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

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СКАЧАТЬ Garrison headquarters in Hull. He is slowly recovering, and in the intervening month has suffered only one slight attack of fever. The Board declares him 20 per cent disabled, unfit for general service for two months but fit for home service, including active duty with troops. He is ordered to continue service with the 3rd Lancashire Fusiliers at Thirtle Bridge, but continues to receive hospital treatment. – Edith gives birth to a son in a Cheltenham nursing home. It is a difficult delivery, and for a while her life is in danger. Tolkien cannot get leave for some days, but May Incledon writes to reassure him. At some point he will sell the last of the shares in South African mines he inherited to pay for Edith’s medical care.

      Mid-November 1917 Tolkien is transferred to the 9th Battalion, Royal Defence Corps, based at Easington, some ten miles south of Thirtle Bridge near the tip of the Holderness peninsula. He resides, however, a few miles still further south, at Kilnsea, while receiving medical care in Easington. See note.

      19 November 1917 R.W. Reynolds writes to thank Tolkien for a parcel and for a poem or poems which he will read aloud to his wife. He is very interested ‘in the book of tales you are at work on’ (The Book of Lost Tales) and hopes to see it ‘when it is in a state to travel’ (Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford). Sidgwick & Jackson have been considering G.B. Smith’s poems for publication for three weeks.

      c. 22 November 1917 Tolkien goes to Cheltenham to see Edith and the baby. Father Francis comes from Birmingham. The baby is baptized *John Francis Reuel Tolkien. His godparents are Hilary Tolkien and Mary Incledon (who has become a Roman Catholic). To pay the costs of Edith’s medical care, Tolkien sells the last few shares in South African mines remaining from his inheritance. According to Humphrey Carpenter, after the christening of John Tolkien ‘Edith brought the child back to Yorkshire, moving into furnished rooms at Roos’ (Biography, p. 97). See note.

      24 November 1917 Tolkien’s promotion from second lieutenant to full lieutenant as of 1 July 1917 is listed in the London Gazette.

      December 1917–March 1918 Tolkien revises part of The Town of Dreams and the City of Present Sorrow (see entry for 10 November–1 December 1916) as The Song of Eriol, referring to the wandering mariner in The Book of Lost Tales. One of the manuscripts of the poem includes a later note, ‘Easington 1917–18’.

      ?10 (?17 ?20) December 1917 Wiseman replies to a letter in which Tolkien told him of the safe birth of his son. He insists on being considered as an uncle. He has received several letters from Tolkien, in one of which Tolkien asked for more about the article in the Times Literary Supplement (see entry for 1 September 1917). Wiseman now writes at great length what he remembers about it, and replies to Tolkien’s comments on what Wiseman had written in his earlier letter.

      24 December 1917 Tolkien’s cousin Lieutenant Thomas Ewart Mitton, a signals officer with the Royal Engineers, dies in an accident while erecting telegraph wires over a railway near Ypres.

1918

      1918 Tolkien probably spends much of his leisure time during 1918 writing the first version of a third story for The Book of Lost Tales: The Tale of Turambar (see *The Book of Lost Tales; *‘Of Túrin Turambar’).

      1918–1919 An influenza pandemic kills between twenty and forty million people around the world (including, in 1919, Tolkien’s friend Colin Cullis).

      January–March 1918 Tolkien rewrites the poem The Lonely Harebell (first composed in November 1916). On a later manuscript, in which the poem is called Elf Alone, he will add a note: ‘1915–1916 rewr[itten] 1918 | Cromer, Hosp[ital] Birm[ingham] | farmhouse near Easington, Yorks’.

      19 January 1918 Tolkien is examined by a Medical Board at Humber Garrison headquarters in Hull. Although he has had two slight attacks, with a temperature reaching 100 degrees Fahrenheit, which required bed rest for five days, he is gradually improving. The Board declares him 20 per cent disabled, unfit for general service for one month but fit for active duty with troops on home service for one month. He is ordered to continue service with the 9th Royal Defence Corps at Easington, and treatment by the regimental medical officer.

      19 February 1918 Tolkien is examined by a Medical Board at Humber Garrison headquarters in Hull. He is improving slowly but ‘still looks weak & is unable for much exertion … & requires hardening’ (National Archives, Kew WO 339/34423). The Board declares him 20 per cent disabled, unfit for general service but fit for active duty with troops on home service. He is ordered to continue service with the 9th Royal Defence Corps at Easington and treatment by the regimental medical officer.

      Late February–early March 1918 At some time in this period Tolkien returns to the 3rd Lancashire Fusiliers at Thirtle Bridge, and for five days is confined to bed by an attack of influenza.

      10 March 1918 In the evening, German Zeppelins attack Hull and Hornsea.

      19 March 1918 Tolkien is examined by a Medical Board at Humber Garrison headquarters in Hull. His general tone is improving but he still needs hardening. The Board declares him 20 per cent disabled, unfit for general service but fit for active duty with troops on home service. He is ordered to continue service with the 3rd Lancashire Fusiliers at Thirtle Bridge.

      10 April 1918 A Medical Board at Humber Garrison headquarters declares Tolkien recovered and fit for general service.

      Spring (?May) 1918 Tolkien is posted again to Penkridge, Rugeley Camp, Staffordshire. Edith, John, and Jennie Grove find rooms in a nearby house at Gipsy Green (*Staffordshire), on the Teddesley Park estate. Tolkien is able to stay with them occasionally. The name of Gipsy Green may be reflected in Fladweth Amrod (Gnomish, ‘Nomad’s Green’), a place in Tol Eressëa associated with Eriol and mentioned in The Book of Lost Tales. See note.

      May–June 1918 Tolkien makes some drawings at Gipsy Green (Artist and Illustrator, figs. 22–23). One is a view of the house (Gipsy Green), another a series of vignettes (High Life at Gipsy Green): Edith washing herself, fixing her hair, playing the piano, carrying John in the garden; John in his cot; cats that dance when Edith plays the piano; and Tolkien himself in uniform, riding a bicycle to the camp timed ‘8.25 a.m.’ and ‘8.27 a.m.’, and standing erect at ‘9 a.m.’ Another vignette, labelled ‘The fish we couldn’t get at Swanwicks’, refers to a fishmonger in Stafford. A different sheet includes a portrait of Jennie Grove, a view of Edith from behind, and John in his cot. Probably at about this time Tolkien also draws other views of a garden, and Road near Stafford.

      ?June 1918 Tolkien is transferred to Brocton Camp.

      June or July 1918 The firm of Erskine Macdonald publishes A Spring Harvest by Geoffrey Bache Smith, with a short introductory note by ‘J.R.R.T.’

      29 June 1918 Tolkien contracts gastritis at Brocton Camp. By 12 July he will be admitted to ‘Brooklands’ officers’ hospital in Hull. – Although she is once again separated from her husband by a long distance, Edith will stay at Gipsy Green until 24 July. She is happy there, finds looking after the baby tiring, and is still not fully recovered from John’s difficult birth.

      17 July 1918 A Medical Board in Hull declares Tolkien unfit in any category for one month. While in hospital he will learn a little Russian and work to improve his Spanish and Italian.

      Late СКАЧАТЬ