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31 October 1911 Tolkien attends the Annual Freshman’s Wine at Exeter College. This begins at 8.45 p.m. with an entertainment, mainly of songs, and continues at 10.00 p.m. with a dance in the hall. Tolkien collects many signatures on his souvenir programme.
6 November 1911 Tolkien writes a poem, Darkness on the Road.
7 November 1911 Tolkien writes a poem, Sunset in a Town.
10 November 1911 Tolkien is granted a certificate by the University Registry, Oxford, exempting him from the preliminary examination (Responsions). He had already passed the relevant subjects in the Oxford and Cambridge Higher Certificate in July 1910. See note.
21 November 1911 Tolkien attends a Smoking Concert at Exeter College. The programme includes an orchestra playing selections by Sullivan, Tchaikovsky, Monckton, and Lehár, banjo solos, songs, and humorous recitations.
24 November 1911 Tolkien attends a Smoking Concert at Exeter College at 8.00 p.m. The programme includes the orchestra playing Sullivan, Offenbach, Bizet, Gounod, Suppé, and Hérold, songs, and a piano solo.
25 November 1911 Tolkien first borrows A Finnish Grammar by C.N.E. Eliot (1890) from the Exeter College library. Having already read the Kalevala in translation, he wants to know something of the language in which it was written. He will later recall that
it was like discovering a complete wine-cellar filled with bottles of an amazing wine of a kind and flavour never tasted before. It quite intoxicated me; and I gave up the attempt to invent an ‘unrecorded’ Germanic language, and my ‘own language’ [the Elvish language Qenya, later Quenya, which he begins to devise, see *Languages, Invented] – or series of invented languages – became heavily Finnicized in phonetic pattern and structure…. I never learned Finnish well enough to do more than plod through a bit of the original. [letter to W.H. Auden, 7 June 1955, Letters, p. 214].
He also now has access to books which help him to study the Welsh language, which has fascinated him since childhood. These interests will take up much time which Tolkien should be devoting to his classical studies, and they will be at least partly responsible for his unsatisfactory performance when he takes Honour Moderations at Oxford in February 1913. In late 1914 or early 1915 he will write in a paper on the Kalevala (*On ‘The Kalevala’ or Land of Heroes): ‘When [Honour Moderations] should have been occupying all my forces I once made a wild assault on the stronghold of the original language and was repulsed with heavy losses’ (Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford). – Tolkien also borrows volume 5 of the History of Greece by George Grote (1846–56) and the English Dialect Grammar by Joseph Wright (1905).
28 November 1911 Tolkien joins the King Edward’s Horse (*Societies and clubs), a territorial cavalry regiment, similar to the Officers Training Corps. Its membership limited to colonials, Tolkien qualifies because he was born in the Orange Free State. If he has not learned to ride before, he does so now.
December 1911 Tolkien continues to play rugby football. The Stapeldon Magazine of Exeter College for December 1911 will note (p. 110) that ‘the Freshmen produced some very sound forward material…. Tolkien is a winger pure and simple and might have had some consideration had he been but one in eight.’
?Last part of Michaelmas Term 1911 Tolkien and other students, mainly freshmen, form a new society, the Apolausticks (*Societies and clubs). He is its first President. The eleven members draw up a programme of meetings for Hilary Term 1912: these will be mainly discussions of various literary figures. Later programmes will include elaborate dinners and debates.
9 December 1911 Michaelmas Full Term ends.
Early to mid-December 1911 Tolkien returns to Birmingham. Early in the vacation he spends much of his time rehearsing for the performance of Sheridan’s The Rivals to be given on 21 December by members of the King Edward’s School Musical and Dramatic Society, augmented by himself and T.K. Barnsley. Other T.C.B.S. members are also prominent in the cast and organization: Christopher Wiseman as Sir Anthony Absolute, Rob Gilson as Captain Absolute, and G.B. Smith as Faulkland. (By now, Smith has become an accepted member of the T.C.B.S.) After the dress rehearsal, the cast march in full costume up Corporation Street to have tea in Barrow’s Stores.
14 December 1911 Tolkien attends the Oxford and Cambridge Old Edwardians Society Annual Dinner at the Midland Hotel, Birmingham, eight courses plus coffee.
