s School class list dated July 1904, concerning the first half of the year, will list Ronald as ‘absent’.

April 1904 By now, Mabel is in hospital in Birmingham, diagnosed with diabetes and in the care of Dr Robert Saundby, noted in medical literature for his treatment of diabetics with controlled diet (insulin will not be discovered until 1921). Hilary is sent to his Suffield grandparents, and Ronald to Hove on the south coast of England near Brighton, to stay with Edwin Neave, a former lodger in the Suffield home and future husband of Mabel’s sister, Jane. Ronald will be absent from King Edward’s School for the summer term.

27 April 1904 Ronald sends his mother a drawing on the back of a card posted in Brighton: inscribed They Slept in Beauty Side by Side (Artist and Illustrator, fig. 4), it shows Ronald and Edwin Neave in bed. This is one of at least four drawings Ronald makes for his mother at this time. Another, inscribed Working Over Time S.P.Q.R., is of Edwin Neave, an insurance clerk, sitting at a tall desk with a Guardian Fire Insurance calendar on the wall, while a third, inscribed ‘For Men Must Work’ as Seen Daily at 9 am, depicts Ronald and Edwin striding along a promenade to the Guardian Assurance Company office. In yet another, What Is Home without a Mother (or a Wife) (Life and Legend, p. 14), on which is written ‘Show Aunt Jane’, Edwin Neave is darning a sock while Ronald is mending trousers. See note.

Late June 1904 Mabel has recovered sufficiently to leave hospital and must now undergo a lengthy convalescence. Father Francis Morgan arranges for her and the boys to stay at Woodside Cottage, *Rednal, Worcestershire, near the Oratory retreat and cemetery. They lodge with the local postman and his wife, Mr and Mrs Till. They have the freedom of the Oratory’s grounds and can explore the adjoining Lickey Hills. Mabel writes to her mother-in-law: ‘Boys look ridiculously well compared to the weak white ghosts that met me on train 4 weeks ago!!! Hilary has got tweed suit and his first Etons today! and looks immense. – We’ve had perfect weather. Boys will write first wet day but what with Bilberry-gathering – Tea in Hay – Kite-flying with Fr. Francis – sketching – Tree Climbing – they’ve never enjoyed a holiday so much’ (quoted in Biography, pp. 29–30.). Father Francis visits many times. Mabel and the boys attend Mass on Sundays at the Oratory retreat, if a priest is in residence, or they are driven to St Peter’s Catholic church in nearby Bromsgrove with Mr and Mrs Church, the gardener and caretaker for the Oratory fathers.

8 August 1904 Ronald writes a three-page pictorial code letter to Father Francis, which ends in plain text with a limerick about the priest ‘to pay you out for not coming!’

September 1904 Even when autumn term begins at King Edward’s School, Mabel decides not to leave Woodside Cottage. Therefore Ronald has to rise early and walk over a mile from Rednal to the nearest station to catch a train into Birmingham; by the time he comes home at the end of the day it is growing dark, and Hilary sometimes meets him with a lamp.

Autumn term 1904 Ronald continues in Class VI under George Brewerton, and in Section B6.

8 November 1904 Mabel sinks into a diabetic coma.

14 November 1904 Mabel Tolkien dies in Woodside Cottage, with Father Francis Morgan and May Incledon at her bedside.

17 November 1904 Mabel Tolkien is buried in the churchyard of St Peter’s, Bromsgrove, and her grave marked with a cross of the same design as that used for the graves of the Oratory fathers. In her will she has appointed Father Francis as Ronald and Hilary’s guardian. The net value of her estate is £1,261 16s 10d.

December 1904 In the School class list of this date, Ronald is listed eleventh out of fifteen in the Sixth Class at King Edward’s School.

Late 1904 Since Ronald and Hilary cannot live with him in the Oratory, Father Francis has to find them suitable lodgings, but he knows that both the Suffield and the Tolkien families had opposed Mabel’s conversion and might contest her will to gain control of the boys. King Edward’s School records list Ronald’s address, immediately following his mother’s death, as care of Laurence Tolkien (one of Arthur’s brothers, an insurance manager) at Dunkeld, Middleton Hall Road, Kings Norton. By January 1905, however, Father Francis will arrange for Ronald and Hilary to live with Beatrice Suffield, the widow of Mabel’s youngest brother, William. This seems a good compromise, as Aunt Beatrice has no strong religious views, she is family, and she lives near the Oratory at 25 Stirling Road in Edgbaston. The boys are given a large room at the top of her house from which they have a view of the countryside in the distance. – During school holidays Ronald and Hilary often stay with other relatives. Among these are two of their father’s sisters (see *Tolkien family), Aunt Grace who lives in Newcastle with her husband William Mountain and their children Kenneth and Dorothy, and Aunt Mabel who lives at Abbotsford, 69 Wake Green Road, Moseley, Birmingham with her husband Tom Mitton and their children (*Mitton family). But most often they stay with the Incledons, who now live at *Barnt Green, Worcestershire, near Rednal. (A second daughter, Friede Mary, had been born to May and Walter Incledon in 1895.) On one of his early visits to the Incledons Ronald discovers that Marjorie and Mary Incledon have constructed a language, ‘Animalic’, almost entirely out of English animal, bird, and fish names, and are able to converse in it fluently. He learns a little of Animalic and is amused by it. He does not admit to his cousins that he himself had already indulged a ‘secret vice’ of creating languages: he will later remark that he had been making up imaginary languages since he could write (see *Languages, Invented).


1905 (#ulink_df170b07-4b44-514e-b95c-0fe66a0b020f)

1905 Aunt Beatrice gives the boys board and lodging but little affection or consideration for their feelings; one day Ronald discovers that she has burned their mother’s personal papers and letters. In many ways, the Oratory is Ronald and Hilary’s real home. In the morning, they serve Mass for Father Francis, and they eat breakfast in the refectory before leaving for school, either on foot or by horse-bus or bicycle. Ronald will later describe this period in his life as having ‘the advantage of a (then) first rate school and that of a “good Catholic home” – “in excelsis”: [I was] virtually a junior inmate of the Oratory house, which contained many learned fathers (largely “converts”)’ (letter to *Michael Tolkien, begun after 25 August 1967, Letters, p. 395). – Having access to books in Spanish belonging to Father Francis Morgan (who is half Spanish), Ronald tries to teach himself that language.

Spring and summer terms 1905 With the permission of the Oratory, for otherwise they would have to go to St Philip’s, Ronald continues to attend King Edward’s School, now together with Hilary, who enters in January 1905 in Class XIII, Section D7. Ronald is still in the Sixth Class under George Brewerton, in Section B6. He is also now in the Third Division (b) of the French course taught by Assistant Master A.L. Rothe. Father Francis will also allow Ronald to attend classes on the New Testament in Greek, offered by the Head Master of King Edward’s School, *Robert Cary Gilson.

6 and 8 July 1905 Athletic Sports are held at the King Edward’s School Grounds.

August 1905 Jane Suffield and Edwin Neave are married in Manchester. They settle in *Gedling, near Nottingham, where Edwin now holds a more senior position with Guardian Assurance.

2 August 1905 Speech Day and prize-giving at King Edward’s School. Ronald, who has tied for first place among fifteen boys in the Sixth Class, receives as a prize the book Roman History by W.W. Capes (1879).

Summer 1905 According to Humphrey Carpenter, Father Francis Morgan took Ronald and Hilary on holiday to *Lyme Regis, on the south coast of England, every summer after their mother’s death; and ‘later in childhood’ Ronald went on a railway journey to *Wales (Biography, p. 26).

Autumn term 1905 Ronald is now in the Fifth Class at King Edward’s School, under Assistant Master C.H. Heath. There he meets Christopher Wiseman, who will become a close friend and friendly rival. At the end of term Ronald is placed first and Wiseman second in the class of nineteen boys. Other pupils who also will become close friends are *Robert Q. ‘Rob’ Gilson, the son of the Head Master, and *Vincent Trought. During this term Ronald is in Section B5 for Mathematics and Arithmetic under Assistant Master Charles Davison, and in the French Third Division (a) under Assistant Master J.W. Smyth. Hilary Tolkien continues in Class XIII, Section D7.


1906 (#ulink_9dffd0ce-5905-5e78-8eea-ce484b9bbd27)

c. 1906–1907 On a later visit to his Incledon cousins, Ronald discovers that Marjorie has lost interest in Animalic. He and Mary begin to create a new, more sophisticated language, ‘Nevbosh’ or ‘New Nonsense’.

Spring and summer terms 1906 Ronald enters the Fourth Class under *R.W. Reynolds. He thinks that Reynolds makes Greek and Roman history boring, but likes him as a person. Ronald is in Section B4 for Mathematics and Arithmetic, in which he will be ranked second, and in the French Third Division (a) under Assistant Master J.H. Manton, in which he will be ranked third. Hilary Tolkien is now in Class XI, Section D5. At the end of the summer term Ronald is placed second in a class of nineteen boys (Christopher Wiseman is sixth) and is awarded a joint prize for Grammar.

28 and 30 June 1906 Athletic Sports are held at the King Edward’s School Grounds.

27 July 1906 Speech Day and prize-giving at King Edward’s School.

Summer 1906 Father Francis takes Ronald and Hilary on holiday to Lyme Regis. They stay at the Three Cups Hotel in Broad Street. Ronald enjoys exploring the countryside and shore, sketching, and searching for fossils in the cliffs; on one of his visits to Lyme Regis he finds a prehistoric jawbone and pretends that it came from a dragon. He draws a view of the harbour from the window of the hotel (Lyme Regis Harbour from the Drawing Room Window of the Cups Hotel, see Artist and Illustrator, fig. 8).

Autumn term 1906 Ronald enters the Third Class at King Edward’s School under Assistant Master A.E. Measures, and in Section A6 for Mathematics and Arithmetic under W. Sneath. At the end of term he is placed fourth out of twenty in the class (Christopher Wiseman is eighth). Hilary Tolkien is now in Class X, Section D5.


1907 (#ulink_125db5fe-a99e-5e41-9699-68a9827abd22)

Spring term 1907 Ronald enters the Second Class at King Edward’s School, under both Robert Cary Gilson, the Head Master, and his assistant A.E. Measures, and in Section A5 for Mathematics and Arithmetic under Assistant Master P.M. Marples. Hilary Tolkien is now in Class IX, Section D4.

4 April 1907 Field Marshal Earl Roberts visits King Edward’s School, as one of four public engagements in Birmingham. He inspects the newly formed Cadet Corps (*Societies and clubs), of which Tolkien is now a member. A photograph is taken of the assembled group of some 120 cadets. See note. After the inspection, Lord Roberts gives an address in the School hall, encouraging the boys to learn to shoot and to understand that it is not only his duty, but an honour and privilege, to defend his country.

27 and 29 June 1907 Athletic Sports are held at the King Edward’s School Grounds.

31 July 1907 Speech Day and prize-giving at King Edward’s School. Now at the end of the summer term, Ronald is placed fourth out of twenty in his general class, and eighth in Section A5.

Summer 1907 Father Francis again takes Ronald and Hilary to Lyme Regis. He learns from them that they are not happy living with their Aunt Beatrice.

Autumn term 1907 Ronald enters the First or Senior Class, under Robert Cary Gilson and A.E. Measures; he will remain in this uppermost class, under the same instructors, for the rest of his years at King Edward’s School. There are twenty-two boys in the class, listed by seniority rather than by term work or examination results; among these is *Wilfrid Hugh Payton (known as ‘Whiffy’), who will be one of the members of the *T.C.B.S. during Ronald’s last term at school. Gilson is an inspiring teacher who tries to interest his pupils in classical linguistics and philology, but also encourages them to branch out in their studies. Ronald will later recall that on many occasions the Head Master imposed on him the writing of lines, such as ‘punctuality is the soul of business’ and ‘brevity is the soul of wit’. During this term Ronald is in Section A5 for Mathematics and Arithmetic, again under P.M. Marples, in which he will end the term ranked third. Hilary Tolkien is now in the Upper Remove, Section D3. – Apart from his official studies, Ronald is already pursuing interests in Old English (Anglo-Saxon) and Middle English. He feels a special sympathy and even a sense of recognition for Middle English works such as *Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and *Pearl, written in the West Midlands dialect which he thinks was spoken by his mother’s West Midlands ancestors. He even begins to learn Old Norse in order to read the story of Sigurd in the original. He also reads books on philology and the history of language, and begins to buy books secondhand. He is learning a lot, developing an interest in philology and a deep appreciation of the look and sound of words. He also discovers Esperanto and learns enough of its grammar and structure to be able to read works written in it. Probably at about this time he begins to create for himself a language to suit his own aesthetic tastes: Naffarin, influenced by Latin and Spanish. – He is not alone at King Edward’s School in his unusual interests: Christopher Wiseman is studying Egyptian and its hieroglyphics, while *Geoffrey Bache Smith, who will later become a close friend, is interested in Welsh.


1908 (#ulink_bf5967b5-c262-5bdc-9ac1-a50d698a08fc)

Beginning of 1908 Ronald and Hilary move to 37 Duchess Road, Edgbaston, the home of Louis Faulkner, a wine merchant; his wife, Mrs Faulkner, holds musical evenings which some of the Fathers from the nearby Oratory attend. The boys’ room is on the second floor; in the room beneath them is another lodger, Edith Bratt. The three young people become friends, and deeper feelings develop between Ronald and Edith. She conspires with the Faulkners’ maid, *Annie Gollins, to smuggle extra food from the kitchen to the hungry boys upstairs, by means of a basket lowered from their window.

Spring and summer terms 1908 Ronald continues in Class I, Section A5 at King Edward’s School; there are twenty-one pupils in the First Class. He will end the term ranked sixteenth in his Mathematics section. Hilary Tolkien is now in Transitus, Section C5.

25 and 27 June 1908 Athletic Sports are held at the King Edward’s School Grounds.

30 July 1908 Speech Day and prize-giving at King Edward’s School. Ronald is awarded a prize for achievement in English.

Autumn term 1908 Christopher Wiseman has now joined Ronald and seventeen others in the First Class at King Edward’s School. Rob Gilson and Vincent Trought are in the Second Class. Hilary Tolkien is now in Class VI, Section B6. Ronald is now a King Edward’s Scholar, a distinction which will continue until he leaves the School in 1911. He will end the term ranked thirteenth in Mathematics Section A4, under Assistant Master the Rev. F.O. Lane. During this term he also takes a voluntary class in Practical Chemistry, taught by Assistant Master T.J. Baker. – During the 1908–9 school year Ronald will present to the School library two books by *G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (1908) and Heretics (1905).

1908 or 1909 One of Ronald’s school-friends buys A Primer of the Gothic Language by *Joseph Wright at a missionary sale, thinking it a Bible Society product. When he realizes his error he sells the book to Ronald, who upon opening it is ‘at least as full of delight as first looking into Chapman’s Homer’ (quoted in Biography, p. 37). The surviving fragments of Gothic (*Languages) give him aesthetic pleasure. He is fascinated by Gothic in itself, ‘a beautiful language’, and learns from the primer how to convert words of other Germanic languages into Gothic script. ‘I often put “Gothic” inscriptions in books, sometimes Gothicizing my Norse name and German surname as Ruginwaldus Dwalakōnis’ (letter to Zillah Sherring, 20 July 1965, Letters, p. 357). He inscribes ‘Ermanaþiudiska Razda eþþau Gautiska tungō’ (‘Language of the Great People, or Gautish [Gothic] tongue’) inside a notebook to be used for work dealing with Gothic, but only uses a few pages (the notebook will be used later for a Quenya phonology and lexicon). – He now abandons the Latin- and Spanish-influenced Naffarin and begins to develop an imaginary ‘lost’ Germanic language, trying to fit it into the historical development of the Germanic tongues.


1909 (#ulink_3690466d-e177-57ab-ac54-053201ba96f9)

1909 During this year Ronald is supposed to be working hard, as he is to sit for an *Oxford Scholarship at year’s end, but he is distracted by linguistic interests and he begins to take an active part in school activities. One of these is rugby football, in which Ronald’s slight form is a handicap. One day, however, ‘I decided to make up for weight by (legitimate) ferocity, and I ended up a house-captain at end of that season, & got my colours the next’ (letter to Michael Tolkien, 3 October 1937, Letters, p. 22). He will be described in the King Edward’s School Chronicle as ‘a light but hard-working forward who makes up for his lightness by his determined dash. Tackles well but his kicking is weak’ (‘Football Characters’, n.s. 25, no. 180 (April 1910), p. 35). During one game his tongue will be badly damaged, an accident he will sometimes blame when people complain that they find his speech difficult to understand. On another occasion he will damage his nose. – His relationship with Edith now becomes more serious. They begin to meet in Birmingham tea-shops; they go on cycle-rides together; they have a private whistle-call by which one can summon the other to the window at Duchess Road. Ronald will later recall to Edith their first kisses and ‘absurd long window talks’ (quoted in Biography, p. 40). By summer 1909 they will decide that they are in love.

Spring and summer terms 1909 Ronald continues in the First Class, one of eighteen pupils. He will end this period ranked thirteenth in his Mathematics section, A4, again under F.O. Lane, and second in his German class, which is taught by A.L. Rothe. Hilary Tolkien continues in Class VI, Section B6.

26 March 1909 Ronald takes part in one of the traditional Latin debates at King Edward’s School, in the role of ‘Spurius Vectigalius Acer, Haruspex’. (Haruspex = ‘soothsayer, prophet’. The names of Tolkien’s Latin debate personae always contain plays on his surname, here vectigal ‘toll’ and acer ‘keen’.)

Spring 1909 According to the ‘Parish Magazine’, the magazine of the Birmingham Oratory parish, for May 1909, ‘three patrols of Scouts under the Brothers Tolkien, have been started, and they marched smartly in the wake of the Boys Brigade on Easter Monday [11 April]. When they have done a little more drill, we shall ask some of our friends to help towards providing them with shirts, haversacks, etc.’

11 May 1909 Edwin Neave dies of bronchial pneumonia. He will be buried in All Hallows’ churchyard, Gedling, east of Nottingham.

Summer term 1909 The King Edward’s School Officers Training Corps (formerly the Cadet Corps) participates in field exercises, including one in the Clent Hills near Birmingham. As reported in the King Edward’s School Chronicle, ‘the corps went out five times with the 5th Battalion of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, and took part in the training of a Battalion under the instruction of Lieut.-Col. [John] Barnsley’ (‘Officers’ Training Corps’, n.s. 24, no. 177 (November 1909), p. 80).

10 June 1909 Ronald writes this day’s date (Corpus Christi 1909) on the title-page of a small notebook he calls The Book of Foxrook (*Writing systems). This



contains the key to a secret code consisting of a rune-like phonetic alphabet and a sizable number of ideographic symbols called ‘monographs’ … each monograph representing an entire word…. The code in Foxrook is not only the earliest known example of an invented alphabet devised by Tolkien, it is also the only one of his writing systems that is primarily ideographic. The majority of Foxrook is in English, including most of the messages written in code and the glosses of the monographs, but one page is almost entirely in Esperanto. [Arden R. Smith and Patrick Wynne, ‘Tolkien and Esperanto’, Seven 17 (2000), pp. 29–30]

1 and 3 July 1909 Athletic Sports are held at the King Edward’s School Grounds.

7 July 1909 King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra visit Birmingham. After a reception and luncheon at the Council House they drive to Edgbaston to open the New Buildings of the University of Birmingham. The cadets of the King Edward’s School Officers Training Corps parade in the playground behind the School and then, preceded by a fife and drum band, march some distance by way of Bristol Road to the University to contribute to a Guard of Honour for the royal visitors.

26 July 1909 Speech Day and prize-giving at King Edward’s School. Ronald is runner-up for the German prize.

27 July–4 August 1909 Ronald participates with seventy-one other cadets in the King Edward’s School Officers Training Corps at the Public Schools’ Camp, *Tidworth Pennings on Salisbury Plain. They travel there by special train on 27 July. Although it rains that day, the remaining days at camp have fine weather. The King Edward’s School contingent are in one of four battalions given thorough training, culminating in ‘a grand field day, known officially as the Battle of Silk Hill, wherein nearly 20,000 troops of all arms, Regulars and Territorials, took part’ (‘Officers’ Training Corps’, King Edward’s School Chronicle n.s. 24, no. 177 (November 1909), p. 81). One of Ronald’s contemporaries at King Edward’s School will later recall that ‘he and I and six others occupied one bell tent. One evening Tolkien came charging in, leapt up and clasped the central pole high up and slid down it to the ground, not having noticed that someone had fixed a candle to the pole with his clasp knife. Tolkien must still carry the scar of the very nasty cut that resulted’ (William H. Tait, letter to the editor, Old Edwardians Gazette, June 1972, p. 17).

Summer 1909 Ronald spends part of the summer holidays at Rednal working for an Oxford scholarship.

Autumn term 1909 Ronald’s friends Rob Gilson, W.H. Payton and his brother *Ralph Stuart Payton (‘the Baby’), and Vincent Trought have joined him, together with Christopher Wiseman, in the First Class at King Edward’s School. There are now only fifteen pupils in the class. Ronald is no longer in a Mathematics section, apparently having completed his required course of study. Hilary Tolkien is now in Class VI, Section B5.

8 October 1909 Now a member of the King Edward’s School Debating Society (*Societies and clubs), Ronald makes his maiden speech on the motion: ‘That this house expresses its sympathy with the objects and its admiration of the tactics of the Militant Suffragette.’ The King Edward’s School Chronicle will report that he ‘spoke of the Suffragette from a Zoological point of view and gave an interesting display of his paronomasiac powers [ability to play on words]. A good humourous speech.’ Christopher Wiseman, also entering into the debate, points out ‘that man had been educated from the middle of the 18th century, but it was not till 1884 that the vote was extended. Woman had had no education till the middle of the 19th century; ergo, they had still fifty years to wait!’ (‘Debating Society’, n.s. 24, no. 177 (November 1909), pp. 84, 83). The motion fails, 12 votes to 20.

22 October 1909 At a meeting of the King Edward’s School Debating Society R.W. Reynolds introduces the motion: ‘That this House disapproves of the Government proposals for the taxation of land’. The motion passes, 24 votes to 18.

26 October 1909 Ronald plays in the King Edward’s School Rugby 1st XV for the first time, in a home match against Jesus College, Oxford. King Edward’s School loses, 9 to 19. According to the King Edward’s School Chronicle, the home team ‘continued to keep their opponents well in hand, and were at length rewarded by a try by Tolkien, who had shown himself throughout the afternoon a keen forward, and fully deserved this success. The kick did not succeed…. At the close of the game J.R.R. Tolkien and H.N. Thompson received their 2nd Team Colours’ (‘Football’, n.s. 24, no. 177 (November 1909), p. 88). (A photograph of the 1909–10 1st XV appears in Biography, pl. 5a, and in The Tolkien Family Album, p. 26.)

29 October 1909 J.N.E. Tredennick, a student at King Edward’s School, reads a paper on the American author Oliver Wendell Holmes at a meeting of the School Literary Society (*Societies and clubs).

30 October 1909 Ronald plays in a 1st XV home match against the 2nd XV of Old Edwardians II. King Edward’s School loses, 8 to 10.

5 November 1909 At a meeting of the King Edward’s School Debating Society ‘a small House’ discusses the motion ‘That the heroes of antiquity have been much overrated’. The debate is opened by W.H. Payton, who lays ‘emphasis on the change between the conditions of several thousand years ago and those of to-day’. Rob Gilson speaks in protest, ‘arguing that the heroes of antiquity had an enormous influence for good on the morals and ideals of today’. Vincent Trought gives his maiden address to the Society, confessing that ‘he could never perform the labours of Hercules’ without ‘the beginning and end of modern heroes’ superiority’: beer (‘Debating Society’, King Edward’s School Chronicle, n.s. 24, no. 178 (December 1909), pp. 95, 96). The motion fails, 8 votes to 16.

6 November 1909 Ronald plays in a 1st XV away match at Oakham, Leicestershire, against Oakham School. King Edward’s School loses, 13 to 14.

9 November 1909 Ronald plays in a 1st XV away match at The Reddings, Moseley, against Moseley II. King Edward’s School loses, 0 to 17.

13 November 1909 Ronald plays in a 1st XV away match at Lifford, against Kings Norton. King Edward’s School loses, 0 to 30.

19 November 1909 The King Edward’s School Debating Society addresses the motion: ‘That this house deplores the disappearance of the stocks as a form of punishment.’ According to the King Edward’s School Chronicle, ‘J.R.R. Tolkien in a distinctly humorous speech, though somewhat marred by a faulty delivery, advocated the revival of the stocks as an admirable method for the training of the marksmen of this country. It would also benefit the grocers’ trade’ (‘Debating Society’, n.s. 24, no. 178 (December 1909), p. 96). The motion carries, 13 to 12.

26 November 1909 At a meeting of the Literary Society of King Edward’s School the Reverend E.W. Badger, one of the Masters, reads a paper entitled William Morris, Artist, Craftsman and Poet.

