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

16 June 1934 Trinity Full Term ends.

19 June 1934 There is a Gaudy at Pembroke College. The Master and Fellows entertain guests in the Hall.

20 June 1934 Encaenia.

Second half of 1934 Tolkien’s paper Chaucer as a Philologist: The Reeve’s Tale is published in the Transactions of the Philological Society for 1934. Although delivered three years earlier, its publication has been delayed ‘principally due to hesitation in putting forward a study, for which closer investigation of words, and more still a much fuller array of readings from [manuscripts] of the Reeve’s Tale, were so plainly needed. But for neither have I had opportunity, and dust has merely accumulated on the pages. The paper is therefore presented … practically as it was read, though with the addition of a “critical text”, and accompanying textual notes, as well as of various footnotes, appendices, and comments naturally omitted in reading’ (p. 1).

19 July 1934 Hugo Dyson, who has been an examiner in the English Honour School, gives a dinner at Exeter College to celebrate the end of exams. He, the Lewis brothers, Tolkien, H.F.B. Brett-Smith, C.T. Onions, C.L. Wrenn, and Nevill Coghill dine in rooms there. Warren Lewis will recall in his diary that ‘everyone was in uproarious spirits – the reaction I suppose after examining. In fact the evening was just a little too high-spirited – too much farce and too little real talk’ (Marion E. Wade Center, Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois). After the dinner they adjourn to Coghill’s rooms in Exeter.

28 July 1934 Tolkien and his wife attend Prize Day at the Oratory School. Father Vincent Reade expresses the satisfaction of the Fathers of the Birmingham Oratory with recent developments at the School, in particular the appointment of a lay headmaster.

September 1934 From 1934 the Tolkien family usually spend two weeks at the beginning of September, before the boys return to school, at *Sidmouth on the southern coast of Devon. On this occasion Tolkien drives there with the family luggage, including many of Priscilla’s bears and other soft toys which she refuses to leave behind. As there is no room in the car for anyone else, Edith, Christopher, and Priscilla travel by train, and John and Michael cycle down in the course of two or three days. The family stays at a guest house named ‘Aurora’, operated by a Mr and Mrs Livesey and their son Edgar. They enjoy themselves on the beach but also explore the surrounding countryside and other beaches in the car. – Later in the month Michael Tolkien begins to attend the Oratory School at Caversham.

21 September 1934 Tolkien attends the funeral of Francis Fortescue Urquhart, Senior Fellow of Balliol College, a requiem Mass at the Church of St Aloysius, and burial at Wolvercote Cemetery.

Between late summer and early autumn 1934 Tolkien, as ‘Father Christmas’, writes to Christopher in reply to a telegram and letters from Christopher and Priscilla. Father Christmas tells them that his post office does not open until Michaelmas Term.

14 October 1934 Michaelmas Full Term begins. Tolkien’s scheduled lectures for this term are: Beowulf: General Criticism on Tuesdays at 11.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools, beginning 16 October; Elene and The Vision of the Cross on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12.00 noon in the Examination Schools, beginning 16 October; and Outlines of the History of English (Old English Period) on Tuesdays at 12.00 noon in the Examination Schools, beginning 16 October. (Thus announced in the Oxford University Gazette, without correction for the listing of two lectures scheduled for Tuesdays at 12.00 noon.) Tolkien will continue to supervise B.Litt. students J.E. Blomfield and M.E. Griffiths.

Oxford academic year 1934–5 Tolkien attends a time-travel play, Berkeley Square by John L. Balderson, at the Oratory School.

17 October 1934 Tolkien attends a Pembroke College meeting.

18 October 1934 At a dinner attended by members of The Society (*Societies and clubs), men who meet generally to discuss Oxford education, Tolkien is among those suggested for election.

23 October 1934 Robin Flower of the British Museum Department of Manuscripts reports to a meeting of the Early English Text Society Committee that Professor Tolkien will allow the Society to use his text of the Corpus Christi College, Cambridge manuscript of the Ancrene Riwle. Dr Flower has called on Tolkien at some time before this date.

25 October 1934 Tolkien attends an English Faculty Library Committee meeting at 2.15 p.m. in the Library.

2 November 1934 Tolkien attends a Pembroke College meeting. – At an English Faculty Board meeting, in Tolkien’s absence, he is re-elected to the Applications Committee.

