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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.