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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.
