Tolkien Vorlesung FSU WS 2004/05 Thomas Honegger Life and Work (based on Carpenter 1987:263-75) 1892 3 January: born at Bloemfontein, Orange Free State 1894 Birth of younger brother Hilary 1895 Spring: Mabel Tolkien takes the two boys back to England, Arthur Tolkien remaining in South Africa. 1896 February: Arthur Tolkien dies. Summer: Mabel Tolkien rents a cottage at Sarehole Mill, Birmingham. She and the boys remain there for four years. 1900 Mabel Tolkien is received into the Catholic Church. She and the boys move from Sarehole to a house in the Birmingham suburb of Moseley. Ronald begins to attend King Edward’s School. 1901 Mabel and the boys move from Moseley to King’s Heath. 1902 Mabel and the boys leave King’s Heath and move to Oliver Road, Edgbaston. Ronald and Hilary are enrolled at St Philip’s Grammar School. 1903 The boys are removed from St Philip’s. Ronald obtains a scholarship to King Edward’s and returns there in the autumn. 1904 Early in the year Mabel Tolkien is discovered to have diabetes. She spends some weeks in hospital. In the summer she and the boys stay at Rednal. In November she dies, aged 34. 1905 The boys move into their Aunt Beatrice’s house in Stirling Road. 1908 The boys move to Mrs Faulkner’s house in Duchess Road. Ronald meets Edith Bratt. 1909 Autumn: Ronald’s romance with Edith Bratt is discovered by Father Francis Morgan. Ronald fails to obtain a scholarship at Oxford. 1910 January: Ronald and Hilary move to new lodgings. Ronald continues to see Edith Bratt, but is then forbidden to communicate with her. March: Edith leaves Birmingham and moves to Cheltenham. December: Ronald wins an Exhibition at Exeter College, Oxford. 1911 Formation of ‘The T.C.B.S.’ Summer: Ronald leaves school. He visits Switzerland. Autumn: His first term at Oxford. Christmas: He takes part in a performance of The Rivals at King Edward’s. Publication of the poem ‘The Battle of the Eastern Field’ in The King Edward’s School Chronicle Vol. 26, No. 186. 1913 Ronald’s twenty-first birthday. He is reunited with Edith Bratt. February: He takes Honour Moderations and is awarded a Second Class. Summer: He begins to read for the Honours School of English Language and Literature. He visits France with a Mexican family. Publication of the poem ‘From the many-willow’s margin of the immemorial Thames’ in The Stapledon Magazine, Vol. 4 No. 20. 1914 January: Edith is received into the Catholic Church. She and Ronald are formally betrothed. Summer: Ronald visits Cornwall. At the outbreak of war he determines to return to Oxford and complete his degree courses. 1915 Summer: He is awarded First Class Honours in his final examination. After being commissioned in the Lancashire Fusiliers he begins training in Bedford and Staffordshire. Publication of the poem ‘Goblin Feet’ in Oxford Poetry, 1915, edited by G.D.H. Cole and T.W. Earp (Oxford: Blackwell) 1916 22 March: He and Edith are married. Edith moves to Great Haywood. June: Ronald embarks for France. He travels to the Somme as a second lieutenant in the 11th Lancashire Fusiliers, and serves in action as Battalion Signalling Officer until the autumn. November: He returns to England suffering from ‘trench fever’. 1917 January and February: While convalescing at Great Haywood he begins to write ‘The Book of Lost Tales’, which eventually becomes The Silmarillion. Spring: He is posted in Yorkshire, but spends much of the year in hospital. November: Birth of eldest son, John. 1918 Tolkien (now a full lieutenant) is posted to the Humber Garrison and to Staffordshire. In November, after the Armistice, he returns to Oxford with his family and joins the staff of the New English Dictionary. Life and Work 2 1919 He begins work as a freelance tutor. He and Edith move to 1 Alfred Street. 1920 He is appointed Reader in English Language at Leeds University, and begins work there in autumn. Birth of second son, Michael. Publication of the poem ‘The Happy Mariners’ in The Stapledon Magazine, Vol. 5 No. 26. 1921 Edith and the family join him in Leeds, eventually moving into 11 St Mark’s Terrace. 1922 E.V. Gordon joins the staff at Leeds. He and Tolkien begin work on their edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Tolkien becomes Professor of English Language at Leeds University. He buys a house in Darnley Road. Birth of third son, Christopher. Publication of A Middle English Vocabulary (Oxford: Clarendon Press) [Designed for use with 1921 edition of Kenneth Sisam’s Fourteenth Century Verse & Prose; in subsequent editions of which it appears as glossary]. 1923 Publication of the poem ‘Iumonna Gold Galdre Bewunden’ in The Gryphon, New Series Vol. 4 No. 4; Poems ‘The Eadigan Saelidan: The Happy Mariners’, ‘Why the Man in the Moon Came Down Too Soon’ and ‘Enigmata Saxonica Nuper Inventa Duo’ in A Northern Venture: verses by members of the Leeds University School Association (Leeds: Swan Press). Publication of ‘The Cat and the Fiddle: A Nursery-Rhyme Undone and its Scandalous Secret Unlocked’, in Yorkshire Poetry Vol.2 No. 19. 