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

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      30 June 1915 Captain Whatley of the Oxford University Officers Training Corps certifies Tolkien’s Army application. Tolkien is accepted and given £50 to buy a uniform and equipment. He has to wait a few days before his commission is gazetted.

      July 1915 Tolkien spends time in Warwick and visits his relatives at Moseley and Barnt Green. He probably also visits Father Francis Morgan in Birmingham. – Tolkien writes to Rob Gilson. In the event, he will not receive a reply until September.

      2 July 1915 A list of candidates for the Literis Anglicis examination, Trinity Term 1915, includes ‘Tolkien, Joannes R.R.’ under Classis I (First Class). The list is signed by A.S. Napier, *C.H. Firth, D. Nichol Smith, and *H.C. Wyld. An announcement of Tolkien’s First Class Honours will appear in the Times for 3 July.

      4 July 1915 Smith sends congratulations to Tolkien at 57 Emscot Road, Warwick on ‘one of the highest distinctions an Englishman can obtain’ (Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford).

      8–9 July 1915 Tolkien writes (or possibly revises) a poem, The Shores of Faery, putting into words the scene he had painted two months earlier in The Book of Ishness (see entry for 10 May). It refers to ‘the two Trees naked are / That bear Night’s silver bloom, / That bear the globed fruit of Noon’, and to Eärendel, ‘one lone star / That fled before the moon’. The ship of Earéndel (spelled thus) and the Two Trees appear, as well as significant names such as Taniquetil, Valinor, and Eglamar. Possibly around the same time, certainly not much later, Tolkien writes the poem into The Book of Ishness, on the page facing the painting, blank except for the words ‘The Shores of Faery’. Probably soon afterward he makes slight changes to the manuscript, then records the poem in emended form in a notebook of fair copies, with the date ‘July 8–9 1915’. With the latter manuscript is a prose preface in which Tolkien describes Eärendel as ‘the Wanderer who beat about the Oceans of the World’ and eventually launched his ship on ‘the Oceans of the Firmament’ but was hunted by the Moon and fled back to Valinor where he gazed at the Oceans of the World from the towers of Kôr. Tolkien will later inscribe typescripts of the poem ‘Moseley & Edgb[aston] July 1915 (walking and on bus). Retouched often since – esp[ecially] 1924’ and ‘First poem of my mythology Valinor [?thought of about] 1910’. See note.

      9 July 1915 Tolkien writes a poem, The Princess Ní. He will inscribe a later typescript ‘Moseley B’ham [Birmingham] Bus between Edgb[aston]. and Moseley July 1915’. – G.B. Smith writes to Tolkien at Abbotsford, Moseley, Birmingham (the home of Tolkien’s Aunt Mabel and her husband Tom Mitton), again suggesting that he ask Stainforth what he wants him to do, and giving him more advice about equipment. The War Office will write to him when he is gazetted. He is very pleased that Tolkien got a First at Oxford. He suggests books that Tolkien should bring with him: one on oriental painting; 1914 and Other Poems by Rupert Brooke, and anything else by Brooke; Georgian Poetry; Browne’s Religio Medici and Urn Burial; Sir Philip Sidney’s Defence of Poesie; and Sir Francis Bacon’s Essays. He should get the earlier books in editions with old spelling. – The War Office writes to Tolkien c/o Father Francis Morgan at the Birmingham Oratory. Tolkien has been appointed a temporary Second Lieutenant in the New Army and has been posted to the 13th Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers, a reserve training unit; but prior to joining his battalion he is to attend a class of instruction at *Bedford, and is to report to a Colonel Tobin at 20 de Parys Avenue, Bedford on 19 July between 2.00 and 4.00 p.m. He is to provide himself with bedding and to join in uniform (if ready). He should apply to his Army agents for his outfit allowance but must pay his own travelling expenses. – When he receives this letter Tolkien is very disappointed that he has not been posted to the same battalion as Smith. He writes to Smith to inform him, and also to Christopher Wiseman, telling him of his posting and that he will be visiting relatives in Moseley and Barnt Green.

