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

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СКАЧАТЬ Christmas’, writes to his children. He tells how the residents of the North Pole celebrated the coming of winter with a bonfire and fireworks, and how the North Polar Bear opened a window during a gale, scattering the lists and letters on Father Christmas’s desk. He also sends an illustration in three tiers, of Father Christmas and Polar Bear at work in the office, the bonfire and fireworks, and the office with papers blown into the air. Father Christmas says that he was very pleased with Christopher’s card, and sends him a fountain pen and a picture just for himself, of Father Christmas flying in his sleigh above the sea on the upper North wind, with a South West gale raising big waves below.

      ?End of 1929 or early 1930 C.S. Lewis sends Tolkien at least fourteen pages of detailed criticism of the Lay of Leithian, to line 1161. Tolkien apparently considers Lewis’s comments carefully, for almost all the verses criticized are marked for revision in the typescript, and many of the proposed emendations, or modifications of these, are incorporated into rewritten and retyped versions of Canto I and the beginning of Canto IV. – Tolkien writes a composite poem (or two poems on a common theme) based on Breton verse, each entitled *The Corrigan. The second of these will develop into *The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun.

1930

      c. 1930 Tolkien takes some children to see a performance of Toad of Toad Hall by A.A. Milne, an adaptation of The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. He will later write in On Fairy-Stories: ‘The play is, on the lower level of drama, tolerably good fun, especially for those who have not read the book; but some children that I took to see Toad of Toad Hall, brought away as their chief memory nausea at the opening. For the rest they preferred their recollections of the book’ (Tree and Leaf, pp. 66–7).

      ?1930 or ?1931 Tolkien begins to write a poem in Qenya, Oilima Markirya, and an English version, *The Last Ark. (See further, entry for ?Autumn 1931.)

      1930 By now Tolkien has become an ordinary member of the Council of the Philological Society. – During this year Tolkien writes all or most of another prose version of the ‘Silmarillion’ mythology, the Quenta (or Qenta) Noldorinwa or Pennas-na-Ngoelaidh, largely a reworking and expansion of the Sketch of the Mythology, and apart from the Sketch the only prose ‘Silmarillion’ that he will ever complete. The major part of the Quenta Noldorinwa, at least as far as the end of the story of Beren and Lúthien, is finished prior to the last week of September 1930. Tolkien produces two overlapping typescripts, the second of which expands upon the latter part of the first. – Probably at about the same time Tolkien translates a short piece from the beginning of the Quenta Noldorinwa into Old English, later entitled Pennas. He also makes several lists of Old English versions of Elvish names. – Possibly while working on the Quenta Noldorinwa, Tolkien writes quickly the first version of the ‘earliest’ *Annals of Beleriand to provide a chronology of events. Its manuscript will be heavily emended. – Perhaps also as an aid at about the same time, he produces a series of genealogical tables of the Elvish princes, of the three houses of the Fathers of Men, and of the Houses of Eastern Men; a table of the divisions of the Qendi (Elves); and a list of the many names by which the Lindar, Noldor, and Teleri (three kindreds of the Elves) were known.

      ?1930s Tolkien composes a poem of twelve stanzas in rhyming couplets, *The Prophecy of the Sibyl, based on Völuspá in the Elder Edda.

      1930s Tolkien writes the first version of his poem *Shadow-Bride. – Tolkien writes a seven-page essay, *The Feanorian Alphabet.

      ?Early 1930s Tolkien writes two poems, or two versions of a poem, Beowulf and Grendel and Beowulf & the Monsters, retellings of parts of Beowulf. (See *The Lay of Beowulf.)

      Early 1930s Tolkien writes part of a Qenya grammar, *Declension of Nouns. – Like-minded members of the Oxford English School, led by Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, form The Cave (*Societies and clubs), after the Cave of Adullam (Samuel 22:1–2). They aim to reform the English School, but The Cave is also a social group which has informal dinners together, especially after the members have achieved many of their aims. The Cave will survive into the 1940s.

      12 January 1930 Hilary Full Term begins. Tolkien’s scheduled lectures and classes for this term are: Problems of Old English Philology on Tuesdays at 10.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools, beginning 21 January; Beowulf on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 11.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools, beginning 21 January; Baldrs Draumar, Atlakviða, Bandamanna Saga, Hænsaþóris Saga, and Hávarðs Saga Halta on Thursdays at 10.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools, beginning 23 January; and Old Norse Texts (Class), at an hour and place to be arranged.

      14 January 1930 Tolkien and his family move into 20 Northmoor Road, which he has bought from Basil Blackwell, from their smaller house next door. Much of their furniture is moved over the fence dividing the properties.

      22 January 1930 Tolkien attends a Pembroke College meeting.

      28 or 29 January 1930 Tolkien attends a meeting of the Kolbítar. Among those present are C.S. Lewis, John Bryson, and *R.M. Dawkins.

      31 January 1930 Tolkien attends a General Board meeting.

      7 February 1930 Tolkien attends an English Faculty Board meeting. The Board approves a regulation that before being accepted as a full B.Litt. student, a probationer must pass a written examination in set subjects unless exempted by the Board. Draft regulations for Pass Moderations are presented, and changes made.

      24 February 1930 Tolkien attends a dinner at All Souls College, Oxford, in honour of the Archbishop of Birmingham, who the previous day held an Ordination at the Dominican Priory. The dinner is given by Regius Professor of Civil Law Francis de Zulueta, and is attended by the Superiors of the Congregations in Oxford, Senior Fellow of Balliol College Francis Urquhart, and one or two others.

      27 February 1930 Joseph Wright dies. Tolkien is named executor of his estate.

      28 February 1930 Tolkien attends a General Board meeting.

      3 March 1930 A memorial service for Joseph Wright is held in the University Church of St Mary the Virgin.

      8 March 1930 Hilary Full Term ends.

      11 March 1930 Tolkien attends a Pembroke College meeting.

      14 March 1930 Tolkien attends an English Faculty Board meeting. The Board records its sense of loss on the death of Joseph Wright. Tolkien is appointed to the committee on the annual scheme of lectures. He presents proposals for alteration of the regulations governing examinations in the English Honour School, with regard to papers on the medieval period. Some of his proposals are adopted, and he is appointed to a committee to consider the remaining proposals. Tolkien and David Nichol Smith are asked to draft, for submission to the General Board, a statement of the Faculty Board’s reasons for appointing *C.L. Wrenn as University Lecturer in English Philology and *Dorothy Everett as University Lecturer in Middle English. – Tolkien also attends a General Board meeting. The Board accepts a benefaction from Charles James O’Donnell to promote the study of the British or Celtic element in the English language (see *English and Welsh).

      April 1930 Tolkien records two short segments, ‘At the Tobacconist’s’ and ‘Wireless’, for a Linguaphone English course. See note.

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