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

10–12 October 1916 On 10 October B Company of the 11th Battalion stays in the front line in Zollern Trench while A, C, and D companies are relieved by the 9th Loyal North Lancashires and the 13th Cheshires and retire to Fabeck and Midway support trenches near Mouquet Farm. The men continue to dig and improve trenches. On 10 October Second Lieutenant Huxtable is wounded. Throughout this period at the front Tolkien is probably kept very busy, as the new buried communication lines are difficult to install and some are damaged by shelling.

13–16 October 1916 On 13 October the 11th Battalion relieves the 13th Cheshires and returns to the front line in Zollern and Hessian Trenches. They again spend time digging and rewiring. Battalion headquarters is moved to Zollern Redoubt, where Tolkien spends the nights of 13 to 16 October. On 14 October the Schwaben Redoubt is finally taken.

16–17 October 1916 The 11th Cheshires relieve A and B Companies of the 11th Battalion on 16 October and D Company on 17 October; these retire to support trenches near Mouquet Farm while C Company stays in the front line. In the afternoon of 16 October three German planes fly overhead. In the evening of 17 October the 11th Lancashire Fusiliers move to Ovillers Post, where Tolkien spends the night at Battalion headquarters. – The British generals are planning another major assault, hoping to capture the German Regina Trench and the high ground held by the enemy before winter comes. The attack will be made from Hessian Trench, which faces Regina Trench and is separated from it by a space varying from two hundred to five hundred yards. Every effort is made to obtain as much information about the terrain and enemy positions as possible. A map issued to Tolkien shows ‘information obtained from prisoners [and] Trenches corrected from air photos taken 17-10-16’; at some point he adds to it the position of a ‘phone’ and ‘WF’, code letters for the 11th Lancashire Fusiliers (a reproduction of the map appears in Life and Legend, p. 32).

18 October 1916 The 11th Battalion receives Operation Order No. T26 (see note) and spends the day preparing for battle. At 10.30 p.m. the men march towards the front line. A patrol consisting of a captain and a second lieutenant examines the enemy wire. Tolkien will note in his diary that he spent that night at Battalion headquarters near ‘Lancs Trench’ (Zollern Trench).

19 October 1916 The 11th Battalion reaches Hessian Trench at 4.00 a.m. The attack is meant to take place this day, but constant heavy rain has damaged the trenches, the saturated ground makes movement difficult, the lines of communication between Brigade and Division headquarters have gone down during the night, and the rain, together with mist, makes visual signals impossible. The assault postponed for forty-eight hours, the battalion returns to Ovillers Post, where Tolkien spends the night at Battalion headquarters.

20 October 1916 In the afternoon, the 11th Battalion is drawn up at Ovillers Post, organized into groups to proceed up the narrow trenches, and issued bombs, sandbags, and other stores from ‘K’ Dump at Ovillers on the way to Hessian Trench. 74th Infantry Brigade Signals will complain that Battalion Signalling Officers did not keep them informed about the progress of units moving into the front line. Tolkien spends the night at Battalion headquarters, again near ‘Lancs Trench’.

21 October 1916 The last members of the 11th Battalion reach their position in Hessian Trench at about 3.00 a.m. The men spend the rest of the night improving the trenches and the means of leaving them quickly at the start of the attack. The Brigade signal report centre has been set up unusually close to the front line, and the various battalion headquarters are in dugouts in the front line of Hessian Trench. Tolkien is presumably stationed at 11th Battalion headquarters, at the position he marked as ‘WF’ on his map; he will record in his diary that on the nights of 21 and 22 October he was in action in Hessian Trench. The 11th Lancashire Fusiliers have been set the task of taking a five hundred-yard section of Regina Trench where it is at its closest to Hessian Trench. Just after noon the British artillery begin heavy firing, and three waves of assault troops go over the top at short intervals, trying to synchronize their movements with the barrage. When men of the 11th Battalion rush into Regina Trench they find the enemy unprepared, though there is resistance at one or two points, and they manage to link up with other regiments to their left and right. The 25th Division Engineers will report that communications throughout the attack were very satisfactory, though information did not always get back to Division headquarters as well as might have been expected. The 11th Battalion achieves its objective by 12.50 p.m. News of its success is sent to Division headquarters by carrier pigeon. But the battalion has paid heavily for its success with 15 killed, 26 missing, and 117 wounded. See further, note. The survivors spend the rest of the day consolidating their position in Regina Trench, digging connecting trenches back to Hessian Trench, laying communication lines, and destroying the German communication trenches to Regina Trench.

