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

8 January 1921 By now, Tolkien has been consulted regarding a proposed series of Middle English texts designed for teaching. He is strongly in favour of normalization of texts, that is, making them consistent in spelling, etc., while Kenneth Sisam and David Nichol Smith are just as strongly opposed.

11 January 1921 Term begins at Leeds.

18 January 1921 Kenneth Sisam suggests to the authorities of the Oxford University Press that an edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight for students is badly needed.

End of January 1921 Tolkien is offered the De Beers Chair in Cape Town. He decides not to accept because Edith and baby Michael are not fit to travel, and he does not want to be separated from his family.

12 February 1921 Tolkien hands over to John Johnson, Assistant Secretary to the Delegates of the Oxford University Press, material for A Middle English Vocabulary. Johnson asks his opinion of a report made by Kenneth Sisam which argues firmly against normalization in the proposed Middle English text series.

14 February 1921 Tolkien writes to John Johnson from St Michael’s Road, Leeds, enclosing a revised slip for the glossary. Although he could write an essay on the ethics and objects of normalization, which he supports at least for the sake of students whose approach to a text is literary, Tolkien feels that ‘before even poking my nose into other matters I must knock down this molehill glossary (grown into a mountain by accumulated domestic distractions)’. He remarks however, surely with his own glossary for Fourteenth Century Verse & Prose in mind, that in non-normalized texts most of the trouble ‘then falls on the “glossarist”, who spends endless time (and space) recording forms that could be eliminated and still leave the printed text perfectly Middle English (and intelligible to the scribes and editors if resuscitated)’ (Oxford University Press archives). But by mid-August he will have agreed that normalization of the text of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is ill-advised.

March 1921 Tolkien finds furnished rooms to let for himself, Edith, and their sons at 5 Holly Bank, Leeds, into which they will move in April. The property is owned by a Miss Moseley, a niece of Cardinal Newman. See note.

16 March 1921 Tolkien is appointed a member of the Board of the Faculty of Arts at Leeds.

23 March 1921 Term ends at Leeds.

21 April 1921 Term begins at Leeds.

?Late April 1921 Following the Leeds spring vacation, Tolkien and his family move into 5 Holly Bank. Jennie Grove moves to Birmingham.

Early May 1921 Oxford University Press sends Tolkien corrected page proofs of Fourteenth Century Verse & Prose.

25 May 1921 Tolkien attends a meeting of the Board of the Faculty of Arts at Leeds.

2 July 1921 Term ends at Leeds.

?August 1921–1925 Tolkien continues to work on his invented languages. He begins a new Gnomish or Noldorin grammar entitled Lam i·Ngolthor (changed to Lam na·NGoluith), mainly in manuscript (*‘Early Noldorin Grammar’). He also types lists of Noldorin words and names taken from The Book of Lost Tales and the Noldorin grammar (*‘Noldorin Word-Lists’). These are not all made at the same time and are extensively emended.

16 August 1921 C.T. Onions writes that he hopes to see Tolkien and Edith on 19 August when they come to Oxford, apparently to complete business regarding their move to Leeds. By now, Onions has suggested to Tolkien in correspondence that the latter should prepare, or help to prepare, an edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and agrees with Tolkien that normalization is not desirable for that work.

Late August 1921 Tolkien and his family move to a leased house at 11 St Mark’s Terrace, Woodhouse Lane, in Leeds near the University. John and Priscilla Tolkien will later remark, regarding the pollution then common in Leeds, that ‘chemicals in the air rotted the curtains within six months, and baby Michael was covered in smuts if he was left outside in his pram for any length of time; and Ronald found that he had to change his collar three times a day!’ (The Tolkien Family Album, p. 45, with a photograph).

