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

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      1936 Two poems by Tolkien, The Shadow Man (see *Shadow-Bride) and *Noel, are published in the 1936 Annual of Our Lady’s School, Abingdon (near Oxford). – Thirteen poems by Tolkien written for the amusement of students at Leeds are published, without his knowledge, in *Songs for the Philologists, a booklet privately printed by students in the Department of English of University College, London. These are: From One to Five; Syx Mynet; Ruddoc Hana; Ides Ælfscyne; Bagme Bloma; Eadig Beo Þu!; Ofer Widne Garsecg; La, Huru; I Sat upon a Bench; Natura Apis; The Root of the Boot (revision of Pēro & Pōdex, later *The Stone Troll), Frenchmen Froth; and Lit’ and Lang’. Some are printed with errors, or altered to remove references to Leeds. They had been provided by A.H. Smith, who had been a student of Tolkien at Leeds. See note.

      ?By early 1936 Tolkien offers his Modern English translation of Pearl to the London publisher J.M. Dent. It is not accepted, but is seen by Guy Pocock, who in 1936 joins the staff of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and recommends that part of the translation be read on radio.

      ?Early 1936 Tolkien is asked by the publisher George Allen & Unwin if he would be interested in producing a revised edition of John R. Clark Hall’s Modern English translation of Beowulf and The Fight at Finnesburg. He replies that he does not have time to spare, but suggests that Elaine Griffiths is qualified to undertake the work and offers to read what she produces and to write a preface or introduction. *Susan Dagnall, a member of the Allen & Unwin staff who had been a student in the English School at Oxford, is sent to discuss the project with Griffiths and probably also with Tolkien. While there Dagnall learns of the existence of The Hobbit and borrows a typescript. See note. Upon reading The Hobbit she urges Tolkien to finish the book and to submit it for publication. Tolkien agrees to do so. Returning to the story at the point he seems to have left off some three years earlier, he writes ‘Not at Home’, originally as Chapter 14, and the first part of ‘The Gathering of the Clouds’ (published Chapter 15), but then decides that the structure of the story would be improved if ‘Not at Home’ preceded ‘Fire and Water’. In the course of several months, he works out the remaining text in a new manuscript.

      5 January 1936 Tolkien writes to Mabel Day of the Early English Text Society. He apologizes for not having given a firm decision about Ancrene Wisse by 31 December. He explains that Elaine Griffiths, on whose assistance he relies and who has been preparing a diplomatic transcription of MS CCCC 402 and a complete index and glossary, had to go home early in December and has only just resumed her work; while he himself has been busy with Seinte Iuliene. He can now offer to produce an edition of Ancrene Wisse for the Society, but feels that he must explain about work he has already done. He has transcribed 75 of the 117 folios of the manuscript and has almost completed a verbal index. He has also spent time preparing a complete vocabulary and grammar of ‘AB’ (a variant of Middle English related to MS CCCC 402 and MS Bodley 34). Because he has been working from rotographs, he will need to collate his transcriptions with the original manuscript in Cambridge, and intends to begin that work soon. He can let the Society have four requested specimen pages in the following week. He asks what format and what accompanying material will be required for the Society edition. He suggests that the text be printed line by line, as Elaine Griffiths’ glossary is keyed to folio and line as in the original manuscript. As an example of what he would like, he sends a specimen proof of Seinte Iuliene. He inquires also if, after Ancrene Wisse, the EETS would be interested in an edition of the Middle English life of St Katherine (Seinte Katerine), for which he and Simonne d’Ardenne have already prepared the text.

      By 14 January 1936 Tolkien assists *R.G. Collingwood, the Waynflete Professor of Metaphysical Philosophy at Oxford and a colleague at Pembroke College, ‘untiringly with problems of Celtic philology’, as Collingwood will write in the preface (dated 14 January 1936) to Books I–IV of Roman Britain and the English Settlements by Collingwood and J.N.L. Myres (1936; 2nd edn. 1937), p. vii. Collingwood will mention in a footnote regarding Sulis, the goddess of the hot springs at Bath, that ‘she is traditionally called Sul; but Professor Tolkien points out to me that the Celtic nominative can only be Sulis, and our authority for believing that even the Romans made a nominative Sul on the analogy of their own word sol – perhaps meaning the same – is not good. The Celtic sulis may mean ‘the eye”, and this again may mean the sun’ (p. 264).

      14 January 1936 Tolkien writes to Mabel Day. Because he has not had time to type the promised specimen pages, he sends pages of manuscript transcription, from which printed specimens may be produced. He asks again about the general editorial policy of the Early English Text Society, and about matters of presentation.

      15 January 1936 Mabel Day writes to Tolkien, acknowledging his two letters. She has sent the first to A.W. Pollard, Honorary Director of the Early English Text Society. She explains some points of the Society’s editorial policy, which will be better developed once all of the specimens for proposed editions of Ancrene Riwle manuscripts have been set up. She promises to send Tolkien specimens of the edition of the French manuscript of the Ancrene Riwle. – A.W. Pollard writes to Tolkien. While he can see advantages of reproducing a (prose) text in print line by line, he prefers a uniformity of style in printing editions of the five or six Ancrene Riwle texts, of which the Cambridge manuscript will be only one. It is still to be decided what editorial matter should accompany the texts.

      16 January 1936 Tolkien replies to Mabel Day, thanking her for answering his queries and arguing against altering texts, for the sake of future editors who often will be obliged to reconstruct what has been altered, if not driven back to the original manuscripts. He will proceed with an edition of Ancrene Wisse as quickly as he can. – Probably on or soon after this date Tolkien also writes to A.W. Pollard; two versions of a letter survive, one certainly a draft. See note. Although he will bow to the Early English Text Society Committee’s decision, Tolkien puts forward a long and detailed argument in favour of line-by-line transcription. Such a transcription, preserving the arrangement in the original manuscript, has enormous advantages to the scholar. Also, as he has already transcribed most of the Cambridge manuscript by folio and line, and has prepared a nearly complete glossary and index according to this plan, he is reluctant to see this work upset. To follow the EETS plan would require a great deal of labour in recasting references already in being, and would set back other work on Ancrene Wisse and related texts.

      19 January 1936 Hilary Full Term begins. Tolkien’s scheduled lectures for this term are: The Legend of Wayland the Smith, followed by a study of the text of Deor’s Lament and of Völundarkviða on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 11.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools, beginning 21 January; and Atlakviða on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12.00 noon in the Examination Schools, beginning 21 January. These are probably cancelled, however, after Tolkien injures his leg on 1 February; he will offer them as classes at his home in Northmoor Road in Trinity Term 1936. He will continue to supervise B.Litt. student M.E. Griffiths.

      20 January 1936 Death of George V. Edward VIII succeeds to the throne.

      22 January 1936 Tolkien attends a Pembroke College meeting.

      23 January 1936 Members of Convocation (see *Oxford, University of) meet in the Sheldonian Theatre at 12.00 noon to hear the proclamation of Edward VIII, and then walk in procession, led by the Vice-Chancellor and the Proctors, to St Mary’s Church to witness the proclamation there by the City authorities. Lectures which would interfere with attendance at the ceremony are cancelled.

      27 January 1936 A.W. Pollard writes to Tolkien. Robin Flower has been asked by the Early English Text Society Committee to take special СКАЧАТЬ