Near the end of autumn term 1909 Ronald and Edith ride their bicycles to the Lickey Hills on an afternoon excursion. They leave and return separately so that no one will know they are seeing each other. At the end of the afternoon they have tea at the house in Rednal where Ronald had stayed in the summer, but the woman who provides the tea mentions Ronald’s visit to the caretaker at the Oratory retreat, who mentions it to the cook at the Oratory, and so the news reaches Father Francis Morgan. Father Francis is worried that Ronald is not giving his full attention to work towards a university scholarship, and is shaken when further enquiries reveal more about Ronald and Edith’s clandestine meetings. He demands that their relationship cease.

December 1909 Very soon after this turmoil Ronald goes to Oxford to sit the University scholarship examination, staying in Corpus Christi College. He fails to obtain an award but is young enough to be able to try again next year. He must win an award if he wants to attend the University of Oxford, since his small inheritance from his father’s estate is not enough to pay the fees, nor can Father Francis afford to pay them.

3 December 1909 The King Edward’s School Debating Society addresses the motion: ‘That the sportsman is a better citizen than the student.’ Rob Gilson recommends the novel Tom Brown’s Schooldays by Thomas Hughes as an exception to the opening statement that the heroes of all school tales were those good at games. R.S. Payton makes his maiden address to the Society, stating that ‘the man with no education but sport was often bigoted and narrow-minded’, and Christopher Wiseman makes ‘reference to the battle of Eton’ and digresses ‘on to the [national] Budget’ (‘Debating Society’, King Edward’s School Chronicle, n.s. 25, no. 179 (March 1910), pp. 5, 6). The motion fails, 12 votes to 15.

10 December 1909 The Headmaster of King Edward’s School, Robert Cary Gilson, presents a lecture on ‘Memory’ at a meeting of the Literary Society.

17 December 1909 An Old Boys’ debate is held at King Edward’s School on the motion: ‘That the awakening of the Yellow Races is a menace to the safety of Europe.’ W.H. Payton takes part, arguing that Japan should be considered more important than China, due to its inhabitants’ intense patriotism. The motion passes overwhelmingly, 26 votes to 2.


1910 (#ulink_0c0068b6-7d9c-52c5-b519-3b1a8f4cfb97)

1 January 1910 Ronald writes in his earliest surviving diary: ‘Depressed and as much in dark as ever. God help me. Feel weak and weary’ (quoted in Biography, p. 42). His depression is due not only to his disappointment at Oxford, but also to the difficulty of his relationship with Edith. He is torn between his feelings for her and his duty to the guardian to whom he owes so much. Although Father Francis has not specifically ordered Ronald not to see Edith again, his wishes are clear. – During this month he finds new lodgings for Ronald and Hilary with Thomas Macsherry, the director of a whiskey distillery, and his wife Julia at 4 Highfield Road, Edgbaston. Ronald will live at this address until going up to *Oxford in autumn 1911.

Spring term 1910 At King Edward’s School Ronald gives a lecture to the First Class entitled The Modern Languages of Europe: Derivations and Capabilities. After he takes up three one-hour sessions and still does not finish, the master calls a halt. During the spring and summer terms, there are seventeen pupils in Class I. Hilary Tolkien is now in Class V, Section B4.

20 January 1910 Ronald feels that he and Edith must discuss what they are to do. They meet without asking Father Francis for permission. They spend part of the day in the countryside discussing plans, but also visit E.H. Lawley & Sons, jewellers, at 24 New Street, Birmingham. Edith buys Ronald a pen for ten shillings and sixpence as a belated birthday present; he spends the same on a wrist watch as a twenty-first birthday present for Edith.

21 January 1910 Ronald and Edith celebrate her twenty-first birthday by having tea together. But their meeting is seen and reported to Father Francis: he now forbids Ronald to meet or even write to Edith. By now, in fact, she has decided to move to *Cheltenham to live with two elderly family friends, Mr and Mrs C.H. Jessop. Ronald may see her to say goodbye on the day she leaves Birmingham, and then there is to be no contact until he comes of age three years later.

23 January 1910 At King Edward’s School Ronald takes part in a debate on the motion: ‘That the vulgar are the really happy.’ He argues that there is no reason why this should be true of the vulgar as a class, and the fact that vulgarity and happiness sometimes accompany one another is no proof. Vincent Trought thinks that ‘the man who ate with his mouth too full could never be really happy’, Rob Gilson argues that education is ‘the direct opposite of vulgarity’, and W.H. Payton speaks briefly in the negative (King Edward’s School Chronicle, n.s. 25, no. 179 (March 1910), pp. 7, 8). The motion fails, 10 votes to 17.

11 February 1910 The King Edward’s School Debating Society addresses the motion: ‘That lawn-tennis is physically and socially a superior game to cricket.’ Christopher Wiseman demonstrates ‘from personal experience of “a friend,” that cricket does not provide sufficient exercise for a young boy’, while Vincent Trought inveighs ‘against those who wished to reject our national pastime and accept a foreign upstart in its stead’ (‘Debating Society’, King Edward’s School Chronicle, n.s. 25, no. 179 (March 1910), pp. 8, 9). The motion passes, 15 votes to 7.

12 February 1910 Ronald plays in a 1st XV home match against Kings Norton. King Edward’s School wins, 11 to 8.

15 February 1910 Ronald plays in a 1st XV home match against Birkenhead School, Oxton, Cheshire. King Edward’s School wins, 20 to 0.

16 February 1910 Ronald writes in his diary that he had prayed that he would see Edith by accident, and his prayer had been answered. ‘Saw her at 12.55 at Prince of Wales [presumably the Prince of Wales Theatre on Broad Street]. Told her I could not write and arranged to see her off on Thursday fortnight. Happier but so much long to see her just once to cheer her up. Cannot think of anything else’ (quoted in Biography, p. 43). See note.

18 February 1909 King Edward’s School student R.B. Naish reads a paper on Robert Browning at a meeting of the Literary Society.

19 February 1910 Ronald plays in 1st XV home match against the University of Birmingham. King Edward’s School loses, 5 to 6.

21 February 1910 Ronald writes in his diary: ‘I saw a dejected little figure sloshing along in a mac and tweed hat and could not resist crossing and saying a word of love and cheerfulness. This cheered me up a little for a while. Prayed and thought hard’ (quoted in Biography, p. 43).

23 February 1910 Ronald and Edith meet again accidentally.

25 February 1910 The Annual Parliamentary debate is held at King Edward’s School on the motion: ‘That the State recognises the right of its citizens to work, and undertakes the responsibility of providing it, if necessary.’ W.H. Payton takes part, arguing that ‘the scheme would prove not only inefficient, but demoralising to the character of the community’ and advocating tariff reform as ‘the only true remedy for the evil’ (King Edward’s School Chronicle, n.s. 25, no. 179 (March 1910), p. 9). The motion fails, 8 votes to 12.

26 February 1910 Ronald plays in a 1st XV away match at Elmdon Road, against Bromsgrove School. King Edward’s School loses, 8 to 21. – At least one of Ronald’s unplanned meetings with Edith has been reported to Father Francis. Ronald writes in his diary that he has ‘had a dreadful letter’ from his guardian ‘saying I had been seen with a girl again, calling it evil and foolish. Threatening to cut short my University career if I did not stop. Means I cannot see E[dith]. Nor write at all. God help me. Saw E. at midday but would not be with her. I owe all to Fr. F[rancis] and so must obey’ (quoted in Biography, p. 43).

2 March 1910 Edith leaves Birmingham for Cheltenham, Ronald has a last glimpse of her as she rides her bicycle to the station. Although Edith will miss Ronald, she will now live in greater comfort, and she will be able to play the piano as much as she likes, a pleasure forbidden her by Mrs Faulkner.

4 March 1910 W.H. Payton reads a paper on The Ingoldsby Legends at a meeting of the King Edward’s School Literary Society.

11 March 1910 In another Latin debate at King Edward’s School Ronald plays the part of a Greek ambassador, ‘Eisphorides Acribus Polyglotteus’, and speaks entirely in Greek. On another such occasion, according to Humphrey Carpenter, Ronald ‘astonished his schoolfellows when, in the character of a barbarian envoy, he broke into fluent Gothic; and on a third occasion he spoke in Anglo-Saxon. These activities occupied many hours …’ (Biography, p. 48).

12 March 1910 Ronald plays in a 1st XV away match at Elmdon Road, against the Old Edwardians II. King Edward’s School wins, 30 to 6.

18 March 1910 Former student E. Muncaster reads a paper on ‘Witchcraft’ at a meeting of the King Edward’s School Literary Society.

26 March 1910 (Easter Saturday) With the permission of Father Francis, Ronald writes a long letter to Edith. This ends with a poem, probably Morning, which he will later date to March 1910 – his earliest dated surviving verse. He encloses two devotional pamphlets, The Stations of the Cross and The Seven Words of the Cross. – At about this time Ronald begins to write original poems in English, in addition to translating poems into Latin as part of the classical curriculum at school. Much of his early poetry celebrates his appreciation of nature and landscape.

5 April 1910 Ronald plays in a 1st XV home match against the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry. King Edward’s School wins, 19 to 0. – The School’s annual Open Debate addresses the motion: ‘That the party system has proved itself to be no longer compatible with the sound government of this country.’ W.H. Payton is among those who speak in the affirmative. The motion fails, 20 votes to 30.

6 April 1910 The King Edward’s School Musical and Dramatic Society presents the Annual Open Concert at 7.30 p.m. in the Governors’ Board Room. During the programme Ronald’s friend Rob Gilson recites John of Gaunt’s dying speech from Shakespeare’s Richard II.

From 11 April 1910 Ronald sees a performance of J.M. *Barrie’s Peter Pan at the Prince of Wales Theatre in Birmingham. He writes in his diary: ‘Indescribable but I shall never forget it as long as I live. Wish E[dith] had been with me’ (quoted in Biography, pp. 47–8). The play is presented for six nights and two matinees beginning 11 April.

May 1910 Ronald writes a poem, The Dale Lands.

6 May 1910 King Edward VII dies. George V succeeds to the throne.

June 1910 Ronald writes a poem, Evening.

12 June 1910 Ronald inscribes his Greek edition of The Fifth Book of Thucydides with his name and a Gothic text which he later translated as: ‘I read the words of these books of Greek history in the sixth month of this year; thousand, nine hundreds, ten, of Our Lord: in order to gain the prize given every year to the boy knowing most about Thucydides, and this I inscribed in my books on the twelfth of the sixth (month) after I had already first read through all the words carefully’ (letter to Zillah Sherring, 20 July 1965, Letters, p. 357).

30 June and 2 July 1910 Ronald attends the King Edward’s School Athletic Sports at the School Grounds. He comes third in the One Mile Flat Race, Open.

July 1910 Ronald takes the examinations for the Oxford and Cambridge Higher Certificate, passing in five subjects: Latin, Greek, Elementary Mathematics, Scripture Knowledge (Greek Text), and History, and also satisfies the examiners in English Essay. – He writes a poem, Wood-sunshine, noteworthy among his earliest verse for its references to ‘fairy things tripping so gay’ and ‘sprites of the wood’, a foreshadowing of later writings (Biography, p. 47). He will later date another poem, The Sirens, also to this month.

27 July 1910 Speech Day and Prize-giving at King Edward’s School, followed by various performances. Ronald is awarded the prize for German, and plays the part of the Inspector in a performance in Greek of The Birds by Aristophanes, for which the King Edward’s School Chronicle will single him out for special praise. Rob Gilson and Christopher Wiseman appear in scenes from Shakespeare’s Henry V. – Hilary Tolkien attends his final day at King Edward’s School. At some time before April 1911 he will be given a post in Walter Incledon’s family business, as a hardware merchant’s clerk.

28 July–6 August 1910 Ronald attends camp with the King Edward’s School Officers Training Corps. Sixty-four cadets parade at the School on the morning of 28 July under the command of Captain R.H. Hume before travelling by special train from Snow Hill Station, Birmingham, to *Aldershot in Hampshire. They and cadets from other schools pitch camp on Farnborough Common and spend two days drilling in preparation for an inspection by the Duke of Connaught on the Saturday afternoon. During their field training the cadets are taken in groups to visit the depot of military airplanes and airships in the neighbouring Farnborough. A battery of field artillery is demonstrated to them. During the second week, the cadets are inspected by Field Marshals Lord Roberts and Lord Kitchener. ‘The weather was on the whole good, but on two evenings the rain fell in torrents and nearly washed out the Camp’ (R.H. Hume, ‘O.T.C. Annual Camp, Aldershot, 1910’, King Edward’s School Chronicle n.s. 26, no. 183 (November 1910), p. 74).

Summer 1910 Ronald takes a holiday in *Whitby on the northeast coast of England. He makes at least seven drawings of the busy fishing port and the ruined abbey on the cliff above the town, including Whitby, Ruins at West End of Whitby Abbey (Artist and Illustrator, figs. 9–10), and ‘Sketch of Whitby’ (Life and Legend, p. 19). – Either this summer or in 1911 he visits his Aunt Jane Neave in St Andrews, *Scotland, where she is Lady Warden of University Hall. While there he draws a view, St Andrews from Kinkell Brae.

Autumn term 1910 At King Edward’s School Ronald is now a Prefect, Secretary of the Debating Society, Football Secretary, House Football Captain, and a corporal in the Officers Training Corps, each of which posts has various duties. He is also, with Christopher Wiseman and Rob Gilson, a Sub-Librarian. See note. Another future member of the T.C.B.S., *Sidney Barrowclough, is now among the twenty boys in the First Class. Despite these distractions, Ronald is (or is supposed to be) working hard for his second attempt to gain an Oxford scholarship. – During his last year at school Ronald will discover the Finnish *Kalevala in the English translation by W.F. Kirby.

7 October 1910 Ronald makes the opening speech at a meeting of the King Edward’s School Debating Society, in favour of the motion: ‘That this House considers that the Debating Society does more harm than good.’ He accuses the Society of encouraging the growth of punning and draws ‘a harrowing picture of the devastation wrought through this malpractice by members of the Society in Camp at Aldershot’. Among other speakers, Vincent Trought ultimately suggests that a debate precede every meal as an appetizer and offering a ‘sweeping dictum that “this House keeps its members from the ‘Pubs’”’; Rob Gilson explains ‘impatiently that his one and only grievance against the Society was this educational tendency’; R.S. Payton applies ‘his wit for a sentence or so to the Secretary’; and Christopher Wiseman rises ‘distorted and inarticulate with internal merriment’ (‘Debating Society’, King Edward’s School Chronicle n.s. 26, no. 183 (November 1910), pp. 69, 70). The motion fails, 5 votes to 15. See note.

14 October 1910 Rob Gilson reads a paper on John Ruskin at a meeting of the King Edward’s School Literary Society.

15 October 1910 Ronald plays in a 1st XV home match against the Old Edwardians II. King Edward’s School loses, 6 to 10. See note.

21 October 1910 The King Edward’s School Debating Society addresses the motion: ‘This House advocates State Endowment of the Drama.’ Although Ronald is not reported to have made any direct contribution to the debate, C.H. Richards ‘regretted bitterly the weak moment in which he had capitulated to the highwaymanism of the Secretary’ (Ronald) in persuading him to lead the opposition to the motion (‘Debating Society’, King Edward’s School Chronicle n.s. 26, no. 183 (November 1910), p. 70). Rob Gilson, Vincent Trought, and Christopher Wiseman are among the other speakers. The motion fails, 9 votes to 14.

22 October 1910 Ronald plays in a 1st XV away match at Denstone, Staffordshire, against Denstone College. King Edward’s School wins, 17 to 13. The King Edward’s School Chronicle will report that ‘Tolkien played a characteristic dashing game’ (‘Football’, n.s. 26, no. 183 (November 1910), p. 83).

25 October 1910 Ronald plays in a 1st XV home match against Jesus College, Oxford. King Edward’s School loses, 5 to 6.

28 October 1910 King Edward’s School sudent F. Scopes reads a paper on Matthew Arnold as a poet at a meeting of the Literary Society.

29 October 1910 Ronald plays in a 1st XV home match against Oakham School. King Edward’s School wins, 9 to 8.

November 1910 As Debating Society Secretary, Ronald almost certainly writes the report of the meetings of the Society on 7 and 21 October published in the King Edward’s School Chronicle for November 1910. As Football Secretary, he possibly also writes the report of matches published in the same number.

1 November 1910 Ronald plays in a 1st XV away match against The Leys School, Cambridge. King Edward’s School loses, 0 to 6. After the match, Ronald, Christopher Wiseman, and another player receive their first team colours.

4 November 1910 The King Edward’s School Debating Society addresses the motion: ‘This House deplores the occurrence of the Norman Conquest.’ It will be reported in the King Edward’s School Chronicle that



in a speech attempting to return to something of Saxon purity of diction, (‘right English goodliness of speechcraft’?) [Ronald] deplored before ‘the worshipful fellows of the speechguild,’ the influx of polysyllabic barbarities which ousted the more honest if humbler native words. He finally appealed to the House’s sentiment, recalling the deaths of Harold and Hereward, but lapsed regrettably in his enthusiasm into such outlandish horrors as ‘famous’ and ‘barbarous’.

Among other speakers, Rob Gilson ‘denied the equality of Saxon to Norman in anything; Vincent Trought offered ‘the comforting theory that William never really conquered England at all’ but had visited Hastings ‘to get local colour for his new novel’; and W.H. and R.S. Payton and Christopher Wiseman ‘were eloquent upon the negative’ (‘Debating Society’, n.s. 26, no. 184 (December 1910), p. 95). The motion fails, 8 votes to 12.

5 November 1910 Ronald plays in a 1st XV home match against the University of Birmingham. King Edward’s School loses, 6 to 20. It may be during this match that Ronald suffers injury to his tongue or nose, as he does not play for the rest of the term. (In playing rugby ‘I got rather damaged – among things having my tongue nearly cut out’: letter to Michael Tolkien, 3 October 1937, Letters, p. 22.) The King Edward’s School Chronicle will note that several members on the 1st XV are now on the injured list.

11 November 1910 Vincent Trought reads a paper on Romanticism at a meeting of the King Edward’s School Literary Society.

18 November 1910 At a meeting of the King Edward’s School Debating Society Ronald speaks against the motion: ‘A system of arbitration would be in every way preferable to war.’ Vincent Trought, W.H. Payton, and Rob Gilson, among others, speak in the affirmative. The motion fails, 5 votes to 12.

December 1910 As Debating Society Secretary, Ronald almost certainly writes the report of the meeting of the Society on 4 November published in the King Edward’s School Chronicle for December 1910. As Football Secretary, he possibly also writes the report of matches published in the same number. – The King Edward’s School Musical and Dramatic Society presents the Annual Open Concert. During the evening Rob Gilson recites the abdication speech from Shakespeare’s Richard II, and two scenes from Sheridan’s The Rivals are performed.

2 December 1910 At a meeting of the King Edward’s School Debating Society Ronald proposes the motion: ‘We are Degenerating.’ According to a report (presumably by Ronald himself) in the King Edward’s School Chronicle, he ‘based all his argument upon intellectual degradation, and inveighed against the artificiality and unwholesomeness of Our outlook. After appearing to proclaim himself a hedonist, he produced what proved to be the most unfortunately conspicuous part of the debate. This was his “Theory of Bumps.” Men progressed in bumps, bumping low, but never bumping as low as they had bumped before’ (‘Debating Society’, n.s. 26, no. 185 (February 1911), p. 5). This theory is taken up by succeeding speakers, and at the end of the debate ‘the Hon. Opener thereupon adjusted his theory of bumps to one of contusions. He remained defiant in a lost cause. He knew the House had a delightful custom of invariably voting Negative. It did.’ Among others, his friend *Thomas Kenneth (‘Tea-Cake’) Barnsley speaks in the affirmative, and Sidney Barrowclough and Vincent Trought argue in the negative. The motion fails, 10 votes to 16.

Mid-December 1910 Ronald travels to Oxford on his second attempt to win a scholarship.

16 December 1910 At a meeting of the King Edward’s School Debating Society the Old Boys discuss the question of whether ‘the evils of the press have up to now exceeded its benefits.’ The motion fails, 3 votes to 16.

17 December 1910 Ronald learns that he has been awarded an Open Classical Exhibition at Exeter College, worth £60 a year. He immediately informs Edith, who telegraphs her congratulations on the same day. He ought to have won a more valuable scholarship, but as he later wrote: ‘I was clever, but not industrious or single-minded; a large part of my failure was due simply to not working (at least not at classics) not because I was in love, but because I was studying something else: Gothic and what not’ (letter to Michael Tolkien, 6–8 March 1941, Letters, p. 52). But this exhibition, together with a bursary from King Edward’s School and some extra finance from Father Francis, makes it possible for him to attend Oxford. He can now enjoy his last two terms at King Edward’s School with pressure removed and his future secure.

Christmas 1910 Ronald receives an unsigned Christmas card from Edith.


1911 (#ulink_fd4c982d-5a7b-5778-bb33-744d9d374733)

Spring and summer terms 1911 During this period Ronald is one of seventeen pupils in the First Class.

20 January 1911 At a meeting of the King Edward’s School Literary Society the Head Master, Robert Cary Gilson, speaks about ‘out of doors literature’: mountaineering, al fresco in poetry, walking tours, and so forth.

27 January 1911 The King Edward’s School Debating Society addresses the motion: ‘This House considers that holidays are in no way beneficial, and demands their abolition.’ Rob Gilson opens in the affirmative, arguing that holidays are used for ‘sleep, food, [and] flimsy novels’. T.K. Barnsley likens the desire to work our brains without rest to ‘attempting to set the Koh-i-Noor [diamond] in a jelly’. Sidney Barrowclough objects to Barnsley’s ‘foody topics and his foody initials’ (i.e. ‘T.K.’, ‘tea cake’), Vincent Trought views the motion from three standpoints, R.S. Payton argues that ‘term time [is] for play and holidays for work’, and Christopher Wiseman discusses ‘the subject of morning rising’ (‘Debating Society’, King Edward’s School Chronicle, n.s. 26, no. 185 (February 1911), pp. 8, 9). Ronald himself takes Barnsley’s remark as a personal insult, since he is in the habit of wearing a yellow pencil in his mouth (i.e. a pencil with a yellow barrel, a feature of the Koh-i-Noor brand). The motion fails, 6 votes to 13.

February 1911 As Debating Society Secretary, Ronald almost certainly writes the report of the meetings of the Society on 18 November, 2 and 16 December, and 27 January published in the King Edward’s School Chronicle for February 1911. As Football Secretary, he possibly also writes the report of matches published in the same number.

4 February 1911 Ronald plays in a 1st XV away match against the University of Birmingham, at the University Ground. King Edward’s School loses, 0 to 14.

10 February 1911 The King Edward’s School Debating Society addresses the motion: ‘That Slavery is a desirable social condition and that this House deplores its disappearance.’ (No reports of this or subsequent Debating Society meetings in February–March 1911 appear in the King Edward’s School Chronicle.)

14 February 1911 Ronald plays in a 1st XV away match against Birkenhead School. King Edward’s School loses, 6 to 14.

17 February 1911 At a meeting of the King Edward’s School Literary Society Ronald reads a paper on the Norse sagas. According to the King Edward’s School Chronicle, he considers the Völsunga Saga one of the best of them, and though it is inferior to Homer in most respects, in some it excels: ‘There is no scene in Homer like the final tragedy of Sigurd and Brynhild’ (‘Literary Society’, n.s. 26, no. 186 (March 1911), p. 19). The paper concludes with a sketch of the Norse religion and quotations from various sagas.

24 February 1911 The King Edward’s School Debating Society addresses the motion: ‘This House would welcome the establishment of a Central Imperial Parliament.’

March 1911 Ronald writes a poem, *The Battle of the Eastern Field, a humorous account of a football match. It will be published in the King Edward’s School Chronicle for this month. As Football Secretary, he possibly also writes the report of matches published in the same number of the Chronicle.

8–9 March 1911 Through an estate agent, Jane Neave bids for property in Gedling. She is the high bidder for Church Farm (later called Phoenix Farm), but must give the current tenant, farmer Arthur Lamb, one year to leave.

10 March 1911 Ronald takes part in a Latin debate, in the role of ‘T. Portorius Acer Germanicus’. He will write a report in Latin entitled Acta Senatus, to be published in the King Edward’s School Chronicle for March 1911. The editorial for this number will note that pupils ‘are reminded by the ever active Secretary of the Debating Society’, i.e. Ronald Tolkien, about the forthcoming Open Debate (p. 17).

13 March 1911 W.H. Payton reads a paper on Charles Lamb at a meeting of the King Edward’s School Literary Society.

15 March 1911 The King Edward’s School Officers Training Corps participates in a field exercise with cadets from other neighbouring schools and the University of Birmingham. The King Edward’s School cadets go by train to Northfield, south of Birmingham proper, and thence to Ley Hill, where they take part in an attack on another group’s position on Griffin’s Hill. The weather is bitterly cold, indeed the exercise is halted for half an hour by a storm of sleet. Later the cadets march to the University refectory, accompanied by a band, and have tea. The King Edward’s School contingent is so cheered that it insists on marching back to the School instead of taking the train.

17 March 1911 R.W. Reynolds reads a paper, ‘Powder and Jam’, on once-popular literature meant to instruct and amuse, to a meeting of the King Edward’s School Literary Society.