15 December 1911 Tolkien takes part in the Old Boys’ Debate at King Edward’s School on the motion: ‘That this house approves the principle of gratuitous public service.’ Speaking in favour, he ‘declared that he felt so deeply on the subject that he had written a brochure upon it. The House requested him to read it, but it had unfortunately been left at home. Of the few magnificent quotations which were given from memory, none have survived. The Hon. gentleman then attacked the practicability of the scheme for payment of members, and applied it by analogy to school officers. The result would be financial and moral ruin’ (‘Debating Society’, King Edward’s School Chronicle n.s. 27, no. 191 (March 1912), p. 14). Among other speakers, Rob Gilson also argues in the affirmative, and T.K. Barnsley and Christopher Wiseman in the negative. The motion fails, 12 votes to 14.
16–19 December 1911 Tolkien stays with the Gilson family at their home, ‘Canterbury House’, at Marston Green near Birmingham. See note.
21 December 1911 Sheridan’s The Rivals is performed under the auspices of the King Edward’s School Musical and Dramatic Society at 7.30 p.m. in Big School. According to the King Edward’s School Chronicle,
the performance was a thorough success both artistically and financially…. J.R.R. Tolkien’s Mrs Malaprop was a real creation, excellent in every way and not least so in make-up. Rob Gilson as Captain Absolute made a most attractive hero, bearing the burden of what is a very heavy part with admirable spirit and skill; and as the choleric old Sir Anthony, C.L. Wiseman was extremely effective. Among the minor characters, G.B. Smith’s rendering of the difficult and thankless part of Faulkland was worthy of high praise. [‘The Musical and Dramatic Society’, n.s. 27, no. 191 (March 1912), p. 10]
Christmas 1911 Tolkien probably spends part of the vacation with his Incledon relatives at Barnt Green. They have the custom of performing theatrical entertainments during the holiday, including the farce Cherry Farm. probably written by Tolkien.
1911–1912 Drawings by Tolkien from this period reveal an interest in abstract ideas. Silent, Enormous, and Immense is dated December 1911. Firelight Magic, Sleep, and a ‘male caricature’ are dated to 1911–1912. Thought (Artist and Illustrator, fig. 33; and probably also Convention on its verso) and A Wish are dated to 1912. Other drawings which probably date from this time are Before (Artist and Illustrator, fig. 30), Ark!!!, and Afterwards (Artist and Illustrator, fig. 31).
1912
1912 Tolkien possibly visits St Andrews again this year. He writes a short poem, The Grimness of the Sea (*The Horns of Ylmir), on the earliest extant manuscript of which he will later note: ‘original nucleus of ‘The Sea-song of an Elder Day’ (1912) (St Andrews)’. He will date another manuscript of this work to ‘1912 (sometime)’. See note. – Jane Neave retires from St Andrews and takes up residence and work at Phoenix Farm, Gedling.
21 January 1912 Hilary Full Term begins at Oxford.
Hilary Term 1912 Tolkien again has a choice of lectures on the various Greek and Latin authors set for Honour Moderations, and will attend Joseph Wright’s lectures on Comparative Greek Grammar on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12.15 p.m. in the Taylor Institution, beginning 24 January. During his time as an undergraduate he will have tutorials which Wright gives in his house in the Banbury Road; he will later recall ‘the vastness of Joe Wright’s dining room table (when I sat alone at one end learning the elements of Greek philology from glinting glasses in the further gloom)’ (*Valedictory Address to the University of Oxford, in *The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays, p. 238). Tolkien will be invited on some Sunday afternoons to huge Yorkshire teas given by Wright and his wife Elizabeth. Wright is both a demanding and an inspiring teacher, and when he learns that Tolkien is interested in the Welsh language he encourages him to pursue it. – Christopher Wiseman informs Tolkien by letter that Vincent Trought died suddenly early on 20 January while convalescing in Cornwall. Although King Edward’s School will probably send a wreath, Wiseman wants to send one from the T.C.B.S. and asks if Tolkien would like to subscribe.
22 January 1912 It seems likely that when Tolkien receives Wiseman’s letter of 21 January he telegraphs in reply, asking for details of Trought’s funeral as he wishes to attend, and saying that he wishes to subscribe to the wreath. Wiseman replies this day by letter (which does not leave until the 5.45 a.m. collection on 23 January) that the funeral is to be at Gorran, near Falmouth in Cornwall, on 23 January, but he does not know the time. Even if Wiseman had telegraphed, Tolkien would not have had time to reach Cornwall, a train journey of some eight hours from Oxford. – The Apolausticks meet at 4.30 p.m. in *C.A.H. Fairbank’s rooms.
