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1917

2 January 1917 Tolkien writes to the War Office from Great Haywood, reporting himself for further orders and giving his address from 12 January as 185 Monument Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham.

18 January 1917 Wiseman writes to Tolkien. He apologizes for not sending a letter before, explaining that this is the fifth he has written and has torn up his earlier attempts. He is glad to hear that Tolkien is ill again (because it keeps him from the front) and asks what exactly is wrong with him. He comments: ‘As you said, it is you and I now … the old and original. The whole thing is so ineffably mysterious. To have seen two of God’s giants pass before our eyes, to have lived and laughed with them, to have learnt of them, to have found them something like ourselves, and to see them go back again into the mist whence they came out.’ He understands that R.W. Reynolds has been in touch with Tolkien about publishing Smith’s poems, and says though he thinks Reynolds will do justice to Smith as a poet, he will see him ‘as a poet and not a man, as something like a successful protégé … as a genius, as a prodigy, anything but a soul who is saying what it feels and how it thinks.’ He asks Tolkien if he can do anything; he feels that the T.C.B.S. should have a hand in the matter, but if they do they must be ‘cruelly honest and not allow sentiment to cloud judgement’. He does not think that Smith’s last poems were his best, but they should probably go into a collection. He has never seen Smith’s poem The Burial of Sophocles and asks Tolkien to make a copy for him. He returns Tolkien’s own poems with comments on a separate sheet, possibly those on the back of an unused telegram form preserved among the Tolkien Papers; in these he mentions The Pool of the Dead Year, Tinfang Warble, The Forest Walker, and A Dream of Coming Home, and says that Tolkien ought to start ‘the epic’ (Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford).

21 January 1917 Mrs Smith writes to Tolkien at Great Haywood, forwarded to Abbotsford, Wake Green Road, Moseley (the home of his Aunt Mabel and Uncle Tom Mitton). She has heard from R.W. Reynolds and is grateful to him and to Tolkien for the trouble they are taking over her son’s poetry.

23 January 1917 Tolkien is examined by a Medical Board at the 1st Southern General Hospital. Although his condition has improved, he is still pale and weak, his appetite is poor, he has experienced two slight returns of fever, and he still has occasional pains in his knees and elbows. The Board declares him unfit for general service for two months, and unfit for home and light duty for one month. His leave is extended to 22 February.

12 February 1917 Tolkien writes to the War Office from Great Haywood to report that at the expiration of his leave on 22 February his address will be Great Haywood, Staffordshire. – Edith Tolkien either begins to make a fair copy of Tolkien’s first version of The Cottage of Lost Play or finishes doing so: she writes her initials and today’s date on the cover of the school exercise book used for the purpose.

27 February 1917 Tolkien is examined by a Medical Board at the Military Hospital, Lichfield. He is still debilitated and has pains in his legs and occasional fever. The Board declares him unfit for general or home service for two months or even light duty for one month, and recommends one month’s treatment in an officers’ convalescent hospital. His address on the completed form is changed from Great Haywood to Abbotsford, Moseley, Birmingham (the Mittons). He is sent to Furness Auxiliary Hospital in Harrogate, Yorkshire, probably at once. See note.

Beginning of March 1917 Having heard that G.B. Smith’s brother Roger, also serving in the Army, died in Mesopotamia on 25 January, Tolkien writes from Harrogate to Smith’s mother.

4 and 9 March 1917 Wiseman replies to a letter from Tolkien sent a month earlier. He is pleased to have set Tolkien off on his great work: ‘The reason why I want you to write the epic is because I want you to connect all these [poems and tales] up properly, & make their meaning & context tolerably clear’ (Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford). With his letter Tolkien had sent some poems, on which Wiseman now comments. He asks for news of G.B. Smith’s poems and whether Tolkien is doing anything to get his own work published. He has received another letter from Tolkien and is glad that Edith is now with him at Harrogate. Wiseman addresses the letter to Tolkien at 95 Valley Drive, Harrogate, Yorkshire, presumably where Edith and Jennie Grove are staying.