18 March 1911 Ronald takes part in a 1st XV away match at Bromsgrove, against Bromsgrove School. King Edward’s School loses, 3 to 8. This is Ronald’s last game for the school. In the King Edward’s School Chronicle a report will sum up his contribution to the team during 1910–11: ‘A light forward, who possesses pace and dash, and is a good dribble. He has done much good individual work, especially in breaking away from the scrum to assist the three-quarters. His tackling is always reliable, and he follows up hard. Has been a most capable and energetic Secretary. Captain of Measures’’ (n.s. 26, no. 187 (June 1911), p. 49). In addition to the games played against teams from other schools or colleges Ronald has also played in inter-house football matches: these are not reported in the Chronicle but in 1910–11 Measures’ House played six games as well as a play-off when it tied with another house.

31 March 1911 Six short papers are presented by students at a meeting of the King Edward’s School Literary Society. These include one by Christopher Wiseman on the Birmingham printer John Baskerville; a paper by Sidney Barrowclough (in absentia) on Birmingham historian William Hutton; and one by R.S. Payton on the writer Walter White.

4 April 1911 Ronald takes part in the annual Open Debate. The motion is: ‘That the works attributed to William Shakespeare were written by Francis Bacon.’ He speaks in favour, pouring



a sudden flood of unqualified abuse upon Shakespeare, upon his filthy birthplace, his squalid surroundings and his sordid character. He declared that to believe that so great a genius arose in such circumstances commits us to the belief that a fair-haired European infant could have a woolly-haired prognathous Papuan parent. After adducing a mass of further detail in support of the Hon. Opener, he gave a sketch of Bacon’s life and the manner in which it fitted into the production of the plays, and concluded with another string of epithets.

Among other speakers, Rob Gilson is ‘astonished that the firmly established tradition which had satisfied English people for close on 300 years should now be set so lightly aside. Never indeed had any secret been so well kept as that of Bacon’s if his was the authorship’ (‘Debating Society’, King Edward’s School Chronicle n.s. 26, no. 187 (June 1911), pp. 43, 44). T.K. Barnsley speaks in opposition to Ronald; W.H. Payton argues that the author of Shakespeare’s plays was a lawyer; Christopher Wiseman scarcely believes in Shakespeare but does not think it proved that Bacon wrote his plays; and Rob Gilson likewise argues eloquently in the negative. The motion fails, 37 votes to 52. As Debating Society Secretary Ronald thanks R.W. Reynolds, the Vice President, for all that he has done for the Society.

27 April 1911 Christopher Wiseman writes to Ronald (addressing him as ‘Gabriel’, one of his nicknames) after hearing that he has been appointed Librarian at King Edward’s School. Wiseman will be a Sub-Librarian, and intends to ask their friend Vincent Trought to become one too.

Summer term 1911 Much of this term is taken up by examinations spread over six weeks. Between the exams the pupils have much spare time, even allowing for revision. Some of the senior boys – Sidney Barrowclough, Rob Gilson, R.S. Payton, W.H. Payton, Ronald Tolkien, Vincent Trought, and Christopher Wiseman – form an unofficial group called the Tea Club. They make tea for themselves in the King Edward’s School library cubby-hole and (against the rules) bring in food. Later and especially during vacation they meet in the Tea Room at Barrow’s Stores in Corporation Street, Birmingham; they have a favourite secluded table between two settles which they name the Railway Carriage, and now call themselves the Barrovian Society after ‘Barrow’s’. The most important members of the ‘T.C.B.S.’ (Tea Club, Barrovian Society), as the group becomes, will be Ronald, Rob Gilson, Christopher Wiseman, and eventually G.B. Smith, who will remain closely associated when other members drift away. – As a member of the Officers Training Corps Ronald takes part in drills and in the House competition for the Drill Cup.

June 1911 Ronald edits the June number of the King Edward’s School Chronicle and writes the editorial. As Debating Society Secretary, he almost certainly writes the report of the meeting of the Society on 4 April that appears in the same number. In an account of the members of the Debating Society Ronald is described as ‘an energetic Secretary who does not consider that his duties excuse him from speaking. Has displayed great zeal in arranging meetings throughout the session and considerable ingenuity in advertising them. He is an eccentric humorist who has made many excellent speeches, at times rather burdened with anacolutha. Made one valiant effort to revive Beowulfic oratory’ (‘Debating Society’, n.s. 26, no. 187 (June 1911), p. 45).

June or July 1911 Ronald writes a poem about King Richard I and the Crusaders, A Fragment of an Epic: Before Jerusalem Richard Makes an End of Speech. See note.

15 June 1911 The annual inspection of the King Edward’s School Officers Training Corps takes place. The cadets exhibit their drilling abilities to Major W.L. Loring. Measures’ House, of which Ronald is a member, comes third out of four in the competition for the House Drill Shield.

21 June 1911 Ronald travels to London as one of eight cadets from the King Edward’s School Officers Training Corps chosen to line the route for the coronation of George V. At about 11.00 a.m. they arrive at Lambeth Park, adjoining Lambeth Palace, where they join other cadets in a camp. The cadets are then free until the evening when all the assembled corps are drilled by the company commander, Major F.M. Ingram of Bradfield College. Ronald will later recall that the year 1911 was ‘the annus mirabilis of sunshine in which there was virtually no rain between April and the end of October, except on the eve and morning of George V’s coronation’ (letter to Michael Tolkien, c. 25 August 1967, Letters, p. 391). See note.

22 June 1911 Reveille is sounded at 4.45 a.m. At about 6.00 a.m. the cadets march along the Albert Embankment by way of Vauxhall Bridge to Constitution Hill adjoining Buckingham Palace. They arrive at about 7.00. The various processions do not leave the Palace until 9.30; in the interim the cadets are able to watch various troops moving into position and to see Lord Roberts and Lord Kitchener pass by. The King’s procession sets out at 10.30, but the cadets catch only a glimpse as it travels down the Mall and does not pass in front of them. They then have another long wait until, soon after 2.00 p.m., the procession returns from Westminster Abbey along Constitution Hill immediately in front of the cadets and provides them with ‘a spectacle never to be forgotten’ (‘The Coronation’, King Edward’s School Chronicle n.s. 26, no. 188 (July 1911), p. 60). They are too far away to witness the Royal Family’s appearance on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, and are then marched back to camp.

23 June 1911 The cadets help line the streets for a Royal Progress and are in position near Buckingham Palace soon after 8.00 a.m. At 11.00 a.m. the Royal Family leave the Palace. According to the reporter for the King Edward’s School Chronicle – possibly Ronald Tolkien himself – the procession ‘was even more gorgeous than that of the previous day’. The cadets do not wait for the return of the procession but march back to camp for dinner and then return to Birmingham, arriving at about 10.30 p.m. ‘with the feeling that we had had the experience of our lives’ (‘The Coronation’, July 1911, p. 60).

29 June and 1 July 1911 Ronald attends the King Edward’s School Athletic Sports at the School Grounds. He comes third in the One Mile Open race.

July 1911 Ronald edits the July number of the King Edward’s School Chronicle and writes at least the editorial. – King Edward’s School awards Ronald the Milward Exhibition, worth £50.

July 1911–April 1912 At some time during this period Ronald will present two books to the King Edward’s School library: The Lost Explorers: A Tale of the Trackless Desert by Alexander Macdonald (1906), a novel about the Australian Outback, and Scouting for Buller by Herbert Hayens (1902), a novel about the Boer War. See note.

2 July 1911 Seventy-six cadets from King Edward’s School travel by special train to Windsor Great Park to participate in a review of the Officers Training Corps by King George V.

3 July 1911 547 officers, 17,440 non-commissioned officers and men, 470 horses, and 14 guns take part in a display of ‘manly patriotism’ (The Times, 3 July 1911, p. 7). A longer report in the Times of 4 July waxes eloquent about the event ‘among the ancient oak trees’ of Windsor Great Park ‘in glorious summer foliage’. The massed Corps ‘practically represented the entire intellectual reinforcement that the Military Services controlling the Empire will receive five or six years hence. It was no mummer’s rabble that defiled before the King, it was no semi-organized collection of train bands; it was a force of young soldiers, led by seasoned soldiers, trained by seasoned soldiers, quitting themselves like men, like citizens of a great Empire’ (p. 9).

8 July 1911 Jane Neave and Ellen Brookes-Smith (*Brookes-Smith family) become joint owners of Church Farm (to be renamed Phoenix Farm), Manor Farm, and adjoining parcels of land in Gedling.

26 July 1911 Summer term and Ronald’s time at King Edward’s School end with Speech Day and prize-giving, followed by musical and dramatic performances. Ronald is one of six recipients in the Classical First Class of the Head Master’s Leaving Prizes. The final item on the programme is a performance in Greek of Aristophanes’ play The Peace in which Ronald takes the part of Hermes, W.H. Payton is Trygaeus, Christopher Wiseman is Sicklemaker, Rob Gilson is Crestmaker, R.S. Payton is the Trumpet Seller, and T.K. Barnsley is in the Chorus. (Aristophanes’ Peace is summarized in a printed programme: ‘Trygaeus an Athenian farmer weary of the long war decides to drag up Peace to the light from the pit in which she is buried. With the aid of a number of his friends and the god Hermes he achieves this object in spite of the opposition of sundry interested persons….’) The evening closes with the national anthem sung in Greek. Ronald will later recall that ‘the school-porter was sent by waiting relatives to find me. He reported that my appearance might be delayed. “Just now,” he said, “he’s the life and soul of the party.” Tactful. In fact, having just taken part in a Greek play, I was clad in a himation and sandals, and was giving what I thought a fair imitation of a frenzied Bacchic dance’ (quoted in Biography, p. 49). See note.

August 1911 The Oxford and Cambridge Schools Examination Board issue a report on King Edward’s School, Birmingham. In this – prepared evidently in the Board’s role as examiner of schools or school programmes rather than of individual students – Tolkien and some of his friends are singled out for mention for their work in Class 1 on Roman history:



The best work was undoubtedly done by [Robert Q.] Gilson in both papers…. [F.T.] Faulconbridge and [Sidney] Barrowclough were also very fair, and shewed considerable promise. Tolkien gave signs of a more acute and independent judgement than anyone else; his style also was more matured, but he seemed to have no control over it and sometimes became almost unintelligible; he was also very irrelevant, particularly on the Special Period, in which he only attempted four questions.

(Quoted in Giampaolo Canzonieri, ‘Tolkien at King Edward’s School’, Tolkien and Philosophy, ed. Roberto Arduini and Claudio A. Testi (2014), p. 149.)

August–early September 1911 Ronald joins a walking tour in the Swiss Alps organized by the Brookes-Smith family, along with his Aunt Jane Neave and his brother Hilary. See note. Both he and Colin Brookes-Smith, at that time a young boy, will later recount parts of the holiday, from which the following seems a reasonable reconstruction of events. The party apparently numbers twelve at the start. The Brookes-Smiths and their guests travel from England to Innsbruck, Austria by train and boat, and from there make their way to *Switzerland. They proceed mainly on foot, by mountain paths avoiding roads, carrying heavy packs, sometimes sleeping rough in barns, sometimes staying in inns or small hotels, often cooking and eating in the open. Their route takes them from Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen, Mürren, and the Lauterbrunnental, over the two Scheidegge to Grindelwald past the Eiger and the Mönch, and on to Meiringen, where they have a fine view of the Jungfrau. They then cross the Grimsel Pass to reach the Rhône and Brig.

From there (according to Tolkien, though he does not name the village) they make their way upwards again and stay at a châlet inn in Belalp at the foot of the Aletsch glacier. Ronald will later recall several incidents while in Belalp, including the fun he and others had by temporarily damming a rill that ran down the hillside towards the inn. The party venture onto the glacier a few days later, where some of the members, including Ronald, pose for a photograph (The Tolkien Family Album, p. 31) and Ronald comes ‘near to perishing’ in an avalanche: ‘the member of the party just in front of me (an elderly schoolmistress) gave a sudden squeak and jumped forward as a large lump of rock shot between us. About a foot at most before my unmanly knees’ (letter to Michael Tolkien, after 25 August 1967, Letters, p. 393; Colin Brookes-Smith, however, will recall that an avalanche occurred when the party was returning to Arolla – see below – from a day trip to a high-altitude hut).

From Brig (according to Colin Brookes-Smith) the party travels to Visp and Stalden, over a high pass from St-Niklaus to Gruben, over the Forcletta Pass to Grimentz, and on to Haudères, Arolla, and eventually Sion. Ronald will recall ‘our arrival, bedraggled, one evening in Zermatt and the lorgnette stares of the French bourgeoises dames. We climbed with guides up to [a] high hut of the Alpine Club, roped (or I should have fallen into a snow-crevasse), and I remember the dazzling whiteness of the tumbled snow-desert between us and the black horn of the Matterhorn some miles away’ (Letters, p. 393).

For Ronald this holiday will be a seminal experience. In later years he will often remark (like Bilbo in *The Lord of the Rings) that he would like to see mountains again, or say that some of his experiences on his trip to Switzerland were incorporated into his writings, for instance the ‘thunder-battle’ in *The Hobbit, Chapter 4. He will also note that the Silverhorn in the Alps is ‘the Silvertine (Celebdil) of my dreams’ (Letters, p. 392). The scenery around the Lauterbrunnental and Mürren almost certainly will influence how he visualizes and draws Rivendell and Dunharrow in Middle-earth, while the Alps will appear as the Misty Mountains in pictures such as Bilbo Woke up with the Early Sun in His Eyes for The Hobbit (Artist and Illustrator, fig. 113; Art of The Hobbit, fig. 39).

17 August 1911 Christopher Wiseman writes to thank Ronald for postcards he sent from Switzerland.

September 1911 Ronald writes a poem, The New Lemminkäinen, in the style of the Kalevala, based on Kirby’s translation.

4 October 1911 Rob Gilson as Librarian of King Edward’s School writes to Ronald, pointing out that the latter has not returned two books, including the first volume of the Kalevala, to the School library, nor has he handed over the keys to the tea closet or the fine box. He thinks it a pity that Ronald, who is to play Mrs Malaprop in a performance of The Rivals by Richard Brinsley Sheridan at King Edward’s School in December, will not return to Birmingham until 7 October, the day after T.K. Barnsley (who is to play Bob Acres) leaves, so they will not be able to rehearse together. Gilson asks Ronald to read his part with him on the evening of 9 October.

End of the second week in October 1911 Ronald and L.K. Sands, another former pupil of King Edward’s School, are driven by R.W. Reynolds to Oxford in a car, then a novelty. Ronald will later recall that the weather was still hot, and everyone seemed to be dressed in flannels and punting on the river. He takes lunch at the Mitre Hotel (*Oxford and environs), and considers it a privilege to do so. Now he takes up residence in Exeter College; his rooms, no. 7 on the no. 8 staircase three flights up in a building known as the ‘Swiss Cottage’, comprise a bedroom and sitting room overlooking Turl Street. He will settle in quickly and make friends. He is one of 99 Roman Catholic students at Oxford, and one of 37 Catholics among 921 freshmen. (According to an article in the London Standard (‘Freshmen at Oxford’, 21 October 1911, p. 5), the last number is close to the Oxford average, about 200 fewer than those matriculating at Cambridge, and with fewer foreign students than usual). A new Roman Catholic chaplain, Father Lang of Brighton, has replaced the ailing Monsignor Kennard. Two second-year Catholic students, probably *Anthony Shakespeare and *B.J. Tolhurst, will take Tolkien in hand. See note.

15 October 1911 Michaelmas Full Term begins at Oxford University.

17 October 1911 Tolkien matriculates at Oxford.

Michaelmas Term 1911 Tolkien begins to read Literae Humaniores or Classics, mainly Greek and Latin authors but also Philosophy and Classical History. During his first five terms at Oxford he will attend lectures and classes to prepare himself for his first examination, Honour Moderations (popularly ‘Hon. Mods’), which he will take in February 1913. During this term he almost certainly attends lectures by *L.R. Farnell on Agamemnon by Aeschylus in translation, a set text, on Wednesdays and Fridays at 10.00 a.m. at Exeter College, beginning 18 October. For lectures on the other books set for Honour Moderations – Demosthenes, Homer, Plato, Sophocles, Euripides, Cicero, Tacitus, Virgil – he has a wide choice. Having chosen Comparative Philology as his Special Subject, he attends lectures by Joseph Wright on Gothic Grammar with Translation of the Gospel of St Mark, at 12.15 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the Taylor Institution, beginning 19 October. But he also takes advantage of other aspects of Oxford life: clubs and societies, and entertainments, sometimes to the detriment of his studies. See note.

Second half of October 1911 Tolkien writes a poem, From Iffley (*From the Many-Willow’d Margin of the Immemorial Thames), describing Oxford as seen from the river at a village south-east of the city.

31 October 1911 Tolkien attends the Annual Freshman’s Wine at Exeter College. This begins at 8.45 p.m. with an entertainment, mainly of songs, and continues at 10.00 p.m. with a dance in the hall. Tolkien collects many signatures on his souvenir programme.

6 November 1911 Tolkien writes a poem, Darkness on the Road.

7 November 1911 Tolkien writes a poem, Sunset in a Town.

10 November 1911 Tolkien is granted a certificate by the University Registry, Oxford, exempting him from the preliminary examination (Responsions). He had already passed the relevant subjects in the Oxford and Cambridge Higher Certificate in July 1910. See note.

21 November 1911 Tolkien attends a Smoking Concert at Exeter College. The programme includes an orchestra playing selections by Sullivan, Tchaikovsky, Monckton, and Lehár, banjo solos, songs, and humorous recitations.

24 November 1911 Tolkien attends a Smoking Concert at Exeter College at 8.00 p.m. The programme includes the orchestra playing Sullivan, Offenbach, Bizet, Gounod, Suppé, and Hérold, songs, and a piano solo.

25 November 1911 Tolkien first borrows A Finnish Grammar by C.N.E. Eliot (1890) from the Exeter College library. Having already read the Kalevala in translation, he wants to know something of the language in which it was written. He will later recall that



it was like discovering a complete wine-cellar filled with bottles of an amazing wine of a kind and flavour never tasted before. It quite intoxicated me; and I gave up the attempt to invent an ‘unrecorded’ Germanic language, and my ‘own language’ [the Elvish language Qenya, later Quenya, which he begins to devise, see *Languages, Invented] – or series of invented languages – became heavily Finnicized in phonetic pattern and structure…. I never learned Finnish well enough to do more than plod through a bit of the original. [letter to W.H. Auden, 7 June 1955, Letters, p. 214].

He also now has access to books which help him to study the Welsh language, which has fascinated him since childhood. These interests will take up much time which Tolkien should be devoting to his classical studies, and they will be at least partly responsible for his unsatisfactory performance when he takes Honour Moderations at Oxford in February 1913. In late 1914 or early 1915 he will write in a paper on the Kalevala (*On ‘The Kalevala’ or Land of Heroes): ‘When [Honour Moderations] should have been occupying all my forces I once made a wild assault on the stronghold of the original language and was repulsed with heavy losses’ (Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford). – Tolkien also borrows volume 5 of the History of Greece by George Grote (1846–56) and the English Dialect Grammar by Joseph Wright (1905).

28 November 1911 Tolkien joins the King Edward’s Horse (*Societies and clubs), a territorial cavalry regiment, similar to the Officers Training Corps. Its membership limited to colonials, Tolkien qualifies because he was born in the Orange Free State. If he has not learned to ride before, he does so now.

December 1911 Tolkien continues to play rugby football. The Stapeldon Magazine of Exeter College for December 1911 will note (p. 110) that ‘the Freshmen produced some very sound forward material…. Tolkien is a winger pure and simple and might have had some consideration had he been but one in eight.’

?Last part of Michaelmas Term 1911 Tolkien and other students, mainly freshmen, form a new society, the Apolausticks (*Societies and clubs). He is its first President. The eleven members draw up a programme of meetings for Hilary Term 1912: these will be mainly discussions of various literary figures. Later programmes will include elaborate dinners and debates.

9 December 1911 Michaelmas Full Term ends.

Early to mid-December 1911 Tolkien returns to Birmingham. Early in the vacation he spends much of his time rehearsing for the performance of Sheridan’s The Rivals to be given on 21 December by members of the King Edward’s School Musical and Dramatic Society, augmented by himself and T.K. Barnsley. Other T.C.B.S. members are also prominent in the cast and organization: Christopher Wiseman as Sir Anthony Absolute, Rob Gilson as Captain Absolute, and G.B. Smith as Faulkland. (By now, Smith has become an accepted member of the T.C.B.S.) After the dress rehearsal, the cast march in full costume up Corporation Street to have tea in Barrow’s Stores.

14 December 1911 Tolkien attends the Oxford and Cambridge Old Edwardians Society Annual Dinner at the Midland Hotel, Birmingham, eight courses plus coffee.

15 December 1911 Tolkien takes part in the Old Boys’ Debate at King Edward’s School on the motion: ‘That this house approves the principle of gratuitous public service.’ Speaking in favour, he ‘declared that he felt so deeply on the subject that he had written a brochure upon it. The House requested him to read it, but it had unfortunately been left at home. Of the few magnificent quotations which were given from memory, none have survived. The Hon. gentleman then attacked the practicability of the scheme for payment of members, and applied it by analogy to school officers. The result would be financial and moral ruin’ (‘Debating Society’, King Edward’s School Chronicle n.s. 27, no. 191 (March 1912), p. 14). Among other speakers, Rob Gilson also argues in the affirmative, and T.K. Barnsley and Christopher Wiseman in the negative. The motion fails, 12 votes to 14.

16–19 December 1911 Tolkien stays with the Gilson family at their home, ‘Canterbury House’, at Marston Green near Birmingham. See note.

21 December 1911 Sheridan’s The Rivals is performed under the auspices of the King Edward’s School Musical and Dramatic Society at 7.30 p.m. in Big School. According to the King Edward’s School Chronicle,



the performance was a thorough success both artistically and financially…. J.R.R. Tolkien’s Mrs Malaprop was a real creation, excellent in every way and not least so in make-up. Rob Gilson as Captain Absolute made a most attractive hero, bearing the burden of what is a very heavy part with admirable spirit and skill; and as the choleric old Sir Anthony, C.L. Wiseman was extremely effective. Among the minor characters, G.B. Smith’s rendering of the difficult and thankless part of Faulkland was worthy of high praise. [‘The Musical and Dramatic Society’, n.s. 27, no. 191 (March 1912), p. 10]

Christmas 1911 Tolkien probably spends part of the vacation with his Incledon relatives at Barnt Green. They have the custom of performing theatrical entertainments during the holiday, including the farce Cherry Farm. probably written by Tolkien.

1911–1912 Drawings by Tolkien from this period reveal an interest in abstract ideas. Silent, Enormous, and Immense is dated December 1911. Firelight Magic, Sleep, and a ‘male caricature’ are dated to 1911–1912. Thought (Artist and Illustrator, fig. 33; and probably also Convention on its verso) and A Wish are dated to 1912. Other drawings which probably date from this time are Before (Artist and Illustrator, fig. 30), Ark!!!, and Afterwards (Artist and Illustrator, fig. 31).


1912 (#ulink_1cdca984-7b37-51ce-a9de-0848723b04ce)

1912 Tolkien possibly visits St Andrews again this year. He writes a short poem, The Grimness of the Sea (*The Horns of Ylmir), on the earliest extant manuscript of which he will later note: ‘original nucleus of ‘The Sea-song of an Elder Day’ (1912) (St Andrews)’. He will date another manuscript of this work to ‘1912 (sometime)’. See note. – Jane Neave retires from St Andrews and takes up residence and work at Phoenix Farm, Gedling.

21 January 1912 Hilary Full Term begins at Oxford.

Hilary Term 1912 Tolkien again has a choice of lectures on the various Greek and Latin authors set for Honour Moderations, and will attend Joseph Wright’s lectures on Comparative Greek Grammar on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12.15 p.m. in the Taylor Institution, beginning 24 January. During his time as an undergraduate he will have tutorials which Wright gives in his house in the Banbury Road; he will later recall ‘the vastness of Joe Wright’s dining room table (when I sat alone at one end learning the elements of Greek philology from glinting glasses in the further gloom)’ (*Valedictory Address to the University of Oxford, in *The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays, p. 238). Tolkien will be invited on some Sunday afternoons to huge Yorkshire teas given by Wright and his wife Elizabeth. Wright is both a demanding and an inspiring teacher, and when he learns that Tolkien is interested in the Welsh language he encourages him to pursue it. – Christopher Wiseman informs Tolkien by letter that Vincent Trought died suddenly early on 20 January while convalescing in Cornwall. Although King Edward’s School will probably send a wreath, Wiseman wants to send one from the T.C.B.S. and asks if Tolkien would like to subscribe.

22 January 1912 It seems likely that when Tolkien receives Wiseman’s letter of 21 January he telegraphs in reply, asking for details of Trought’s funeral as he wishes to attend, and saying that he wishes to subscribe to the wreath. Wiseman replies this day by letter (which does not leave until the 5.45 a.m. collection on 23 January) that the funeral is to be at Gorran, near Falmouth in Cornwall, on 23 January, but he does not know the time. Even if Wiseman had telegraphed, Tolkien would not have had time to reach Cornwall, a train journey of some eight hours from Oxford. – The Apolausticks meet at 4.30 p.m. in *C.A.H. Fairbank’s rooms.