25 January 1912 Wiseman writes to thank Tolkien for sending a postal order for Trought’s wreath.
27 January 1912 The Apolausticks meet at 8.00 p.m. in *M.W.M. Windle’s rooms to discuss Lewis Carroll.
3 February 1912 The Apolausticks meet at 4.30 p.m. in *R.H. Gordon’s rooms.
10 February 1912 The Apolausticks meet at 8.00 p.m. in *H.G.L. Trimingham’s rooms to discuss the nineteenth-century poets C. Stuart Calverley and J.K. Stephen.
17 February 1912 The Apolausticks meet at 4.30 p.m. in *Colin Cullis’s rooms.
20 February 1912 Tolkien attends the London Old Edwardians’ Seventh Annual Dinner at the Holborn Restaurant, ten courses plus coffee. Tolkien is one of the two named to respond to the toast ‘The Old Edwardian Association’. At this or an unrecorded meeting of the Old Edwardians in 1912 he meets some members who remembered his father.
24 February 1912 The Apolausticks meet at 8.00 p.m. in *O.O. Staples’ rooms to discuss G.K. Chesterton and George Bernard Shaw.
2 March 1912 The Apolausticks meet at 4.30 p.m. in W.W.T. Palmer’s (*Werner William Thomas Massiah-Palmer) rooms. See note.
4 March 1912 At a meeting of the Stapeldon Society (*Societies and clubs) Tolkien speaks in favour of the motion: ‘This House deplores the signs of degeneracy in the present age.’ The motion fails, 4 votes to 8. The Stapeldon Society is technically the Exeter College debating organization, but also deals with general interests of the students.
9 March 1912 The Apolausticks meet at 8.00 p.m. in Tolkien’s rooms to discuss Maurice Maeterlinck.
16 March 1912 Hilary Full Term ends.
19 March 1912 Christopher Wiseman writes to Tolkien, agreeing to a T.C.B.S. meeting at Barrow’s Stores. He suggests a date of 22 March, and that Tolkien might play for the Old Edwardians against King Edward’s School on 23 March. (In the event, Tolkien does not play, but possibly attends the match.)
2 April 1912 Tolkien returns to King Edward’s School to take part in the annual Open Debate. He speaks against the motion: ‘That it is better to be eccentric than orthodox.’ According to the King Edward’s School Chronicle, he ‘began by denying the true opposition between the orthodox and the eccentric, and maintained the possibility of a man’s being both at the same time. He made, however, a number of interesting points: in particular, the parallel to the rules which govern Society which he drew from a game of cricket, where eccentricity would be obviously intolerable’ (‘Debating Society’, n.s. 27, no. 193 (June 1912), p. 38). The motion fails, 23 votes to 22.
28 April 1912 Trinity Full Term begins at Oxford.
Trinity Term 1912 Tolkien attends Joseph Wright’s continuing lectures on Comparative Greek Grammar on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12.15 p.m. in the Taylor Institution, beginning 2 May. He attends lectures on the authors set for Honour Moderations, probably including those given by L.R. Farnell at Exeter College: the Private Orations of Demosthenes, on Wednesdays and Fridays at 10.00 a.m., beginning 1 May; and Annals I and II of Tacitus (set texts), on Wednesdays and Fridays at 12.00 noon, beginning 1 May. He also attends classes and tutorials with the newly appointed Classics tutor at Exeter College, E.A. Barber. – Tolkien continues to devote much of his time to social occasions, and to his interest in Finnish, Welsh, and Germanic languages. College records show that he was considered lazy, and that during the summer term he was warned that he might lose his exhibition, a warning that led him to improve. At the same time, he becomes less regular in performing his religious duties.
30 April 1912 The Apolausticks meet at 8.00 p.m. in Colin Cullis’s rooms. Cullis has succeeded Tolkien as President of the society for Trinity Term.
May 1912 Tolkien poses with other members of the Apolausticks for a group photograph. See note.
11 May 1912 The Apolausticks meet at 8.00 p.m. in *G.S. Field’s rooms. Tolkien gives a paper (subject not recorded).
28 May 1912 Tolkien attends the Summer Concert of the Exeter College Music Society. The programme includes songs as well as The Death of Minnehaha by Samuel Coleridge Taylor, performed by the Choir and Orchestra and guests Frederick Ranalow and Bessie Tyas. Among the accompanists is Adrian Boult, President of the Oxford Musical Club, later a renowned conductor.
