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

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.