20 November 1934 Tolkien, as ‘Father Christmas’, sends Christopher birthday greetings, and says that he is sorry that Priscilla has not been well.

23 November 1934 Tolkien certifies that J.E. Blomfield of Somerville College has completed course work towards her B.Litt.

7 December 1934 Tolkien attends an English Faculty Board meeting. He is appointed to a committee to draft regulations for English Literature in Pass Moderations. – He also attends a Pembroke College meeting.

8 December 1934 Michaelmas Full Term ends.

9 December 1934 R.W. Chambers, having been lent a copy of The Fall of Arthur as far as it had progressed, writes to Tolkien, praising the poem and urging him to finish it.

23 December 1934 Tolkien sends Christmas greetings to his former Leeds colleague G.H. Cowling, now chair of English at the University of Melbourne. He apologizes for his tendency to procrastinate when it comes to writing letters, and acknowledges a dependence on his wife and Cowling’s to keep up a correspondence. He thanks Cowling for having sent an ‘admirable Chaucer’ (an edition of the Prologue and three tales from the Canterbury Tales, 1934), proof of Cowling’s ability to ‘get things done’ (Bay East Auctions, online catalogue, Sydney, 27 November 2011, lot 390). Tolkien sends in return a small ‘study’ of Chaucer of his own, evidently Chaucer as a Philologist: The Reeve’s Tale (1934), while noting his own relative lack of publications due to the press of teaching and of steering and shaping the Oxford English School. He thanks Cowling also for other gifts, including a toy koala for Priscilla Tolkien.

Christmas 1934 Tolkien, as ‘Father Christmas’, writes letters dated Christmas Eve to Christopher and Priscilla. He apologizes for not having time to write as long a letter as in 1932 and 1933. The letter to Christopher tells of the Polar Bear’s nephews and the Cave cubs, and of the Christmas tree that Father Christmas brought from Norway and planted in a pool of ice. He sends love to Mick (Michael) and John. In a shorter letter to Priscilla, he hopes that she will be well soon, and comments on her toy bear, Bingo. He sends a picture for both children, showing the Christmas tree with its magic lights.

1935 (#ulink_44c2b431-34d1-515a-8353-2fe341684aaa)

1935 Probably early this year, Tolkien is invited to give the 1936 Sir Israel Gollancz Memorial Lecture to the British Academy, on a subject of his choice. – Priscilla Tolkien begins to attend Rye St Antony, a small private school for girls run by two lay Catholic women.

20 January 1935 Hilary Full Term begins. Tolkien’s scheduled lectures for this term are: Elene (concluded) and the Old English Exodus on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 11.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools, beginning 22 January; Grammar of the Vespasian Psalter Glosses on Tuesdays at 12.00 noon in the Examination Schools, beginning 22 January; The Principal Problems of Old English Phonology on Thursdays at 12.00 noon in the Examination Schools, beginning 24 January. He will continue to supervise B.Litt. student M.E. Griffiths.

23 January 1935 At a dinner of The Society its Secretary, R.W. Chapman, is instructed to write to Tolkien offering membership. By 28 January Tolkien will happily accept.

25 January 1935 Tolkien attends a Pembroke College meeting.

31 January 1935 Tolkien chairs an English Faculty Library Committee meeting at 2.15 p.m. in the Library.

8 February 1935 Tolkien attends an English Faculty Board meeting. The report of the committee (including Tolkien) appointed to draft regulations for English Literature in Pass Moderations is presented. The Applications Committee has appointed Tolkien and C.T. Onions examiners of the B.Litt. thesis of E.V. Williams of Jesus College, The Phonology and Accidence of the [Old English] Glosses in MS Cotton Vespasian A.1 (Vespasian Psalter).

27 February 1935 Tolkien attends a Pembroke College meeting.

13 March 1935 Tolkien attends a Pembroke College meeting. – The Early English Text Society Committee agrees to print the French text of the Ancrene Riwle line by line, while the other manuscripts of that work (including the Cambridge manuscript, Ancrene Wisse) are to be set up in EETS editions with their own paragraph divisions, with modernized capitals and punctuation (but see entry for 11 December 1935), and with the page numbers of Morton’s edition (1853) included in the margin. The EETS editions to be published include the Cambridge manuscript ‘from the loan of Dr Tolkien’s transcript’ (Early English Text Society archive).