June 1912 Exeter College transfers its financial support of Tolkien for one year to the Loscombe Richards Exhibition, intended for poor scholars.
1 June 1912 The Apolausticks meet at 7.30 p.m. for an elaborate dinner at the Randolph Hotel in Oxford. Tolkien proposes the toast ‘The Club’. He and nine other members sign his menu card.
15 June 1912 The Apolausticks meet in M.W.M. Windle’s rooms. Tolkien proposes the motion, ‘That a belief in ghosts is essential to the welfare of a people’, with *L.L.H. Thompson in opposition. The motion carries by one vote. See note.
22 June 1912 Trinity Full Term ends.
28 June–1 July 1912 Tolkien stays with the Gilson family at Marston Green.
27 July–?10 August 1912 Tolkien camps with the King Edward’s Horse on Dibgate Plateau near *Folkestone. His regiment is inspected by Lieutenant General Sir James Grierson (in charge of the Eastern Command), Major-General Allenby (Inspector of Cavalry), and Brigadier-General Bingham. The historian Lieutenant-Colonel Lionel James will report that
it was an altogether boisterous fortnight. The south-westerly gales were so severe, and the camping area so exposed, that on two nights the tents and marquees were nearly all levelled. The work done, however, was of quite a high standard for an irregular unit. For one night the Regiment practised billetting during field operations. The outpost scheme that necessitated the billetting was a foretaste of the actual service conditions which were soon to become the daily life of so many who were training that summer. There was not an officer or man out that night who was not drenched to the skin. [The History of King Edward’s Horse (1921), p. 52]
Summer vacation 1912 Tolkien goes walking in *Berkshire, sketching the villages and the scenery. He begins a new sketch book, perhaps buying it while on tour. He is near Lambourn on 21 and 23 August, in Eastbury 27–28 August, and once more in Lambourn 30–31 August. He paints three watercolours of the Lambourn countryside, makes three ink drawings at Eastbury, mainly of picturesque thatched cottages, and devotes two pages to ink drawings of details of the church at Lambourn (see Artist and Illustrator, figs. 11–13).
13 October 1912 Michaelmas Full Term begins.
Michaelmas Term 1912 Tolkien probably attends Joseph Wright’s lectures on Comparative Latin Grammar on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12.15 p.m. in the Taylor Institution, beginning 17 October. He also probably attends lectures by L.R. Farnell on the Odyssey (Homer is a set author) on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 12.00 noon at Exeter College, beginning 14 October. If he did not attend Farnell’s lectures on Agamemnon by Aeschylus (in translation) in Michaelmas Term 1911, he probably does so this term, on Wednesdays and Fridays at 10.00 a.m. at Exeter College, beginning 16 October. He possibly attends Gilbert Murray’s lectures on Aeschylus’ Agamemnon and Euripides’ Electra on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12.00 noon in the Examinations School, beginning 15 October. – ‘Oxoniensis’, the writer of ‘Oxford Letter’ in the King Edward’s School Chronicle for December 1912, remarks that ‘Tolkien, if we are to be guided by the countless notices on his mantelpiece, has joined all the Exeter Societies which are in existence, and has also done well to get an occasional place in an exceptionally strong College “pack”’ (n.s. 28, no. 196, p. 85). – By now Tolkien has moved within ‘Swiss Cottage’ to no. 9 on the no. 7 staircase. These rooms were previously occupied by Anthony Shakespeare, who himself had attended the Birmingham Oratory School and was now, a year in advance of Tolkien, studying law at Oxford. See note.
18 October 1912 The Apolausticks meet at 8.00 p.m. in R.H. Gordon’s rooms. Gordon is President of the society for this term.
25 October 1912 The Apolausticks meet at 8.00 p.m. in *Allen Barnett’s rooms. The refreshments include ‘Swedish punch’ (presumably punsch, a liqueur).
30 October 1912 The Apolausticks meet at 4.30 p.m. in L.L.H. Thompson’s rooms.
31 October 1912 Christopher Wiseman sends Tolkien news of himself and Rob Gilson, both of whom are now at Cambridge University.