1924 Publication of poems ‘An Evening in Tavrobel’, ‘The Lonely Isle’ and ‘The Princess Ni’ in Leeds University Verse 1914-24 (Leeds: Swan Press). 1925 The edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is published. In the summer Tolkien is elected Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford, and takes up the appointment in the autumn. He buys a house in Northmoor Road, and the family returns to Oxford early in the new year. Publication of the article ‘The Devil’s Coach-Horses’ in The Review of English Studies Vol.1 No. 3. 1926 Tolkien becomes friends with C.S. Lewis. Formation of ‘The Coalbiters’. 1928 Foreword to A New Glossary of the Dialect of the Huddersfield District by Walter E. Haigh (London: OUP). 1929 Birth of daughter, Priscilla. Publication of article ‘Ancrene Wisse and Hali Meithhad’ in Essays and Studies by by members of the English Association Vol 14. 1930 The family moves from 22 to 20 Northmoor Road. At about this time Tolkien begins to write The Hobbit. He abandons it before it is finished. 1932 Publication of Appendix I ‘ The Name ‘Nodens’’ in Report on the Excavation of the Prehistoric, Roman, and Post-Roman Sites in Lydney Park, Gloucestershire, Reports of Research Committee of Society of Antiquaries of London No. 9. Publication of article ‘Sigelwara Land’: Part I’ in Medium Aevum 1:183-96. 1934 Publication of poem ‘The Adventures of Tom Bombadil’ in The Oxford Magazine Vol. 52 No. 13. Publication of article ‘Sigelwara Land’: Part II’ in Medium Aevum 3:95-111. Publication of the article ‘Chaucer as a Philologist: The Reeve’s Tale’ in Transactions of the Philological Society (pp. 1-70; London: David Nutt). 1936 He lectures on Beowulf: the Monsters and the Critics. The manuscript of The Hobbit is read by Susan Dagnall of Allen & Unwin, and at her suggestion Tolkien finishes the book. It is accepted for publication. Publishes several poems in Songs for the Philologists (privately printed in Department of English, University College, London). 1937 The Hobbit is published in the autumn. At the suggestion of Stanley Unwin, Tolkien begins to write a sequel, which becomes The Lord of the Rings. 1939 Tolkien delivers his lecture On Fairy-Stories at St Andrews University. At the outbreak of war Charles Williams joins the Inklings. 1940 Preface to Beowulf and the Finnesburg Fragment: A Translation into Modern English Prose by John R. Clark Hall, revised by C.L. Wrenn (London: George Allen & Unwin). 1944 Sir Orfeo (Oxford: Academic Copying Service). Unsigned, edition prepared by Tolkien for wartime Naval Cadets’ course at Oxford. 1945 Tolkien is elected Merton Professor of English Language and Literature at Oxford. Publication of ‘Leaf by Niggle’ in The Dublin Review 432:46-61. Life and Work 3 Publication of ‘The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun’ in The Welsh Review Vol. 4 No 4:254-66. 1947 The Tolkiens move to Manor Road. Publication of ‘On Fairy-Stories’ in Essays Presented to Charles Williams, edited by C.S. Lewis (London: OUP), pp. 38-89. 1948 Publication (in collaboration with S.R.T.O. d’Ardenne) of article ‘MS Bodley 34: A re-collation of a collation’ in Studia Neophilologica 20:65-72. 1949 Completion of The Lord of the Rings. Publication of Farmer Giles of Ham. 1950 Tolkien offers The Lord of the Rings to the publishing house of Collins. The family moves from Manor Road to Holywell Street. 1952 The manuscript of The Lord of the Rings is returned by Collins, and Tolkien passes it to Allen & Unwin. 1953 The Tolkiens move to Sandfield Road in the Oxford suburb of Headington. BBC Third Programme broadcasts his translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Publication of ‘The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm’s Son’ in Essays and Studies NS Vol. 6:1-18. Publication of ‘Middle English ‘losenger’’ in Essais de Philologie Moderne 1951, 63-76. 1954 Publication of the first two volumes of The Lord of the Rings (London: George Allen & Unwin). 1955 Publication of the third volume. Preface to The Ancrene Riwle, translated into Modern English by M.B. Salu (London: Burns & Oates). 1959 Tolkien retires from his professorship. 1962 Publication of The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and other verses from The Red Book (London: George Allen & Unwin). Publication of Ancrene Wisse: The English Text of the Ancrene Riwle, edited from MS. Corpus Christi College Cambridge 402, EETS 249 (London: OUP). 1963 ‘English and Welsh’ in Angles and Britons: O’Donnell Lectures (Cardiff: University of Wales Press), pp.