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

8 February 1929 Tolkien attends an English Faculty Board meeting. The committee on the payment of examiners in the Final Honour School presents a report written out by Tolkien.

20 February 1929 Tolkien attends a Pembroke College meeting.

15 March 1929 Tolkien attends an English Faculty Board meeting. The Board resolves that George S. Gordon and Tolkien should draw up a memorandum, to be submitted to the General Board of the Faculties, on the need for the appointment of a Lecturer in English Language. – Tolkien also attends a Pembroke College meeting.

16 March 1929 Hilary Full Term ends.

28 April 1929 Trinity Full Term begins. Tolkien’s scheduled lectures for this term are: Old English Verse (Miscellaneous Pieces) on Thursdays at 10.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools, beginning 2 May; and (Old Norse) Carmina Scaldica on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 11.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools, beginning 30 April.

9 May 1929 Tolkien attends an English Faculty Library Committee meeting at 2.15 p.m. in the Library.

14 May 1929 Tolkien attends a Pembroke College meeting.

17 May 1929 At a meeting of the English Faculty Board, in Tolkien’s absence, he is appointed to a committee to consider the annual scheme of lectures.

20 May 1929 Tolkien, with H.C. Wyld and C.T. Onions, signs a letter to the Secretary of Faculties asking the University to consider appointing a lecturer to teach ‘English Language’. The draft of the letter is in Onions’ hand, but the typescript appears to have been made by Tolkien. The submission points out that there are three official teachers of English Language: the Merton Professor of English Language and Literature (Wyld), the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon (Tolkien), and the Reader in English Philology (Onions), and that ‘the two Professors normally give from two to three times the amount of public instruction required by statute, not infrequently dealing with elementary parts of their subjects…. All three, if they are to consider the needs of the School, are obliged to neglect considerable sections of the subjects which ought to be adequately represented in the University, and still the linguistic syllabus of the School is not covered’ (Oxford University Archives FA 4/5/2/2).

31 May 1929 Tolkien certifies that R.A. Crook of Somerville College has completed course work towards her B.Litt.

5 June 1929 Tolkien attends a Pembroke College meeting.

12 June 1929 Tolkien certifies that A.C. Corlett of St Edmund Hall has completed course work towards his B.Litt.

13 June 1929 English Final Honour School Examinations begin. There are 105 candidates. E.V. Gordon should be an external examiner, but is granted a leave of absence; Tolkien serves in his place.

18 June 1929 Priscilla Mary Reuel Tolkien is born at home in Oxford, the fourth and last child, and only daughter, of Ronald and Edith Tolkien. Her godparents are *Francis de Zulueta, Regius Professor of Civil Law at Oxford, and *Helen Buckhurst, former Fellow and English language tutor at St Hugh’s College, Oxford.

21 June 1929 Tolkien is elected to represent the Faculties of Theology, Law, Literae Humaniores, Modern History, English Language and Literature, Medieval and Modern European Languages and Literature, and Oriental Languages on the General Board for three years until Michaelmas Term 1932.

22 June 1929 Trinity Full Term ends.

26 June 1929 Encaenia.

Michaelmas Term 1929 Edward Tangye Lean matriculates at University College, Oxford. At some time during his undergraduate years he will found a literary society or club called *‘The Inklings’. It will last only a few terms at most, and not after Tangye Lean graduates in 1933. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis will become members. See note.

6 October 1929 Michaelmas Full Term begins. Tolkien’s scheduled lectures for this term are: The Common Germanic Consonant-Changes on Tuesdays at 10.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools, beginning 15 October; Beowulf on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 11.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools, beginning 15 October; Baldrs Draumar, Guðrúnarkviða en forna, and Atlakviða on Thursdays at 10.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools, beginning 17 October (listed also as Old Norse Texts under the School of Medieval and Modern Languages).

16 October 1929 Tolkien attends a Pembroke College meeting.

22 October 1929 Tolkien attends an English Faculty Library Committee meeting at 2.15 p.m. in the Library.

25 October 1929 Tolkien attends a General Board meeting.

November 1929 Tolkien returns to the Lay of Leithian. Beside line 3031 in the manuscript he writes ‘Nov. 1929’.

1 November 1929 At a meeting of the English Faculty Board, in Tolkien’s absence, he is re-elected to the Library Committee, and appointed to a committee to consider the regulations for Responsions and Pass Moderations.

6 November 1929 Tolkien attends a Pembroke College meeting.

8 November 1929 Tolkien attends a General Board meeting.

Mid-November 1929 Until they reach a certain age, the Tolkien boys usually write to Father Christmas in late autumn to tell him what they would like as presents. In 1929 they receive an early reply, as from the North Polar Bear, who tells them that he hurt his paw cutting Christmas trees, and that his real name is Karhu. He sends love to John for his birthday.

22 November 1929 Tolkien attends a General Board meeting.

?11 (?18 ?25) November 1929 Tolkien and C.S. Lewis attend a society meeting, then retire to Lewis’s rooms in Magdalen College and sit for three hours until 2.30 am talking of the gods and giants and Asgard.

Late November or early December 1929 By 6 December, Tolkien lends the typescript of the Lay of Leithian to C.S. Lewis to read.

30 November 1929 Michaelmas Full Term ends.

6 December 1929 Tolkien attends a General Board meeting. – He also attends an English Faculty Board meeting. The report of the committee appointed on 1 November to consider the regulations for Responsions and Pass Moderations is presented, and with a few changes is adopted by the Board. The archived report includes a manuscript page written by Tolkien on the requirements for candidates offering Old English. Tolkien is appointed to a committee to draft a letter to be sent to the colleges on tuition in English Language.

