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

As to Camp Kit. You want a bed, bath & washstand (they can be dispensed with), a sleeping-bag (preferably Jaeger, 35/- also) a blanket or two, and a kit-bag. Avoid a ‘valise’. But don’t get these until I let you know the best place, as to wh[ich] I will enquire…. [Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford]

Smith confirms, apparently in reply to a query, that Tolkien’s copy of a book on Keats which he now cannot find was mistakenly included in the parcel of books he sent to Smith.

10 June 1915 Examinations for the Honour School of English Language and Literature at Oxford begin with papers set at 9.30 a.m. and 2.00 p.m. in the Sheldonian Theatre. Each paper lasts three hours. According to the Oxford Regulations of the Board of Studies all candidates in the English School are to take papers 1–4, and those specializing in English Language also take papers A5–9, as well as a tenth paper chosen from a list of Special Subjects. On 10 June at 9.30 a.m. Tolkien sits Paper 1: Beowulf and Other Old English Texts. There is no choice of question. The first two questions require translation of extracts, with comments sought on six of the seven extracts in the first question and one of the four extracts in the second question. In addition, there are seven questions on topics such as the historical background of Beowulf, metrical types, and Old English grammar. – At 2.00 p.m. Tolkien sits Paper 2: Middle English Authors. There is no choice of question. The first three questions require translation of extracts, with comments sought on two of the five extracts in the first question, one of the six extracts in the second question, and one of the six extracts in the third question. There are also five questions mainly expanding upon the extracts. See note.

11 June 1915 The Examinations continue. At 9.30 a.m. Tolkien sits Paper 3: Chaucer. There are ten miscellaneous questions about Chaucer’s poetry and prose, with no restriction on the number to be answered. – At 2.00 p.m. Tolkien sits Paper 4: Shakespeare. There are eleven very miscellaneous questions on Shakespeare’s life, times, and writings, with no restriction on the number to be answered. – Smith replies to a letter from Tolkien. He is delighted about ‘a notable achievement’ (Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford), and asks if they should keep it secret from Gilson and Wiseman until it can be shown to them in concrete form. (His meaning, probably, is that both Tolkien and Smith have poems being considered for publication in Oxford Poetry 1915.) He urges Tolkien to write at once to Colonel Stainforth. Smith will be in Birmingham from 16 to 18 June if Tolkien wants to see him.

12 June 1915 The Examinations continue. At 9.30 a.m. Tolkien sits Paper A5: History of English Literature. There are twelve questions, with no limit as to the number to be answered: one each on Old English poetry; Arthurian legend; Langland and Chaucer; William Caxton as writer and translator; Christopher Marlowe; Milton’s Comus and Paradise Lost; John Dryden; the heroic couplet; the periodical essay; Thomas Gray; Sir Walter Scott as a novelist; and Wordsworth’s influence on his contemporaries. – At 2.00 p.m. Tolkien sits Paper A6: Historical English Grammar. There are seventeen questions, and candidates are asked not to attempt more than ten. While most of the questions are philological, some are about general influences on the development of the English language.

14 June 1915 The Examinations continue. At 9.30 a.m. Tolkien sits Paper A7: Gothic and Germanic Philology. The first question requires the translation of four of six extracts from the Gothic Gospel of St Mark. Candidates are asked to attempt no more than nine of the thirteen questions that follow, all strictly philological. – At 2.00 p.m. Tolkien sits Paper A8: Old English and Middle English Set-Books. (See the list of set texts above, preceding the entry for 20 April 1913.) There is no choice of question. The first three questions require translation of extracts, with comments sought on four of the five extracts in the first question, and on the single extract in the second question. The third question requires the translation of four extracts, to which questions 4–6 are related.

15 June 1915 The Examinations continue. At 9.30 a.m. Tolkien sits Paper A9: Old English and Middle English Unseen Translations. The first question requires the translation of five Old English extracts, and a short note on the class of poetry to which one of the extracts belongs. The second question asks for five Middle English extracts to be turned into Modern English, and for comments on two of them. The third question asks for a comparison of the language of an early Middle English extract with late Old English, and comments on the chief differences. – At 2.00 p.m. Tolkien sits Paper A10: Scandinavian Philology, his Special Subject. There is no choice of question. The first question requires four passages to be translated into English; the second question, three passages with explanatory notes. Ten further questions are mainly philological, but one is on Old Icelandic metre and poetic diction, and another asks the candidate to contrast Icelandic saga-writing of the classical period with Middle English literature of the same date. – At some date after the papers are completed, Tolkien will also have to face a viva (oral examination).