25 January 1912 Wiseman writes to thank Tolkien for sending a postal order for Trought’s wreath.

27 January 1912 The Apolausticks meet at 8.00 p.m. in *M.W.M. Windle’s rooms to discuss Lewis Carroll.

3 February 1912 The Apolausticks meet at 4.30 p.m. in *R.H. Gordon’s rooms.

10 February 1912 The Apolausticks meet at 8.00 p.m. in *H.G.L. Trimingham’s rooms to discuss the nineteenth-century poets C. Stuart Calverley and J.K. Stephen.

17 February 1912 The Apolausticks meet at 4.30 p.m. in *Colin Cullis’s rooms.

20 February 1912 Tolkien attends the London Old Edwardians’ Seventh Annual Dinner at the Holborn Restaurant, ten courses plus coffee. Tolkien is one of the two named to respond to the toast ‘The Old Edwardian Association’. At this or an unrecorded meeting of the Old Edwardians in 1912 he meets some members who remembered his father.

24 February 1912 The Apolausticks meet at 8.00 p.m. in *O.O. Staples’ rooms to discuss G.K. Chesterton and George Bernard Shaw.

2 March 1912 The Apolausticks meet at 4.30 p.m. in W.W.T. Palmer’s (*Werner William Thomas Massiah-Palmer) rooms. See note.

4 March 1912 At a meeting of the Stapeldon Society (*Societies and clubs) Tolkien speaks in favour of the motion: ‘This House deplores the signs of degeneracy in the present age.’ The motion fails, 4 votes to 8. The Stapeldon Society is technically the Exeter College debating organization, but also deals with general interests of the students.

9 March 1912 The Apolausticks meet at 8.00 p.m. in Tolkien’s rooms to discuss Maurice Maeterlinck.

16 March 1912 Hilary Full Term ends.

19 March 1912 Christopher Wiseman writes to Tolkien, agreeing to a T.C.B.S. meeting at Barrow’s Stores. He suggests a date of 22 March, and that Tolkien might play for the Old Edwardians against King Edward’s School on 23 March. (In the event, Tolkien does not play, but possibly attends the match.)

2 April 1912 Tolkien returns to King Edward’s School to take part in the annual Open Debate. He speaks against the motion: ‘That it is better to be eccentric than orthodox.’ According to the King Edward’s School Chronicle, he ‘began by denying the true opposition between the orthodox and the eccentric, and maintained the possibility of a man’s being both at the same time. He made, however, a number of interesting points: in particular, the parallel to the rules which govern Society which he drew from a game of cricket, where eccentricity would be obviously intolerable’ (‘Debating Society’, n.s. 27, no. 193 (June 1912), p. 38). The motion fails, 23 votes to 22.

28 April 1912 Trinity Full Term begins at Oxford.

Trinity Term 1912 Tolkien attends Joseph Wright’s continuing lectures on Comparative Greek Grammar on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12.15 p.m. in the Taylor Institution, beginning 2 May. He attends lectures on the authors set for Honour Moderations, probably including those given by L.R. Farnell at Exeter College: the Private Orations of Demosthenes, on Wednesdays and Fridays at 10.00 a.m., beginning 1 May; and Annals I and II of Tacitus (set texts), on Wednesdays and Fridays at 12.00 noon, beginning 1 May. He also attends classes and tutorials with the newly appointed Classics tutor at Exeter College, E.A. Barber. – Tolkien continues to devote much of his time to social occasions, and to his interest in Finnish, Welsh, and Germanic languages. College records show that he was considered lazy, and that during the summer term he was warned that he might lose his exhibition, a warning that led him to improve. At the same time, he becomes less regular in performing his religious duties.

30 April 1912 The Apolausticks meet at 8.00 p.m. in Colin Cullis’s rooms. Cullis has succeeded Tolkien as President of the society for Trinity Term.

May 1912 Tolkien poses with other members of the Apolausticks for a group photograph. See note.

11 May 1912 The Apolausticks meet at 8.00 p.m. in *G.S. Field’s rooms. Tolkien gives a paper (subject not recorded).

28 May 1912 Tolkien attends the Summer Concert of the Exeter College Music Society. The programme includes songs as well as The Death of Minnehaha by Samuel Coleridge Taylor, performed by the Choir and Orchestra and guests Frederick Ranalow and Bessie Tyas. Among the accompanists is Adrian Boult, President of the Oxford Musical Club, later a renowned conductor.

June 1912 Exeter College transfers its financial support of Tolkien for one year to the Loscombe Richards Exhibition, intended for poor scholars.

1 June 1912 The Apolausticks meet at 7.30 p.m. for an elaborate dinner at the Randolph Hotel in Oxford. Tolkien proposes the toast ‘The Club’. He and nine other members sign his menu card.

15 June 1912 The Apolausticks meet in M.W.M. Windle’s rooms. Tolkien proposes the motion, ‘That a belief in ghosts is essential to the welfare of a people’, with *L.L.H. Thompson in opposition. The motion carries by one vote. See note.

22 June 1912 Trinity Full Term ends.

28 June–1 July 1912 Tolkien stays with the Gilson family at Marston Green.

27 July–?10 August 1912 Tolkien camps with the King Edward’s Horse on Dibgate Plateau near *Folkestone. His regiment is inspected by Lieutenant General Sir James Grierson (in charge of the Eastern Command), Major-General Allenby (Inspector of Cavalry), and Brigadier-General Bingham. The historian Lieutenant-Colonel Lionel James will report that



it was an altogether boisterous fortnight. The south-westerly gales were so severe, and the camping area so exposed, that on two nights the tents and marquees were nearly all levelled. The work done, however, was of quite a high standard for an irregular unit. For one night the Regiment practised billetting during field operations. The outpost scheme that necessitated the billetting was a foretaste of the actual service conditions which were soon to become the daily life of so many who were training that summer. There was not an officer or man out that night who was not drenched to the skin. [The History of King Edward’s Horse (1921), p. 52]

Summer vacation 1912 Tolkien goes walking in *Berkshire, sketching the villages and the scenery. He begins a new sketch book, perhaps buying it while on tour. He is near Lambourn on 21 and 23 August, in Eastbury 27–28 August, and once more in Lambourn 30–31 August. He paints three watercolours of the Lambourn countryside, makes three ink drawings at Eastbury, mainly of picturesque thatched cottages, and devotes two pages to ink drawings of details of the church at Lambourn (see Artist and Illustrator, figs. 11–13).

13 October 1912 Michaelmas Full Term begins.

Michaelmas Term 1912 Tolkien probably attends Joseph Wright’s lectures on Comparative Latin Grammar on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12.15 p.m. in the Taylor Institution, beginning 17 October. He also probably attends lectures by L.R. Farnell on the Odyssey (Homer is a set author) on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 12.00 noon at Exeter College, beginning 14 October. If he did not attend Farnell’s lectures on Agamemnon by Aeschylus (in translation) in Michaelmas Term 1911, he probably does so this term, on Wednesdays and Fridays at 10.00 a.m. at Exeter College, beginning 16 October. He possibly attends Gilbert Murray’s lectures on Aeschylus’ Agamemnon and Euripides’ Electra on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12.00 noon in the Examinations School, beginning 15 October. – ‘Oxoniensis’, the writer of ‘Oxford Letter’ in the King Edward’s School Chronicle for December 1912, remarks that ‘Tolkien, if we are to be guided by the countless notices on his mantelpiece, has joined all the Exeter Societies which are in existence, and has also done well to get an occasional place in an exceptionally strong College “pack”’ (n.s. 28, no. 196, p. 85). – By now Tolkien has moved within ‘Swiss Cottage’ to no. 9 on the no. 7 staircase. These rooms were previously occupied by Anthony Shakespeare, who himself had attended the Birmingham Oratory School and was now, a year in advance of Tolkien, studying law at Oxford. See note.

18 October 1912 The Apolausticks meet at 8.00 p.m. in R.H. Gordon’s rooms. Gordon is President of the society for this term.

25 October 1912 The Apolausticks meet at 8.00 p.m. in *Allen Barnett’s rooms. The refreshments include ‘Swedish punch’ (presumably punsch, a liqueur).

30 October 1912 The Apolausticks meet at 4.30 p.m. in L.L.H. Thompson’s rooms.

31 October 1912 Christopher Wiseman sends Tolkien news of himself and Rob Gilson, both of whom are now at Cambridge University.

3 November 1912 Tolkien is elected to the Exeter College Essay Club (*Societies and clubs).

6 November 1912 The Apolausticks meet at 8.00 p.m. in Tolkien’s rooms for a debate, according to the date printed on the society’s schedule for this term. It is possible, however, that the date or the time was changed, as in the evening of 6 November Tolkien certainly attends the Exeter College Freshman’s Wine, which includes songs, a piano solo, and a humorous recitation. While there he collects signatures from the performers on his printed programme.

11 November 1912 At a meeting of the Stapeldon Society Tolkien tells a funny story about the Sub-Rector and a Mr Pickop.

13 November 1912 The Apolausticks meet at 4.30 p.m. in W.W.T. Massiah-Palmer’s rooms. See note for 2 March 1912.

18 November 1912 At a meeting of the Stapeldon Society Tolkien is elected to serve on a committee to investigate College charges.

19 November 1912 Tolkien attends the College Smoking Concert and collects signatures of friends on his printed programme. The first half of the concert consists of music by Suppé, Sullivan, et al. played by an orchestra and songs performed by some of the students. The second half consists of dance music.

20 November 1912 The Apolausticks meet at 4.30 p.m. in H.G.L. Trimingham’s rooms.

25 November 1912 The Stapeldon Society meets.

27 November 1912 The Apolausticks meet at 8.00 p.m. in *W.E. Hall’s rooms.

2 December 1912 The Stapeldon Society meets.

4 December 1912 The Apolausticks meet at 8.00 p.m. in R.H. Gordon’s rooms.

7 December 1912 Michaelmas Full Term ends.

December 1912 Tolkien makes the drawings Other People (with Undertenishness on the verso, Artist and Illustrator, fig. 34) and Back of Beyond (with End of the World on the verso, Artist and Illustrator, fig. 36). The drawing Wickedness probably also dates from around this time (Artist and Illustrator, fig. 32).

Christmas 1912 Tolkien spends at least part of his vacation with his Incledon relatives at Barnt Green. He has written a play for them, The Bloodhound, the Chef, and the Suffragette. In its performance he plays the leading part of ‘Professor Joseph Quilter, M.A., B.A., A.B.C., alias world-wide detective Sexton Q. Blake-Holmes, the Bloodhound’ (Biography, p. 59). The play concerns a lost heiress who has fallen in love with a penniless student living in the same lodging house, and whom she would be free to marry on her twenty-first birthday in two days’ time if her father does not discover her first. The play is obviously much influenced by Tolkien’s own circumstances with his twenty-first birthday approaching, when he will be free of his promise to Father Francis Morgan not to contact Edith Bratt.


1913 (#ulink_fe3fc814-72ca-54db-a523-c9e873114947)

1913 Probably during this year, Tolkien makes the drawing Xanadu (Artist and Illustrator, fig. 37).

3 January 1913 At midnight, as Tolkien reaches the age of twenty-one, he begins a letter to Edith Bratt, telling her that his feelings for her have not changed and that he wants to marry her. A few days later he receives a reply from Edith that she is engaged to George Field, the brother of one of her school-friends, Molly Field; but the letter also makes it clear that she had done this because she had not expected that Ronald would still care for her, and George was kind and someone she felt she could accept as a husband. Tolkien writes again, and they arrange to meet.

8 January 1913 Tolkien visits Cheltenham to see Edith; while there he stays at the Moorend Park lodging house in Charlton Kings. Edith meets him at the station. They walk into the country to be alone and undisturbed while discussing their situation; there they sit under a railway viaduct. Edith agrees to break her engagement to George and to marry Ronald, but they decide to keep their engagement secret for a while. The only exception is Father Francis, whom Tolkien feels it is his duty to inform. See note.

First part of 1913 When Father Francis learns of Tolkien’s engagement, he is not enthusiastic, but accepts the inevitable. Tolkien promises Edith that he will work hard to gain a good degree to ensure their future together. But if their marriage is to be blessed by the Catholic Church, Edith must convert to Roman Catholicism. Although she has become an active member of the Church of England while living in Cheltenham with her family friends the Jessops, she is willing to convert, but prefers to delay this step until closer to their marriage, or at least until they are officially engaged. Tolkien insists that she not delay, however, and as a consequence, as expected, the Jessops order her to leave their house. Edith finds lodgings in *Warwick, not far from Oxford, and moves there with her cousin Jennie Grove. She begins to take instruction from a Roman Catholic parish priest, Father William J. Murphy.

January 1913 Tolkien begins to keep a diary in which, under the heading ‘JRRT and EMB in account together, AMDG [ad maiorem Dei gloriam]’, he notes the number of hours he works (quoted in Life and Legend, p. 27). He also records, in red ink, his now more assiduous performance of religious duties.

12 January 1913 Hilary Full Term begins.

Hilary Term 1913 Tolkien works hard, but he has to take Honour Moderations at the end of February, and now has only a few weeks to make up for the four terms in which he has not devoted enough time to his studies. From 14 January he will attend Joseph Wright’s continuing lectures on Comparative Latin Grammar on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12.15 p.m. in the Taylor Institution, and perhaps also E.A. Barber’s lectures on Virgil (questions and translations) on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays at 10.00 a.m. at Exeter College, or those by Gilbert Murray on Euripides’ Bacchae (a set text) on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools. – Presumably in preparation for Honour Moderations only six weeks later (see entry for 27 February), Tolkien borrows from the Exeter College library Œdipus Tyrannus and Elektra by Sophocles and the Eumenides, Agamemnon, and Choephoroe by Aeschylus. – Tolkien continues to play an active role in the Stapeldon Society; his participation in other societies or clubs during this term is not clear. Three meetings of the Exeter College Essay Club are held in Hilary Term, at which papers are presented on (at least) the poetry of Oscar Wilde, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti as a poet and artist. See note.

20 January 1913 At a meeting of the Stapeldon Society Tolkien is elected to the Kitchen Committee together with Mr Price. The minutes record that Mr Price said that he considered quantity of food more important than quality, but Mr Tolkien ‘expressed his capacity for discrimination and guaranteed the suppression of Mr Price’s tendencies’ (Exeter College archives). During a debate at the same meeting Tolkien speaks against the motion: ‘The Pipe is better than the Cigarette.’ The motion fails, 5 votes to 8. In fact, Tolkien usually smokes a pipe, only occasionally cigarettes.

27 January 1913 At a meeting of the Stapeldon Society the College charges committee, of which Tolkien is a member, presents its report. This is amended and carried for first reading.

1 February 1913 Tolkien sends Edith a picture postcard of the dining hall at Exeter College, with an ‘X’ marking where he sits. See note. He tells her that he has been to Holy Communion that morning and will go again the next day (Sunday), and that he is about to go to a meeting of the Old Edwardians.

3 February 1913 The Stapeldon Society meets.

10 February 1913 The Stapeldon Society meets.

17 February 1913 The Stapeldon Society meets. The minutes record that ‘Mr Gordon was censured for appearing on the towpath in a large overcoat and carrying a stick or cane borrowed from Hookham and tripping Mr Hoffman up and almost causing him to fall into The River. After the House had unanimously agreed in condemning Mr Gordon, Mr Tolkien rose and said it was he who tripped Mr Hoffman but even then the House remained adamant in its hostile attitude towards Mr Gordon’ (Exeter College archives). – Sydney Cohen, an Exeter College exhibitioner of Tolkien’s year and a fellow resident of the ‘Swiss Cottage’, kills himself in the presence of a fellow student, Henry ‘Rex’ Allpass.

Late February 1913 Tolkien apparently makes another visit to Cheltenham. See note.

24 February 1913 The Stapeldon Society meets.

27 February 1913 The First Public Examination for the Honour School of Greek and Latin Literature (Honour Moderations) begins. Tolkien takes probably twelve written papers, each of three hours’ duration, one in the morning and one in the afternoon over a period of several days. He is required to translate passages from Homer and Demosthenes, and from Virgil and Cicero (the Orations); and to translate, without preparation, passages from Greek authors other than Homer and Demosthenes, and from Latin authors other than Virgil and Cicero. He is also examined on four Greek plays, Œdipus Tyrannus and Elektra by Sophocles, Agamemnon by Aeschylus, and the Bacchae by Euripides, with special attention to Œdipus Tyrannus; on Plato, his choice of two of the Gorgias, Protagoras, and Phædo; on Annals I–IV by Tacitus; and on Latin prose composition, on Greek prose composition, and on Greek and Latin verse composition. In addition he takes a general paper on Greek and Latin grammar, literary criticism, and antiquities, including questions on Homer, Virgil, Demosthenes, and Cicero; and a paper on a subject of his choice, the elements of Comparative Philology as applied to Greek and Latin, with a special knowledge of Greek philology.

28 February 1913 Tolkien resigns from the King Edward’s Horse. His discharge certificate, dated 28 February 1913, certifies that Trooper no. 1624, who enlisted to serve in the Territorial Force of the County of London on 28 November 1911, is discharged in consequence of his own request, and that his claims have been properly settled. See note.

March 1913 Tolkien’s efforts to make up for lost time prove insufficient to achieve a First Class in Honour Moderations. He is placed in the Second Class, though the examiners give his paper on Comparative Philology an ‘alpha’ (see note). One examiner notes in the mark book (Oxford University Archives EX 2/2/23) that Tolkien’s Latin Prose paper was ‘largely illegible’ and his Greek Verse paper was written in ‘filthy script!’ His lowest marks are for the translation of Virgil, for the paper on Tacitus, and for Latin verse composition. His tutors having noted his success in the Comparative Philology paper, and at least Professor Joseph Wright knowing of his interest in Germanic languages, suggest that Tolkien change from Classics to the English Honour School in the following (Trinity) term. Exeter College very generously allows Tolkien to keep his Classics exhibition when he agrees to this suggestion; he will learn that this was due to the influence of his tutor, L.R. Farnell, at that time Sub-Rector of the College, who had a great respect for Philology.

3 March 1913 The Stapeldon Society meets.

End of Hilary Term or beginning of Trinity Term 1913 L.R. Farnell writes about Tolkien to *A.S. Napier, the Merton Professor of English Language and Rawlinson Professor of Anglo-Saxon. Tolkien visits Napier at his house in Headington, east of the centre of Oxford. ‘I recall that I was ushered into a very dim room and could hardly see Napier. He was courteous, but said little. He never spoke to me again. I attended his lectures, when he was well enough to give them’ (letter to *Neil Ker, 22 November 1970, Letters, p. 406).

8 March 1913 Hilary Full Term ends.

18 March 1913 Tolkien returns to Birmingham to take part in the annual Open Debate at King Edward’s School. The motion ‘That modern life is prosaic’ is introduced by Sidney Barrowclough (‘only the educated classes … would choose to discuss a motion of such a kind; any other class would take its truth for granted’), then argued by G.B. Smith in the negative (‘no life could be prosaic, which was lived in an age of problems as great and as interesting as those of the present day’), G.H. Bonner in the affirmative (‘The question before the House was, not whether romance was dead or not, but whether there was enough of it in modern life to make that life other than prosaic’), and R.S. Payton in the negative (‘The object of modern life … was universal knowledge. But the actual importance of this search has made it far more romantic than the mythical quest of the ancient demi-god’). The discussion being thrown open to all,



Mr J.R.R. Tolkien rose to oppose the motion. After to some extent criticising the speakers on both sides, he declared that romance did not mean megalomania, and was far more likely to be found in an age of small and limited efforts, than in one of boasting, and of excessive ambition. Finality was essential to it; what was not essential was, that there should be any knowledge or realisation of its existence before a romantic life could be lived.

Tolkien ‘considered that the proof of the motion would be found in the lives of the poor, and instanced their taste for exciting literature’ (‘Debating Society’, King Edward’s School Chronicle n.s. 28, no. 199 (May 1913), pp. 34–6). The motion fails, 19 votes to 52.

21 March 1913 Rob Gilson sends a postcard to Tolkien at Exeter College; on 25 March it will be forwarded to Tolkien at Phoenix Farm, Gedling.

Easter 1913 Tolkien inscribes his name in a 1910 printing of Charles Grosvenor Osgood’s edition of Pearl (first published 1906).

7 April 1913 Honour Moderations results are issued; they will be published in The Times on 8 April (p. 6). Tolkien’s name is in the Second Class.

15 April 1913 L.R. Farnell becomes Rector of Exeter College.

17 April 1913 Honour Moderations results are published in the Oxford University Gazette. In the same issue Tolkien is listed as a student in both English Language and Literature and Medieval and Modern European Languages and Literature other than English.

Over the next seven terms Tolkien will need to become familiar with a range of literary and philological subjects and set texts as prescribed in the Oxford Regulations of the Board of Studies, knowing that he may be examined on them in ten papers at the end of Trinity Term 1915:

Old English texts, especially Beowulf, The Fight at Finnesburg, Deor’s Complaint, the Wife’s Complaint, Waldere, The Ruin, The First Riddle, the Old English Exodus, Elene, Gregory’s Dialogues bks. 1 and 2 (MSS. C and O), and selections 1–34 from the Anglo-Saxon Reader, 8th edn., ed. Henry Sweet. The latter comprises ‘Cynewulf and Cyneheard’ from the Saxon Chronicle; ‘On the State of Learning in England’ from King Alfred’s preface to the West-Saxon version of Gregory’s Cura Pastoralis (Pastoral Care); Chapter 21 of Alfred’s translation of the Cura Pastoralis; ‘The Voyages of Ohthere and Wulfstan’ and ‘The Amazons (I, 10)’ from Alfred’s version of the Compendious History of the World by Orosius; ‘The Battle of Ashdown’, ‘Alfred and Godrum’, and ‘Alfred’s Wars with the Danes’ from the Saxon Chronicle; a selection from Alfred’s translation of De Consolatione Philosophiae by Boethius; ‘Account of the Poet Caedmon’ from Alfred’s translation of the Ecclesiastical History by the Venerable Bede; extracts from the Laws of Ine; a selection of charters; two homilies by Ælfric, ‘The Assumption of St John the Apostle’ and ‘The Nativity of the Innocents’; the ‘Life of King Oswald’ from Ælfric’s Lives of the Saints; Wulfstan’s address to the English, a homily; ‘The Martyrdom of Ælfeah’ and ‘Eustace at Dover, and the Outlawry of Godwine’ from the Saxon Chronicle; a selection of charms; ‘Beowulf and Grendel’s Mother’ from Beowulf; The Battle of Maldon; The Fall of the Angels, a biblical poem once attributed to Caedmon; Judith; ‘The Happy Land’ from The Phœnix; The Dream of the Rood; The Wanderer; a selection of riddles; gnomic verses; The Seafarer; Northumbrian fragments; Mercian hymns; Kentish charters; the Codex Aureus inscription; and a Kentish psalm.

Middle English texts, especially Havelok; Pearl; The Owl and the Nightingale; The Taill of Rauf Caolyear; selections from Specimens of Early English, Part 1, 2nd edition, nos. 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, and Part II, 4th edn., nos. 1, 7, 9, 10, 15, 16, ed. Richard Morris and Walter W. Skeat; and selections from An Old English Miscellany (‘old’ in the sense of ‘early’, not Anglo-Saxon), ed. Richard Morris, pp. 1–138. The selections from Morris and Skeat comprise ‘Jewish and Christian Offerings’ from the Ormulum; ‘Hengist and Horsa’ from Layamon’s Brut; two texts from The Life of St Juliana; ‘The Seven Deadly Sins’ and ‘Directions How a Nun Should Live’ from the *Ancrene Riwle; A Good Orison of Our Lady (a short rhyming poem); two Old Kentish sermons, Sermo in Die Epiphaniae and Dominica Secunda post Octavam Epiphaniae; passages in the life of Joseph, from the English version of Genesis and Exodus; two versions of A Moral Ode; King Horn; the Reign of William the Conqueror and the Life of St Dunstan by Robert of Gloucester; ‘The Visit of the Magi’ and ‘The Flight into Egypt’ from Cursor Mundi (Cursur o Werld); sermon on Matthew 24:43 and the Paternoster, Ave Maria, and Credo from the Middle Kentish of Dan Michael of Northgate; extracts from The Pricke of Conscience by Richard Rolle of Hampole; extracts from Piers the Plowman (A text); and extracts from bk. 7 of The Bruce by John Barbour. The selections from An Old English Miscellany comprise a bestiary (‘The Lion’, ‘The Eagle’, ‘The Serpent’, ‘The Ant’, ‘The Hart’, ‘The Fox’, ‘The Spider’, ‘The Whale’, ‘The Elephant’, ‘The Panther’, ‘The Dove’); Old Kentish sermons; and miscellaneous items mainly from Jesus College (Oxford) MS I. Arch. I. 29.

The works of Geoffrey Chaucer, especially his Troilus and Criseyde, the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, ‘The Pardoner’s Tale’, ‘The Franklin’s Tale’, and ‘The Clerk’s Tale’.