15 March 1935 Tolkien attends an English Faculty Board meeting.

16 March 1935 Hilary Full Term ends. – Germany formally denounces the terms of the Treaty of Versailles restricting the size and armed strength of the Germany army, and at once begins to build its forces.

28 April 1935 Trinity Full Term begins. Tolkien’s scheduled lectures for this term are: Introduction to the Poetic Edda on Thursdays at 11.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools, beginning 2 May; ‘Grimm’s Law’ on Thursdays at 12.00 noon in the Examination Schools, beginning 2 May; and Introduction to Old English Verse (for those beginning the Honours Course) on Fridays at 12.00 noon in the Examination Schools, beginning 30 April. He will continue to supervise B.Litt. student M.E. Griffiths.

1 May 1935 Tolkien attends a Pembroke College meeting. – In the evening, Tolkien attends a dinner of The Society hosted by John Sparrow at All Souls College, Oxford. Sparrow gives an account of the election of the Rector of Lincoln in 1851. The sixteen members present decide to alter the customary day of their dinners from Wednesday to Friday, despite a last-minute protest by Tolkien (who nevertheless attends the next meeting, on Friday, 18 October).

6 May 1935 George V celebrates his Silver Jubilee. The Vice-Chancellor, Proctors, and graduates of the University assemble in academic garb in the Divinity School, and at 9.40 a.m. walk in procession to a special service in the Cathedral at 10.00 a.m. There is a celebration dinner at Pembroke College in the evening.

11 May 1935The Tablet for this date reports that Tolkien, together with R.G. Laffan, Tutor of Queen’s College, Cambridge, have been appointed members of the Universities’ Catholic Education Board, replacing the late Abbot Butler and the late Professor Bullough.

15 May 1935 Tolkien attends a Pembroke College meeting.

17 May 1935 Tolkien attends an English Faculty Board meeting. The Applications Committee has appointed Tolkien and C.L. Wrenn examiners of the B.Litt. thesis of A.M. Morton of St Hugh’s College, William Morris’s Treatment of His Icelandic Sources.

11 June 1935 Father Francis Morgan dies. Tolkien receives formal notification from the Birmingham Oratory. See note. – Tolkien attends a Pembroke College meeting.

13 June 1935 Tolkien attends an English Faculty Library Committee meeting at 2.15 p.m. in the Library. – English Final Honour School Examinations begin.

14 June 1935 Tolkien attends a Pembroke College meeting.

21 June 1935 Tolkien attends an English Faculty Board meeting, a Pembroke College meeting, and possibly a meeting of the Committee for Comparative Philology (at 5.15 p.m. in the Delegates Room of the Clarendon Building).

22 June 1935 Trinity Full Term ends.

26 June 1935 Encaenia.

9 August 1935 Tolkien writes to R.W. Chambers. The latter having sent a copy of his biography of Sir Thomas More – in fact, two copies by mistake – and evidently a letter as well, Tolkien belatedly expresses gratitude. Despite the press of examinations at the end of term, he has been able to read Thomas More twice, and finds it ‘overwhelmingly moving: one of the great sagas, those rarely felicitous events produced by the meeting of the great subject and the uniquely fitted author’. Since his son John has the work available to him at school, Tolkien has given the spare copy to Simonne d’Ardenne, ‘a Catholic in origin’. He wonders how Chambers knows ‘that I was this year foisted upon the University Education council…. Not that I am likely to be of any use. I meet other more able and more apostolic men. But I never can make head or tail of “public business” even of a minor sort’ (quoted in Caroline Chabot, ‘Raymond Wilson Chambers (1874–1942)’, Moreana 24, no. 94 (June 1987), pp. 85–6).

Beginning of September 1935 The Tolkien family take a two-week holiday at Sidmouth. They stay again at ‘Aurora’.

15 September 1935 In Nazi Germany the Nürnberg Laws deprive Jews of rights of citizenship. Intermarriage of Jews and non-Jews is forbidden.

17 September 1935 Tolkien and C.L. Wrenn examine A.M. Morton of St Hugh’s College viva voce on her B.Litt. thesis, William Morris’s Treatment of His Icelandic Sources, at 12.00 noon in the Examination Schools. Tolkien writes out their undated report.