19 June 1915 Trinity Full Term ends.

?20 June 1915 G.B. Smith replies to a letter from Tolkien, who apparently has written to Colonel Stainforth. Tolkien is sure to get through the medical examination. Smith had an excellent time in Birmingham, during which he made enquiries on Tolkien’s behalf. He writes further about camp kit:

You will want a bed, bath-and-washstand, sleeping-bag, and at least two blankets or rugs; also a hair (not an air) or down pillow, and I rather advise a mattress (cork), and a few other things.

Thus:

Bed

Bath-and-washstand

Sleeping-bag

2 rugs

Down pillow

Mattress

Soap-box

Hooks for tent-pole

Ground-sheet (optional)

To carry these I should get:

1 good sized canvas kit-bag, of the sack shape (the others, like a cricket-bag, are nicer but dear).

1 tin box for underclothes, but don’t spend too much on it, or get too large an one, as they are allowed only within these islands. Do not get a valise, until you are obliged to. I hate them, and mine cost me the hell of a sum. Also bring a small bag or suit-case.

Add 1 steel shaving mirror (price 1/6). All else seems to me unnecessary. My table and chairs I intend to be soap-boxes bought on the spot, also I mean to bring an honest tin bucket.

Now you might get all this very cheap at the Birmingham Household Supply Assn. in Corporation Street. I should perhaps get a Jaeger sleeping-bag at Allports, if you want a nice article. Don’t forget towels and a Burberry. I think I would get everything as cheap as you can: I mean beds, etc. The B.H.S.A. did me quite well.

I think this is all I need tell you at present. Except to keep perfectly calm, and correspond with me as much as possible. By the way, make Allports get you the same buttons as they got me: they will know which they are. And do be careful not to get bright breeches or a bright British Warm. The breeches I have just ordered from them are light-weight Bedford cord, rather nice I think.

I don’t know how you are off for boots. I don’t know a good place in B[irming]ham either. I always buy shoes at Day’s, and they are good enough, but their boots feed me. I have tried Manfield but don’t think much. Maybe you know better than I do. The best pair I have had are a good pair I believe to be K5. I think unless you can find a good make these much-advertised makes are not bad. You don’t want more than 2 or at most 3 pairs, and a pair of shoes.

If you want a wrist-watch, I strongly advise Greaves. They are like Allports, of an assured reputation, and prodigious age. My grandfather went there, which always means that they are rather dear and very reliable. I got a very good 40/- silver watch: I shouldn’t pay less. You may get a gold one for £3 or so: they are very nice. But I wouldn’t worry about luminous things.

Binoculars and prismatic compasses, very dear, may be obtained, unless you decide to wait, which you may quite well do, at Lucking’s. Straight-through Lemaire glasses are supposed to be as good as binoculars, and are less expensive.

Get your Sam Browne made with D rings at the back if you can, so as to carry your mackintosh. And get a mackintosh-carrier fitted with swivels, not a sling. The shops will know what I mean, if you don’t. Get a haversack (a thin and light one) fitted with ditto, to hand on the belt, also a water-bottle; I should get these at the B.H.S.A. also, if possible. The water-bottle is not strictly essential: I’ve lost mine! The idea is you see to attach all these things to the belt when one goes on marches etc. by swivels: not to have them slung independently over the shoulders. But don’t worry if you can’t get these in B[irming]ham: just leave it, and don’t get any at all. Except of course your Sam Browne, which can be altered afterwards…. [Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford; see note]

28 June 1915 Tolkien applies for a temporary commission in the regular Army for the period of the war. He lists his service in the Oxford University Officers Training Corps since October 1914, and in the King Edward’s Horse from October 1911 to January 1913. He requests to be posted to the 19th Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers, though the form makes it clear that there is no guarantee of appointment to a particular unit. – Smith, now at Brough Hall Camp, Catterick Bridge, near Richmond in Yorkshire, writes to Tolkien. Colonel Stainforth evidently has offered Tolkien a place in his battalion, and Smith urges him to write again to Stainforth, to learn if he wants Tolkien to join the unit at once or wait until gazetted (i.e. until his commission is made official by announcement in The Times). He pledges again that he will try to get Tolkien into his company, but doubts that he will succeed. Tolkien can bring a book or two and some paints with him when he enters the Army, as long as they are portable.

