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

3 December 1931 Tolkien attends a meeting of the Committee for Comparative Philology at 4.15 p.m. in the Delegates Room of the Clarendon Building.

Between c. 3 and 8 December 1931 Tolkien replies to R.E.M. Wheeler, speculating about connections between the names Nuada, Lludd, and Lydney.

Between c. 3 and 11 December 1931 Tolkien writes to Allen Mawer, a noted scholar of English place-names, about Lydney.

4 December 1931 Tolkien attends a General Board meeting. – He also attends an English Faculty Board meeting. Now, or at the meeting on 5 February 1932, the Board considers an undated report on the section of the General Board’s paper Revision of Needs of Faculties which relates to the English School. The report identifies the need to establish a statutory University Lectureship in English Literature; to endow a readership or lectureship in medieval Scandinavian languages; and to erect a new building with more space for the English Library. – The Applications Committee has admitted A.F. Colborn as a B.Litt student under Tolkien’s supervision. His thesis is to be A Critical Text of Hali Meiðhad Together with a Grammar and Glossarial Note. Tolkien and C.L. Wrenn are appointed examiners of the B.Litt. thesis of Allan McIntyre Trounce of St Catherine’s Society, An Edition of the Middle English Romance of ‘Athelstan’ with Historical, Literary and Linguistic Introduction, Notes and a Glossary.

5 December 1931 Michaelmas Full Term ends.

9 December 1931 R.E.M. Wheeler writes to thank Tolkien for his note. The idea that Tolkien proposes is one which he himself had long considered. Wheeler suggests that Tolkien keep the proof of his note on Nodens while he decides whether or not to rewrite it to include the Nuada–Lludd–Lydney association. (In the event, Tolkien will discuss Nuada and Lludd but not Lydney.)

12 December 1931 Allen Mawer replies to Tolkien that he himself had looked into the name Lydney some time ago, but came to no clear conclusions.

Christmas 1931 Tolkien, as ‘Father Christmas’, writes to his children. The letter is dated 23 December, but a note on the envelope as from the North Polar Bear apologizes for forgetting to post it. The letter is very elaborate, in green and red ink and with many decorative letters, and with comments as by the North Polar Bear in the margins. Father Christmas apologizes for not being able to send the children all that they asked for, but they must remember that there are many poor and starving people in the world. Since the children are most interested in railways, he sends them ‘mostly things of that sort’. Most of the letter tells of the consequences when the North Polar Bear let a candle fall in the cellar in which firework crackers and sparklers were stored, and the tricks played by Polar Bear’s nephews who have been staying with him. The letter is accompanied by three pictures: one, roughly drawn (with an apology that Father Christmas had no time to do a proper picture), depicts both the firework explosion and Father Christmas and Polar Bear in the kitchen; a second, inscribed ‘My latest portrait’, shows Father Christmas packing parcels, with a pencil sketch of Father Christmas in his sleigh on the verso; and the third, attributed to the North Polar Bear, is both a self-portrait and a stylized landscape of the sun rising or setting behind mountains.

1932 (#ulink_d0e16cc3-7432-5b0b-8098-4da2c23af9f3)

?1932–1938 Tolkien and E.V. Gordon (but primarily Gordon) work to produce editions of the poems The Wanderer and The Seafarer for the series Methuen’s Old English Library, intended as joint efforts. By 1933, and at least as late as 1937, these will be advertised as forthcoming, The Wanderer to be edited by Tolkien and Gordon and The Seafarer by Gordon and Tolkien, the order of names perhaps indicating the intended senior editor for each. Tolkien’s other commitments, however, leave him time chiefly to advise and consult, and despite Gordon’s industriousness the editions will be unfinished when he dies in 1938.

?1932 or 1933 Tolkien writes a poem, Looney (later revised as *The Sea-Bell).

1932 Tolkien buys his first car, a Morris Cowley which the family nicknames ‘Jo’ after the first letters of its registration. Soon after acquiring it, Tolkien and his family visit his brother Hilary in Evesham. The car has two punctures on the way and an encounter with a stone wall near Chipping Norton. It will give the family more freedom to explore the countryside around Oxford (see *Oxford and environs).