The works of Shakespeare, especially Love’s Labour’s Lost, Henry IV Part 1 and Part 2, Hamlet, and Antony and Cleopatra.

The history of English literature in general.

The history of the English language.

Gothic and Germanic philology.

In addition, Tolkien will have to choose a Special Subject on which he will be examined separately. He will choose Scandinavian Philology, which according to the Regulations will have special reference to Icelandic, together with a special study of the Snorra Edda (i.e. the Prose or Younger Edda), Gylfaginning (Chapters 20–54); the Völsunga Saga (Chapters 13–31); Hallfreðar Saga; Þorfinns Saga Karlsefnis; and Hrafnkels Saga.

20 April 1913 Trinity Full Term begins.

Trinity Term 1913 *Kenneth Sisam, Professor Napier’s assistant, becomes Tolkien’s tutor. Tolkien will later write: ‘I think I certainly derived from [Sisam] much of the benefit which he attributes to Napier’s example and teaching…. His teaching was, however, spiced with a pungency, humour and practical wisdom which were his own. I owe him a great debt and have not forgotten it…. He taught me not only to read texts, but to study second-hand book catalogues, of which I was not even aware. Some he marked for me’ (letter to Neil Ker, 22 November 1970, Letters, p. 406). During this term Kenneth Sisam gives the following classes: on Sweet’s Anglo-Saxon Reader (prose), on Mondays at 10.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools, beginning 28 April; Elementary Historical Grammar, on Tuesdays at 10.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools, beginning 22 April; Havelok, on Thursdays at 10.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools, beginning 24 April; and Sweet’s Anglo-Saxon Reader (verse), on Fridays at 10.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools, beginning 25 April. He will give these classes at the same times every term while Tolkien is an undergraduate in the English School, and in one term or another (excepting Michaelmas Term 1914, see below) Tolkien probably attends them all. In Trinity Term 1913 Sisam also gives a class on Morris and Skeat’s Specimens of Early English on Wednesdays at 10.00 in the Examination Schools, beginning 23 April; he will repeat it in Michaelmas Term 1913, Michaelmas Term 1914, and Hilary and Trinity Terms 1915. – Tolkien’s tutor for Scandinavian Philology is *W.A. Craigie, the Taylorian Lecturer in the Scandinavian Languages. During this term Craigie lectures on Scandinavian Philology, with special reference to Old and Middle English, on Tuesdays at 5.00 p.m. in the Taylor Institution, beginning 22 April. Tolkien probably also attends Joseph Wright’s lectures on Gothic Grammar on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12.15 p.m. in the Taylor Institution, from 24 April. – Tolkien already knows some of the relevant texts and a fair amount of Old English and Old Norse. He works much harder than he had at Classics, for he finds the texts more interesting, and he begins to develop a special interest in the dialect of Middle English peculiar to the West Midlands, the area from which his Suffield ancestors came. When he reads the Old English poem Crist with its reference to ‘Earendel’ it strikes resonances that will endure in future writings. – At a meeting of the Exeter College Essay Club, Tolkien shares one of his growing enthusiasms by reading a paper on the Norse sagas. The Stapeldon Magazine for June 1913 will report (p. 276) that



the reader proved himself an able and enthusiastic champion, and by adopting a somewhat unconventional turn of phrase, suiting admirably with his subject and the quotations with which he ended, he added a spirit and freshness to an already admirable paper. It is therefore no disparagement to say that the quotations were enjoyed perhaps even more than the criticism of the reader. The subsequent discussion revealed a wide cleavage of taste.

21 April 1913 Tolkien probably speaks with Kenneth Sisam, following the instruction printed in the Oxford University Gazette for 17 April that anyone wishing to attend Sisam’s classes should call on him at Merton College between 10.00 and 11.00 a.m.

27 April 1913 Rob Gilson replies to a letter from Tolkien in which the latter apparently had written of his Second Class in Honour Moderations and of his decision to change to the English School. Gilson had seen the Honour Moderations results announced in the papers but had not known whether to send congratulations or commiserations. His comments suggest that Tolkien might have earlier expressed an interest in the English School or a growing lack of interest in Classics. Gilson reports his father’s opinion that Tolkien ought to have got a First. He also remarks that a postcard he sent to Tolkien at Barnt Green had missed him, and refers to Tolkien having darted to and fro during the vacation.

28 April 1913 At a meeting of the Stapeldon Society Mr Mackarness is appointed to the post of Jester, with Tolkien as his deputy. The minutes note that ‘Mr Mackarness in thanking the house remarked that he was afraid that his repertoire was somewhat unfitted to the high standard of morals pertaining in the Society and Mr Tolkien to the general surprise endorsed the remark’ (Exeter College archives). Tolkien probably finishes his term of duty on the Kitchen Committee, as new members are elected.

1 May 1913 Tolkien inscribes this date in a copy of the Everyman edition of the Mabinogion, translated by Lady Charlotte Guest.

12 May 1913 At a meeting of the Stapeldon Society Tolkien describes confrontations between Town and Gown with which he had been involved the previous night. The Society minutes note that ‘the Deputy Public Orator [Tolkien] then went on to describe his arrest and subsequent release and told how on returning to college he had delighted the spectators by a magnificent, if unavailing, attempt to scale the Swiss Cottage and had spent the rest of the evening in climbing in and out of Mr Barnett’s window’ (Exeter College archives).

26 May 1913 At a meeting of the Stapeldon Society Tolkien, as Deputy Public Orator, is called upon to propose a vote of censure against the President of the Society for being absent from a meeting without giving notice.

31 May 1913 The Apolausticks meet for a six-course dinner at an unnamed venue. Tolkien’s menu card shows that Allen Barnett is now President. See note.

4 June 1913 Tolkien and Allen Barnett visit the charred ruin of Fred Rough’s Oxford boathouse, burned to the ground by militant suffragettes. See note.

5 June 1913 Christopher Wiseman writes to Tolkien, who has mentioned in a letter some injury to his foot. Wiseman wants Tolkien to get better so that they can both take part in King Edward’s School Sports as Old Edwardians.

9 June 1913 At a meeting of the Stapeldon Society R.H. Gordon and J.R.R. Tolkien are elected President and Secretary of the Society for the next term. Tolkien also proposes a vote of censure against the outgoing President for having attended only two meetings during his tenure of office. – G.B. Smith, still at King Edward’s School, replies to a letter from Tolkien he received that morning. Smith, who will go up to Oxford in Michaelmas Term 1913, having been awarded an exhibition at Corpus Christi College, asks Tolkien about obtaining furniture, etc. for his college rooms.

10 June 1913 Rob Gilson writes to Tolkien from his home at Marston Green near Birmingham, mentioning a long letter in which Tolkien has said how much he is enjoying the Oxford English School. Gilson asks him to play tennis on Saturday, 14 June, and if he will be in Birmingham for the King Edward’s School Sports on 28 June, and for Speech Day on 28 July. – Tolkien replies immediately, informing Gilson that he will be in Warwick until 28 June or 1 July.

12 June 1913 Gilson writes again to encourage Tolkien to visit him on 14 June, and sends him train times to Warwick from Marston Green.

14 June 1913 Trinity Full Term ends. – Tolkien probably travels to Marston Green to attend a tennis party at the Gilsons. Rob Gilson and other school friends are present. – In the evening, Tolkien probably travels to Warwick to visit Edith and Jennie Grove.

?14 June–28 June 1913 Tolkien stays in Warwick. A suitable house is found for Edith and Jennie to rent at 15 Victoria Road, Warwick, and they deal with many domestic details. Tolkien and Edith attend Benediction in the Catholic church together for the first time.

18 June 1913 Tolkien sketches the gardens of Pageant House, Warwick (Pageant House Gardens, Warwick, see Artist and Illustrator, fig. 14).

28 June–1 July 1913 Tolkien takes up Gilson’s invitation of 12 June that they attend the King Edward’s School Sports. He spends these days with the Gilson family at Marston Green. See note.

At least 2–12 July 1913 Tolkien stays at Barnt Green with the Incledons. He makes several drawings and watercolours, including views of the Incledons’ cottage and garden and of foxgloves in a nearby wood (Artist and Illustrator, figs. 17–18). He also paints the view King’s Norton from Bilberry Hill (Artist and Illustrator, fig. 16). Tolkien now begins to use a large sketchbook, at the beginning of which he copies, probably from postcards, views of Broad Street, Oxford and the Dining Hall at Exeter College, and makes a sketch of the cottage at Barnt Green.

?Late July 1913 Tolkien visits Phoenix Farm. He draws Phoenix Farm from Gedling, a view seen from a distance. Possibly at this time, though more likely in 1914, he draws another, closer view of the farm (Phoenix Farm, Gedling, see Artist and Illustrator, fig. 15). A third drawing of Phoenix Farm by Tolkien, Lamb’s Farm, Gedling, Notts (its title referring to the farmer who worked the land for years before Jane Neave), may date from 1913 as well. – Tolkien is hired by a Mr Killion to accompany two Mexican boys, Ventura and José Pablo Martínez del Río, to *France to join their brother, Eustaquio Martínez del Río, and their aunts, Ángela and Julia, who lived in Paris, and while in France to act as their escort and tutor. See note.

29 July 1913 At Charing Cross station Tolkien speaks with Mr Killion, but there seem to be no plans to govern the work he is about to do. He is introduced to Ventura and José, who attend the Roman Catholic school at *Stonyhurst in Lancashire. ‘They are quite jolly & good & most submissive and quiet especially little José who never speaks’ (letter to Edith Bratt, 29 July 1913, courtesy of Christopher Tolkien).

30 July 1913 Tolkien, Ventura, and José arrive in Paris. They are met by the boys’ aunts at the Gare du Nord, who weep and greet the boys so volubly that Tolkien must lose his temper to get them into a taxi. Their intended hotel, the Hôtel de l’Athenée, being closed, they go to the Hôtel Plaza. Later they will move to the Hôtel des Champs-Elysées. ‘The boys really are most excellent & the smallest one [Eustaquio] … who has just come from Mexico, is the nicest child I have ever met, I think’ (letter to Edith Bratt, 30 July 1913, courtesy of Christopher Tolkien).

31 July–12 August 1913 While in France and with the Mexican boys, Tolkien has to speak mainly Spanish or French, in neither of which is he fluent. Although he enjoys seeing Paris, the visit reinforces his pre-existing dislike for the inhabitants of France and their language. He feels a deep grudge against the Norman Conquest, which he thinks has done so much to destroy Anglo-Saxon culture and to adulterate the English language. On 5 or 6 August the aunts decide to go to Brittany, and Tolkien looks forward to visiting that Celtic area with its close ties to Wales and the Welsh language. But on 10 August Tolkien, the boys, and the elder of the aunts, Ángela, go only to Dinard, a fashionable seaside resort. Tolkien writes to Edith: ‘Brittany! And to see nothing but trippers and dirty papers and bathing machines’ (quoted in Biography, p. 67).

13 August 1913 Ángela is struck by a car and dies soon afterward. Her last wish is to be returned to her native Mexico. Tolkien sends the news to Mr Killion by telegram, and presumably also contacts Julia.

14 August 1913 Julia arrives in Dinard in the morning; Tolkien meets her at the station. Although the owners of the hotel in which they have been staying are kind at first, their attitude changes when they learn that the party are Roman Catholics. Tolkien and Ventura return to Paris on the night train to make mortuary arrangements.

15 August 1913 Tolkien writes from the Hôtel des Champs-Elysées to Mr Killion regarding the problems he is encountering following the death of Ángela. Julia wishes to return to Mexico at once with the boys. Tolkien speculates that if the boys go Mr Killion (apparently their guardian) may need someone to bring Ventura and José back from Mexico in time for January term at Stonyhurst, in which case he offers his ‘hypothetical services’ (private collection).

16 August 1913 Tolkien and Ventura dine with Madame Cervantes, a helpful friend resident in Paris.

17 August 1913 Tolkien writes again to Mr Killion, noting that he and Ventura have been to Mass and Communion at the English church in Paris, and to Mass at the Spanish church. He and Ventura again dine with Madame Cervantes.

18 August 1913 Tolkien and Ventura rise at 3.00 a.m. in order to meet Ángela’s coffin at Montparnasse on the 4.00 a.m. train. They reach the station at 3.45, but the train is late, and in fact the coffin arrives on a still later train at 5.15 a.m., and conveyances for it at 6.45. Julia arrives in Paris with José and Eustaquio. Tolkien writes to Mr Killion, convinced that the boys should not return to Mexico but continue their education at Stonyhurst. – Tolkien writes to Edith: ‘There is no fear of my going to Mexico. Mr Killion will not, I am confident, allow the two elder boys – nor if possible the younger boy – to go back: & in any case I shall not go’ (courtesy of Christopher Tolkien).

20 August 1913 Tolkien writes to Mr Killion, concerned with mourning clothes for the boys and with their education while abroad.



Rushing about sight-seeing or any obvious form of enjoyment is of course out of the question for a while so I have tried to find out what of the best, most readable, and least palpably ‘instructive’ of boys books they haven’t read. Many of these I have got in cheap editions … such as King Solomon’s Mines, Kim and so forth. José, the most thoughtful of the three, was very anxious to have a huge tome that he caught sight of … ‘Mexico the Land of Unrest’ a meticulous history (by an Englishman I think) of the revolution – but I thought it a little too hard for his digestion yet.

He is now reading The White Company.

There is no accommodation in this hotel for children so at their earnest entreaties I also got them some draughts of which they are very fond. [private collection]

He has had a long talk with José on top of the Arc de Triomphe on the merits of returning to Stonyhurst, and otherwise has tried to lead the boys to ‘take the sensible view with content, in order not to upset next term with pinings’. He appraises each boy’s character. Tolkien and the boys are to return to England on 30 August, unless Mr Killion has other plans. He has spent ‘a long day in steamship companies’ offices, banks and so forth’.

29 August 1913 Tolkien writes to Edith that he and the boys are to leave France on the following day. They are to arrive at Southampton on 1 September, and that same day to go to *Bournemouth in Hampshire, where they are to stay (c/o Fisher, Devonshire House) for two weeks. On 15 September they are to go to London, and from there the boys are to return to Stonyhurst on 16 September. – Tolkien will tell Edith concerning his experience in France: ‘Never again except I am in the direst poverty will I take any such job’ (quoted in Biography, p. 68).

30 August–1 September 1913 Tolkien and the boys return to England.

16 September 1913 Christopher Wiseman writes to Tolkien from Grenoble, France, where he is taking a holiday course at the university. He has heard from Gilson of Tolkien’s experiences in France. He urges Tolkien to visit Birmingham towards the end of September, and suggests T.C.B.S. meetings on the evening of Saturday, 27 September (when Gilson will be absent) and on Wednesday, 1 October (when Gilson should be able to participate).

Last half of September 1913 Tolkien visits Warwick (from ?17 September), Birmingham, and Norwich.

Early October 1913 Tolkien again stays in Warwick; a postcard from Gilson is forwarded there from Exeter College.

10 October 1913 Tolkien writes to Edith. By now, he has returned to Oxford.

12 October 1913 Michaelmas Full Term begins.

Michaelmas Term 1913 Kenneth Sisam offers the same five classes as in Trinity Term 1913. Tolkien probably attends lectures by W.A. Craigie on Old Icelandic Grammar on Tuesdays at 5.00 p.m. in the Taylor Institution, beginning 14 October, and on Gylfaginning on Thursdays at 5.00 p.m. in the Taylor Institution, beginning 16 October, and lectures by A.S. Napier on Morris and Skeat’s Specimens of Early English on Mondays at 12.00 noon in the Examination Schools, beginning 20 October. He definitely attends Napier’s lectures on English Historical Grammar on Tuesdays and Fridays at 12.00 noon in the Examination Schools, beginning 21 October, and on Old English Dialects on Thursday at 12.00 noon in the Examination Schools, beginning 23 October; lectures by *D. Nichol Smith, Goldsmiths’ Reader in English, on (Samuel) Johnson and His Friends on Wednesdays and Fridays at 11.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools, beginning 15 October; and G.K.A. Bell’s course on Chaucer’s Prologue to the Canterbury Tales and the ‘Franklin’s Tale’ on Wednesdays at 5.45 p.m. at Christ Church, beginning 15 October. – G.B. Smith goes up to Oxford as an exhibitioner at Corpus Christi. A closer friendship develops between Smith and Tolkien, perhaps because Smith too is reading English, and he is the only other inner member of the T.C.B.S. to attend Oxford. Nevertheless the four (Tolkien, Smith, Gilson, and Wiseman) share ideas of what they might do in the world, how they might make an impact.

Academic year 1913–1914 Probably at some time during this year Tolkien takes part in a university rag against the town, the police, and the proctors. ‘Geoffrey [? G.B. Smith] and I “captured” a bus and drove it up to Cornmarket making various unearthly noises followed by a mad crowd of mingled varsity and ‘townese’. It was chockfull of undergrads before it reached the Carfax. There I addressed a few stirring words to a huge mob before descending, and removing to the “maggers memugger” or the Martyrs’ Memorial where I addressed the crowd again’ (quoted in Biography, p. 54).

13 October 1913 At an extraordinary meeting of the Stapeldon Society a scheme for the redecoration of the Junior Common Room at Exeter College is discussed. Tolkien attends and, as Secretary, takes minutes.

20 October 1913 The Stapeldon Society meets. Tolkien takes the minutes. In accordance with a motion which is carried unanimously, the Secretary (Tolkien) is instructed to inform the Bursar that the house viewed with apprehension and jealousy his removal of hall breakfast on Sundays without notice given to the Society’s committee. Later in the meeting Tolkien proposes the motion for discussion: ‘This House believes in ghosts.’ He is opposed wittily by *T.W. Earp. The motion fails, 6 votes to 8.

27 October 1913 The Stapeldon Society meets. Tolkien takes the minutes. In a debate following Society business he speaks in favour of the motion: ‘Living in college is preferable to living in diggings [i.e. lodgings].’ The motion carries, 16 to 5.

28 October 1913 Tolkien attends the Exeter College Freshman’s Wine. The evening includes a programme of songs, piano and English horn solos, a performance by the Exeter Brass Band, and at 10.00 p.m., a dance.

3 November 1913 The Stapeldon Society meets. As Secretary, Tolkien takes the minutes. The main business of the meeting is discussion of a report by the Kitchen Committee.

10 November 1913 The Stapeldon Society meets. Tolkien takes the minutes. In a debate following Society business he speaks against the motion: ‘This House would welcome the greater play of the Democratic Factor in foreign policy.’ The motion fails, 7 votes to 10.

17 November 1913 The Stapeldon Society meets. Tolkien takes the minutes. In a debate following Society business he speaks against the motion: ‘This House considers the failure of the Olympic Games Fund a satisfactory sign of the healthy state of British sport.’ The motion carries, 10 to 8.

19 November 1913 Tolkien attends the Exeter College Smoker, for which he has designed the programme cover: depicting merry undergraduates in evening dress dancing along the Turl, it is similar to his (presumably contemporaneous) drawing Turl Street, Oxford (Artist and Illustrator, fig. 19). The first part of the Smoker includes songs, piano and banjo solos, and character sketches; the second part consists of dance music played by the orchestra. Tolkien collects several signatures on his printed programme, including those of E.A. Barber and L.R. Farnell, friends, and performers.

24 November 1913 The Stapeldon Society meets. Tolkien takes the minutes. Congratulations are voted to those who had organized the Smoker, and to Tolkien ‘for covering the outside of the card in black and white’ (Exeter College archives). Tolkien as Secretary is instructed to convey the Society’s congratulations to a Balliol student for placing an ‘article of common domestic utility’ upon the Martyrs’ Memorial. In a debate that follows, Tolkien speaks against the motion: ‘Europe is destined soon to lose its position of pre-eminence in world politics’. The motion carries, 9 to 1.

December 1913 An untitled poem by Tolkien (From the Many-Willow’d Margin of the Immemorial Thames) is published in the Stapeldon Magazine for December 1913. This is the first verse of the poem From Iffley which he wrote in October 1911 (the second verse is lost by the editor of the magazine).

1 December 1913 The Stapeldon Society meets, riotously, at 8.00 p.m. Tolkien takes the minutes, which he will later write up at length in a very graphic style: ‘At the 791st meeting … one of the world’s great battles between democracy and autocracy was fought and won, and as usual in such conflicts the weapons of democracy were hooliganism and uproar, and an unyielding pertinacity only excelled by that of the chair….’ The meeting is packed, and long before the officers enter, ‘the ominous sounds of a gigantic house athirst for their blood could be heard … to the sound of wild and impartial ululation the Pres. announced the candidates for office in Hilary Term; and the House simmered audibly while voting papers were distributed and counted.’ Tolkien is elected President for Hilary Term; he and the other successful candidates make brief speeches. But objections are made as to whether certain actions of the current President were constitutional, and later in the meeting



all bounds, all order, and all else was forgotten; and in one long riot of raucous hubbub, of hoarse cries, brandished bottles, flying matchstands, gowns wildly fluttered, cups smashed and lights extinguished the House declared its determination to have its will and override the constitution. For precisely one calendar hour did the House battle with noise and indignation for its desire. It was at one time on the point of dissolving and becoming another Society; at another it was vociferating for Rule 40; at another for Rule 10; at another no rule at all or for the President’s head or his nether-garments.

The evening ends with the customary vote of thanks to the outgoing officers, and a ‘vote of admiration for the rock-like constancy with which the President [the main target] had withstood this unparalleled storm or rebellious and insubordinate riot’ (Exeter College archives). The House is too exhausted to hear Mr Macdonald and Mr Blomfield debate whether they should wash themselves or take exercise, and adjourns. See note.

5 December 1913 Tolkien writes a letter (*Oxford Letter), apparently in response to a request from the editor of the King Edward’s School Chronicle, giving an account of Old Edwardians at Oxford. It will be published as by ‘Oxon’ in the December 1913 issue.

6 December 1913 Michaelmas Full Term ends.

12 December 1913 Christopher Wiseman, who with his family has moved to Wandsworth Common, London, invites Tolkien to join him and G.B. Smith for a T.C.B.S. meeting at his home on 19 December. In the event, Tolkien does not attend (nor is there clear evidence that the other members met in his absence).

15 December 1913 Tolkien is scheduled to open the Annual Old Boys Debate at King Edward’s School, Birmingham, but is suddenly taken ill. Rob Gilson therefore introduces the motion: ‘That the World is becoming over-civilised’. G.B. Smith also speaks in favour.

16 December 1913 Apparently having recovered from his illness, Tolkien captains the Old Edwardians in a rugby match against King Edward’s School. Gilson, Smith, and Wiseman also play. King Edward’s School wins, 14 to 10.

Late December 1913–early January 1914 Tolkien visits Barnt Green. He writes a poem, Outside, suggested by a tune heard in 1912, and apparently is again involved in amateur theatricals (on 4 January 1914 Rob Gilson will write that his letter will probably arrive on the morning of Tolkien’s ‘production’).

?17–?19 December 1913 Tolkien informs his T.C.B.S. friends that he is engaged, but gives no details about Edith, not even her name. He possibly tells G.B. Smith in person (no letter of congratulations from Smith is in Tolkien’s T.C.B.S. correspondence file) and writes to Wiseman and Gilson. See note.

20 December 1913 (postmark) Christopher Wiseman sends congratulations to Tolkien on his engagement, on a postcard addressed to him at Barnt Green.


1914 (#ulink_bd3e16e3-cdde-56fb-996e-d19654994d52)

January 1914 Tolkien borrows from the Exeter College library A History of English Sounds from the Earliest Period by Henry Sweet. He will do so again on 5 November 1914.

4 January 1914 Rob Gilson writes to Tolkien, sending congratulations on his engagement. G.B. Smith has asked him to attend a T.C.B.S. meeting next week, and Gilson hopes that Tolkien will be there too (in the event, he does not attend).

Later in 1914 Tolkien visits Cromer in Norfolk, a seaside resort on the north-east coast of England. The occasion will later inspire a poem, The Lonely Harebell (see entry for 10 November–1 December 1916).

6 January 1914 Tolkien apparently decides that the new sketchbook he began the previous summer should be devoted henceforth to imaginative subjects. Probably at this time he tears out the three topographical drawings he had already made in it and writes on its cover: *The Book of Ishness. He inserts (now or later) an undated drawing, Ei uchnem: Russian Boatmen’s Song, a stylized view of a boat on a river. This is followed in the book by a sketch of a fantastic house in an apparently northern landscape (‘Northern House’, Artist and Illustrator, fig. 38), dated ‘Jan[uary] 6 1914’. This is followed in the book by three undated works, An Osity or Balliol College Unmasked, Eeriness (Artist and Illustrator, fig. 40), and Childhood Memories of My Grandmother’s House.

8 January 1914 Tolkien is in Warwick at the end of Christmas vacation. Today, the anniversary of their reunion, Edith is received into the Catholic Church, and she and Tolkien are formally betrothed in the church at Warwick by Father Murphy. To celebrate the occasion, probably on this date but certainly during January, Tolkien writes a poem, Magna Dei Gloria (Warwick) dedicated ‘To EMB’ (Edith Mary Bratt).

12 January 1914 Tolkien paints another watercolour, Beyond (Artist and Illustrator, fig. 39) in The Book of Ishness, and probably also the closely related drawings that follow, There and Here.