22 October 1916 The Germans shell Regina Trench heavily. At 4.00 p.m. the 11th Battalion is relieved by the 7th Queen’s Royal West Surrey Regiment. When the battalion reaches Ovillers Post the men are given hot soup and then marched to a camp north of the Albert-Bouzincourt road. Tolkien will note in his diary having slept this night at a camp ‘near Albert’.

23 October 1916 The 11th Battalion is inspected by Brigadier-General Bethell, commander of the 74th Brigade. The men then travel to Vadencourt Wood by motor-bus, where they are inspected by Major-General Bainbridge, commanding the 25th Division. Tolkien spends the night in hutments at Vadencourt.

24 October 1916 The 11th Battalion marches in the rain to Beauval. The men spend the rest of day cleaning up. Tolkien will note in his diary that he spent the nights of 24 to 27 October in a billet at Rue de L’Epinette, Beauval.

25 October 1916 The 11th Battalion is inspected by General Sir Hubert Gough, commanding the 5th Army, who compliments the men on their work. During the day, Tolkien begins to feel ill.

26 October 1916 In the morning, the men of the 11th Battalion have baths. In the afternoon, they are inspected by Field-Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, the Commander-in-Chief. In the evening there is a concert in Beauval Mairie.

27 October 1916 Tolkien reports sick with a temperature of 103 degrees. Nevertheless he spends the night in his billet at Beauval.

28 October 1916 By evening at the latest, Tolkien is in the Officers’ Hospital at Gézaincourt. He is suffering from ‘trench fever’, a highly infectious disease carried by lice. The crowded and squalid conditions in the trenches mean that some 97 per cent of the soldiers are infested by lice, and trench fever is common. The sickness usually begins with a headache, giddiness, and muscular pain especially in the shins, and lasts a few days, followed by a remission and then a relapse, or often a series of relapses and remissions. It is only after the war ends that the louse will be found to be the carrier.

29 October 1916 Tolkien is put on the sick train at Candas and travels via Étaples to Le Touquet. He is admitted to No. 1 British Red Cross Hospital, also known as the Duchess of Westminster’s Hospital.

30 October–7 November 1916 Tolkien remains in hospital in Le Touquet. He writes to his Commanding Officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Bird, apparently expressing his regret at leaving the 11th Battalion and his hope that when he returns to the front it will be to the same battalion. – He also writes a poem, Morning Tea. Although its manuscript includes the (later?) note ‘Duch[ess] of Westminster’s Hospital Le Touquet Nov[ember] 8 1916’, it must have been composed no later than the morning of the 7th, if in fact it was written in hospital at Le Touquet.

7 November 1916 Tolkien travels by train via Étaples to Le Havre, spending the night en route.

8 November 1916 At Le Havre Tolkien embarks on the hospital ship HMHS Asturias. Later he will note in his diary that the Asturias was torpedoed by the Germans the following year (20 March 1917), but although badly damaged, she was not sunk.

9 November 1916 The Asturias leaves Le Havre, possibly during the night, and arrives at Southampton on the same day. Tolkien then travels by train to Birmingham and is admitted to the 1st Southern General Hospital, set up in the grand arched halls and corridors of the University of Birmingham at Edgbaston. See note. – Captain E. Munday, Adjutant of the 11th Lancashire Fusiliers, replies to Tolkien’s letter to Lieutenant-Colonel Bird. The Commanding Officer cannot ensure that Tolkien will be posted to the same battalion when he returns to the front, but suggests that he write at once when he is posted to a battalion depot, and the 11th Battalion will request him. He encloses a separate letter dated 9 November (the letter to Tolkien is dated 8 November) which Tolkien should submit to the authorities as soon as he is passed fit to return to duty. This letter requests that Tolkien be returned to the 11th Battalion as soon as possible. Lieutenant-Colonel Bird ‘values the services of Lt. Tolkien very highly’; in his absence his signallers are under a non-commissioned officer, and his services are badly needed. The battalion is very short of officers. The envelope in which these letters are sent is postmarked ‘Field Post Office, 10 Nov. 1916’ and addressed to Tolkien at ‘D. Ward, No. 1 Red Cross Hospital, Le Touquet’, but the address is struck through and the envelope redirected to Great Haywood.

