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

1896

January 1896 Mabel hears that Arthur is still in poor health, and decides that she must return to Bloemfontein to take care of him. She books passage to South Africa for herself and the boys, to leave on 2 March.

14 February 1896 Ronald dictates to his nurse a letter to his father: ‘I am so glad I am coming back to see you it is such a long time since we came away from you…. I am got such a big man now because I have got a man’s coat and a man’s bodice…. Auntie Gracie [Grace Mountain née Tolkien] has been to see us I walk every day and only ride in my mailcart a little bit’ (quoted in Biography, p. 16). On that same day Mabel receives a telegram that Arthur has suffered a severe haemorrhage. Ronald’s letter is never sent.

15 February 1896 Arthur Tolkien dies in the afternoon. See note. The funeral service is held in the Cathedral in Bloemfontein, and he is buried in the Anglican cemetery. Arthur’s estate will bring Mabel an income of only some thirty shillings per week, from shares in South African mines; to this Walter Incledon will add a little. She and the boys are unable to stay in the Suffield house permanently, and in any case Mabel thinks that country air will benefit her sons.

Summer 1896 Mabel Tolkien rents a cottage at 5 Gracewell Road in *Sarehole, a hamlet south of Birmingham. At the impressionable age of four and a half, for the first time Ronald experiences life in a green countryside. He and Hilary explore the surrounding area: Sarehole mill with its water-wheel, meadows, and a tree-lined sandpit; they paddle in the stream; they pick wildflowers and mushrooms and gather blackberries, and are sometimes chased by irate millers or farmers when they trespass. They also climb trees, including a willow which overhangs the mill pond; Ronald will not forget that one day this tree was cut down and simply left lying on the ground. He and Hilary make friends with some of the local children and learn a little of the local dialect, but are sometimes mocked for their middle-class accents, long hair, and pinafores.

1 August 1896 John Benjamin Tolkien dies.

1896–1899 Mabel decides to teach her boys at home. Ronald had already learned to read by the age of four. He now develops a decorative style of handwriting indebted to his mother’s own, and an abiding interest in alphabets and scripts (*Calligraphy). He also begins to learn Latin and German, which he likes, and French which attracts him less. When he shows an aptitude for *languages, and an interest in the sounds, shapes, and meanings of words, his mother also begins to teach him etymology, in which she herself is interested. She tries to teach him to play the piano but has little success. He is more interested in drawing, especially landscapes and trees. He will develop a great interest in botany and come to know the subject well.

The only subject that Mabel does not teach him is geometry; this is taught by his Aunt Jane, Mabel’s sister. Ronald will later say that it was ‘to my mother who taught me (until I obtained a scholarship at the ancient Grammar School in Birmingham) that I owe my tastes for philology, especially of Germanic languages, and for romance’ (Letters, p. 218). He will also remark, of early interests that remained with him through the years: ‘It has always been with me: the sensibility to linguistic pattern which affects me emotionally like colour or music; and the passionate love of growing things; and the deep response to legends (for lack of a better word) that have what I would call the North-western temper and temperature’ (letter to W.H. Auden, 7 June 1955, Letters, p. 212).

It is probably in this period that Mabel takes the boys on at least one seaside holiday, and Ronald begins his first sketchbook: near the beginning is a childish drawing, Sea Weeds and Star Fishes (Life and Legend, pp. 12–13). – At this time Mabel is still a practising Anglican. Since her husband’s death, she has taken her sons with her every Sunday to a ‘high’ Anglican Church.

Ronald’s early reading includes the Alice books by Lewis Carroll, which amuse him; The Princess and the Goblin and The Princess and Curdie by *George MacDonald; the fairy books of *Andrew Lang, in particular ‘The Story of Sigurd’ in The Red Fairy Book which fires his interest in *dragons; and Stories for my Children by E.H. Knatchbull-Hugessen, especially the tale of ‘Puss Cat Mew’ (*Fairy-stories). He also likes Red Indian tales and Arthurian legends (*Arthur and the Matter of Britain). In later life, he will note that he did not enjoy Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, the stories of Hans Christian Andersen, or The Pied Piper by Robert Browning; and that while he read fairy-stories he did not develop a real taste for and appreciation of them until he was about eight. Nor was it until he began to study Latin and Greek at school that he developed any appreciation of *poetry. Even in early childhood his interests are more factual or scientific (*Science): history, astronomy, natural history (especially botany and zoology), palaeontology (he liked pictures of prehistoric animals), geology, grammar, and etymology. He will note several times that he was not particularly interested in or proficient at mathematics.

1896–1900 Much later, Tolkien will write to a group of primary school children in *Acocks Green, some two miles north-east of Sarehole: ‘I lived till I was 8 at Sarehole and used to walk to A[cocks] G[reen] to see my uncle. It was all “country” then …’ (17 October 1966, quoted in Sotheby’s, English Literature, History, Children’s Books and Illustrations, London, 16 December 2004, p. 274).