3 October 1921 Term begins at Leeds.

Leeds academic year 1921–1922 The University of Leeds Calendar for 1921–1922 lists several lectures or classes to take place during the year for which Tolkien may have responsibility: History of the English Language to the Close of the Fourteenth Century, and the special study of West Saxon Texts and of the Language of Chaucer, on Mondays and Fridays at 3.00 p.m.; Old English Verse with a special study of Beowulf, The Fight at Finnesburg, Widsith, Waldere, Deor’s Lament on Mondays at 10.00 a.m.; The History of English on Wednesdays at 10.00 a.m.; Old and Middle English Texts on Mondays at 12.00 noon; Old and Middle English Dialects, fortnightly on Fridays at 12.00 noon; Introduction to Germanic Philology, with special reference to Old English, on Wednesdays at 11.00 a.m.; Gothic on Tuesdays at 2.00 p.m.; Early English Literature on Thursdays at 11.00 a.m.; and Chaucer, weekly at an hour to be arranged. A Third Year Essay Class is also offered, involving discussions following upon papers read by students to the class, and chiefly concerned with Early English Literature and Civilization, fortnightly on Fridays at 12.00 noon; and there are weekly tutorial groups.

16 October 1921 Tolkien draws up a table of ‘Rúmil’s Alphabet’.

18 October 1921 Tolkien attends a meeting of the Board of the Faculty of Arts at Leeds.

21 October 1921 Tolkien hears that Fourteenth Century Verse & Prose has been published, without his glossary which is still not finished. – He makes revisions to his table ‘Rúmil’s Alphabet’. During this month he will also begin another table of the alphabet, which he will complete in December.

26 October 1921 Tolkien remarks in his diary that he has ‘practically done nothing but slave at the Glossary since last Friday’ (quoted by Christopher Tolkien in private correspondence).

29 October 1921 George S. Gordon writes to David Nichol Smith to ask his opinion of *E.V. Gordon, a B.Litt. student Tolkien has recommended to fill one of two staff positions Gordon hopes to add to the Leeds English School.

15 November 1921 Tolkien attends a meeting of the Board of the Faculty of Arts at Leeds.

22 December 1921 Term ends at Leeds.

1922 (#ulink_7a2bc783-32ef-5ebf-9c33-f4b35ff22151)

?1922–1925 Tolkien creates several varieties of Valmaric script (*Writing systems), which he uses in addition to the Alphabet of Rúmil. – Tolkien writes approximately 120 entries for an English–Qenya dictionary (*‘English–Qenya Dictionary’), primarily in Valmaric script.

1922 Tolkien inscribes this date in his copies of Barzaz-Breiz: chants populaire de la Bretagne, edited by Th. Hersart de la Villemarqué (Paris, 1846); Annales Cambriae (London, 1860) and Brut y Tywysogion, or The Chronicle of the Princes (London, 1860), edited by John Williams ab Ithel; Dosbarth Ederyn Davod Aur, or The Ancient Welsh Grammar, translated with notes by Williams ab Ithel (Llandovery, 1861); Svenskt-Dialect-Lexicon eller Ordbok öfver Svenska allmogespraket by Johann Ernst Reitz (Lund, 1877); Vocabulaire vieux-breton avec commentaire … by Joseph Loth (Paris, 1884); The Text of the Mabinogion and Other Welsh Tales from the Red Book of Hergest, edited by John Rhŷs and J. Gwenogvryn Evans (Oxford, 1887); Iolo Manuscripts, translated with notes by Taliesin Williams (2nd edn., Liverpool, 1888); The Text of The Bruts from the Red Book of Hergest, edited by Rhŷs and Evans (Oxford, 1890); Glossaire moyen-breton by Émile Jean Marie Ernault (Paris, 1895); The Tribal System in Wales by Frederic Seebohm (2nd edn., London, 1904); and L’ancien vers breton by É.J.M. Ernault (Paris, 1912).

Early 1922 Tolkien sends the completed manuscript of A Middle English Vocabulary to Oxford University Press. – George S. Gordon discusses with David Nichol Smith the idea of a book of selections from the works of Geoffrey Chaucer for use by students, and probably in this period talks to Tolkien about it also. This will develop into the ‘Clarendon Chaucer’ (*Geoffrey Chaucer), edited by Gordon and Tolkien, and ultimately abandoned.