10 November–1 December 1916 During the next few weeks Tolkien is probably visited by Edith, Father Francis, and relatives who live in the Birmingham area. He is also visited by, or manages himself to visit, R.W. Reynolds. On a War Office form dated 22 November he gives his temporary address as c/o T.E. Mitton Esq., Moseley, Birmingham (i.e. Tom Mitton, husband of Tolkien’s paternal Aunt Mabel), but since a later medical report will indicate at least two more weeks before his temperature returns to normal, it is unlikely that he actually leaves the hospital by the 22nd. – Tolkien writes at once to Smith and Wiseman to let them know that he has been shipped home and is in hospital. He encloses his letter to Smith in one to Smith’s mother (Ruth A. Smith), telling her that her son was safe when he last heard from him, and asking her to forward his message. – During November, but after he has returned to Birmingham, Tolkien revises The Town of Dreams and the City of Present Sorrow (see entry for 16–18 March 1916). He also writes the poem The Lonely Harebell, the manuscript of which he will inscribe ‘hospital Birmingham Nov[ember] 1916 (part [?from matter] near Lichfield Sep[tember] 1915 insp[ired] *Cromer 1914)’.

13 November 1916 Mrs Smith writes to thank Tolkien for his news and says that she will forward his letter to her son.

16 November 1916 Smith, having received Tolkien’s letter, replies to him at ‘3 South General Hospital, Edgbaston, Birmingham’. He is delighted to hear that Tolkien is ‘still alive, if weak and ill as you are bound to be. From your letter I see plainly that you have been through it’ (Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford). He hopes to get leave soon and will visit Tolkien and Edith. For the moment he is the Adjutant of his battalion (now camped near the village of Souastre on the Doullens-Arras road). – Christopher Wiseman, on HMS Superb, replies to Tolkien’s letter. He wishes that he could get leave to visit Tolkien in Birmingham, but leave is given only in special circumstances. He suggests that if Tolkien is granted extended sick leave he might visit Wiseman in the north where his ship is based; or if Tolkien and Edith were to visit Wiseman’s mother in Wandsworth, she would welcome them both. Now that Tolkien is free of the censor, Wiseman asks to be told as much as Tolkien knows about Gilson’s death, what engagements he himself has been in, where Smith is, and any news about him. Since their ‘skirmish’ in the spring Tolkien has not sent him any of his poetry.

18 November 1916 Smith writes to Tolkien at the General Hospital. He forgot to say in his last letter that he is sure that his mother would be glad to get Tolkien books or anything else he wants, and to visit him. – The Battle of the Somme officially ends.

22 November 1916 Tolkien completes a War Office form, recording the date he left his unit while overseas, when he embarked for and arrived in England, the name of the vessel on which he travelled, and the cause of his return (trench fever), among other details.

27 November 1916 A letter is sent from the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion to the South General Hospital, Edgbaston, directing that orders should be issued for Tolkien at an early date. See note.

29 November 1916 Smith is hit by shrapnel when his battalion is shelled. Although wounded in his right arm and thigh, he is able to walk to the dressing station to wait for an ambulance. He writes to his mother that his wounds are not serious.

2 December 1916 Tolkien is examined by a Medical Board at the 1st Southern General Hospital. Although his temperature has been normal for a week, he is still suffering from headaches and pains in the leg and is very weak. The Board declares him unfit for any service for the next six weeks and grants him leave from 9 December 1916 to 12 January 1917. By this date he has been attached to the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers, based at Thirtle Bridge on the east coast of England near Hull. – By now, Smith’s wounds are considered dangerous. Gas gangrene has set in.

3 December 1916 G.B. Smith dies at 3.30 a.m.

8 December 1916 Wiseman writes a long letter to Tolkien, mainly about politics and the war. He thanks Tolkien for his letter and for his latest poems. He hopes that Tolkien will begin to publish, and is convinced that ‘if you do come out in print you will startle our generation as no one has yet’ (Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford). He knows that R.W. Reynolds thought Tolkien much influenced by Francis Thompson, and that Tolkien has studied Thompson deeply, but Wiseman cannot see any obvious connection. Tolkien apparently having expressed a wish to join the Royal Engineers, Wiseman suggests that he write to Brigadier-General Sir John Barnsley (T.K. Barnsley’s father), who might be able to help.