1897

22 June 1897 Ronald will later recall walking through the river-meadows up the hill to the old college, Moseley Grammar School, which he saw illuminated with fairy-lights for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee.

1898

1898–1899 Ronald will later recall that when he was about six or seven years old he wrote a story or poem about a dragon. ‘I remember nothing about it except a philological fact. My mother said nothing about the dragon, but pointed out that one could not say “a green great dragon”, but had to say “a great green dragon”. I wondered why, and still do. The fact that I remember this is possibly significant, as I do not think I ever tried to write a story again for many years, and was taken up with language’ (letter to W.H. Auden, 7 June 1955, Letters, p. 214). See note.

1899

9 October 1899 Beginning of the Boer War between Britain and the Boers of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State.

Mid-October 1899 Mafeking is besieged by the Boers. Because Ronald had been born in the Orange Free State, he and his mother would have a special interest in events occurring there. On 16 November 1914, not long after the First World War begins, he will write to his friend *Christopher Wiseman expressing patriotism and a fierce belief in nationalism, but denying that he is a militarist: ‘I no longer defend the Boer War! I am a more & more convinced Home Ruler’ (Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford).

November 1899 Ronald sits the entrance examination for *King Edward’s School, Birmingham, which his father had attended, but fails to obtain a place.

Late 1899 or early 1900 Mabel Tolkien begins to take her boys on Sunday to St Anne’s, a Roman Catholic church in Alcester Street, Birmingham.

1900

?1900 Late in life Tolkien will recall that when he was ‘about 8 years old’ he ‘read in a small book (professedly for the young) that nothing of the language of primitive peoples (before the Celts or Germanic invaders) is now known, except perhaps ond – ‘stone’ (+ one other now forgotten)’ (letter to Graham Tayar, 4–5 June 1971, Letters, p. 410). See note.

Spring 1900 Mabel and her sister May, having decided to convert to Roman Catholicism, begin to receive instruction at St Anne’s.

16 May 1900 Mafeking is relieved after seven months of resistance. In England there will be widespread celebrations on 18–19 May.

June 1900 Mabel is received into the Catholic Church. The Suffield family, especially Mabel’s Unitarian father, and the Tolkiens who are mainly Baptists, are shocked. Mabel is now faced with hostility and the loss of financial help. Walter Incledon refuses to continue his support and forces his wife May to recant her decision to join the Church of Rome. Undeterred, Mabel begins to instruct her sons in the Roman Catholic faith.

26–28 June 1900 During this period Ronald sits the entrance examination for King Edward’s School a second time and obtains a place.

Autumn term 1900 Ronald begins to attend King Edward’s School. His fee of £12 per year is paid by a Tolkien uncle. He is placed in the the Eleventh Class under Assistant Master W.H. Kirkby, and in Section D7 (i.e. group D7 for the study of Mathematics and Arithmetic). The Thirteenth Class is the lowest at King Edward’s School and the First Class the highest, but after the Eighth Class there are three unnumbered classes: Lower Remove, Upper Remove, and Transitus. Above Transitus the School is divided into a Classical Side and a Modern Side, with more classes on the latter (the Classical Side did not include a Seventh Class). Pupils do not necessarily pass through all classes, but might skip ahead; nor do they spend a set amount of time in each class. According to the School curriculum published in 1906,

the nine Classes from the 13th upwards to the Transitus, inclusive, receive instruction in the ordinary elementary subjects of a liberal education, viz, Arithmetic and Elementary Mathematics, Scripture, English, History, Geography, French, Latin and Drawing. The boys are also (as far up as class 8) instructed in Botany, with the intention of training their powers of observation and evoking an interest in the objects and phenomena of nature…. All boys throughout the School are required to take physical exercises in the Gymnasium, unless forbidden to do so by a medical man.

– For a while, Ronald walks most of the way to school, which is in the centre of Birmingham four miles from home, because Mabel cannot afford train fares, and the cheaper trams do not run as far as Sarehole. But before the end of September 1900 Mabel and her sons will move to 214 Alcester Road, Moseley, closer to King Edward’s School and on a tram route. Ronald will find being in the city ‘dreadful’ after the peace and green of Sarehole (quoted in Biography, p. 25). During his first term, ill health will keep Ronald away from school on several occasions; the December 1900 class list, compiled following the autumn term, will record him as ‘absent’. – Hilary continues to be taught at home by his mother.

Late 1900 or early 1901 Mabel Tolkien and her sons move to a terrace house, 86 Westfield Road in Kings Heath, close to the new Roman Catholic church of St Dunstan’s but backing onto a noisy railway line. On the far side of the line, however, are green fields, and flowers and other plants grow on the banks of the cutting. Ronald is not at all attracted by the trains themselves, but becomes fascinated by the strange Welsh names on the coal trucks they pull: the Welsh language will come to play an important part in his writings. He tries to learn more about it, but the only books available are still too advanced for him. See note.

