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

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.