29 June 1915 Tolkien has his Army medical examination. He declares that he has never suffered from any serious illness or injury.

30 June 1915 Captain Whatley of the Oxford University Officers Training Corps certifies Tolkien’s Army application. Tolkien is accepted and given £50 to buy a uniform and equipment. He has to wait a few days before his commission is gazetted.

July 1915 Tolkien spends time in Warwick and visits his relatives at Moseley and Barnt Green. He probably also visits Father Francis Morgan in Birmingham. – Tolkien writes to Rob Gilson. In the event, he will not receive a reply until September.

2 July 1915 A list of candidates for the Literis Anglicis examination, Trinity Term 1915, includes ‘Tolkien, Joannes R.R.’ under Classis I (First Class). The list is signed by A.S. Napier, *C.H. Firth, D. Nichol Smith, and *H.C. Wyld. An announcement of Tolkien’s First Class Honours will appear in the Times for 3 July.

4 July 1915 Smith sends congratulations to Tolkien at 57 Emscot Road, Warwick on ‘one of the highest distinctions an Englishman can obtain’ (Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford).

8–9 July 1915 Tolkien writes (or possibly revises) a poem, The Shores of Faery, putting into words the scene he had painted two months earlier in The Book of Ishness (see entry for 10 May). It refers to ‘the two Trees naked are / That bear Night’s silver bloom, / That bear the globed fruit of Noon’, and to Eärendel, ‘one lone star / That fled before the moon’. The ship of Earéndel (spelled thus) and the Two Trees appear, as well as significant names such as Taniquetil, Valinor, and Eglamar. Possibly around the same time, certainly not much later, Tolkien writes the poem into The Book of Ishness, on the page facing the painting, blank except for the words ‘The Shores of Faery’. Probably soon afterward he makes slight changes to the manuscript, then records the poem in emended form in a notebook of fair copies, with the date ‘July 8–9 1915’. With the latter manuscript is a prose preface in which Tolkien describes Eärendel as ‘the Wanderer who beat about the Oceans of the World’ and eventually launched his ship on ‘the Oceans of the Firmament’ but was hunted by the Moon and fled back to Valinor where he gazed at the Oceans of the World from the towers of Kôr. Tolkien will later inscribe typescripts of the poem ‘Moseley & Edgb[aston] July 1915 (walking and on bus). Retouched often since – esp[ecially] 1924’ and ‘First poem of my mythology Valinor [?thought of about] 1910’. See note.

9 July 1915 Tolkien writes a poem, The Princess Ní. He will inscribe a later typescript ‘Moseley B’ham [Birmingham] Bus between Edgb[aston]. and Moseley July 1915’. – G.B. Smith writes to Tolkien at Abbotsford, Moseley, Birmingham (the home of Tolkien’s Aunt Mabel and her husband Tom Mitton), again suggesting that he ask Stainforth what he wants him to do, and giving him more advice about equipment. The War Office will write to him when he is gazetted. He is very pleased that Tolkien got a First at Oxford. He suggests books that Tolkien should bring with him: one on oriental painting; 1914 and Other Poems by Rupert Brooke, and anything else by Brooke; Georgian Poetry; Browne’s Religio Medici and Urn Burial; Sir Philip Sidney’s Defence of Poesie; and Sir Francis Bacon’s Essays. He should get the earlier books in editions with old spelling. – The War Office writes to Tolkien c/o Father Francis Morgan at the Birmingham Oratory. Tolkien has been appointed a temporary Second Lieutenant in the New Army and has been posted to the 13th Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers, a reserve training unit; but prior to joining his battalion he is to attend a class of instruction at *Bedford, and is to report to a Colonel Tobin at 20 de Parys Avenue, Bedford on 19 July between 2.00 and 4.00 p.m. He is to provide himself with bedding and to join in uniform (if ready). He should apply to his Army agents for his outfit allowance but must pay his own travelling expenses. – When he receives this letter Tolkien is very disappointed that he has not been posted to the same battalion as Smith. He writes to Smith to inform him, and also to Christopher Wiseman, telling him of his posting and that he will be visiting relatives in Moseley and Barnt Green.