January 1922 Tolkien draws up an untitled table of a variety of the Alphabet of Rúmil.

12 January 1922 Term begins at Leeds. E.V. Gordon takes up the post of Assistant Lecturer in English.

?January 1922–1925 Tolkien and E.V. Gordon work together to develop the language side of the Leeds English School. To make it more accessible they form a ‘Viking Club’ (*Societies and clubs) for past and present students of Old Icelandic, who meet to drink beer, read sagas, and sing comic songs and nonsense verses containing linguistic jokes, and popular songs or nursery rhymes translated into Old English, Gothic, or Old Norse. Most of the latter are written by Gordon or Tolkien, and circulated as stencilled sheets (see further, *Songs for the Philologists). The Old English version of The Mermaid (‘It was in the broad Atlantic’) proves particularly popular. Tolkien even composes at least one Old English crossword puzzle to amuse his students.

20 January 1922 Tolkien gives a talk on the Oxford English Dictionary to a poorly attended joint meeting of the Yorkshire Dialect Society and the English Association, held at the University of Leeds. He is probably a member of both organizations by this time (*Societies and clubs).

8 February 1922 C.T. Onions writes to John Johnson to ask the position of Oxford University Press concerning their proposed student’s edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. He notes that Tolkien and E.V. Gordon have decided to produce such an edition, and that the University of Leeds is helping to pay for a rotographed facsimile of the original manuscript for the editors’ use. Later in February he will pledge, on behalf of Tolkien and Gordon, that their book will not exceed 160 pages in length.

Beginning of March 1922 Edith and Michael Tolkien have bad colds. Edith records in her account book for the week 27 February–4 March that of a total expenditure of £8 9s 6d, 4s 3d are for medical costs, £2 5s 1d for food, and £4 11s 8d for wages for Mary (the maid?) and the children’s nurse. – Tolkien becomes ill with influenza. – He receives proofs of A Middle English Vocabulary.

11 March 1922 Tolkien returns the bulk of the proofs of A Middle English Vocabulary, heavily corrected, to John Johnson at Oxford University Press. He apologizes for not sending them by return of post due to illness. He has just recovered from influenza.

22 March 1922 Term ends at Leeds.

20 April 1922 Term begins at Leeds.

25 April 1922 Tolkien attends a meeting of the Board of the Faculty of Arts at Leeds.

11 May 1922A Middle English Vocabulary is published as a separate volume.

13 May 1922 Sir Walter Raleigh dies.

23 May 1922 Tolkien attends a meeting of the Board of the Faculty of Arts at Leeds.

8 June 1922A Middle English Vocabulary is published in one volume with Fourteenth Century Verse & Prose.

26 June 1922 Tolkien sends a postcard to Henry Bradley, with whom he had worked on the Oxford English Dictionary, hoping that he has recovered from an illness. Tolkien includes a riddle in Old English verse based on a nursery rhyme, ‘Enigma Saxonicum nuper “inventum”’.

1 July 1922 Term ends at Leeds.

Summer 1922 The Tolkien family go on holiday for some weeks at *Filey on the Yorkshire coast. Tolkien spends much of his time marking School Certificate examination papers, an annual chore which he will undertake for many years to earn extra money to support his family. – While at Filey, Tolkien draws in The Book of Ishness a picture of his son John standing on a cliff looking out to sea.

Late July 1922 George S. Gordon resigns his chair at Leeds, having been elected Merton Professor of English Literature at Oxford. Tolkien will unsuccessfully apply for the Leeds chair, to which *Lascelles Abercrombie is elected. Michael Sadler, the Vice-Chancellor at Leeds, will inform Tolkien that the University hopes to create a new Professorship of English Language for him.

28 July 1922 By this date Tolkien has agreed to review for G.N. Clark, editor of the English Historical Review, Beowulf: An Introduction to the Study of the Poem by *R.W. Chambers. He will make several pages of notes, but either does not complete the task or his review is not published.

2 October 1922 Term begins at Leeds.