6 March 1917 G.B. Smith’s mother replies to Tolkien at Furness Auxiliary Hospital to thank him for his sympathy.

28 March 1917 Tolkien is examined by a Medical Board at Furness Auxiliary Hospital. He is improving but still has pains in his knees and elbows. The Board declares him unfit for general and home service for one month, but fit for one month’s light duty at home, and recommends a further three weeks of sick leave, until 18 April. His address on the completed form is given as 95 Valley Road, Harrogate.

6 April 1917 The United States declares war on Germany.

14 April 1917 Wiseman, on leave in London, informs Tolkien by telegram that he will visit him on 18 April.

15 April 1917 (postmark) Wiseman writes to Tolkien at 95 Valley Drive, Harrogate, confirming what he has already telegraphed, that he is on leave and wants to visit Tolkien and Edith in the morning of 18 April. According to his present orders, he needs to catch a train from Leeds in the afternoon, but if his leave is extended he might not come until 19 April. On receiving this, Tolkien probably telegraphs that he has to report for duty on the latter date.

17–?18 April 1917 In the circumstances, Wiseman arrives in Harrogate on 17 April, at 6.51 p.m. according to a telegram he sends that afternoon. Tolkien lends him manuscripts of Smith’s poems and a typewritten copy.

19 April 1917 At the expiration of his leave Tolkien joins the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers at Thirtle Bridge Camp on the Holderness peninsula, near Withernsea, part of the Humber Garrison. The battalion has two duties: to train new recruits for the front, and to guard against any assault from the sea. The camp houses some 1,600 soldiers. See note.

1 May 1917 Tolkien is examined by a Medical Board at Humber Garrison headquarters in Hull. ‘He is improving but requires hardening’ (Public Record Office). The Board declares him fit for home service but unfit for general service. His address is recorded as HQ3, Thirtle Bridge.

May 1917 Tolkien spends part of his time at the Musketry Camp near Hornsea, established by the Army to refresh regimental officers and non-commissioned officers in the use of the rifle in battle.

5 May 1917 By this date, Edith and Jennie are resident in Hornsea, at 1 Bank Terrace.

19 May 1917 Wiseman writes to Tolkien, returning the manuscripts of Smith’s poems. He will keep the typed copy until he can send Tolkien his suggestions. He thinks that they should not aim at publishing ‘Opera Omnia, but a good book of verse’ (Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford).

1 June 1917 Tolkien is examined by a Medical Board at Humber Garrison headquarters in Hull. The Board declares him fit for general service, and orders him to remain with his unit at Thirtle Bridge until further notice.

?Early June 1917 For a brief time early in Tolkien’s posting to the Humber Garrison he is put in charge of an outpost and given quarters which allow Edith to live with him for a while. See note. – Tolkien will annotate a later version of his poem Sea-Song of an Elder Day (after 31 August–2 September 1917, see below): ‘Present shape due to rewriting and adding introd[uction] & ending in a lonely house near Roos, Holderness (Thirtle Bridge Camp) Spring 1917’ (quoted in *The Shaping of Middle-earth (1986), p. 215). The ‘lonely house’ is probably to be identified with the officer’s quarters provided to Tolkien as commander of the outpost. The extant manuscript of the poem as written out in March 1915 (as Sea-Chant of an Elder Day) includes a later addition, a short prose introduction which connects the poem to the story of the fall of Gondolin (see entry for End of 1916–early 1917): it becomes ‘the song that Tuor told to Eärendel his son what time the Exiles of Gondolin dwelt awhile in Dor Tathrin the Land of Willows after the burning of their city’ (quoted in The Shaping of Middle-earth, p. 214). – Tolkien also continues to work on his Gnomish lexicon, rewriting in ink over an earlier pencil layer. An inscription indicates that this stage at least is written at ‘Tol Withernon’, almost certainly a Gnomish reference to ‘Withernsea’.