11 July 1915 Tolkien drafts and probably sends a letter from Abbotsford to a Mr How at Exeter College. He has to report to Bedford on 19 July so will be unable to receive his degree on 20 July. He will be sending a cheque to cover what he owes for battels and asks what ‘caution money’ he needs to pay to keep his name on the College’s books and eventually receive an M.A. He also asks how he should authorize the transfer of the Junior Common Room bank account to the new President of the JCR when one is elected; uncertainty as to who might be in College next term or whether such an official would be needed had made it impossible for him to settle the matter before he left. – Christopher Wiseman writes to Tolkien. Having seen a notice that the Navy wants mathematicians as instructors, he is now awaiting the formal notice of his appointment from the Admiralty. He asks to see more of Tolkien’s poems.

13 July 1915 Smith writes to Tolkien at Abbotsford, Moseley, Birmingham (forwarded on 15 July to Tolkien at the Incledons, Barnt Green). He advises Tolkien to write to the Colonel of the 13th Battalion, and to Colonel Stainforth of the 19th, asking if his posting to the 13th is a mistake.

c. 13–14 July 1915 Wiseman writes to Tolkien. Wiseman and his mother will be staying in Bromsgrove for about a week; he and Tolkien must spend some time together, and his mother insists that Tolkien and Edith join them for tea at Barrow’s Stores, possibly on 15 July. He asks if Tolkien can shorten his visit to Moseley and go to Barnt Green earlier, so that they can go walking for a day. He will ring Tolkien the next evening. (There is no evidence that Tolkien and Wiseman were able to meet as Wiseman suggests, though it would have been possible before Tolkien had to leave for Bedford on 19 July.)

13–14 July 1915 Now at Barnt Green, Tolkien writes a poem, The Trumpets of Faery (later The Trumpets of Faerie), describing a procession of Elves winding its way through woods. He probably also begins to work on the first version of another poem, *The Happy Mariners, using in part the verso of his draft letter to Mr How written on 11 July.

16 July 1915 The War Office issues Tolkien’s commission as a temporary second lieutenant in the Infantry. See note.

17 July 1915 Tolkien’s commission is announced in the Times’ ‘London Gazette’ column.

18 July 1915 G.B. Smith, who has heard nothing further from Tolkien, writes to him at Abbotsford, Moseley, to cheer him up.

19 July 1915 Tolkien begins Army training at Bedford. He is billeted in a house with other trainee officers. – R.W. Reynolds writes to Tolkien. He comments on poems Tolkien has sent him: You & Me and the Cottage of Lost Play, The Shores of Faery, Kôr: In a City Lost and Dead, and The Princess Nî are mentioned. He finds in them echoes of Icelandic sagas, William Morris, Rudyard Kipling, and Walter de la Mare. – Probably after he begins training at Bedford, Tolkien writes a poem, Thoughts on Parade.

?23 July 1915 Smith writes to Tolkien, probably in reply to a letter. Tolkien can still try to get a transfer after his training, if both commanding officers agree.

24 July 1915 Tolkien completes the first version of his poem The Happy Mariners, which he dates to 24 July. He will inscribe a later version ‘Barnt Green July 1915 and Bedford and later’, which suggests that he began the poem when he was at Barnt Green earlier in July and continued to work on it after reporting for duty at Bedford. Elements and imagery of The Happy Mariners, such as the white tower in the Twilit Isles that ‘glimmers like a spike of lonely pearl’ and ‘Night’s dragon-headed doors’ (Stapeldon Magazine, June 1920), will come to figure in Tolkien’s mythology.

26 July 1915 Wiseman writes to Tolkien, in reply to a card. He suggests that Tolkien and Edith visit the Wisemans in London on some weekend after about 14 August.