18 January 1914 Hilary Full Term begins.

Hilary Term 1914 Kenneth Sisam continues to teach the Anglo-Saxon Reader (Prose), Elementary Historical Grammar, Havelok, and the Anglo-Saxon Reader (Verse). Tolkien almost certainly attends Sisam’s two new classes, Beowulf on Wednesdays at 10.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools, beginning 21 January, and The Pearl on Saturdays at 10.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools, beginning 24 January. He probably also attends A.S. Napier’s continuation of his lectures on English Historical Grammar, on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays at 12.00 noon in the Examination Schools, beginning 23 January; on Morris and Skeat’s Specimens, on Thursdays at 12.00 noon in the Examination Schools; and on Old English Dialects, on Saturdays at 12.00 noon in the Examination Schools, beginning 24 January. Tolkien also attends this year (or, less probably, in 1915) W.A. Craigie’s lectures on Hrafnkel’s Saga on Thursdays at 5.00 p.m. in the Taylor Institution, beginning 22 January, and probably Craigie’s continuation of his lectures on Old Icelandic Grammar on Tuesdays at 5.00 p.m. in the Taylor Institution, beginning 20 January. He possibly attends as well lectures by Sir John Rhys on Welsh: The Mabinogion on Tuesdays and Fridays at 6.00 p.m. at Jesus College, beginning 23 January, and by *E.E. Wardale on the Literature of the Old English Period on Mondays at 11.00 a.m. in the Old Ashmolean, beginning 26 January. – Tolkien and Colin Cullis, President and Secretary of the Stapeldon Society for Hilary Term, examine the Society’s rules before they are reprinted. Cullis writes two pages of possible amendments, which they both sign. Tolkien uses the versos of these sheets to make a list of unusual English words, with a note to look them up in the *Oxford English Dictionary. – During this term, Tolkien is also a member of a committee to draw up a new constitution for the Exeter College Essay Club; he signs the new rules in January 1914. He is Secretary of the Club for Hilary Term, but no minutes survive until those for the meeting of 4 March. – Probably during this term, Tolkien plays a football match with the Exeter College Rugby XV versus the Boat Club. See note.

26 January 1914 Tolkien chairs a meeting of the Stapeldon Society. The new Secretary records that ‘the memory and imagination of the House was stirred by the cinematographically vivid minutes of the last meeting’, written by Tolkien as the previous Secretary (Exeter College archives).

30 January 1914 The Sub-Rector signs a note giving Tolkien and Colin Cullis leave ‘to have supper for nine on Sat. nights in the rooms of one or the other this term’ (Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford). Tolkien will later write on this note: ‘Germ of the Chequers’, i.e. the beginning of the Chequers Clubbe (*Societies and clubs). The only recorded meeting of this club is on 18 June 1914, but it may be supposed that Tolkien and Cullis host at least some dinners during Hilary Term. Many of the members who will sign Tolkien’s menu on 18 June were also members of the Apolausticks, which suggests that the Chequers Clubbe was a successor to that group.

Early February 1914 Christopher Wiseman and T.K. Barnsley form a delegation from Cambridge to the Oxford Wesley Society; Rob Gilson accompanies them. They have ‘a splendid weekend…. I saw lots of [his Birmingham friend Frederick] Scopes and Tolkien and G.B. Smith, all of whom seem very contented with life’ (Gilson, letter to Marianne Cary Gilson, 17 February 1914, quoted in John Garth, Tolkien and the Great War (2003), p. 32).

2 February 1914 Tolkien chairs a meeting of the Stapeldon Society, though he is suffering from ‘gastric influenza’ contracted the previous evening.

9 February 1914 Tolkien chairs a meeting of the Stapeldon Society. A committee is elected, consisting of the President of the Junior Common Room, the President of the Stapeldon Society (Tolkien), and R.H. Gordon, to consider the question of a College Dinner in Trinity Term as part of celebrations marking the sexcentenary of the founding of Exeter College.

16 February 1914 Tolkien chairs a meeting of the Stapeldon Society. His eagle eye or keen sense of smell detecting the presence of a glass of intoxicating liquor, he orders its immediate removal. The members later debate the motion: ‘Flirting is a reprehensible past-time’. The votes at the end being equal, Tolkien as President casts the deciding vote in favour of the motion.

23 February 1914 Tolkien chairs a meeting of the Stapeldon Society. Someone having upset a bath in the room above, Tolkien is reported to have remarked: ‘Zeus thunders on the right’ (Exeter College archives).

2 March 1914 Tolkien chairs a meeting of the Stapeldon Society. In a debate he speaks in favour of the motion: ‘The cheap cinema is an engine of social corruption’. The motion fails, 9 votes to 10.

4 March 1914 At a meeting of the Exeter College Essay Club in the rooms of E.W. Marshall, Tolkien is elected President of the Club for Trinity Term. He reads a paper on Francis Thompson which begins with biographical details, then justifies Tolkien’s opinion that Thompson should be ranked among the very greatest of poets. Supporting his views with many quotations, he praises Thompson’s metrical power, the greatness of his language, and the immensity of his imagery and its underlying faith.

9 March 1914 Tolkien chairs a meeting of the Stapeldon Society. He replies as departing President to a vote of thanks to officers at the end of their term of office. He remains however on the Sexcentenary Dinner committee.

Spring 1914 Exeter College awards Tolkien the Skeat Prize for English. He uses the £5 to buy The Life and Death of Jason and The House of the Wolfings, both by William Morris, as well as the Morris translation of the Völsunga Saga and A Welsh Grammar by Sir John Morris-Jones. He will later remark: ‘My college, I know, and the shade of Walter Skeat, I surmise, was shocked when the only prize I ever won (there was only one other competitor) … was spent on Welsh’ (*English and Welsh, in The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays, p. 192). See note.

14 March 1914 Hilary Full Term ends.

15 March 1914 Tolkien adds to The Book of Ishness a watercolour of the sea, or possibly of the Great Wave which sometimes haunts his dreams, ‘towering up, and coming in ineluctably over the trees and green fields’ (letter to W.H. Auden, 7 June 1955, Letters, p. 213).

21 April 1914 Tolkien adds to The Book of Ishness a simple, diagrammatic drawing entitled Everywhere, and a strange design of bells and dancing lampposts entitled Tarantella (?).

26 April 1914 Trinity Full Term begins.

Trinity Term 1914 Tolkien very likely attends the conclusion of A.S. Napier’s lectures on English Historical Grammar, on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 12.00 noon in the Examination Schools, beginning 30 April. He probably attends Kenneth Sisam’s classes on Beowulf and Pearl, and perhaps one or more of Sisam’s four recurring classes on the Anglo-Saxon Reader, on Havelok, and on Elementary Historical Grammar. He probably also attends (more likely now than in Trinity Term 1915, immediately before final examinations) W.A. Craigie’s lectures on Outlines of Scandinavian Philology on Tuesdays at 5.00 p.m. in the Taylor Institution, beginning 28 April, and on the Hallfreðar Saga on Thursdays at 5.00 p.m. in the Taylor Institution, beginning 30 April; and perhaps D. Nichol Smith’s lectures on English Literature from Caxton to Milton on Wednesdays and Fridays at 11.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools, beginning 29 April. He possibly attends lectures by Sir John Rhys on Welsh: The Mabinogion (White Book Text) on Tuesdays and Fridays at 5.00 p.m. at Jesus College, beginning 1 May.

4 May 1914 The Stapeldon Society meets.

16 May 1914 Tolkien rewrites his poem Wood-sunshine (first composed in July 1910). – G.K. Chesterton gives a lecture, Romance, at 5.30 p.m. in the Oxford Examination Schools.

18 May 1914 Tolkien rewrites his poem The Dale Lands (first composed in May 1910), now with the slightly emended title The Dale-lands. – At a meeting of the Stapeldon Society Tolkien is given the task of writing to various people to ask if they would propose toasts at the Sexcentenary Dinner. In a debate following Society business he proposes the motion: ‘That Oxford was made for Eights Week and not Eights Week for Oxford’. The motion carries, 6 to 3.

20 May 1914 Tolkien chairs a meeting of the Exeter College Essay Club in Colin Cullis’s rooms. J.F. Huntington reads a paper on George Borrow. In the discussion afterwards, Tolkien confesses to having no great admiration for Borrow.

26 May 1914 Tolkien attends a performance by the Exeter College Musical Society. The programme includes songs by members of the Society and guests Miss Dora Arnell and Mr Stewart Gardner, as well as flute and pianoforte solos.

June 1914 Tolkien and other Exeter College students pose for group photographs. See note.

1 June 1914 At a meeting of the Stapeldon Society the members ‘listened with breathless interest to the respectively frolicsome, frivolous and fearful adventures which had befallen Messrs. Tolkien, Robinson and Wheway’ (Society minutes, Exeter College archives).

3 June 1914 Tolkien chairs a meeting of the Exeter College Essay Club in Mr Huntington’s rooms. He is elected Critic for Michaelmas Term. A visiting speaker, Cyril Bailey, reads a paper, Signs of the Times. (This is the last meeting recorded in the Society minutes book until Michaelmas Term 1918, but that there were meetings during 1914–18 is evident from references in the Stapeldon Magazine and elsewhere.)

6 June 1914 The Junior Common Room entertains the Senior Common Room (i.e. the Rector and Fellows of the College) with a ten-course dinner in the Hall to celebrate the sexcentenary of the foundation of Exeter College. R.H. Gordon proposes the toast to the Rector and Fellows. Tolkien proposes the toast to the College Societies, with the reply by Colin Cullis. Tolkien collects twenty-three signatures on his menu card. See note.

15 June 1914 Tolkien attends a meeting of the Stapeldon Society. The members pass a vote of congratulation for the committee that arranged the Sexcentenary Dinner.

18 June 1914 Tolkien attends the ‘Chequers Clubbe Binge’, a five-course dinner. Its printed menu has a cover designed by Tolkien and lists twelve members of the Club including himself. He and seven others sign his copy of the menu.

20 June 1914 Trinity Full Term ends.

23 June 1914 A Sexcentenary Ball is held at Exeter College. See note.

June–July 1914 Tolkien spends the early part of his vacation visiting Edith in Warwick. Probably on this visit he draws a view of Warwick Castle seen from under a bridge, apparently made from a punt or boat on the river. He will later date it ‘1913–14?’

August 1914 Tolkien explores the Lizard Peninsula in *Cornwall on foot with Father Vincent Reade of the Birmingham Oratory. Their visit extends from at least 5 August to 18 or 19 August, a period fixed by letters written by Tolkien to Edith on 5, 8, 11, 14, and 16 August (in the latter ‘only three days till I see you’; quoted by Christopher Tolkien in private correspondence). During the visit Tolkien makes several drawings: Cadgwith, Cornwall, Cove near the Lizard (Artist and Illustrator, fig. 21), and Caerthilian Cove & Lion Rock (Artist and Illustrator, fig. 20, a mistitled view of the sea off Pentreath Beach), as well as a rough sketch for the Lion Rock. On 8 August Tolkien will write to Edith:



We walked over the moor-land on top of the cliffs to Kynance Cove. Nothing I could say in a dull old letter would describe it to you. The sun beats down on you and a huge Atlantic swell smashes and spouts over the snags and reefs. The sea has carved weird wind-holes and spouts into the cliffs which blow with trumpety noises or spout foam like a whale, and everywhere you see black and red rock and white foam against violet and transparent seagreen. [quoted in Biography, p. 70]

After exploring some of the villages inland from the Lizard promontory, they walk



through rustic ‘Warwickshire’ scenery, dropped down to the banks of the Helford river (almost like a fjord), and then climbed through ‘Devonshire’ lanes up to the opposite bank, and then got into more open country, where it twisted and wiggled and wobbled and upped and downed until dusk was already coming on and the red sun just dropping. Then after adventures and redirections we came out on the bare bleak ‘Goonhilly’ downs and had a four mile straight piece with turf for our sore feet. Then we got benighted in the neighbourhood of Ruan Minor, and got into the dips and waggles again. The light got very ‘eerie’. Sometimes we plunged into a belt of trees, and owls and bats made you creep: sometimes a horse with asthma behind a hedge or an old pig with insomnia made your heart jump: or perhaps it was nothing worse than walking into an unexpected stream. The fourteen miles eventually drew to an end – and the last two miles were enlivened by the sweeping flash of the Lizard Lights and the sounds of the sea drawing nearer. [quoted in Biography, p. 71]

4 August 1914 Germany invades Belgium. Britain, one of the nations that had guaranteed the neutrality of Belgium by treaty in 1839, gives Germany an ultimatum that if its forces have not been withdrawn by midnight, Germany and Britain will be at war. – George Allen & Unwin Ltd. (*Publishers) is formed out of the assets of George Allen & Co. Ltd.

7 August 1914 Units of the British Expeditionary Force cross to France.

12 August 1914 Britain declares war on Austria-Hungary.

At least 23–30 August 1914 Tolkien stays at The White House, Northgate, Warwick. While there he writes to his Aunt May Incledon on 23 August, and to a Mrs Stafford in Oxford on 30 August, the latter to say that he would be coming up for October term at least. Possibly Tolkien stays in Warwick beyond 30 August, to be near Edith.

Late September 1914 Tolkien visits his Aunt Jane Neave and his brother Hilary at Phoenix Farm, Gedling. By this time, Hilary has enlisted in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. Tolkien having decided to finish his studies at Oxford before himself enlisting, he faces considerable family disapproval. See note. It is probably during this visit that he makes an undated drawing of Phoenix Farm in the same sketchbook that he used in Cornwall.

24 September 1914 While at Phoenix Farm, Tolkien writes the poem The Voyage of Éarendel the Evening Star (*Éalá Éarendel Engla Beorhtast), inspired by the word or name Earendel in the Old English Crist. The mariner Éarendel (later Eärendel, Eärendil) will become a key figure in the mythology or legendarium (*‘The Silmarillion’) whose invention and revision will occupy Tolkien for the rest of his life. When, however, at some time in the autumn or early winter 1914, Tolkien shows his poem to G.B. Smith, he will admit that he does not yet know what it is really about, and will promise to ‘try to find out’ (quoted in Biography, p. 75). This may take him some time, as shown by an early attempt to recast the poem in a classical setting with ‘Phosphorus’ replacing ‘Éarendel’ as the protagonist. The poem is the germ from which the mythology evolved, rather than the first consciously written poem of the mythology.

11 October 1914 Michaelmas Full Term begins.

Michaelmas Term 1914 When Tolkien returns to Oxford, he finds that many of his friends have chosen to enlist. The Examination Schools having been commandeered, lectures are given elsewhere. Tolkien attends A.S. Napier’s lectures on Pearl on Tuesdays at 12.00 noon in the Ashmolean Museum, beginning 20 October, and on Beowulf on Thursdays and Saturdays at 12.00 noon in the Ashmolean, beginning 15 October; lectures by *Sir Walter Raleigh, the Professor of English Literature, on Chaucer and His Contemporaries on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 11.00 a.m. at Magdalen College, beginning 13 October; and W.A. Craigie’s lectures on the Völsunga Saga on Thursdays in the Taylor Institution, beginning 15 October – at 5.00 p.m., according to the Oxford University Gazette, but Tolkien records it in a manuscript schedule for Michaelmas Term as from 2.00 to 4.00 p.m. This schedule suggests that Tolkien is no longer attending Kenneth Sisam’s classes (during the war, held at 40 Broad Street) or repeating those he had already attended; but he has weekly tutorials with Sisam, on Mondays for an hour at midday, at each of which he is to read an essay. If he has not done so already in Trinity Term 1914, he possibly attends lectures by Sir John Rhys on Welsh: The Mabinogion (White Book Text) on Tuesdays and Fridays at 5.00 p.m. at Jesus College, beginning 16 October. – Tolkien and Colin Cullis, the latter prevented from enlisting by poor health, decide to live in ‘digs’ rather than in college, and find rooms at 59 St John Street (see note).

Mid-October 1914–June 1915 Although there will be no conscription until late in the war there is considerable pressure on all young men to join up, and great disapproval of those who do not. Tolkien is therefore pleased to discover the existence of a scheme by which he can prepare for the Army with the Officers Training Corps at Oxford while continuing to study, and need not go on active service until he has taken his degree. In this context, Tolkien drills in the University Parks from 9.00 to 10.00 a.m. on Mondays, 9.00–10.00 a.m. and 2.00–4.30 p.m. on Wednesdays and Fridays, and 2.00–4.30 p.m. on Saturdays. He also usually attends one lecture per week, and classes in signalling and map-reading on free afternoons.

Mid-October 1914 At about this time, Tolkien begins to retell the story of Kullervo from the Kalevala ‘somewhat on the lines of [William] Morris’s romances with chunks of poetry in between’ (letter to Edith Bratt, [October 1914], Letters, p. 7; see *Kalevala). He briefly drafts variant outlines of the story, then writes in full, filling just over twenty-one sides of foolscap paper; but when the story is about three-quarters complete he leaves it unfinished and drafts its conclusion only in outline. (Later Tolkien will transform the story of Kullervo into the tale of Túrin Turambar, one of the most important episodes in his mythology; see *‘Of Túrin Turambar’.) Among these papers, on the opposite side of a sheet containing a rough re-working of one of the poems in his Story of Kullervo, is the earliest extant version of Tolkien’s poem May Day, already considerably developed; but see entry for 20–21 April 1915.

19 October 1914 At a meeting of the Stapeldon Society a hearty vote of confidence in all Exonians serving with His Majesty’s Forces is enthusiastically passed. When the issue of electing representatives for the Central Committee is raised, Tolkien points out that their election by the Stapeldon Society is, strictly speaking, out of order, but as there is no larger body left in the College due to the war the Society should arrogate to itself the right. The members discuss the redecoration of the Junior Common Room, and Tolkien is deputed to refer the matter to Reginald Blomfield, architect of the scheme.

c. 23 October 1914 Despite occasionally having to drill in the rain and to clean his rifle afterwards, the extra duty suits Tolkien. He writes to Edith: ‘Drill is a godsend. I have been up a fortnight nearly, and have not yet got a touch even of the real Oxford “sleepies”’ (quoted in Biography, p. 73).

27 October 1914 Tolkien is very active at a meeting of the Stapeldon Society, proposing a vote of censure, reporting a talk he had with the Sub-Rector concerning entertainment, and giving a warning to prospective officers. The Rector and Dr R.R. Marett lead a discussion of ‘Superman and International Law’ to which Tolkien also contributes. See note.

3 November 1914 At a meeting of the Stapeldon Society Tolkien gives the House interesting statistics from a pamphlet entitled A Bathman’s Memoirs. Three members of the Society, including Tolkien, recount the narrow escapes they have had from a freshman on a cyclometer. In a debate that follows, Tolkien proposes the motion: ‘This House approves of spelling reform.’ The motion carries, 7 to 6.

5 November 1914 Britain declares war on Turkey.

10 November 1914 At a meeting of the Stapeldon Society Tolkien tells a story, according to the minutes, ‘which could not possibly have offended the tender feeling of the House. It also had the merits of being true’ (Exeter College archives). In a debate that follows he speaks against the motion: ‘This House deprecates an ideal of nationalism.’ The motion carries, 12 to 7. – Christopher Wiseman writes to Tolkien, asking him to set aside a few days in the Christmas vacation to stay with him in London, when Gilson and Smith will also be able to come.

11 November 1914 Tolkien again borrows A Finnish Grammar by C.N.E. Eliot from the Exeter College library, presumably in conjunction with the essay he will read on 22 November, or with his work on The Story of Kullervo.

Before 15 November 1914 Tolkien writes to Wiseman, commenting on the power of the T.C.B.S. to shake the world.

15 November 1914 Wiseman writes to Tolkien, expressing a fear that the members of the T.C.B.S. – some now at Oxford, some at Cambridge – have been growing apart and no longer have the same interests. Nevertheless he does not think that either institution ‘can really have destroyed what made you and me the Twin Brethren in the good old school days before there was a T.C.B.S. apart from us and V[incent] T[rought].’ He is unhappy, but not judgemental, that Tolkien still has not told his friends the name of his fiancée.

16 November 1914 Tolkien writes an eight-page letter to Wiseman. He has read parts of a letter from Wiseman to Smith, and makes it clear that he too considers the friendship between himself and Wiseman to be ‘the great twin brotherhood … the vitality and fount of energy from which the T.C.B.S. derived its origin.’ He thinks that Wiseman’s feeling of growing apart has arisen partly because the four members have not been able to meet without other, less sympathetic people present, but also because he and Wiseman (unlike Gilson and Smith) have always discussed more fundamental matters with each other, and for both of them religion is at once their moving force and their foundation. He suggests that they discuss what unifies them, what is of supreme importance to them, and what are ‘allowable’ differences. For himself, religion, human love, the duty of patriotism, and a fierce belief in nationalism are of vital importance. He is ‘not of course a militarist, and ‘more & more [a] convinced Home Ruler’ (Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford). Some old college friends may be coming up next weekend, but he does want to see Wiseman, so the latter should come to Oxford when he can. – Also on this date, Wiseman writes again to say that Rob Gilson can attend a T.C.B.S. meeting on 12 December. He thinks that Gilson disagrees with Tolkien about the world-shaking power of the T.C.B.S., a point which should be fought out when they meet on the 12th.

17 November 1914 At a meeting of the Stapeldon Society Tolkien takes part in a debate, on the motion: ‘This House disapproves of a system of stringent economy in the present crisis.’ The motion carries, 11 to 5. The Society minutes do not record on which side of the issue Tolkien spoke.

22 November 1914 Tolkien reads an essay, On ‘The Kalevala’ or Land of Heroes, to a meeting of the Sundial Society at Corpus Christi College, in Mr Water’s rooms. When he first came upon the Kalevala, he said, he ‘crossed the gulf between the Indo-European-speaking peoples of Europe into the smaller realm of those who cling in quiet corners to the forgotten tongues and memories of an elder day’. The ‘mythological ballads’ that comprise the Kalevala ‘are full of that very primitive undergrowth that the literature of Europe has on the whole been cutting away and reducing for centuries with different and earlier completeness in different peoples’ (Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford). See note. At the same meeting, G.B. Smith is elected president of the society for the coming term.

24 November 1914 The Stapeldon Society meets.

27 November 1914 Tolkien works in the morning, drills and attends a lecture in the afternoon, has dinner with T.W. Earp (then Secretary of the Exeter College Essay Club), and attends a meeting of the Essay Club in Mr Bedwell’s rooms. At the latter the Reverend G.H. Fendick reads a paper on T.E. Brown, reviewing his activities as a schoolmaster and poet; a keen discussion follows. Several members then read poems they themselves have written; Tolkien reads his Voyage of Éarendel. Later that evening, Tolkien writes to Edith, describing his day. The Essay Club meeting was ‘an informal kind of last gasp’ (the Club has been meeting only intermittently, due to the war). He found the Essay Club paper ‘bad’ but the discussion interesting. ‘It was also composition meeting and I read “Earendel” which was well criticised’ (Letters, p. 8). – Probably inspired by his visit to Cornwall in August, Tolkien begins to rewrite and greatly extend his poem The Grimness of the Sea (first composed in 1912).

28 November 1914 Rob Gilson joins the Cambridgeshire (11th) Battalion, Suffolk Regiment as a second lieutenant.

?Late 1914 Tolkien writes in his St John Street rooms a long poem concerning Eärendel (now so spelt), in which Eärendel is a mariner who wanders earthly seas, a figure of ancient lore whose tales are bound up with those of the fairies (or Elves, as the poem will be later emended). On the back of one of the earliest workings of the poem is an outline of a great voyage by Eärendel to all points of the compass on earth, but also to ‘a golden city’ later identified as the Elvish city Kôr, before setting sail in the sky as in The Voyage of Éarendel the Evening Star. Tolkien’s mythology is rapidly developing in his imagination, becoming broad and deep and taking on enduring features. Later he will divide the first part of the long poem, *The Bidding of the Minstrel, from its second part, to be entitled The Mermaid’s Flute. – Emily Jane Suffield, Tolkien’s maternal grandmother, dies.

Late 1914 Tolkien begins to create, or continues to work on, his ‘nonsense fairy language’ (Qenya), as he will later refer to it (letter to Edith Bratt, 2 March 1916, Letters, p. 8).

December 1914 Tolkien rewrites his poem Outside (first composed in December 1913). – The Stapeldon Magazine for December 1914 comments on changes the war has brought to Oxford. Bugles are heard in the morning; many undergraduates wear uniform to lectures; colleges have been partly taken over as barracks; many rooms are empty since their occupants have enlisted; the Parks are full of troops drilling, and there are convalescent soldiers and Belgian refugees in the streets. All who able to do so have joined the Officers Training Corps. Regular or organized games are impossible. ‘All other games have been neglected in preparation for the “Greater Game”’ (p. 104). – G.B. Smith joins the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry.

2 December 1914 The Stapeldon Society meets.

4 December 1914 Tolkien continues to rewrite his poem The Grimness of the Sea, now giving it a new title, The Tides. He inscribes the current manuscript ‘On the Cornish Coast’.