1901

22 January 1901 Queen Victoria dies. Edward VII succeeds to the throne.

Spring and summer terms 1901 Ronald continues in Class XI under W.H. Kirkby, and in Section D7. He will be ranked thirteenth among twenty-two boys in the School class list dated July 1901.

Autumn term 1901 By now, Ronald has advanced to the Eighth Class, under Assistant Master A.W. Adams, and to Section D5 for Mathematics and Arithmetic. He will be ranked twenty-first among twenty-three boys in the School class list dated December 1901.

1902

Early 1902 Dissatisfied with the house in Kings Heath and with St Dunstan’s, Mabel looks elsewhere. She finds the *Birmingham Oratory more to her taste, and is able to find a house to rent nearby, at 26 Oliver Road in Edgbaston. Ronald and Hilary now will be able to attend St Philip’s, a Catholic grammar school attached to the Oratory. See note. Ronald will not have to make the long journey into the centre of Birmingham, and the fees are lower than at King Edward’s School. One of the Oratory Fathers, *Francis Xavier Morgan, who acts as parish priest soon becomes a close and sympathetic friend of the family.

31 May 1902 The Boer War ends with the Peace Treaty of Vereeniging. The Boers accept British sovereignty.

?Summer 1902 Ronald having outpaced his classmates, Mabel removes him and Hilary from St Philip’s School and once again teaches the boys at home.

9 August 1902 Coronation of King Edward VII.

November 1902 Ronald sits the entrance examination at King Edward’s School and is awarded a Foundation Scholarship; therefore no fees will have to be paid for his education. The Scholarship will be renewed in 1904, 1906, and 1908.

1903

14 April 1903 Frances Bratt dies. In her will she has named her brother, Ernest William Bratt, and her solicitor, Stephen Gateley, as executors, and has set up a trust on behalf of her mother, Jane Bratt, ‘for and during the term of her natural life she thereout maintaining educating and bringing up my Child Edith Bratt by Alfred Frederick Warrillow until she marries’, and with monies held in trust for Edith until she is twenty-one, or marries at a younger age, ‘for her sole and separate use and free from marital control’. She further allowed that if, at the time of Jane Bratt’s death, Edith should be living, under the age of twenty-one, and unmarried, then the monies held in trust should be paid to her guardian ‘to and for the maintenance and education of my said Child until she shall attain the age of twenty one years or marry under that age and any unapplied income shall be accumulated at interest and added to the said capital monies’. The net value of Frances’ estate is £3,797 2s 11d.

With the death of Jane Bratt in 1904 (as it seems), Stephen Gateley will become Edith’s guardian, and will send her to Dresden House School, a boarding school run by two sisters named Watts who place a particular emphasis on music. There Edith will develop her talent for playing the piano.

Spring term 1903 Ronald re-enters King Edward’s School in January 1903. He is placed in the Lower Remove Class under Assistant Master R.H. Hume, and in Section D5.

July 1903 In the School class list of this date, Ronald is placed eleventh out of twenty-four in the Lower Remove.

Autumn term 1903 Ronald advances from the Lower Remove. After leaving one of the Removes or Transitus, pupils have a choice. The School Curriculum of 1906 states that

above Transitus, the average age of which is about 14, though an able boy will usually pass through it quite a year earlier than that, the School is divided into a Classical or Literary, and Modern, or rather Scientific Side. The Modern Side do not learn Greek, nor (except in a Voluntary Class) do the Classical Side learn Science. The amount of time given to Mathematics on both sides is the same, and Modern Languages are also studied on both Sides. Boys who have any prospect of proceeding to Oxford or Cambridge should take the Classical Side, and it is especially desirable that boys who show mathematical promise should do so. All who contemplate a Degree in Arts at any University will naturally take this Side.

Ronald is on the Classical Side, and since there is no Seventh Class on that Side, he moves into the Sixth Class, under Assistant Master *George Brewerton. There he will begin to study Greek, he will be introduced also to *Shakespeare and *Chaucer (and encouraged to read the latter in the original), and with the aid of a primer lent him by Brewerton, he will begin to learn Old English (*Languages). During this term he is in Section B6 for Mathematics and Arithmetic. He will be ranked eighteenth among twenty-three boys in the School class list dated December 1903.