August 1915 While still at Bedford Tolkien revises his poem The Trumpets of Faery. – After his initial instruction he joins the rest of the 13th Battalion in Lichfield, *Staffordshire. He apparently is billeted in an encampment outside the city. He does not feel much affinity with his fellow officers, or share their taste for ragtime music; nor does he enjoy the constant drilling and lectures. He will later write of ‘these grey days wasted in wearily going over, over and over again, the dreary topics, the dull backwaters of the art of killing’ (quoted in Biography, p. 78). He spends some time reading Old Icelandic so as not to forget his studies. He will recall being in a dirty wet marquee ‘crowded with (mostly) depressed and wet creatures … listening to somebody lecturing on map-reading, or camp-hygiene, or the art of sticking a fellow through … [when] the man next to me said suddenly in a dreamy voice: “Yes, I think I shall express the accusative case by a prefix!”’ (*A Secret Vice, in The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays, p. 199) – someone else interested in inventing languages. – At some point during his training Tolkien specializes in signalling. By the beginning of 1916 he will study various ways of transmitting messages by flag, heliograph, and lamp, using codes such as Morse code. Also he has to learn how to use signal-rockets and field-telephones, and carrier-pigeons. One of the books he uses in his studies is Signalling: Morse, Semaphore, Station Work, Despatch Riding, Telephone Cables, Map Reading, ed. E.J. Solano (1915).

2 August 1915 R.W. Reynolds writes to thank Tolkien for sending him another poem (possibly The Happy Mariners). In response to a request from Tolkien he sends advice about publishing a book of poems. In normal times, Reynolds would have advised Tolkien to first publish single poems in magazines, to establish his name; but as ‘the odds are against your being able to have the leisure for some time to come to go bombarding editors and publishing verses’ (Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford), Tolkien should go ahead with his book, though he should not be disappointed if it fails. Fairy poems, Reynolds thinks, are Tolkien’s strong suit. He is not altogether happy with a title Tolkien has proposed for his book. – Tolkien has also consulted Smith on this point, who (in an undated letter) thinks it worthwhile for Tolkien to publish his poems.

4 August 1915 Tolkien rewrites his poem Thoughts on Parade, now called The Swallow and the Traveller on the Plains.

?Mid–late August 1915 Christopher Wiseman urges Tolkien and Edith to spend one of the next two weekends at the Wiseman home in London. He will try to get Smith to come as well. (There is no evidence that the visit occurred.)

9 September 1915 Tolkien rewrites The Happy Mariners, now linked explicitly with Eärendel.

12 September 1915 Tolkien writes a poem, *A Song of Aryador, while at Whittington Heath camp near Lichfield. Later, in The Book of Lost Tales, it will be said that when Men entered Hisilómë which they called Aryador, some of the Elves who were lost on the march to Valinor still dwelt there and were feared by Men who called them the Shadow Folk.

13 September 1915 After a long silence Rob Gilson, temporarily in the 3rd Durham Temporary Hospital, Sunderland, writes to Tolkien at Exeter College, forwarded to Whittington Heath. He is annoyed that he has not taken up Tolkien’s invitation to criticize his poems, as he feels that one of the best things the T.C.B.S. can do at present is to help its members with their creative work.

14 September 1915 At Whittington Heath, Tolkien writes a poem, Dark Are the Clouds about the North.

17 September 1915 Gilson writes from the 3rd Durham Temporary Hospital, Sunderland, to Tolkien at Whittington Heath. He has received a number of T.C.B.S. letters in the past few days, including one from Tolkien enclosing some of his poems. Gilson is about to be released from hospital and will have a week of sick leave at Marston Green; if Tolkien cannot visit him there, Gilson will travel to Lichfield.

19 September 1915 R.W. Reynolds writes to Tolkien at Whittington Heath and thanks him for sending his poems. He likes all of them, though he makes some criticisms. He wonders if Tolkien has thought of a new title for his book.

Autumn 1915 Tolkien and a fellow officer buy a motor cycle. Tolkien will use it to visit Edith and friends when he has leave.

21 September 1915 Gilson writes from Marston Green to Tolkien at Whittington Heath. He has sent telegrams to Wiseman and Smith asking them to come to Lichfield on Saturday (25 September) if possible.

23 September 1915 Wiseman, now at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, writes to Tolkien at Whittington Heath. He intends to be present at the ‘Council of Lichfield’ on 25–26 September. – Gilson, who has heard from Smith, writes to Tolkien that all four T.C.B.S. members can be in Lichfield on 25 September, and asks if Tolkien can find three beds there for the night. He suggests that they have lunch the following day at the Gilsons’ home at Marston Green and a quiet afternoon in the garden.