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

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СКАЧАТЬ at end of that season, & got my colours the next’ (letter to Michael Tolkien, 3 October 1937, Letters, p. 22). He will be described in the King Edward’s School Chronicle as ‘a light but hard-working forward who makes up for his lightness by his determined dash. Tackles well but his kicking is weak’ (‘Football Characters’, n.s. 25, no. 180 (April 1910), p. 35). During one game his tongue will be badly damaged, an accident he will sometimes blame when people complain that they find his speech difficult to understand. On another occasion he will damage his nose. – His relationship with Edith now becomes more serious. They begin to meet in Birmingham tea-shops; they go on cycle-rides together; they have a private whistle-call by which one can summon the other to the window at Duchess Road. Ronald will later recall to Edith their first kisses and ‘absurd long window talks’ (quoted in Biography, p. 40). By summer 1909 they will decide that they are in love.

      Spring and summer terms 1909 Ronald continues in the First Class, one of eighteen pupils. He will end this period ranked thirteenth in his Mathematics section, A4, again under F.O. Lane, and second in his German class, which is taught by A.L. Rothe. Hilary Tolkien continues in Class VI, Section B6.

      26 March 1909 Ronald takes part in one of the traditional Latin debates at King Edward’s School, in the role of ‘Spurius Vectigalius Acer, Haruspex’. (Haruspex = ‘soothsayer, prophet’. The names of Tolkien’s Latin debate personae always contain plays on his surname, here vectigal ‘toll’ and acer ‘keen’.)

      Spring 1909 According to the ‘Parish Magazine’, the magazine of the Birmingham Oratory parish, for May 1909, ‘three patrols of Scouts under the Brothers Tolkien, have been started, and they marched smartly in the wake of the Boys Brigade on Easter Monday [11 April]. When they have done a little more drill, we shall ask some of our friends to help towards providing them with shirts, haversacks, etc.’

      11 May 1909 Edwin Neave dies of bronchial pneumonia. He will be buried in All Hallows’ churchyard, Gedling, east of Nottingham.

      Summer term 1909 The King Edward’s School Officers Training Corps (formerly the Cadet Corps) participates in field exercises, including one in the Clent Hills near Birmingham. As reported in the King Edward’s School Chronicle, ‘the corps went out five times with the 5th Battalion of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, and took part in the training of a Battalion under the instruction of Lieut.-Col. [John] Barnsley’ (‘Officers’ Training Corps’, n.s. 24, no. 177 (November 1909), p. 80).

      10 June 1909 Ronald writes this day’s date (Corpus Christi 1909) on the title-page of a small notebook he calls The Book of Foxrook (*Writing systems). This

      contains the key to a secret code consisting of a rune-like phonetic alphabet and a sizable number of ideographic symbols called ‘monographs’ … each monograph representing an entire word…. The code in Foxrook is not only the earliest known example of an invented alphabet devised by Tolkien, it is also the only one of his writing systems that is primarily ideographic. The majority of Foxrook is in English, including most of the messages written in code and the glosses of the monographs, but one page is almost entirely in Esperanto. [Arden R. Smith and Patrick Wynne, ‘Tolkien and Esperanto’, Seven 17 (2000), pp. 29–30]

      1 and 3 July 1909 Athletic Sports are held at the King Edward’s School Grounds.

      7 July 1909 King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra visit Birmingham. After a reception and luncheon at the Council House they drive to Edgbaston to open the New Buildings of the University of Birmingham. The cadets of the King Edward’s School Officers Training Corps parade in the playground behind the School and then, preceded by a fife and drum band, march some distance by way of Bristol Road to the University to contribute to a Guard of Honour for the royal visitors.

      26 July 1909 Speech Day and prize-giving at King Edward’s School. Ronald is runner-up for the German prize.

      27 July–4 August 1909 Ronald participates with seventy-one other cadets in the King Edward’s School Officers Training Corps at the Public Schools’ Camp, *Tidworth Pennings on Salisbury Plain. They travel there by special train on 27 July. Although it rains that day, the remaining days at camp have fine weather. The King Edward’s School contingent are in one of four battalions given thorough training, culminating in ‘a grand field day, known officially as the Battle of Silk Hill, wherein nearly 20,000 troops of all arms, Regulars and Territorials, took part’ (‘Officers’ Training Corps’, King Edward’s School Chronicle n.s. 24, no. 177 (November 1909), p. 81). One of Ronald’s contemporaries at King Edward’s School will later recall that ‘he and I and six others occupied one bell tent. One evening Tolkien came charging in, leapt up and clasped the central pole high up and slid down it to the ground, not having noticed that someone had fixed a candle to the pole with his clasp knife. Tolkien must still carry the scar of the very nasty cut that resulted’ (William H. Tait, letter to the editor, Old Edwardians Gazette, June 1972, p. 17).

      Summer 1909 Ronald spends part of the summer holidays at Rednal working for an Oxford scholarship.

      Autumn term 1909 Ronald’s friends Rob Gilson, W.H. Payton and his brother *Ralph Stuart Payton (‘the Baby’), and Vincent Trought have joined him, together with Christopher Wiseman, in the First Class at King Edward’s School. There are now only fifteen pupils in the class. Ronald is no longer in a Mathematics section, apparently having completed his required course of study. Hilary Tolkien is now in Class VI, Section B5.

      8 October 1909 Now a member of the King Edward’s School Debating Society (*Societies and clubs), Ronald makes his maiden speech on the motion: ‘That this house expresses its sympathy with the objects and its admiration of the tactics of the Militant Suffragette.’ The King Edward’s School Chronicle will report that he ‘spoke of the Suffragette from a Zoological point of view and gave an interesting display of his paronomasiac powers [ability to play on words]. A good humourous speech.’ Christopher Wiseman, also entering into the debate, points out ‘that man had been educated from the middle of the 18th century, but it was not till 1884 that the vote was extended. Woman had had no education till the middle of the 19th century; ergo, they had still fifty years to wait!’ (‘Debating Society’, n.s. 24, no. 177 (November 1909), pp. 84, 83). The motion fails, 12 votes to 20.

      22 October 1909 At a meeting of the King Edward’s School Debating Society R.W. Reynolds introduces the motion: ‘That this House disapproves of the Government proposals for the taxation of land’. The motion passes, 24 votes to 18.

      26 October 1909 Ronald plays in the King Edward’s School Rugby 1st XV for the first time, in a home match against Jesus College, Oxford. King Edward’s School loses, 9 to 19. According to the King Edward’s School Chronicle, the home team ‘continued to keep their opponents well in hand, and were at length rewarded by a try by Tolkien, who had shown himself throughout the afternoon a keen forward, and fully deserved this success. The kick did not succeed…. At the close of the game J.R.R. Tolkien and H.N. Thompson received their 2nd Team Colours’ (‘Football’, n.s. 24, no. 177 (November 1909), p. 88). (A photograph of the 1909–10 1st XV appears in Biography, pl. 5a, and in The Tolkien Family Album, p. 26.)

      29 October 1909 J.N.E. Tredennick, a student at King Edward’s School, reads a paper on the American author Oliver Wendell Holmes at a meeting of the School Literary Society (*Societies and clubs).

      30 October 1909 Ronald plays in a 1st XV home match against the 2nd XV of Old Edwardians II. King Edward’s School loses, 8 to 10.

      5 November 1909 At a meeting СКАЧАТЬ