      11 July 1915 Tolkien drafts and probably sends a letter from Abbotsford to a Mr How at Exeter College. He has to report to Bedford on 19 July so will be unable to receive his degree on 20 July. He will be sending a cheque to cover what he owes for battels and asks what ‘caution money’ he needs to pay to keep his name on the College’s books and eventually receive an M.A. He also asks how he should authorize the transfer of the Junior Common Room bank account to the new President of the JCR when one is elected; uncertainty as to who might be in College next term or whether such an official would be needed had made it impossible for him to settle the matter before he left. – Christopher Wiseman writes to Tolkien. Having seen a notice that the Navy wants mathematicians as instructors, he is now awaiting the formal notice of his appointment from the Admiralty. He asks to see more of Tolkien’s poems.

      13 July 1915 Smith writes to Tolkien at Abbotsford, Moseley, Birmingham (forwarded on 15 July to Tolkien at the Incledons, Barnt Green). He advises Tolkien to write to the Colonel of the 13th Battalion, and to Colonel Stainforth of the 19th, asking if his posting to the 13th is a mistake.

      c. 13–14 July 1915 Wiseman writes to Tolkien. Wiseman and his mother will be staying in Bromsgrove for about a week; he and Tolkien must spend some time together, and his mother insists that Tolkien and Edith join them for tea at Barrow’s Stores, possibly on 15 July. He asks if Tolkien can shorten his visit to Moseley and go to Barnt Green earlier, so that they can go walking for a day. He will ring Tolkien the next evening. (There is no evidence that Tolkien and Wiseman were able to meet as Wiseman suggests, though it would have been possible before Tolkien had to leave for Bedford on 19 July.)

      13–14 July 1915 Now at Barnt Green, Tolkien writes a poem, The Trumpets of Faery (later The Trumpets of Faerie), describing a procession of Elves winding its way through woods. He probably also begins to work on the first version of another poem, *The Happy Mariners, using in part the verso of his draft letter to Mr How written on 11 July.

      16 July 1915 The War Office issues Tolkien’s commission as a temporary second lieutenant in the Infantry. See note.

      17 July 1915 Tolkien’s commission is announced in the Times’ ‘London Gazette’ column.

      18 July 1915 G.B. Smith, who has heard nothing further from Tolkien, writes to him at Abbotsford, Moseley, to cheer him up.

      19 July 1915 Tolkien begins Army training at Bedford. He is billeted in a house with other trainee officers. – R.W. Reynolds writes to Tolkien. He comments on poems Tolkien has sent him: You & Me and the Cottage of Lost Play, The Shores of Faery, Kôr: In a City Lost and Dead, and The Princess Nî are mentioned. He finds in them echoes of Icelandic sagas, William Morris, Rudyard Kipling, and Walter de la Mare. – Probably after he begins training at Bedford, Tolkien writes a poem, Thoughts on Parade.

      ?23 July 1915 Smith writes to Tolkien, probably in reply to a letter. Tolkien can still try to get a transfer after his training, if both commanding officers agree.

      24 July 1915 Tolkien completes the first version of his poem The Happy Mariners, which he dates to 24 July. He will inscribe a later version ‘Barnt Green July 1915 and Bedford and later’, which suggests that he began the poem when he was at Barnt Green earlier in July and continued to work on it after reporting for duty at Bedford. Elements and imagery of The Happy Mariners, such as the white tower in the Twilit Isles that ‘glimmers like a spike of lonely pearl’ and ‘Night’s dragon-headed doors’ (Stapeldon Magazine, June 1920), will come to figure in Tolkien’s mythology.

      26 July 1915 Wiseman writes to Tolkien, in reply to a card. He suggests that Tolkien and Edith visit the Wisemans in London on some weekend after about 14 August.

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