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

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СКАЧАТЬ of much of the story-telling in The Book of Lost Tales. Goblin Feet seems to have been merely a fairy poem written to please Edith. Later Tolkien will come to dislike it, with its images of tiny fairies (rejected in his mythology), and wish that it could be buried and forgotten, but now he submits it (with You & Me and the Cottage of Lost Play) to the annual volume of Oxford Poetry, co-edited by T.W. Earp. Of the two poems, only Goblin Feet will be chosen for publication.

      29–30 April 1915 Tolkien writes a poem, *Tinfang Warble, only eight lines long. He will later rewrite and lengthen it.

      30 April 1915 Tolkien writes the poem Kôr: In a City Lost and Dead (*The City of the Gods). Its ‘sable hill’ and ‘marble temples white’ (*The Book of Lost Tales, Part One, p. 136) agree with the watercolour Tanaqui painted during Easter vacation 1915.

      2 May 1915 Tolkien revises his poem Darkness on the Road (first composed in November 1911). He also makes a fair copy of his poem The Mermaid’s Flute.

      3 May 1915 Tolkien writes a poem, Morning Song, a revision of Morning (composed in March 1910). – At about this time he has several of his poems typed by the copying office of William Hunt at 18 Broad Street, Oxford, and the typescripts stapled in a booklet. – The Stapeldon Society meets.

      10 May 1915 On one page of The Book of Ishness Tolkien paints a watercolour, another view of the Elvish city Kôr (Artist and Illustrator, fig. 44). The city is framed by two dying trees from whose branches grow a crescent Moon and a blazing Sun – an early, visual expression of the Two Trees which will become an essential feature in Tolkien’s mythology – while in the sky is a single star. On the opposite blank (verso) page of the book Tolkien writes ‘The Shores of Faery’. (See further, entry for 8–9 July 1915 and related note.)

      ?Mid-May 1915 Probably at about the same time, on the next opening in The Book of Ishness Tolkien paints a watercolour described on the facing page as ‘Illustr[ation]: To “Man in the Moon”’ (Artist and Illustrator, fig. 45), and underneath this inscription he writes out four lines of the poem he had composed in March: Why the Man in the Moon Came Down Too Soon. When he comes to describe the vessel of the Moon in The Book of Lost Tales some four years later, he apparently will look back to this picture for inspiration (‘Rods there were and perchance they were of ice, and they rose upon it like aëry masts, and sails were caught to them by slender threads’, The Book of Lost Tales, Part One (1983), p. 192).

      ?14 May 1915 G.B. Smith writes to Tolkien. He is now in the 19th Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers, temporarily at the Grand Hotel, Penmaenmawr, Wales. Needing a Welsh grammar, he asks Tolkien to send his (Smith’s) copy if he has it, or to buy him a new one, or to sell him Tolkien’s own Welsh grammar. He expects that Tolkien will send him Georgian Poetry, and asks Tolkien to show some of Smith’s verses to the editor of Oxford Poetry 1915.

      17 May 1915 Tolkien apparently is absent from a meeting of the Stapeldon Society, since T.W. Earp will be reported as having spoken on his behalf.

      22 May 1915 Tolkien attends an eight-course dinner given by a fellow student at Exeter College, E.E. St L. Hill, for friends before the latter joins the 19th Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers. Tolkien obtains many signatures on his printed menu.

      23 May 1915 Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary. – W.E. Hall of Exeter College is killed near Krithia, Turkey during the Dardanelles (Gallipoli) campaign.

      28 May 1915 The Psittakoi, an Oxford student society of which T.W. Earp is president, meets in R.H. Barrow’s rooms at Exeter College. Tolkien gives a paper on The Quest of Beauty and Other Poems by *H.R. Freston. See note.

      ?29 May (?5 June) 1915 Smith writes to Tolkien. He has been reading Georgian Poetry as well as another book Tolkien has sent him, apparently on medieval scripts.

      31 May 1915 Zeppelins bomb London for the first time.

      Before 10 June 1915 Tolkien borrows from the Exeter College library the Cambridge History of English Literature and introductions to Dryden, Keats, and Shakespeare. See note.

      ?10 June 1915 Smith writes to Tolkien, who has asked advice on being posted to Smith’s regiment. Smith suggests that Tolkien write to Colonel Stainforth of the 19th Lancashire Fusiliers, and ask if Stainforth will consider his application for a commission. If he is successful, Smith will do his best to get Tolkien into his hut and company.

      I think it is quite on the cards that I shall be in Birmingham next week, because I have toothache like Satan himself, and must see my dentist. I am strongly in favour of your going to Allports’, Cotmore Row for your clothing. They are no dearer and far and away better than anybody outside London, or perhaps inside it. I have worn these clothes hard and solid ever since I had them, and there are no signs of wearing out. Now you have one uniform, and the most you want is another tunic, a pair of slacks, perhaps a pair of breeches, and perhaps a British Warm. If you can get slacks under 35/- you will be a genius; and breeches are Allports’ extra special article. If you could manage to be in Birmingham during the next week we might visit that distinguished emporium together…. It is most important to buy only the darkest stuffs for breeches and Warm, because the [Commanding Officer] here hates anything light….

      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 СКАЧАТЬ