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

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СКАЧАТЬ 1918 Tolkien loses nearly two stone (28 lbs) as a result of his illness.

      25 July 1918 From this date, Edith writes to her husband from 1 Blenheim Parade, Pittsville, Cheltenham.

      10 August 1918 By this date, Edith moves again, to 2 Trinity Terrace, Cheltenham. She will still be at this address on 19 November.

      26 July 1918 The War Office, apparently unaware of Tolkien’s medical condition, orders him to return to France via Boulogne on 27 July.

      31 July 1918 The War Office cancels its order of 26 July.

      4 September 1918 Tolkien is examined by a Medical Board at Humber Garrison headquarters in Hull. He is improving and beginning to regain the weight he had lost. The Board declares him 100 per cent disabled, unfit in any category for two months, and recommends that he be transferred to a convalescent hospital.

      11 September 1918 Tolkien is transferred to Savoy Convalescent Hospital in Blackpool on the west coast of England.

      12 September 1918 The War Office instructs its Northern Command, in charge of the Humber Garrison, to ascertain whether Tolkien is fit for Class C(ii), sedentary employment only. It is now nearly two years since illness forced his return from France, and for most of this time he has been ill or able to carry out only restricted duties.

      28 September 1918 Tolkien’s medical records are reported transferred to Western Command, as he is now under its jurisdiction in Blackpool.

      1 October 1918 The War Office authorizes Tolkien to take up sedentary employment, apparently having concluded that he is eligible for Class C(ii) even in advance of another examination. Tolkien himself, or perhaps the War Office on his behalf, now applies to the Ministry of Labour in this regard.

      5 October 1918 The Ministry of Labour, Appointments Department, Officers’ University and Technical Classes (OUTC), Professional and Business Register acknowledges Tolkien’s application for employment under the Ministry, and informs him that his services have been requested from the War Office.

      13 October 1918 Tolkien is present at a special dinner featuring Italian food, probably sponsored by Italians for patients at the Savoy Hospital and the King’s Lancashire Military Convalescent Hospital in Blackpool. (Italy at this time is ruled by the House of Savoy.) Tolkien obtains five signatures, including those of at least two Italians, on his printed menu card.

      14 October 1918 A Medical Board at the King’s Lancashire Military Convalescent Hospital, Blackpool, declares Tolkien unfit for six months in any category except sedentary employment, and recommends that he be given one month’s leave. He is ordered to report in writing to the Controller of the Officers’ University and Technical Classes (OUTC) at Gresham House, Oxford. See note.

      Late October 1918 Although officially on leave, Tolkien returns to Oxford by the end of the month.

      1 November 1918 Tolkien reports for duty at the Ministry of Labour Appointments Department in Oxford. He gives as a contact address the OUTC office in University College.

      Early November 1918 With little hope of an academic post, Tolkien accepts an offer from his former tutor in Old Icelandic, William Craigie, to join the staff of the New English Dictionary, later and more widely known as the *Oxford English Dictionary.

      11 November 1918 The Armistice is signed.

      19 November 1918 By this date Tolkien is staying at 39 St John’s Street, Oxford.

      29 November 1918 Tolkien writes notes on possible ways to work Watling Street, Wéland (Wayland), and the Romans into his private mythology.

      Late 1918 Tolkien, Edith, John, and Jennie Grove move into rooms at 50 St John Street, Oxford, let by a Miss Mahon.

      16 December 1918 Christopher Wiseman, on leave in London, replies to a letter from Tolkien which took seven weeks to reach him, having followed his ship to Sevastopol and back. He had heard just before that letter arrived that Tolkien is now in Oxford. Wiseman, still on active service in the Navy, describes his future movements.

      27 December 1918 Wiseman replies to a message from Tolkien. He is sorry to have been unable to visit Oxford. He must now return to HMS Monarch for a short time, then take up an appointment at Cambridge teaching junior officers. He assumes that Tolkien is now settled at 50 St John Street.

1919

      1919 Tolkien marks the new year by beginning to record in a diary principal events in his life and his thoughts about them. He writes in English, at first with Roman letters, but later in a phonetic alphabet of his own invention. Eventually he attaches this to his mythology and names it the ‘Alphabet of Rúmil’ after the Elvish sage in his stories who devised letters to record Qenya texts (*Writing systems). From 1919 to the mid-1920s he will make constant alterations to the alphabet, so that even he will have difficulty reading it, and will rarely use it after 1930.

      1919–1920 Tolkien revises his poem The Pool of the Dead Year (first composed in November–December 1915), now entitled The Pool of Forgetfulness. Probably during this period he also writes the poems The Brothers in Arms (later reworked as The Brothers-in-Arms), and Nursery Rhymes Undone (later revised as The Cat and the Fiddle, see *The Man in the Moon Stayed Up Too Late).

      c. 1919–c. 1923 Tolkien writes a series of tables of Qenya pronouns and pronominal prefixes and suffixes (*‘Early Qenya Pronouns’). Later he reuses some of these sheets, with other discarded papers (including a letter dated 4 June 1920), in compiling a partial English–Old English dictionary.

      ?January–?June 1919 Tolkien writes a cosmogonical myth, The Music of the Ainur (*Ainulindalë), and otherwise continues work on The Book of Lost Tales, but largely abandons it, apparently by the end of June 1919. (See further, article on *The Book of Lost Tales in Reader’s Guide.) The tales written in this period tell of the conflicts between the renegade Melko and the rest of the Valar (guardians or angelic powers) when he tried to seize the rule of the world; Melko’s destruction of the Two Trees which gave light to Valinor, home of the Valar and of many Elves; his theft of precious jewels from the Elves and his flight into Middle-earth (not yet so-called); and the long and bitter war of the Elves with Melko in the hope of recovering their jewels. Some tales are left only in the form of rough notes and outlines which suggest that the author is undecided about many things in his mythology. – Probably during this period Tolkien extensively re-writes The Fall of Gondolin in ink over the original pencil version, and Edith makes a fair copy of the revision. – A list, *Corrected Names of Chief Valar, and a brief Qenya text associated with The Nauglafring: The Necklace of the Dwarves (The Book of Lost Tales), *‘Si Qente Feanor’, may also date from this period. – At this time Tolkien also writes revisions to his Gnomish lexicon on the backs of Oxford English Dictionary proof slips.

      January 1919 Tolkien begins work as an assistant at the Oxford English Dictionary in the Old Ashmolean building in Broad Street, Oxford, a short walk from the Tolkien home in St John Street. Under the supervision of *Henry Bradley, he will work on words beginning with ‘W’. Most of those on the Dictionary staff also teach in the University, СКАЧАТЬ