9 December 1916 Between now and mid-December Tolkien travels to Great Haywood to spend his leave with Edith.

16 December 1916 (postmarked 18 December) Wiseman writes a brief letter to Tolkien to say that he has just received news from home that G.B. Smith died on 3 December. His letter is addressed to Tolkien at the 1st Southern General Hospital but is redirected to Great Haywood. Soon after Tolkien receives this letter, he sends his condolences to Smith’s mother.

22 December 1916 Mrs Smith responds to Tolkien’s message with details of her son’s last days. Since Smith had asked that his poetry be published if he fell, his mother asks Tolkien for any of her son’s verses that might be included. – Upon receipt of her letter, Tolkien replies at once. Around this time he also writes to R.W. Reynolds.

?c. 25 December 1916 Tolkien writes a poem, GBS (later G.B.S.) in memory of G.B. Smith. He will later note on a typescript copy ‘Great Haywood Christ[mas] 1916–17’.

26 December 1916 Mrs Smith writes to thank Tolkien for the copy of her son’s verses, and tells him to keep the original.

28 December 1916 R.W. Reynolds replies to a letter from Tolkien. Reynolds is glad that Tolkien has found a congenial spot to convalesce. Mrs Smith has been in touch with him too about her son’s wish that a book of his poems should be published; Reynolds asks if Tolkien knows anything of Smith’s wishes in this matter. He understands that Mrs Smith has also written to H.T. Wade-Gery.

End of 1916–first half of 1917 Tolkien begins to write the first prose version of his mythology, The Book of Lost Tales, either while still in the 1st Southern General Hospital or after going on sick leave to Great Haywood on 9 December 1916. One of the first parts to be written is The Cottage of Lost Play, which introduces the framework of the tales: a mariner, Eriol, reaches the island of Tol Eressëa and hears from the fairies (or elves) who dwell there stories of the creation of the world and its subsequent history. In the mythology as originally conceived, Tol Eressëa will be eventually uprooted and moved across the sea to become England. – Another part written at this time is a story from near the end of the mythology, Tuor and the Exiles of Gondolin (*‘Of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin’), which Tolkien will tend to call simply The Fall of Gondolin. See note. – Tolkien also continues to work on his invented languages. He makes additions to the Qenyaqetsa, and traces the ‘development’ of the language from an earlier form, Primitive Eldarin. He begins to develop another Elvish language, Gnomish or Goldogrin, also with roots in Primitive Eldarin; eventually this will become ‘Sindarin’. Possibly as early as the end of 1916, but no later than early 1917, Tolkien begins work on a Gnomish grammar, Lam na nGoldathon (‘Tongue of the Gnomes’, *Gnomish Grammar) and a Gnomish lexicon, i·Lam na·Ngoldathon ‘Goldogrin’ (*Gnomish Lexicon). – It is perhaps during his time of convalescence at Great Haywood that Tolkien draws heraldic devices for three places in England of great significance to himself and Edith, the village of Great Haywood and the towns of Warwick and Cheltenham, to which he gives names in Goldogrin: Tavrobel, Kortirion, and Celbaros.

?1916–?1919 While working on The Book of Lost Tales Tolkien keeps a notebook, originally inscribed ‘Names and Lang[uage] to Book of Lost Tales’ (later ‘Notebook B’). This includes a list of words in Eldarissa (i.e. Qenya), a chart of races of beings, and a table comparing two forms of the proper names in the story of Tuor (see *The Poetic and Mythologic Words of Eldarissa, *‘Early Chart of Names’, *Official Name List). Associated with this notebook are various tables and lists on loose sheets (see *The Creatures of the Earth, *‘Matar and Tulir’, *‘Names of the Valar’, *Kainendan, and *Otsan). – Probably in this period Tolkien also writes *‘Name-list to The Fall of Gondolin’, derived from the Official Name List; a parallel list of Qenya names from The Cottage of Lost Play with Gnomish (Goldogrin) equivalents (*Names and Required Alterations); and, related to the Qenyaqetsa, a description of the conjugation of the verb in Qenya (*The Qenya Verb Forms).

1917 (#ulink_c13b92ab-094c-5bce-aea6-27649908a764)

2 January 1917 Tolkien writes to the War Office from Great Haywood, reporting himself for further orders and giving his address from 12 January as 185 Monument Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham.

