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

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СКАЧАТЬ 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 СКАЧАТЬ