3 November 1912 Tolkien is elected to the Exeter College Essay Club (*Societies and clubs).
6 November 1912 The Apolausticks meet at 8.00 p.m. in Tolkien’s rooms for a debate, according to the date printed on the society’s schedule for this term. It is possible, however, that the date or the time was changed, as in the evening of 6 November Tolkien certainly attends the Exeter College Freshman’s Wine, which includes songs, a piano solo, and a humorous recitation. While there he collects signatures from the performers on his printed programme.
11 November 1912 At a meeting of the Stapeldon Society Tolkien tells a funny story about the Sub-Rector and a Mr Pickop.
13 November 1912 The Apolausticks meet at 4.30 p.m. in W.W.T. Massiah-Palmer’s rooms. See note for 2 March 1912.
18 November 1912 At a meeting of the Stapeldon Society Tolkien is elected to serve on a committee to investigate College charges.
19 November 1912 Tolkien attends the College Smoking Concert and collects signatures of friends on his printed programme. The first half of the concert consists of music by Suppé, Sullivan, et al. played by an orchestra and songs performed by some of the students. The second half consists of dance music.
20 November 1912 The Apolausticks meet at 4.30 p.m. in H.G.L. Trimingham’s rooms.
25 November 1912 The Stapeldon Society meets.
27 November 1912 The Apolausticks meet at 8.00 p.m. in *W.E. Hall’s rooms.
2 December 1912 The Stapeldon Society meets.
4 December 1912 The Apolausticks meet at 8.00 p.m. in R.H. Gordon’s rooms.
7 December 1912 Michaelmas Full Term ends.
December 1912 Tolkien makes the drawings Other People (with Undertenishness on the verso, Artist and Illustrator, fig. 34) and Back of Beyond (with End of the World on the verso, Artist and Illustrator, fig. 36). The drawing Wickedness probably also dates from around this time (Artist and Illustrator, fig. 32).
Christmas 1912 Tolkien spends at least part of his vacation with his Incledon relatives at Barnt Green. He has written a play for them, The Bloodhound, the Chef, and the Suffragette. In its performance he plays the leading part of ‘Professor Joseph Quilter, M.A., B.A., A.B.C., alias world-wide detective Sexton Q. Blake-Holmes, the Bloodhound’ (Biography, p. 59). The play concerns a lost heiress who has fallen in love with a penniless student living in the same lodging house, and whom she would be free to marry on her twenty-first birthday in two days’ time if her father does not discover her first. The play is obviously much influenced by Tolkien’s own circumstances with his twenty-first birthday approaching, when he will be free of his promise to Father Francis Morgan not to contact Edith Bratt.
1913
1913 Probably during this year, Tolkien makes the drawing Xanadu (Artist and Illustrator, fig. 37).
3 January 1913 At midnight, as Tolkien reaches the age of twenty-one, he begins a letter to Edith Bratt, telling her that his feelings for her have not changed and that he wants to marry her. A few days later he receives a reply from Edith that she is engaged to George Field, the brother of one of her school-friends, Molly Field; but the letter also makes it clear that she had done this because she had not expected that Ronald would still care for her, and George was kind and someone she felt she could accept as a husband. Tolkien writes again, and they arrange to meet.
8 January 1913 Tolkien visits Cheltenham to see Edith; while there he stays at the Moorend Park lodging house in Charlton Kings. Edith meets him at the station. They walk into the country to be alone and undisturbed while discussing their situation; there they sit under a railway viaduct. Edith agrees to break her engagement to George and to marry Ronald, but they decide to keep their engagement secret for a while. The only exception is Father Francis, whom Tolkien feels it is his duty to inform. See note.
First part of 1913 When Father Francis learns of Tolkien’s engagement, he is not enthusiastic, but accepts the inevitable. Tolkien promises Edith that he will work hard to gain a good degree to ensure their future together. But if their marriage is to be blessed by the Catholic Church, Edith must convert to Roman Catholicism. Although she has become an active member of the Church of England while living in Cheltenham with her family friends the Jessops, she is willing to convert, but prefers to delay this step until closer to their marriage, or at least until they are officially engaged. Tolkien insists that she not delay, however, and as a consequence, as expected, the Jessops order her to leave their house. Edith finds lodgings in *Warwick, not far from Oxford, and moves there with her cousin Jennie Grove. She begins to take instruction from a Roman Catholic parish priest, Father William J. Murphy.