18 January 1917 Wiseman writes to Tolkien. He apologizes for not sending a letter before, explaining that this is the fifth he has written and has torn up his earlier attempts. He is glad to hear that Tolkien is ill again (because it keeps him from the front) and asks what exactly is wrong with him. He comments: ‘As you said, it is you and I now … the old and original. The whole thing is so ineffably mysterious. To have seen two of God’s giants pass before our eyes, to have lived and laughed with them, to have learnt of them, to have found them something like ourselves, and to see them go back again into the mist whence they came out.’ He understands that R.W. Reynolds has been in touch with Tolkien about publishing Smith’s poems, and says though he thinks Reynolds will do justice to Smith as a poet, he will see him ‘as a poet and not a man, as something like a successful protégé … as a genius, as a prodigy, anything but a soul who is saying what it feels and how it thinks.’ He asks Tolkien if he can do anything; he feels that the T.C.B.S. should have a hand in the matter, but if they do they must be ‘cruelly honest and not allow sentiment to cloud judgement’. He does not think that Smith’s last poems were his best, but they should probably go into a collection. He has never seen Smith’s poem The Burial of Sophocles and asks Tolkien to make a copy for him. He returns Tolkien’s own poems with comments on a separate sheet, possibly those on the back of an unused telegram form preserved among the Tolkien Papers; in these he mentions The Pool of the Dead Year, Tinfang Warble, The Forest Walker, and A Dream of Coming Home, and says that Tolkien ought to start ‘the epic’ (Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford).

21 January 1917 Mrs Smith writes to Tolkien at Great Haywood, forwarded to Abbotsford, Wake Green Road, Moseley (the home of his Aunt Mabel and Uncle Tom Mitton). She has heard from R.W. Reynolds and is grateful to him and to Tolkien for the trouble they are taking over her son’s poetry.

23 January 1917 Tolkien is examined by a Medical Board at the 1st Southern General Hospital. Although his condition has improved, he is still pale and weak, his appetite is poor, he has experienced two slight returns of fever, and he still has occasional pains in his knees and elbows. The Board declares him unfit for general service for two months, and unfit for home and light duty for one month. His leave is extended to 22 February.

12 February 1917 Tolkien writes to the War Office from Great Haywood to report that at the expiration of his leave on 22 February his address will be Great Haywood, Staffordshire. – Edith Tolkien either begins to make a fair copy of Tolkien’s first version of The Cottage of Lost Play or finishes doing so: she writes her initials and today’s date on the cover of the school exercise book used for the purpose.

27 February 1917 Tolkien is examined by a Medical Board at the Military Hospital, Lichfield. He is still debilitated and has pains in his legs and occasional fever. The Board declares him unfit for general or home service for two months or even light duty for one month, and recommends one month’s treatment in an officers’ convalescent hospital. His address on the completed form is changed from Great Haywood to Abbotsford, Moseley, Birmingham (the Mittons). He is sent to Furness Auxiliary Hospital in Harrogate, Yorkshire, probably at once. See note.

Beginning of March 1917 Having heard that G.B. Smith’s brother Roger, also serving in the Army, died in Mesopotamia on 25 January, Tolkien writes from Harrogate to Smith’s mother.

4 and 9 March 1917 Wiseman replies to a letter from Tolkien sent a month earlier. He is pleased to have set Tolkien off on his great work: ‘The reason why I want you to write the epic is because I want you to connect all these [poems and tales] up properly, & make their meaning & context tolerably clear’ (Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford). With his letter Tolkien had sent some poems, on which Wiseman now comments. He asks for news of G.B. Smith’s poems and whether Tolkien is doing anything to get his own work published. He has received another letter from Tolkien and is glad that Edith is now with him at Harrogate. Wiseman addresses the letter to Tolkien at 95 Valley Drive, Harrogate, Yorkshire, presumably where Edith and Jennie Grove are staying.

6 March 1917 G.B. Smith’s mother replies to Tolkien at Furness Auxiliary Hospital to thank him for his sympathy.

28 March 1917 Tolkien is examined by a Medical Board at Furness Auxiliary Hospital. He is improving but still has pains in his knees and elbows. The Board declares him unfit for general and home service for one month, but fit for one month’s light duty at home, and recommends a further three weeks of sick leave, until 18 April. His address on the completed form is given as 95 Valley Road, Harrogate.

6 April 1917 The United States declares war on Germany.

14 April 1917 Wiseman, on leave in London, informs Tolkien by telegram that he will visit him on 18 April.