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

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СКАЧАТЬ November 1936 Agreement of the German-Japanese Pact.

      25 November 1936 Tolkien delivers the Sir Israel Gollancz Memorial Lecture, Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics, to the British Academy in London, setting a new standard in Beowulf criticism.

      26 November 1936 Tolkien chairs an English Faculty Library Committee meeting in the Library. He successfully proposes that the Library house the Bibliographia Oxoniensis, for which the Bodleian Library cannot not find room.

      28 November 1936 Susan Dagnall visits Tolkien in Oxford. They certainly discuss The Hobbit, and possibly also the Clark Hall Beowulf. On being shown a specimen page for The Hobbit, Tolkien suggests changes. It is perhaps at this point that he hands over five maps to be included in The Hobbit: Thror’s Map, to be tipped in at its first mention in Chapter 1 or at a later mention in Chapter 3, with its ‘moon-letters’ so printed on the verso of the sheet as to be visible when held up to the light (Artist and Illustrator, fig. 85; Art of The Hobbit, fig. 25); Wilderland, a more general map of the lands in which the story takes place (Artist and Illustrator, fig. 84; Art of The Hobbit, fig. 88); and lesser maps of the land between the Misty Mountains and Mirkwood, of the area east of Mirkwood to just east of the River Running (Art of The Hobbit, figs. 46, 83), and of the Long Lake combined with a view of the Lonely Mountain (Artist and Illustrator, fig. 128; Art of The Hobbit, fig. 87). Having been asked by Allen & Unwin to submit any other children’s stories he has written, to be considered for publication, Tolkien gives Susan Dagnall Farmer Giles of Ham and Roverandom, both of which he has retyped and revised, and his picture book, Mr. Bliss. He hands over his translation of Pearl as well. Tolkien and Dagnall also discuss a ‘prolegomena’ by C.S. Lewis which Allen & Unwin are interested in publishing as a text for students (probably his celebrated lectures ‘Prolegomena to Medieval Poetry’ begun in January 1932, much later partly the basis of his book The Discarded Image). Tolkien promises to ask Lewis about it.

      2 December 1936 Stanley Unwin sends Tolkien a signed duplicate contract for The Hobbit, the final step in the process of accepting the work for publication.

      4 December 1936 Tolkien attends an English Faculty Board meeting. – He also attends a Pembroke College meeting. – Susan Dagnall sends Tolkien a revised specimen page of The Hobbit for approval. She asks him to write a short paragraph describing the book, for Allen & Unwin to use in their forthcoming announcements list and for publicity.

      5 December 1936 Michaelmas Full Term ends. – Simonne d’Ardenne again writes to Tolkien that she will send him her article on the Brussels Cross as soon as it is finished, and asks him to give her English prose some ‘Tolkienian’ flavour.

      8 December 1936 Tolkien writes to Susan Dagnall. He does not like a star ornament placed at the beginning of the chapter on the revised Hobbit specimen. He also queries the margins as set. He encloses a paragraph describing the book as requested, and an alternative text by C.S. Lewis. See note. Lewis does not like the idea of his ‘prolegomena’ being used as a ‘cram’ text.

      9 December 1936 Tolkien delivers his lecture Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics to the Manchester Medieval Society. He is delayed travelling to Manchester from Oxford; in the meantime, to entertain the audience, E.V. Gordon gives an impromptu account of the Norse settlements in Greenland.

      10 December 1936 Susan Dagnall writes to Tolkien. His Hobbit maps need to be redrawn: they contain too many colours, and their shading would require reproduction by the more elaborate halftone process. Dagnall suggests that Thror’s Map and Wilderland be printed as endpapers in red and blue, or any other two colours, and that the other three maps be printed with the text in a single colour. She asks if the ‘moon-runes’ on Thror’s Map are very important, as they will be difficult to reproduce. She has told the Allen & Unwin production department to begin typesetting The Hobbit and to submit proofs to Tolkien; but they will need to know where to place the three smaller maps. The star ornament to which he objects will be removed. – Abdication of Edward VIII. George VI succeeds to the throne.

      14 December 1936 Members of Convocation meet in the Sheldonian Theatre at 12.00 noon to hear the proclamation of George VI, and then process, 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.

      Christmas 1936 Tolkien, as ‘Father Christmas’, writes a letter dated 23 December, addressed only to Christopher and Priscilla. He apologizes for not being able to send a long letter, but hopes that his picture will explain why. In fact the letter from Father Christmas is accompanied by another letter in a different script, as from the elf Ilbereth: this tells how the North Polar Bear worked hard to give each child an individual number to help in packing and record keeping, then fell asleep in the bath with the taps running, so that water poured into the English Delivery Room below. A picture, drawn in tiers, shows the North Pole and the Northern Lights; Polar Bear in the bath; water pouring through the ceiling; and Polar Bear explaining his numbering system to the elves. Also enclosed with the letters and picture are a copy of a goblin alphabet as by Polar Bear. – During the holidays members of the Tolkien family one by one are laid low with influenza, brought back from school by one of the boys. – Tolkien redraws some of his pictures for The Hobbit.

      31 December 1936 Tolkien himself contracts influenza.

1937

      Late 1930s Tolkien writes the first version of an essay, *The Feanorian Alphabet. He will revise this in the early to mid-1940s.

      c. 1937–41 Tolkien writes a sentence in Quenya, with an English translation, related to his mythology, telling of Oromë and the Waters of Awakening (*‘The Koivienéni Manuscript’).

      1937 Tolkien revises his poem Kortirion among the Trees (first composed in November 1915).

      4 January 1937 Tolkien writes to Susan Dagnall, enclosing six pictures. He has redrawn Thror’s Map and Wilderland and has decided that the other three maps are not necessary. He has also redrawn ‘one or two of the amateur illustrations of the “home manuscript” [of The Hobbit, presumably the master typescript], conceiving that they might serve as endpapers, frontispiece or what not’ (Tolkien–George Allen & Unwin archive, HarperCollins). These are Mirkwood, The Elvenking’s Gate, Lake Town, and The Front Gate (Artist and Illustrator, figs. 88, 121, 127, 130; Art of The Hobbit, figs. 47, 58, 66, 68). He intends Mirkwood to be used as the front endpaper. The final Elvenking’s Gate has evolved through a series of drawings made from various perspectives, and has inspired (probably at the same time) a similar view of Nargothrond (Artist and Illustrator, fig. 57; Art of The Hobbit, fig. 55). Lake Town is based on an earlier drawing, Esgaroth (Artist and Illustrator, fig. 126; Art of The Hobbit, fig. 65).

      7 January 1937 Tolkien returns a ‘slip’ to Allen & Unwin, probably a proof of the publicity paragraph he has written about The Hobbit. He has made some corrections. – C.A. Furth of the Allen & Unwin production department writes to Tolkien. The publishers think that his line drawings for The Hobbit are admirable, and are having reproduction blocks made. Mirkwood, shaded with ink wash, ‘will present a little difficulty in reproduction – unless it were to be printed separately on glossy paper, which we think would be disturbing’, СКАЧАТЬ