5 December 1914 Michaelmas Full Term ends.

12–13 December 1914 Tolkien attends a T.C.B.S. meeting or ‘council’ at the Wiseman family home in London. The friends know that they will soon be involved in the war and want to regain their former closeness. They spend much of the weekend sitting around a gas fire, smoking and talking. They all have ambitions in literature, art, or music, and feel that they gain inspiration from each other. Tolkien will later refer to the ‘hope and ambitions … that first became conscious at the Council of London. That Council was … followed in my own case with my finding a voice for all kind of pent up things and a tremendous opening up of everything for me: – I have always laid that to the credit of the inspiration that even a few hours with the four always brought to us’ (letter to G.B. Smith, 12 August 1916, Letters, p. 10).

16 December 1914 The German navy bombards the English coast, attacking Scarborough, Whitby, and Hartlepool.

21 December 1914 Tolkien writes a poem, Dark.

22 December 1914 Tolkien writes a poem, Ferrum et Sanguis: 1914 (i.e. ‘Iron and Blood’).

27 December 1914 Tolkien paints in The Book of Ishness an elaborate watercolour, The Land of Pohja (Artist and Illustrator, fig. 41), inspired by the Kalevala story of the magician Väinämöinen whose music entices the Moon to settle in a birch-tree and the Sun in a fir-tree; when the Moon and Sun are captured by Louhi, the evil Mistress of Pohja (or Pohjola), darkness and frost descend on the world. This episode foreshadows, perhaps, Tolkien’s pivotal tale in *‘The Silmarillion’ of the destruction of the Two Trees, the theft of the Silmarils, and the Darkening of Valinor. The Land of Pohja continues the theme of darkness already expressed by Tolkien in the poems Dark and Ferrum et Sanguis.


1915 (#ulink_3e254049-bf8d-5fae-ad5b-04c2b34d2f76)

?Early 1915 Mary Jane Tolkien, Tolkien’s paternal grandmother, dies.

January 1915 Tolkien writes a poem, As Two Fair Trees, perhaps to celebrate the anniversary of his reunion with Edith. – He revises his poem The Tides, now called Sea-Chant of an Elder Day.

17 January 1915 Hilary Full Term begins.

Hilary Term 1915 Tolkien attends the continuation of A.S. Napier’s lectures on Pearl on Tuesdays at 12.00 noon in the Ashmolean Museum, beginning 26 January, and on Beowulf on Thursdays and Saturdays at 12.00 noon in the Ashmolean, beginning 21 January. He also attends Sir Walter Raleigh’s lectures on Drama in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 11.00 a.m. at Magdalen College, beginning 19 January. If he has not done so already in 1914, he now attends W.A. Craigie’s lectures on Hrafnkel’s Saga on Thursdays at 5.00 p.m. in the Taylor Institution, beginning 21 January. He probably continues to have a weekly tutorial with Kenneth Sisam, and probably attends Sisam’s lectures on English Poetry before the Norman Conquest on Saturdays at 11.00 a.m. in the Ashmolean, beginning 23 January. He possibly attends lectures by Sir John Rhys on Welsh on Tuesdays and Fridays at 6.00 p.m. at Jesus College, beginning 22 January.

Hilary and Trinity Terms 1915 Tolkien is President of the Junior Common Room.

25 January 1915 At a meeting of the Stapeldon Society a member proposes that a key to the baths at Exeter College should be placed in a glass case to provide for the possibility of Zeppelin raiders (presumably, so that the baths can be used for shelter). Tolkien is among those who oppose the motion, which fails. The members strongly disapprove of the curtailment of baths as a method of economy. Tolkien tells the House that the Bursar believes that half the College is unwashed, and if the baths were closed down the other half might become likewise. The minutes record that ‘Class II O.T.C. [Officers Training Corps] in the person of Mr Tolkien then gave Class I and others valuable hints on drilling a boy entitled “Jones best ever ready word of command, always useful, will never wear out, Hip hop!”’ (Exeter College archives).

February 1915 Tolkien reads to the Exeter College Essay Club the essay on the Kalevala he had earlier read to the Sundial Society (22 November 1914).

1 February 1915 The Stapeldon Society meets.

8 February 1915 Tolkien attends a meeting of the Stapeldon Society. The members discuss the tearing up of troublesome tram lines by the Oxford Town Clerk. They decide that the Secretary should write to applaud his actions, and ask for the gift of a tram rail or even a portion of one.

15 February 1915 The Stapeldon Society meets.

22 February 1915 Tolkien attends a meeting of the Stapeldon Society. The Town Clerk has given them a seven-foot length of tram rail. The minutes of the meeting will read:



On the motion of Mr Tolkien it was carried (a) that it should be present at the last meeting in every term (b) that it should be carried in procession to the new Pres[ident]’s rooms by the first year [i.e. the first-year members] (c) that every Pres[ident]’s name should be engraved upon it. The House then adjourned to the quad and a procession was formed headed by the officers, who were followed by the tram line supported by selected members of the first year followed by the rest of the house in order of precedence, slowly and steadfastly round the quad, the first year stentoriously breathing, the rest all singing a mournful dirge alternating with Tipperary [the song ‘It’s a long way to Tipperary’]. When they reached the foot of the staircase enthusiasm grew apace and the line was soon safely deposited under the Pres[ident]’s bed. [Exeter College archives]

March 1915 At a meeting of the Exeter College Essay Club Tolkien reads a further revised version of his poem Sea-Chant of an Elder Day; but when sending a typed copy of the work to G.B. Smith during this month, the title becomes Sea-Song of an Elder Day. Possibly at the same time, he paints in The Book of Ishness a watercolour entitled Water, Wind & Sand (Artist and Illustrator, fig. 42) and inscribes on the facing page ‘Illustration to Sea-Song of an Elder Day’. The small figure enclosed in a white sphere in the foreground of the painting may be the seed from which the ‘Silmarillion’ frame-story emerged, that the poem was the song that Tuor sang to his son Eärendel in their exile after the fall of Gondolin. – Tolkien writes a poem for Edith, Sparrow-song (Bilink) (later simply Sparrow Song). The word bilink will later occur in a lexicon of his invented language Gnomish, in the form bilin, bilinc ‘a small bird, esp. sparrow’.

1 March 1915 The Stapeldon Society meets. – Rob Gilson writes to Tolkien, urging him to attend a T.C.B.S. meeting at Cambridge on the weekend of 6–7 March.

2 March 1915 Christopher Wiseman writes to Tolkien, urging him to come to the T.C.B.S. meeting. He is sure that he can get him rooms in college. G.B. Smith is to attend, and if they do not take this opportunity Wiseman does not know when the four will be able to gather together again.

6 March 1915 Tolkien having failed to reply to their letters, Gilson and Wiseman send him a telegram, in jest claiming his resignation from the T.C.B.S. unless he appears at the weekend. – In the event, he does not go to Cambridge.

8 March 1915 Tolkien rewrites his poem Dark (first composed in December 1914), now with the alternate title Copernicus v. Ptolemy or Copernicus and Ptolemy. He shares it with Wiseman and Smith, who will mention it in letters of 15 April and ?25 March respectively. – Tolkien attends a meeting of the Stapeldon Society. He is recorded as making criticisms of the minutes.

?10 (possibly, less likely 17) March 1915 G.B. Smith writes to Tolkien (see note) from Magdalen College, Oxford, where he is billeted with the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. Tolkien has sent him either the whole poem concerning Eärendel that he wrote late in 1914, or the first part to which he will later give the title The Bidding of the Minstrel. Smith thinks that it is very good, except that it tails off at the end. He asks Tolkien to send him typewritten copies of his poems, which after reading he will send on to Gilson if Tolkien wishes. He is having typed the poem he intends to enter for the annual Newdigate Prize for poetry (established 1806; the set topic in 1915 was ‘Glastonbury’).

10–11 March 1915 Tolkien writes a poem, Why the Man in the Moon Came Down Too Soon (An East Anglian Phantasy) (*The Man in the Moon Came Down Too Soon), later prefixed A Faërie.

11 March 1915 Wiseman writes to Tolkien, adding comments from Gilson as they reread one of Tolkien’s letters. Tolkien seems to have explained that his failure to reply immediately to their letters of 1 and 2 March was due to the fact that he has set a specific day in the week for answering letters. They wonder why Tolkien is so often the one absent from T.C.B.S. meetings, and describe what he missed in Cambridge the previous weekend. Tolkien has evidently suggested a three-day meeting on a weekend early in Trinity Term. Wiseman explains that as his mother is recovering from an operation he does not think that they can meet at his home in London; they might meet instead at a hotel in the Cotswolds. Gilson adds a postscript that in order to obtain leave from the Army he needs to know early to plan his weekend leaves.

13 March 1915 Hilary Full Term ends.

Easter vacation 1915 Tolkien spends most or possibly all of his vacation in Warwick. He probably adds another watercolour, Tanaqui, to The Book of Ishness: this seems to depict Kôr, in Tolkien’s mythology the shining city of the Elves in Eldamar, about which he will write a poem on 30 April. The painting agrees with the poem, but also shows details such as the slender silver tower of the house of Inwë ‘shooting skyward like a needle’ which Tolkien will not describe in writing until several years later in *The Book of Lost Tales.

?15 (possibly, less likely, 22) March 1915 Smith writes to Tolkien. He is very glad to have received Tolkien’s typed verses, and comments on The Sea-Song of an Elder Day, Outside, As Two Fair Trees, and Why the Man in the Moon Came Down Too Soon.

17–18 March 1915 Tolkien reworks the latter part of the Eärendel poem of ?late 1914 as an independent work entitled The Mermaid’s Flute. This may be in response to comments made by Smith in his letter of ?10 March.

?Spring 1915 Probably no earlier than spring 1915 Tolkien begins to make a systematic record of his invented language Qenya in a small notebook previously used for notes on Gothic, which he will now continue to use for several years. He will call this *Qenyaqetsa. Eventually the book will contain a phonology and a lexicon, both heavily worked.

22 March 1915 Gilson writes to Tolkien, explaining that he can get leave only every other week, and cannot keep holding weekends open for a meeting of the T.C.B.S. He asks Tolkien to let him know at once, if possible, which weekends are best for him.

?25 March 1915 Smith writes to Tolkien. He has shown Tolkien’s verses to their friend and fellow Oxford poet *H.T. Wade-Gery, who thinks Why the Man in the Moon Came Down Too Soon and As Two Fair Trees very good, but that Sea-Chant of an Elder Day though good in places is too exaggerated. He also approves of Copernicus and Ptolemy (Dark). Smith sends Tolkien the poem he intends to submit for the Newdigate Prize, ‘Glastonbury’. He will send Tolkien’s poems and his own to Gilson as soon as he can. He cannot arrange a meeting of the T.C.B.S. unless Tolkien comes to Oxford for Easter (Easter Sunday 1915 was on 4 April). He thinks that his battalion will be leaving before 12 April, and he cannot get leave before then.

26 March 1915 (postmark) Wiseman replies to a postcard from Tolkien. He thinks it doubtful that he can attend a T.C.B.S. meeting on 11 or 17 April.

30 March 1915 (postmark) Wiseman, now at Cleeve Hill, Cheltenham, writes to Tolkien, proposing a T.C.B.S. meeting on 18 April in Tolkien’s St John Street rooms. He relies on Tolkien to arrange this with his landlady.

31 March 1915 Gilson writes to Tolkien that he has received his poems safely (via Smith) but has not yet read them. Wiseman has told him that a T.C.B.S. meeting on 18 April at Oxford has been settled.

April 1915 Tolkien writes in a notebook, which he dates to this month, notes on The Owl and the Nightingale, chiefly about its vocabulary.

?3 April 1915 Smith writes to Tolkien. He is unwell and sick at heart, but finds consolation in Tolkien’s letters and his comments on Smith’s Newdigate Prize entry. He has now forwarded to Gilson Tolkien’s poems, except the ‘“Earendel” things’. He thinks that Tolkien’s verse ‘is very apt to get too complicated and twisted and to be most damned difficult to make out’; The Mermaid’s Flute is rather bad in this respect (Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford). He would like Tolkien to make his verse more lucid without losing its luxuriance, and suggests that he read shorter lyrics by William Blake as an example of the clear and simple. He does not know if he will be in Oxford on 18 April.

4 April 1915 Tolkien writes to Wiseman (letter not seen).

5 April 1915 (postmark) Wiseman again writes to Tolkien, repeating his message of 30 March.

6 April 1915 Tolkien sends a postcard to Wiseman (not seen).

10 April 1915 Tolkien writes to Wiseman, possibly giving news about Smith (letter not seen). Wiseman replies at once that he now received Tolkien’s messages of 4, 6, and 10 April. He has advised Smith to ask for leave next week.

12 April 1915 Smith writes to Tolkien from his home in West Bromwich that he is on sick leave, and will not be able to attend the T.C.B.S. meeting on 18 April. He is trying to arrange a transfer into a battalion which Tolkien could also join after his examinations. Before Tolkien receives this letter, he sends a telegram (contents unknown) to Wiseman, who finds it disturbing.

13 April 1915 Wiseman sends a telegram to Tolkien in Warwick, asking what arrangements he has made for their Oxford ‘council’ as problems have arisen. In a letter written the same day, he explains that Gilson has been ill since 6 April and it will be very difficult for him to get leave the next weekend. If Gilson cannot attend, Wiseman’s mother would welcome the smaller group at Cleeve Hill; if Smith also cannot attend, the meeting will not take place.

14 April 1915 Gilson writes to Tolkien from Marston Green, where he has been on sick leave. He will return to his battalion on Friday, 16 April, and there is no possibility of getting leave for the weekend. He believes that Wiseman is now trying to arrange a meeting in Cambridge.

15 April 1915 Wiseman writes to Tolkien. The ‘Council of Oxford’ must be abandoned. He has received Tolkien’s poems via Gilson and has nearly finished a musical setting for Wood-sunshine. He asks Tolkien to spend the next weekend with him and his family.

15–16 April 1915 Tolkien writes a poem, Courage Speaks with the Love of Earth. The title will be changed to Courage Speaks with a Child of Earth, and later to Now and Ever and The Two Riders.

16 April 1915 Wiseman receives a postcard from Tolkien indicating that the latter will not be able to visit the Wisemans at the weekend.

?19 April 1915 Smith replies to a note from Tolkien. He is soon to join the 8th Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Regiment at No. 1 Camp, Sutton Veny, Wiltshire. By now, he has applied to transfer to the 19th Battalion of the *Lancashire Fusiliers, but is not yet able to join them at their training camp in Wales. He is not sure if he can get Tolkien a commission in the battalion he hopes to join, but will do his best. Apparently in response to doubts expressed by Tolkien, he gives arguments in favour of Tolkien enlisting as soon as he has taken his degree in June: these include better prospects for choosing a battalion, and Army pay.

20–21 April 1915 Tolkien writes this date on a manuscript of his poem May Day (later called May Day in a Backward Year and May-day).

22 April 1915 Tolkien rewrites his poem Evening (first composed in March 1910). Later he will give it a new title, Completorium.

25 April 1915 Trinity Full Term begins.

Trinity Term 1915 Tolkien probably attends the conclusion of A.S. Napier’s lectures on Beowulf on Thursdays and Saturdays at 12.00 noon in the Ashmolean Museum, beginning 1 May, and on Pearl on Tuesdays at 12.00 noon in the Ashmolean Museum, beginning 4 May. He possibly attends *H.F.B. Brett-Smith’s lectures on Shakespeare on Tuesdays at 11.00 a.m. at Corpus Christi College, beginning 27 April; D. Nichol Smith’s lectures on Dryden on Wednesdays and Fridays at 12.00 noon in the Ashmolean Museum, beginning 28 April; and Percy Simpson’s lectures on Elizabethan Drama on Mondays at 11.00 a.m. in Oriel College, beginning 26 April. He probably continues to have a weekly tutorial with Kenneth Sisam. Although his final examinations are fast approaching he will find time to write several poems in the early part of the term. – Wiseman writes to Tolkien with comments on his poems, which Wiseman has discussed with Gilson this afternoon. He says that Smith is enthusiastic about them, while he himself is ‘wildly braced…. I can’t think where you get all your amazing words from’ (Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford). He refers to Copernicus and Ptolemy, Earendel, Why the Man in the Moon Came Down Too Soon, From Iffley (From the Many-Willow’d Margin of the Immemorial Thames), As Two Fair Trees, and Wood-sunshine. – British, Australian, and New Zealand troops land on the Gallipoli peninsula.

27–28 April 1915 In his rooms at 59 St John Street, Tolkien writes two poems, You & Me and the Cottage of Lost Play (*The Little House of Lost Play: Mar Vanwa Tyaliéva) and *Goblin Feet. The first, evidently influenced by thoughts of Edith, introduces the ‘Cottage of Lost Play’ which will be the setting of much of the story-telling in The Book of Lost Tales. Goblin Feet seems to have been merely a fairy poem written to please Edith. Later Tolkien will come to dislike it, with its images of tiny fairies (rejected in his mythology), and wish that it could be buried and forgotten, but now he submits it (with You & Me and the Cottage of Lost Play) to the annual volume of Oxford Poetry, co-edited by T.W. Earp. Of the two poems, only Goblin Feet will be chosen for publication.

29–30 April 1915 Tolkien writes a poem, *Tinfang Warble, only eight lines long. He will later rewrite and lengthen it.

30 April 1915 Tolkien writes the poem Kôr: In a City Lost and Dead (*The City of the Gods). Its ‘sable hill’ and ‘marble temples white’ (*The Book of Lost Tales, Part One, p. 136) agree with the watercolour Tanaqui painted during Easter vacation 1915.

2 May 1915 Tolkien revises his poem Darkness on the Road (first composed in November 1911). He also makes a fair copy of his poem The Mermaid’s Flute.

3 May 1915 Tolkien writes a poem, Morning Song, a revision of Morning (composed in March 1910). – At about this time he has several of his poems typed by the copying office of William Hunt at 18 Broad Street, Oxford, and the typescripts stapled in a booklet. – The Stapeldon Society meets.

10 May 1915 On one page of The Book of Ishness Tolkien paints a watercolour, another view of the Elvish city Kôr (Artist and Illustrator, fig. 44). The city is framed by two dying trees from whose branches grow a crescent Moon and a blazing Sun – an early, visual expression of the Two Trees which will become an essential feature in Tolkien’s mythology – while in the sky is a single star. On the opposite blank (verso) page of the book Tolkien writes ‘The Shores of Faery’. (See further, entry for 8–9 July 1915 and related note.)

?Mid-May 1915 Probably at about the same time, on the next opening in The Book of Ishness Tolkien paints a watercolour described on the facing page as ‘Illustr[ation]: To “Man in the Moon”’ (Artist and Illustrator, fig. 45), and underneath this inscription he writes out four lines of the poem he had composed in March: Why the Man in the Moon Came Down Too Soon. When he comes to describe the vessel of the Moon in The Book of Lost Tales some four years later, he apparently will look back to this picture for inspiration (‘Rods there were and perchance they were of ice, and they rose upon it like aëry masts, and sails were caught to them by slender threads’, The Book of Lost Tales, Part One (1983), p. 192).

?14 May 1915 G.B. Smith writes to Tolkien. He is now in the 19th Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers, temporarily at the Grand Hotel, Penmaenmawr, Wales. Needing a Welsh grammar, he asks Tolkien to send his (Smith’s) copy if he has it, or to buy him a new one, or to sell him Tolkien’s own Welsh grammar. He expects that Tolkien will send him Georgian Poetry, and asks Tolkien to show some of Smith’s verses to the editor of Oxford Poetry 1915.

17 May 1915 Tolkien apparently is absent from a meeting of the Stapeldon Society, since T.W. Earp will be reported as having spoken on his behalf.

22 May 1915 Tolkien attends an eight-course dinner given by a fellow student at Exeter College, E.E. St L. Hill, for friends before the latter joins the 19th Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers. Tolkien obtains many signatures on his printed menu.

23 May 1915 Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary. – W.E. Hall of Exeter College is killed near Krithia, Turkey during the Dardanelles (Gallipoli) campaign.

28 May 1915 The Psittakoi, an Oxford student society of which T.W. Earp is president, meets in R.H. Barrow’s rooms at Exeter College. Tolkien gives a paper on The Quest of Beauty and Other Poems by *H.R. Freston. See note.

?29 May (?5 June) 1915 Smith writes to Tolkien. He has been reading Georgian Poetry as well as another book Tolkien has sent him, apparently on medieval scripts.

31 May 1915 Zeppelins bomb London for the first time.

Before 10 June 1915 Tolkien borrows from the Exeter College library the Cambridge History of English Literature and introductions to Dryden, Keats, and Shakespeare. See note.

?10 June 1915 Smith writes to Tolkien, who has asked advice on being posted to Smith’s regiment. Smith suggests that Tolkien write to Colonel Stainforth of the 19th Lancashire Fusiliers, and ask if Stainforth will consider his application for a commission. If he is successful, Smith will do his best to get Tolkien into his hut and company.



I think it is quite on the cards that I shall be in Birmingham next week, because I have toothache like Satan himself, and must see my dentist. I am strongly in favour of your going to Allports’, Cotmore Row for your clothing. They are no dearer and far and away better than anybody outside London, or perhaps inside it. I have worn these clothes hard and solid ever since I had them, and there are no signs of wearing out. Now you have one uniform, and the most you want is another tunic, a pair of slacks, perhaps a pair of breeches, and perhaps a British Warm. If you can get slacks under 35/- you will be a genius; and breeches are Allports’ extra special article. If you could manage to be in Birmingham during the next week we might visit that distinguished emporium together…. It is most important to buy only the darkest stuffs for breeches and Warm, because the [Commanding Officer] here hates anything light….

As to Camp Kit. You want a bed, bath & washstand (they can be dispensed with), a sleeping-bag (preferably Jaeger, 35/- also) a blanket or two, and a kit-bag. Avoid a ‘valise’. But don’t get these until I let you know the best place, as to wh[ich] I will enquire…. [Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford]

Smith confirms, apparently in reply to a query, that Tolkien’s copy of a book on Keats which he now cannot find was mistakenly included in the parcel of books he sent to Smith.

10 June 1915 Examinations for the Honour School of English Language and Literature at Oxford begin with papers set at 9.30 a.m. and 2.00 p.m. in the Sheldonian Theatre. Each paper lasts three hours. According to the Oxford Regulations of the Board of Studies all candidates in the English School are to take papers 1–4, and those specializing in English Language also take papers A5–9, as well as a tenth paper chosen from a list of Special Subjects. On 10 June at 9.30 a.m. Tolkien sits Paper 1: Beowulf and Other Old English Texts. There is no choice of question. The first two questions require translation of extracts, with comments sought on six of the seven extracts in the first question and one of the four extracts in the second question. In addition, there are seven questions on topics such as the historical background of Beowulf, metrical types, and Old English grammar. – At 2.00 p.m. Tolkien sits Paper 2: Middle English Authors. There is no choice of question. The first three questions require translation of extracts, with comments sought on two of the five extracts in the first question, one of the six extracts in the second question, and one of the six extracts in the third question. There are also five questions mainly expanding upon the extracts. See note.

11 June 1915 The Examinations continue. At 9.30 a.m. Tolkien sits Paper 3: Chaucer. There are ten miscellaneous questions about Chaucer’s poetry and prose, with no restriction on the number to be answered. – At 2.00 p.m. Tolkien sits Paper 4: Shakespeare. There are eleven very miscellaneous questions on Shakespeare’s life, times, and writings, with no restriction on the number to be answered. – Smith replies to a letter from Tolkien. He is delighted about ‘a notable achievement’ (Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford), and asks if they should keep it secret from Gilson and Wiseman until it can be shown to them in concrete form. (His meaning, probably, is that both Tolkien and Smith have poems being considered for publication in Oxford Poetry 1915.) He urges Tolkien to write at once to Colonel Stainforth. Smith will be in Birmingham from 16 to 18 June if Tolkien wants to see him.

12 June 1915 The Examinations continue. At 9.30 a.m. Tolkien sits Paper A5: History of English Literature. There are twelve questions, with no limit as to the number to be answered: one each on Old English poetry; Arthurian legend; Langland and Chaucer; William Caxton as writer and translator; Christopher Marlowe; Milton’s Comus and Paradise Lost; John Dryden; the heroic couplet; the periodical essay; Thomas Gray; Sir Walter Scott as a novelist; and Wordsworth’s influence on his contemporaries. – At 2.00 p.m. Tolkien sits Paper A6: Historical English Grammar. There are seventeen questions, and candidates are asked not to attempt more than ten. While most of the questions are philological, some are about general influences on the development of the English language.

14 June 1915 The Examinations continue. At 9.30 a.m. Tolkien sits Paper A7: Gothic and Germanic Philology. The first question requires the translation of four of six extracts from the Gothic Gospel of St Mark. Candidates are asked to attempt no more than nine of the thirteen questions that follow, all strictly philological. – At 2.00 p.m. Tolkien sits Paper A8: Old English and Middle English Set-Books. (See the list of set texts above, preceding the entry for 20 April 1913.) There is no choice of question. The first three questions require translation of extracts, with comments sought on four of the five extracts in the first question, and on the single extract in the second question. The third question requires the translation of four extracts, to which questions 4–6 are related.