2 January 1932 R.E.M. Wheeler asks Tolkien to return the proof of his note, as the publisher is pressing for it. But Tolkien evidently has already done so, as Wheeler writes another letter on the same day, thanking him for the proof. Probably in response to a statement by Tolkien that he intends to continue his inquiries into the name Nodens, Wheeler says that he would like to see the results when ready.

13 January 1932 Tolkien and C.L. Wrenn examine A.M. Trounce of St Catherine’s Society viva voce on his B.Litt. thesis, An Edition of the Middle English Romance of ‘Athelstan’ with Historical, Literary and Linguistic Introduction, Notes and a Glossary, at 11.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools.

17 January 1932 Hilary Full Term begins. Tolkien’s scheduled lectures for this term are: Beowulf (continued) on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 11.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools, beginning 19 January; Atlakviða and Baldrs Draumar on Thursdays at 12.00 noon in the Examination Schools, beginning 21 January; The Language of the Vespasian Psalter Glosses on Tuesdays at 12.00 noon in the Taylor Institution, beginning 19 January; and Problems of Old English Philology on Fridays at 12.00 noon in the Taylor Institution, beginning 22 January.

20 January 1932 Tolkien attends a Pembroke College meeting.

21 January 1932 Tolkien and Wrenn sign their report (written by Tolkien) on the examination of A.M. Trounce.

28 January 1932 Tolkien chairs an English Faculty Library Committee meeting at 2.15 p.m. in the Library. He, C.L. Wrenn, and the Assistant Librarian, J.L.N. O’Loughlin, by now have completely reorganized the philological part of the Library’s collections.

29 January 1932 Tolkien attends a General Board meeting.

5 February 1932 Tolkien attends an English Faculty Board meeting. The Applications Committee has appointed Tolkien supervisor of *S.R.T.O. (Simonne) d’Ardenne of the Society of Oxford Home-Students, a probationer B.Litt. student who wants to work on a Middle English subject.

15 February 1932 Tolkien attends the inaugural meeting of the Society for the Study of Mediæval Languages and Literature (successor to the Arthurian Society; *Societies and clubs) at 5.30 p.m. in the Taylor Institution. He becomes one of five ordinary members on the first Executive Committee, to serve a two-year term (but apparently serves until 1936). Also on the committee are Eugène Vinaver and *Dorothy Everett. C.T. Onions is appointed editor of the Society journal, Medium Ævum.

26 February 1932 Tolkien attends a General Board meeting.

3 March 1932 Tolkien chairs an English Faculty Library Committee meeting at 2.15 p.m. in the Library.

4 March 1932 Tolkien certifies that E.O.G. Turville-Petre has pursued a course of study preparatory to research, and recommends him as a B.Litt. student. His thesis is to be An Edition of Víga-Glúms Saga from the Manuscripts, with Introduction and Notes.

11 March 1932 Tolkien attends an English Faculty Board meeting. The Applications Committee has appointed Tolkien supervisor of E.O.G. Turville-Petre. – Tolkien attends a General Board meeting. – He also attends a Pembroke College meeting.

12 March 1932 Hilary Full Term ends.

8 April 1932 C.S. Lewis recommends to his brother that one day, Warren must read Tolkien’s translation of the Middle English Owl and the Nightingale. Presumably by this date Tolkien has in hand a complete translation, though he will never make it ready for publication.

24 April 1932 Trinity Full Term begins. Tolkien’s scheduled lectures for this term are: Finn and Hengest: The Fragment and the Episode (Textual Study and Reconstruction) on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 11.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools, beginning 26 April; Deor’s Lament and Waldere on Tuesdays at 12.00 noon in the Examination Schools, beginning 26 April; and Völundarkviða on Thursdays at 12.00 noon in the Examination Schools, beginning 28 April.

27 April 1932 Tolkien attends a Pembroke College meeting.

May 1932 Extracts from a letter by Tolkien to the magazine The British Esperantist are published in the number for May 1932, as A Philologist on Esperanto. By now he has become a member of the Board of Honorary Advisors of the British Esperanto Association’s Education Committee. – The May 1932 number of the journal Medium Ævum notes that an article by Tolkien about the phrase ‘Sigelwara Land’ (Old English Sigelhearwan) is among those ‘in hand or … promised for publication’ (see *Sigelwara Land).