7 December 1929 C.S. Lewis writes to Tolkien that he sat up the previous night reading the Lay of Leithian and is delighted. He has not yet finished, and will send more detailed criticism later. It is clear that he has read as far as about line 2017, and that he has received more, perhaps as far as line 3031 (see entry for November 1929).

Christmas 1929 Tolkien, as ‘Father Christmas’, writes to his children. He tells how the residents of the North Pole celebrated the coming of winter with a bonfire and fireworks, and how the North Polar Bear opened a window during a gale, scattering the lists and letters on Father Christmas’s desk. He also sends an illustration in three tiers, of Father Christmas and Polar Bear at work in the office, the bonfire and fireworks, and the office with papers blown into the air. Father Christmas says that he was very pleased with Christopher’s card, and sends him a fountain pen and a picture just for himself, of Father Christmas flying in his sleigh above the sea on the upper North wind, with a South West gale raising big waves below.

?End of 1929 or early 1930 C.S. Lewis sends Tolkien at least fourteen pages of detailed criticism of the Lay of Leithian, to line 1161. Tolkien apparently considers Lewis’s comments carefully, for almost all the verses criticized are marked for revision in the typescript, and many of the proposed emendations, or modifications of these, are incorporated into rewritten and retyped versions of Canto I and the beginning of Canto IV. – Tolkien writes a composite poem (or two poems on a common theme) based on Breton verse, each entitled *The Corrigan. The second of these will develop into *The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun.

1930 (#ulink_ffd87647-eeed-537b-8303-b6a10400a19f)

c. 1930 Tolkien takes some children to see a performance of Toad of Toad Hall by A.A. Milne, an adaptation of The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. He will later write in On Fairy-Stories: ‘The play is, on the lower level of drama, tolerably good fun, especially for those who have not read the book; but some children that I took to see Toad of Toad Hall, brought away as their chief memory nausea at the opening. For the rest they preferred their recollections of the book’ (Tree and Leaf, pp. 66–7).

?1930 or ?1931 Tolkien begins to write a poem in Qenya, Oilima Markirya, and an English version, *The Last Ark. (See further, entry for ?Autumn 1931.)

1930 By now Tolkien has become an ordinary member of the Council of the Philological Society. – During this year Tolkien writes all or most of another prose version of the ‘Silmarillion’ mythology, the Quenta (or Qenta) Noldorinwa or Pennas-na-Ngoelaidh, largely a reworking and expansion of the Sketch of the Mythology, and apart from the Sketch the only prose ‘Silmarillion’ that he will ever complete. The major part of the Quenta Noldorinwa, at least as far as the end of the story of Beren and Lúthien, is finished prior to the last week of September 1930. Tolkien produces two overlapping typescripts, the second of which expands upon the latter part of the first. – Probably at about the same time Tolkien translates a short piece from the beginning of the Quenta Noldorinwa into Old English, later entitled Pennas. He also makes several lists of Old English versions of Elvish names. – Possibly while working on the Quenta Noldorinwa, Tolkien writes quickly the first version of the ‘earliest’ *Annals of Beleriand to provide a chronology of events. Its manuscript will be heavily emended. – Perhaps also as an aid at about the same time, he produces a series of genealogical tables of the Elvish princes, of the three houses of the Fathers of Men, and of the Houses of Eastern Men; a table of the divisions of the Qendi (Elves); and a list of the many names by which the Lindar, Noldor, and Teleri (three kindreds of the Elves) were known.

?1930s Tolkien composes a poem of twelve stanzas in rhyming couplets, *The Prophecy of the Sibyl, based on Völuspá in the Elder Edda.

1930s Tolkien writes the first version of his poem *Shadow-Bride. – Tolkien writes a seven-page essay, *The Feanorian Alphabet.

?Early 1930s Tolkien writes two poems, or two versions of a poem, Beowulf and Grendel and Beowulf & the Monsters, retellings of parts of Beowulf. (See *The Lay of Beowulf.)

Early 1930s Tolkien writes part of a Qenya grammar, *Declension of Nouns. – Like-minded members of the Oxford English School, led by Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, form The Cave (*Societies and clubs), after the Cave of Adullam (Samuel 22:1–2). They aim to reform the English School, but The Cave is also a social group which has informal dinners together, especially after the members have achieved many of their aims. The Cave will survive into the 1940s.

12 January 1930 Hilary Full Term begins. Tolkien’s scheduled lectures and classes for this term are: Problems of Old English Philology on Tuesdays at 10.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools, beginning 21 January; Beowulf on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 11.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools, beginning 21 January; Baldrs Draumar, Atlakviða, Bandamanna Saga, Hænsaþóris Saga, and Hávarðs Saga Halta on Thursdays at 10.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools, beginning 23 January; and Old Norse Texts (Class), at an hour and place to be arranged.

14 January 1930 Tolkien and his family move into 20 Northmoor Road, which he has bought from Basil Blackwell, from their smaller house next door. Much of their furniture is moved over the fence dividing the properties.

22 January 1930 Tolkien attends a Pembroke College meeting.

28 or 29 January 1930 Tolkien attends a meeting of the Kolbítar. Among those present are C.S. Lewis, John Bryson, and *R.M. Dawkins.

31 January 1930 Tolkien attends a General Board meeting.

7 February 1930 Tolkien attends an English Faculty Board meeting. The Board approves a regulation that before being accepted as a full B.Litt. student, a probationer must pass a written examination in set subjects unless exempted by the Board. Draft regulations for Pass Moderations are presented, and changes made.

24 February 1930 Tolkien attends a dinner at All Souls College, Oxford, in honour of the Archbishop of Birmingham, who the previous day held an Ordination at the Dominican Priory. The dinner is given by Regius Professor of Civil Law Francis de Zulueta, and is attended by the Superiors of the Congregations in Oxford, Senior Fellow of Balliol College Francis Urquhart, and one or two others.