15 June 1915 The Examinations continue. At 9.30 a.m. Tolkien sits Paper A9: Old English and Middle English Unseen Translations. The first question requires the translation of five Old English extracts, and a short note on the class of poetry to which one of the extracts belongs. The second question asks for five Middle English extracts to be turned into Modern English, and for comments on two of them. The third question asks for a comparison of the language of an early Middle English extract with late Old English, and comments on the chief differences. – At 2.00 p.m. Tolkien sits Paper A10: Scandinavian Philology, his Special Subject. There is no choice of question. The first question requires four passages to be translated into English; the second question, three passages with explanatory notes. Ten further questions are mainly philological, but one is on Old Icelandic metre and poetic diction, and another asks the candidate to contrast Icelandic saga-writing of the classical period with Middle English literature of the same date. – At some date after the papers are completed, Tolkien will also have to face a viva (oral examination).

19 June 1915 Trinity Full Term ends.

?20 June 1915 G.B. Smith replies to a letter from Tolkien, who apparently has written to Colonel Stainforth. Tolkien is sure to get through the medical examination. Smith had an excellent time in Birmingham, during which he made enquiries on Tolkien’s behalf. He writes further about camp kit:



You will want a bed, bath-and-washstand, sleeping-bag, and at least two blankets or rugs; also a hair (not an air) or down pillow, and I rather advise a mattress (cork), and a few other things.

Thus:



Bed

Bath-and-washstand

Sleeping-bag

2 rugs

Down pillow

Mattress

Soap-box

Hooks for tent-pole

Ground-sheet (optional)



To carry these I should get:

1 good sized canvas kit-bag, of the sack shape (the others, like a cricket-bag, are nicer but dear).

1 tin box for underclothes, but don’t spend too much on it, or get too large an one, as they are allowed only within these islands. Do not get a valise, until you are obliged to. I hate them, and mine cost me the hell of a sum. Also bring a small bag or suit-case.

Add 1 steel shaving mirror (price 1/6). All else seems to me unnecessary. My table and chairs I intend to be soap-boxes bought on the spot, also I mean to bring an honest tin bucket.

Now you might get all this very cheap at the Birmingham Household Supply Assn. in Corporation Street. I should perhaps get a Jaeger sleeping-bag at Allports, if you want a nice article. Don’t forget towels and a Burberry. I think I would get everything as cheap as you can: I mean beds, etc. The B.H.S.A. did me quite well.

I think this is all I need tell you at present. Except to keep perfectly calm, and correspond with me as much as possible. By the way, make Allports get you the same buttons as they got me: they will know which they are. And do be careful not to get bright breeches or a bright British Warm. The breeches I have just ordered from them are light-weight Bedford cord, rather nice I think.

I don’t know how you are off for boots. I don’t know a good place in B[irming]ham either. I always buy shoes at Day’s, and they are good enough, but their boots feed me. I have tried Manfield but don’t think much. Maybe you know better than I do. The best pair I have had are a good pair I believe to be K5. I think unless you can find a good make these much-advertised makes are not bad. You don’t want more than 2 or at most 3 pairs, and a pair of shoes.

If you want a wrist-watch, I strongly advise Greaves. They are like Allports, of an assured reputation, and prodigious age. My grandfather went there, which always means that they are rather dear and very reliable. I got a very good 40/- silver watch: I shouldn’t pay less. You may get a gold one for £3 or so: they are very nice. But I wouldn’t worry about luminous things.

Binoculars and prismatic compasses, very dear, may be obtained, unless you decide to wait, which you may quite well do, at Lucking’s. Straight-through Lemaire glasses are supposed to be as good as binoculars, and are less expensive.

Get your Sam Browne made with D rings at the back if you can, so as to carry your mackintosh. And get a mackintosh-carrier fitted with swivels, not a sling. The shops will know what I mean, if you don’t. Get a haversack (a thin and light one) fitted with ditto, to hand on the belt, also a water-bottle; I should get these at the B.H.S.A. also, if possible. The water-bottle is not strictly essential: I’ve lost mine! The idea is you see to attach all these things to the belt when one goes on marches etc. by swivels: not to have them slung independently over the shoulders. But don’t worry if you can’t get these in B[irming]ham: just leave it, and don’t get any at all. Except of course your Sam Browne, which can be altered afterwards…. [Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford; see note]

28 June 1915 Tolkien applies for a temporary commission in the regular Army for the period of the war. He lists his service in the Oxford University Officers Training Corps since October 1914, and in the King Edward’s Horse from October 1911 to January 1913. He requests to be posted to the 19th Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers, though the form makes it clear that there is no guarantee of appointment to a particular unit. – Smith, now at Brough Hall Camp, Catterick Bridge, near Richmond in Yorkshire, writes to Tolkien. Colonel Stainforth evidently has offered Tolkien a place in his battalion, and Smith urges him to write again to Stainforth, to learn if he wants Tolkien to join the unit at once or wait until gazetted (i.e. until his commission is made official by announcement in The Times). He pledges again that he will try to get Tolkien into his company, but doubts that he will succeed. Tolkien can bring a book or two and some paints with him when he enters the Army, as long as they are portable.

29 June 1915 Tolkien has his Army medical examination. He declares that he has never suffered from any serious illness or injury.

30 June 1915 Captain Whatley of the Oxford University Officers Training Corps certifies Tolkien’s Army application. Tolkien is accepted and given £50 to buy a uniform and equipment. He has to wait a few days before his commission is gazetted.

July 1915 Tolkien spends time in Warwick and visits his relatives at Moseley and Barnt Green. He probably also visits Father Francis Morgan in Birmingham. – Tolkien writes to Rob Gilson. In the event, he will not receive a reply until September.

2 July 1915 A list of candidates for the Literis Anglicis examination, Trinity Term 1915, includes ‘Tolkien, Joannes R.R.’ under Classis I (First Class). The list is signed by A.S. Napier, *C.H. Firth, D. Nichol Smith, and *H.C. Wyld. An announcement of Tolkien’s First Class Honours will appear in the Times for 3 July.

4 July 1915 Smith sends congratulations to Tolkien at 57 Emscot Road, Warwick on ‘one of the highest distinctions an Englishman can obtain’ (Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford).

8–9 July 1915 Tolkien writes (or possibly revises) a poem, The Shores of Faery, putting into words the scene he had painted two months earlier in The Book of Ishness (see entry for 10 May). It refers to ‘the two Trees naked are / That bear Night’s silver bloom, / That bear the globed fruit of Noon’, and to Eärendel, ‘one lone star / That fled before the moon’. The ship of Earéndel (spelled thus) and the Two Trees appear, as well as significant names such as Taniquetil, Valinor, and Eglamar. Possibly around the same time, certainly not much later, Tolkien writes the poem into The Book of Ishness, on the page facing the painting, blank except for the words ‘The Shores of Faery’. Probably soon afterward he makes slight changes to the manuscript, then records the poem in emended form in a notebook of fair copies, with the date ‘July 8–9 1915’. With the latter manuscript is a prose preface in which Tolkien describes Eärendel as ‘the Wanderer who beat about the Oceans of the World’ and eventually launched his ship on ‘the Oceans of the Firmament’ but was hunted by the Moon and fled back to Valinor where he gazed at the Oceans of the World from the towers of Kôr. Tolkien will later inscribe typescripts of the poem ‘Moseley & Edgb[aston] July 1915 (walking and on bus). Retouched often since – esp[ecially] 1924’ and ‘First poem of my mythology Valinor [?thought of about] 1910’. See note.

9 July 1915 Tolkien writes a poem, The Princess Ní. He will inscribe a later typescript ‘Moseley B’ham [Birmingham] Bus between Edgb[aston]. and Moseley July 1915’. – G.B. Smith writes to Tolkien at Abbotsford, Moseley, Birmingham (the home of Tolkien’s Aunt Mabel and her husband Tom Mitton), again suggesting that he ask Stainforth what he wants him to do, and giving him more advice about equipment. The War Office will write to him when he is gazetted. He is very pleased that Tolkien got a First at Oxford. He suggests books that Tolkien should bring with him: one on oriental painting; 1914 and Other Poems by Rupert Brooke, and anything else by Brooke; Georgian Poetry; Browne’s Religio Medici and Urn Burial; Sir Philip Sidney’s Defence of Poesie; and Sir Francis Bacon’s Essays. He should get the earlier books in editions with old spelling. – The War Office writes to Tolkien c/o Father Francis Morgan at the Birmingham Oratory. Tolkien has been appointed a temporary Second Lieutenant in the New Army and has been posted to the 13th Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers, a reserve training unit; but prior to joining his battalion he is to attend a class of instruction at *Bedford, and is to report to a Colonel Tobin at 20 de Parys Avenue, Bedford on 19 July between 2.00 and 4.00 p.m. He is to provide himself with bedding and to join in uniform (if ready). He should apply to his Army agents for his outfit allowance but must pay his own travelling expenses. – When he receives this letter Tolkien is very disappointed that he has not been posted to the same battalion as Smith. He writes to Smith to inform him, and also to Christopher Wiseman, telling him of his posting and that he will be visiting relatives in Moseley and Barnt Green.

11 July 1915 Tolkien drafts and probably sends a letter from Abbotsford to a Mr How at Exeter College. He has to report to Bedford on 19 July so will be unable to receive his degree on 20 July. He will be sending a cheque to cover what he owes for battels and asks what ‘caution money’ he needs to pay to keep his name on the College’s books and eventually receive an M.A. He also asks how he should authorize the transfer of the Junior Common Room bank account to the new President of the JCR when one is elected; uncertainty as to who might be in College next term or whether such an official would be needed had made it impossible for him to settle the matter before he left. – Christopher Wiseman writes to Tolkien. Having seen a notice that the Navy wants mathematicians as instructors, he is now awaiting the formal notice of his appointment from the Admiralty. He asks to see more of Tolkien’s poems.

13 July 1915 Smith writes to Tolkien at Abbotsford, Moseley, Birmingham (forwarded on 15 July to Tolkien at the Incledons, Barnt Green). He advises Tolkien to write to the Colonel of the 13th Battalion, and to Colonel Stainforth of the 19th, asking if his posting to the 13th is a mistake.

c. 13–14 July 1915 Wiseman writes to Tolkien. Wiseman and his mother will be staying in Bromsgrove for about a week; he and Tolkien must spend some time together, and his mother insists that Tolkien and Edith join them for tea at Barrow’s Stores, possibly on 15 July. He asks if Tolkien can shorten his visit to Moseley and go to Barnt Green earlier, so that they can go walking for a day. He will ring Tolkien the next evening. (There is no evidence that Tolkien and Wiseman were able to meet as Wiseman suggests, though it would have been possible before Tolkien had to leave for Bedford on 19 July.)

13–14 July 1915 Now at Barnt Green, Tolkien writes a poem, The Trumpets of Faery (later The Trumpets of Faerie), describing a procession of Elves winding its way through woods. He probably also begins to work on the first version of another poem, *The Happy Mariners, using in part the verso of his draft letter to Mr How written on 11 July.

16 July 1915 The War Office issues Tolkien’s commission as a temporary second lieutenant in the Infantry. See note.

17 July 1915 Tolkien’s commission is announced in the Times’ ‘London Gazette’ column.

18 July 1915 G.B. Smith, who has heard nothing further from Tolkien, writes to him at Abbotsford, Moseley, to cheer him up.

19 July 1915 Tolkien begins Army training at Bedford. He is billeted in a house with other trainee officers. – R.W. Reynolds writes to Tolkien. He comments on poems Tolkien has sent him: You & Me and the Cottage of Lost Play, The Shores of Faery, Kôr: In a City Lost and Dead, and The Princess Nî are mentioned. He finds in them echoes of Icelandic sagas, William Morris, Rudyard Kipling, and Walter de la Mare. – Probably after he begins training at Bedford, Tolkien writes a poem, Thoughts on Parade.

?23 July 1915 Smith writes to Tolkien, probably in reply to a letter. Tolkien can still try to get a transfer after his training, if both commanding officers agree.

24 July 1915 Tolkien completes the first version of his poem The Happy Mariners, which he dates to 24 July. He will inscribe a later version ‘Barnt Green July 1915 and Bedford and later’, which suggests that he began the poem when he was at Barnt Green earlier in July and continued to work on it after reporting for duty at Bedford. Elements and imagery of The Happy Mariners, such as the white tower in the Twilit Isles that ‘glimmers like a spike of lonely pearl’ and ‘Night’s dragon-headed doors’ (Stapeldon Magazine, June 1920), will come to figure in Tolkien’s mythology.

26 July 1915 Wiseman writes to Tolkien, in reply to a card. He suggests that Tolkien and Edith visit the Wisemans in London on some weekend after about 14 August.

August 1915 While still at Bedford Tolkien revises his poem The Trumpets of Faery. – After his initial instruction he joins the rest of the 13th Battalion in Lichfield, *Staffordshire. He apparently is billeted in an encampment outside the city. He does not feel much affinity with his fellow officers, or share their taste for ragtime music; nor does he enjoy the constant drilling and lectures. He will later write of ‘these grey days wasted in wearily going over, over and over again, the dreary topics, the dull backwaters of the art of killing’ (quoted in Biography, p. 78). He spends some time reading Old Icelandic so as not to forget his studies. He will recall being in a dirty wet marquee ‘crowded with (mostly) depressed and wet creatures … listening to somebody lecturing on map-reading, or camp-hygiene, or the art of sticking a fellow through … [when] the man next to me said suddenly in a dreamy voice: “Yes, I think I shall express the accusative case by a prefix!”’ (*A Secret Vice, in The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays, p. 199) – someone else interested in inventing languages. – At some point during his training Tolkien specializes in signalling. By the beginning of 1916 he will study various ways of transmitting messages by flag, heliograph, and lamp, using codes such as Morse code. Also he has to learn how to use signal-rockets and field-telephones, and carrier-pigeons. One of the books he uses in his studies is Signalling: Morse, Semaphore, Station Work, Despatch Riding, Telephone Cables, Map Reading, ed. E.J. Solano (1915).

2 August 1915 R.W. Reynolds writes to thank Tolkien for sending him another poem (possibly The Happy Mariners). In response to a request from Tolkien he sends advice about publishing a book of poems. In normal times, Reynolds would have advised Tolkien to first publish single poems in magazines, to establish his name; but as ‘the odds are against your being able to have the leisure for some time to come to go bombarding editors and publishing verses’ (Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford), Tolkien should go ahead with his book, though he should not be disappointed if it fails. Fairy poems, Reynolds thinks, are Tolkien’s strong suit. He is not altogether happy with a title Tolkien has proposed for his book. – Tolkien has also consulted Smith on this point, who (in an undated letter) thinks it worthwhile for Tolkien to publish his poems.

4 August 1915 Tolkien rewrites his poem Thoughts on Parade, now called The Swallow and the Traveller on the Plains.

?Mid–late August 1915 Christopher Wiseman urges Tolkien and Edith to spend one of the next two weekends at the Wiseman home in London. He will try to get Smith to come as well. (There is no evidence that the visit occurred.)

9 September 1915 Tolkien rewrites The Happy Mariners, now linked explicitly with Eärendel.

12 September 1915 Tolkien writes a poem, *A Song of Aryador, while at Whittington Heath camp near Lichfield. Later, in The Book of Lost Tales, it will be said that when Men entered Hisilómë which they called Aryador, some of the Elves who were lost on the march to Valinor still dwelt there and were feared by Men who called them the Shadow Folk.

13 September 1915 After a long silence Rob Gilson, temporarily in the 3rd Durham Temporary Hospital, Sunderland, writes to Tolkien at Exeter College, forwarded to Whittington Heath. He is annoyed that he has not taken up Tolkien’s invitation to criticize his poems, as he feels that one of the best things the T.C.B.S. can do at present is to help its members with their creative work.

14 September 1915 At Whittington Heath, Tolkien writes a poem, Dark Are the Clouds about the North.

17 September 1915 Gilson writes from the 3rd Durham Temporary Hospital, Sunderland, to Tolkien at Whittington Heath. He has received a number of T.C.B.S. letters in the past few days, including one from Tolkien enclosing some of his poems. Gilson is about to be released from hospital and will have a week of sick leave at Marston Green; if Tolkien cannot visit him there, Gilson will travel to Lichfield.

19 September 1915 R.W. Reynolds writes to Tolkien at Whittington Heath and thanks him for sending his poems. He likes all of them, though he makes some criticisms. He wonders if Tolkien has thought of a new title for his book.

Autumn 1915 Tolkien and a fellow officer buy a motor cycle. Tolkien will use it to visit Edith and friends when he has leave.

21 September 1915 Gilson writes from Marston Green to Tolkien at Whittington Heath. He has sent telegrams to Wiseman and Smith asking them to come to Lichfield on Saturday (25 September) if possible.

23 September 1915 Wiseman, now at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, writes to Tolkien at Whittington Heath. He intends to be present at the ‘Council of Lichfield’ on 25–26 September. – Gilson, who has heard from Smith, writes to Tolkien that all four T.C.B.S. members can be in Lichfield on 25 September, and asks if Tolkien can find three beds there for the night. He suggests that they have lunch the following day at the Gilsons’ home at Marston Green and a quiet afternoon in the garden.

24 September 1915 Gilson informs Tolkien by telegram that he and Smith will arrive in Lichfield at 10.34 am on the 25th and make the George Hotel their headquarters.

25 September 1915 At 11.00 a.m. Gilson and Smith write to Tolkien from the George Hotel, Lichfield. They hope to meet him at the hotel when they return from sightseeing just before 1.00 p.m., if not sooner. – O.O. Staples, B.J. Tolhurst, and M.W.M. Windle of Exeter College are killed in action in the Battle of Loos.

25–26 September 1915 The T.C.B.S. ‘Council of Lichfield’. This is the last time that Tolkien, Gilson, Smith, and Wiseman meet together before being separated by war, and apparently the last time that Tolkien sees Gilson.

5 October 1915 Gilson, now with his battalion at No. 2 Camp, Sutton Veny, writes to Tolkien. He and Smith have decided that Tolkien should send his book of poems to the publisher Sidgwick & Jackson. Tolkien should not forget the proposed ‘Council of Bath’, and should try to keep both 16 and 23 October as possible dates.

6 October 1915 Smith writes to Tolkien from the York House Hotel, Bath. Smith and Gilson are making a preliminary excursion to Bath and have practically engaged inexpensive rooms in the South Parade for a T.C.B.S. ‘council’ on 23 October.

9 October 1915 Smith writes to Tolkien that he is sorry he has not had time to reply to Tolkien’s impressive postcard. He recommends that Tolkien send his poems to the publisher Hodder and Stoughton, or to Sidgwick & Jackson, and asks for copies of Tolkien’s later poems so that he can show them to H.T. Wade-Gery.

19 October 1915 Smith, now at No. 6 Camp, Codford St Mary, Wiltshire, writes to Tolkien. Tolkien should let him know as soon as possible if he is coming to Bath, and inform Gilson by telegram so that he can book rooms. – Gilson writes from No. 3 Camp, Sutton Veny, to Tolkien at Brocton Camp, *Staffordshire, forwarded to him at Penkridge, Rugeley (i.e. Rugeley Camp on Cannock Chase). See note. Gilson is likely to be sent to the front very soon, and if at all possible would like the T.C.B.S. to meet the next weekend.

24 October 1915 Smith writes to Tolkien at Whittington Heath from the Wisemans’ house in London. He has heard from Tolkien that he cannot join them for the weekend. Tolkien seems to have been depressed about various matters, one of which is that Edith is ill. Smith thanks Tolkien for sending more poems and is particularly impressed with The Happy Mariners and Dark Are the Clouds about the North. Smith and Gilson have not gone to Bath, but on impulse have joined Wiseman in London. There they have reaffirmed the principles of the T.C.B.S. and have decided ‘once again on the work it will have to do after the war is over: to drive from life, letters, the stage and society that dabbling in and hankering after the unpleasant sides and incidents in life and nature which have captured the larger and worser tastes in Oxford, London and the world: … to reestablish sanity, cleanliness, and the love of real and true beauty in everybody’s breast’ (Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford).

27 October 1915 Wiseman writes to Tolkien, giving an account of the previous weekend.

31 October 1915 Gilson writes to Tolkien at Whittington Heath, giving his account of the weekend 23–24 October. He was very sorry that Tolkien could not come; he feels that the T.C.B.S. is not complete unless all four are present.

November 1915 Tolkien moves with the 13th Battalion to Rugeley Camp in Staffordshire. – G.B. Smith goes to France with the 19th Lancashire Fusiliers.

November 1915–early 1916 While stationed at Cannock Chase Tolkien takes the opportunity to visit Phoenix Farm, Gedling. Colin Brookes-Smith will later recall that Tolkien arrived on an AJS motor cycle, and one morning allowed Colin to ride it up the road and back. Probably during this period Tolkien also participates in the cutting up of a poached deer, an event to which he will later refer during lectures on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight at Oxford. See note.

?21–28 November 1915 Tolkien writes a poem, Kortirion among the Trees (*The Trees of Kortirion); one of its earliest copies will be inscribed ‘dedicated to Warwick’. A fair copy will be dated ‘Nov. 21–28’, and a later typescript inscribed ‘Warwick, a week’s leave from camp – written largely in a house in Victoria Street [where Edith and Jennie Grove live] and in [mine?] in Northgate St.’ In fact Tolkien is in camp on 25 and 26 November, from which he writes on each date to Edith (see below), and in the second letter says that he has ‘written out a pencil copy of “Kortirion”’ (Letters, p. 8). This suggests that Edith knows about the work already, that Tolkien may have begun the poem during a visit to Warwick and continued to work on it when he returned to camp, and that after writing out the pencil copy on 26 November he made further alterations (27–28 November) before making the dated fair copy. – To a fair copy of the poem Tolkien will append a prose introduction which explains that Kortirion was a city of the fairies (later Elves) in the Lonely Isle ‘after the great wars with Melko and the ruin of Gondolin’, built ‘in memory of their ancient dwelling of Kôr in Valinor’ (The Book of Lost Tales, Part One, p. 25). It is clear that he intends Warwick to be the site where earlier had stood Kortirion, whose memory still lingers, and his mythology to be particularly connected with England (the ‘Lonely Isle’). Although the date of this prose introduction is uncertain, its sentimental yet hopeful tone, so like that of the poem, suggests that both were written at roughly the same time. If that is so, several very notable elements have been added by Tolkien to his rapidly growing mythology. On one early copy he gives the poem a subsidiary (but not entirely legible) title in Qenya, Narqelion la . . tu y aldalin Kortirionwen, ‘Autumn (among) the Trees of Kortirion’. On one of the surviving working sheets he drafts four lines of a poem in Qenya on a similar theme (*Narqelion). By now, Tolkien has developed his invented language to the extent that he is able to use it in composition.

21 November 1915 Gilson writes to Tolkien that the last he has heard from him is a letter Smith showed him in London. He hopes that Tolkien is no longer depressed and that Edith is now better. – Hilary Tolkien lands in Boulogne with the Royal Warwickshire Regiment.

25 November 1915 Tolkien writes to Edith from Rugeley Camp.

26 November 1915 Tolkien writes to Edith from Rugeley Camp, giving an account of his day:



The usual kind of morning standing about and freezing and then trotting to get warmer so as to freeze again. We ended up by an hour’s bomb-throwing with dummies. Lunch and a freezing afternoon. All the hot days of summer we doubled about at full speed and perspiration, and now we stand in icy groups being talked at! Tea and another scramble − I fought for a place at the stove and made a piece of toast on the end of a knife: what days! [Letters, p. 8]

He has written out a pencil copy of Kortirion among the Trees; he first intends to send it to the T.C.B.S. as he owes them all letters, then decides that he will send it to Edith and make another copy for the T.C.B.S.

28 November–4 December 1915 Tolkien writes a poem, The Pool of the Dead Year (and the Passing of Autumn).

December 1915 Tolkien moves with the 13th Battalion to Brocton Camp on Cannock Chase.

1 December 1915 Tolkien’s poem Goblin Feet is published in Oxford Poetry 1915. The volume also includes ‘Songs on the Downs’ by G.B. Smith and three poems by H.T. Wade-Gery.

2 December 1915 Smith, now in the trenches in France, writes to Tolkien in care of the 13th Lancashire Fusiliers, 3rd Reserve Brigade, Officers Company, Brocton Camp. He asks for the long letter Tolkien promised in his last postcard that he would send.

20 December 1915–9 January 1916 British and allied troops evacuate Gallipoli.

22 December 1915 Smith writes to Tolkien, thanking him for various letters and commenting on Oxford Poetry 1915 and Goblin Feet. Smith and Wade-Gery agree that they and Tolkien are the best contributors to the volume.

26 December 1915 Gilson writes to Tolkien in care of the 3rd Reserve Brigade, Officers Company, P Lines, Brocton Camp. Tolkien has written to him about some problems, as Gilson remarks on ‘the extra blackness of your fate in these dark days’ (Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford). He has just forwarded Kortirion among the Trees to Wiseman, and has made a copy for Smith. He likes the poem very much though he makes one or two criticisms.

30 December 1915 Wiseman writes to Tolkien at Brocton Camp. He has been posted to the HMS Superb. He has received Kortirion among the Trees from Gilson, and will write about it later.




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