5 May 1932 Tolkien attends an English Faculty Library Committee meeting at 2.15 p.m. in the Library.

6 May 1932 Tolkien attends a General Board meeting.

13 May 1932 Tolkien attends an English Faculty Board meeting. Proposals for the remuneration of examiners are considered. David Nichol Smith and Tolkien are authorized to draw up the Board’s observations for submission to the General Board. The Applications Committee has appointed Tolkien and C.L. Wrenn examiners of the D.Phil. thesis of D.J. Rogers of Jesus College, The Syntax of Cursor Mundi.

20 May 1932 Tolkien attends a General Board meeting.

24 May 1932 R.W. Chambers sends Tolkien an inscribed copy of the second edition of his Beowulf: An Introduction to the Study of the Poem, published this month.

27 May 1932 Tolkien writes a letter of recommendation for his B.Litt. student A.F. Colborn.

3 June 1932 Tolkien attends a General Board meeting.

9 June 1932 English Final Honour School Examinations begin. Tolkien is an examiner.

?June 1932–June 1933 Tolkien writes the first version of a poem, *Mythopoeia, rejecting the notion that myth and fairy-story are lies, and declaring that Man creates in imitation of the Creator. He will write at least seven versions. At the end of the final manuscript he will later inscribe: ‘Written mainly in the Examination Schools during Invigilation’, i.e. while acting as an examiner.

17 June 1932 Tolkien attends an English Faculty Board meeting, a General Board meeting, and a Pembroke College meeting.

18 June 1932 Trinity Full Term ends.

22 June 1932 Encaenia.

July 1932 Tolkien’s note The Name ‘Nodens’ is published as Appendix A in Report on the Excavation of the Prehistoric, Roman, and Post-Roman Site in Lydney Park, Gloucestershire by R.E.M. Wheeler and T.V. Wheeler.

2 August 1932 Tolkien and C.L. Wrenn examine D.J. Rogers of Jesus College viva voce on his D.Phil. thesis, The Syntax of Cursor Mundi, at 2.30 p.m. in the Examination Schools. Tolkien will later write the examiners’ report.

Late August–?early September 1932 The Tolkien family take a holiday at Lamorna Cove in Cornwall with C.L. Wrenn, his wife Agnes, and their daughter Carola. Tolkien and Wrenn amuse the children by having a swimming race while wearing panama hats and smoking pipes. The cove is isolated, unlike popular tourist resorts such as Filey. The Tolkien and Wrenn families go on long walks, even as far as Land’s End. They are amused by one of the local characters, an old man who, Tolkien will later write, ‘used to go about swapping gossip and weather-wisdom and such like. To amuse my boys I named him Gaffer Gamgee, and the name became part of family lore to fix on old chaps of that kind’ (letter to Christopher Bretherton, 16 July 1964, Letters, p. 348). The name will be given to Sam’s father in The Lord of the Rings.

30 August 1932 Kenneth Sisam replies to a letter from Tolkien, who had asked whether the Old English Exodus might have been influenced by early Gallican Psalters.

9 October 1932 Michaelmas Full Term begins. Tolkien’s scheduled lectures for this term are: Elene on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 11.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools, beginning 11 October; Introduction to Old English Philology on Tuesdays at 12.00 noon in the Examination Schools, beginning 11 October; Old English Prosody on Thursdays at 12.00 noon in the Examination Schools, beginning 13 October; and Völuspá on Fridays at 12.00 noon in the Examination Schools, beginning 14 October.

12 October 1932 Tolkien attends a Pembroke College meeting.

18 October 1932 Tolkien certifies that S.R.T.O. d’Ardenne of the Society of Oxford Home-Students has pursued a course of study preparatory to research, and recommends her acceptance as a B.Litt. student with the thesis An Edition of the Liflade ant te Passiun of Seinte Iuliene (MS Bodley 34). At about this time Simonne d’Ardenne begins to stay (for about a year) with the Tolkien family at 20 Northmoor Road. Together Tolkien and d’Ardenne will also begin to prepare an edition of Seinte Katerine, another work in the ‘Katherine Group’ contained in MS Bodley 34.

20 October 1932 Tolkien attends an English Faculty Library Committee meeting at 2.15 p.m. in the Library.