Christmas 1903 Mabel Tolkien sends drawings made by Ronald and Hilary to the boys’ Tolkien grandmother, and comments on how hard Ronald has worked on them since school broke up on 16 December:

Ronald can match silk lining or any art shade like a true ‘Parisian Modiste’. – Is it his Artist or Draper Ancestry coming out? – He is going along at a great rate at school – he knows far more Greek than I do Latin – he says he is going to do German with me these holidays – though at present [with a lingering illness] I feel more like Bed. One of the clergy, a young, merry one, is teaching Ronald to play chess – he says he has read too much, everything fit for a boy under fifteen, and he doesn’t know any single classical thing to recommend him. Ronald is making his First Communion this Christmas – so it is a very great feast indeed to us this year. [quoted in Biography, p. 28]

At his confirmation Ronald takes the additional name ‘Philip’ but will rarely use it. – At about this time, Ronald buys a copy of Chambers’s Etymological Dictionary, ‘the beginning of my interest in German Philology (& Philol[ogy]. in general)’ (note by Tolkien, dated 1973, in his copy of the book, quoted in Life & Legend, p. 16).

1904

January 1904 Ronald and Hilary have measles followed by whooping cough. Hilary also develops pneumonia. The strain of nursing the boys proves too much for Mabel’s health. – From 1 January, motor-cars in Britain have to be licensed and fitted with number plates; 23,000 cars are registered. The speed limit is 20 miles per hour. Tolkien will later remark on the spread of the motor-car with consequent noise and fumes (see *Environment; *Progress in Bimble Town).

Spring and summer terms 1904 The King Edward’s School class list dated July 1904, concerning the first half of the year, will list Ronald as ‘absent’.

April 1904 By now, Mabel is in hospital in Birmingham, diagnosed with diabetes and in the care of Dr Robert Saundby, noted in medical literature for his treatment of diabetics with controlled diet (insulin will not be discovered until 1921). Hilary is sent to his Suffield grandparents, and Ronald to Hove on the south coast of England near Brighton, to stay with Edwin Neave, a former lodger in the Suffield home and future husband of Mabel’s sister, Jane. Ronald will be absent from King Edward’s School for the summer term.

27 April 1904 Ronald sends his mother a drawing on the back of a card posted in Brighton: inscribed They Slept in Beauty Side by Side (Artist and Illustrator, fig. 4), it shows Ronald and Edwin Neave in bed. This is one of at least four drawings Ronald makes for his mother at this time. Another, inscribed Working Over Time S.P.Q.R., is of Edwin Neave, an insurance clerk, sitting at a tall desk with a Guardian Fire Insurance calendar on the wall, while a third, inscribed ‘For Men Must Work’ as Seen Daily at 9 am, depicts Ronald and Edwin striding along a promenade to the Guardian Assurance Company office. In yet another, What Is Home without a Mother (or a Wife) (Life and Legend, p. 14), on which is written ‘Show Aunt Jane’, Edwin Neave is darning a sock while Ronald is mending trousers. See note.

Late June 1904 Mabel has recovered sufficiently to leave hospital and must now undergo a lengthy convalescence. Father Francis Morgan arranges for her and the boys to stay at Woodside Cottage, *Rednal, Worcestershire, near the Oratory retreat and cemetery. They lodge with the local postman and his wife, Mr and Mrs Till. They have the freedom of the Oratory’s grounds and can explore the adjoining Lickey Hills. Mabel writes to her mother-in-law: ‘Boys look ridiculously well compared to the weak white ghosts that met me on train 4 weeks ago!!! Hilary has got tweed suit and his first Etons today! and looks immense. – We’ve had perfect weather. Boys will write first wet day but what with Bilberry-gathering – Tea in Hay – Kite-flying with Fr. Francis – sketching – Tree Climbing – they’ve never enjoyed a holiday so much’ (quoted in Biography, pp. 29–30.). Father Francis visits many times. Mabel and the boys attend Mass on Sundays at the Oratory retreat, if a priest is in residence, or they are driven to St Peter’s Catholic church in nearby Bromsgrove with Mr and Mrs Church, the gardener and caretaker for the Oratory fathers.

8 August 1904 Ronald writes a three-page pictorial code letter to Father Francis, which ends in plain text with a limerick about the priest ‘to pay you out for not coming!’

September 1904 Even when autumn term begins at King Edward’s School, Mabel decides not to leave Woodside Cottage. Therefore Ronald has to rise early and walk over a mile from Rednal to the nearest station to catch a train into Birmingham; by the time he comes home at the end of the day it is growing dark, and Hilary sometimes meets him with a lamp.

Autumn term 1904 Ronald continues in Class VI under George Brewerton, and in Section B6.

8 November 1904 Mabel sinks into a diabetic coma.

14 November 1904 Mabel Tolkien dies in Woodside Cottage, with Father Francis Morgan and May Incledon at her bedside.

17 November 1904 Mabel Tolkien is buried in the churchyard of St Peter’s, Bromsgrove, and her grave marked with a cross of the same design as that used for the graves of the Oratory fathers. In her will she has appointed Father Francis as Ronald and Hilary’s guardian. The net value of her estate is £1,261 16s 10d.