Tolkien and Edith visit a wood near Roos. There she dances for him, a seminal event in the development of his mythology. As he will describe it in 1964 in a letter to Christopher Bretherton: ‘the original version of the “Tale of Lúthien Tinúviel and Beren” … was founded on a small wood with a great undergrowth of ‘hemlock’ (no doubt many other related plants were also there) near Roos in Holderness, where I was for a while on the Humber Garrison’ (Letters, p. 345); and in a letter to his son Christopher in 1972: ‘I never called Edith Lúthien – but she was the source of the story that in time became the chief part of the Silmarillion. It was first conceived in a small woodland glade filled with hemlocks at Roos in Yorkshire … . In those days her hair was raven, her skin clear, her eyes brighter than you have seen them, and she could sing – and dance’ (Letters, p. 420). See note.

Summer 1917 Hilary Tolkien receives minor shrapnel wounds while helping to carry supplies over the Passchendaele Ridge near Ypres.

?Late June–early July 1917 Christopher Wiseman writes to Tolkien and returns the typewritten copies of Smith’s poems, with a suggested arrangement. He is convinced that only a selection of Smith’s best work should be published, and it should be arranged most effectively rather than by strict order of writing. He suggests that some of the poems might be accompanied by explanatory notes of the circumstances in which they were written. He also comments at length on the political situation. He has not heard from Tolkien since he saw him in Harrogate.

?c. 14–21 July 1917 Tolkien is at the Royal Engineers Signal Depot, Dunstable, Bedfordshire, for a signalling examination or, perhaps, a refresher course. See note.

31 July 1917 T.K. Barnsley from King Edward’s School is killed in action in the Third Battle of Ypres.

1 August 1917 Tolkien attends the elaborate dinner with which the 3rd Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers celebrates Minden Day. He signs his menu card and obtains the signatures of twenty-three others at the dinner, including L.R. Huxtable. – Tolkien writes a poem, Companions of the Rose, dedicated ‘For RQG [R.Q. Gilson] Suffolk Regiment GBS [G.B. Smith] Lancashire Fusiliers’. On Minden Day, roses are worn by all ranks in the Lancashire Fusiliers, and a toast is drunk to those who fell at Minden. (Gilson’s regiment had also fought in that battle.)

Mid-August 1917 Tolkien is admitted to ‘Brooklands’, an officers’ hospital in Cottingham Road, Hull, by 13 August, and for six weeks runs a fever. He finds congenial company among the other patients, including a friend from the Lancashire Fusiliers, and continues his writing, including The Tale of Tinúviel. – The hospital is visited by nuns of the order of the Sisters of Mercy who have a house in Hull. One of these, Sister Mary Michael, becomes a lifelong correspondent and friend, and godmother to Tolkien’s second son, Michael. See note.

?Mid- to late August or ?September 1917 Tolkien writes a poem, *The Grey Bridge of Tavrobel. At a later date he will write on the manuscript: ‘Brooklands Red [Cross] hosp[ital] Cottingham Road, Hull Sept or Aug 1917?’

Between 21 and 24 August 1917 Unhappy in their lodgings in Yorkshire and unable to visit Tolkien in hospital often because of the difficult journey to Hull, and with Edith now in an advanced state of pregnancy, Edith and Jennie decide to return to Cheltenham until the birth of the child. Their address will be 37 Montpellier Villas, Cheltenham, until 11 September inclusive.

22 August 1917 In the early hours German Zeppelins attack the Yorkshire coast, including the mouth of the Humber, with high-explosive and incendiary bombs.

31 August–2 September 1917 Tolkien again rewrites his poem Sea-Song of an Elder Day, now with an added title, The Horns of Ulmo (> The Horns of Ylmir), to fit it explicitly within his mythology. He writes on the manuscript ‘Aug[ust] 31 Sep[tember] 2 1917 Hospital Hull’. Later he will write out a fair copy of the poem, incorporating emendations, with the annotation described above (see entry for Spring 1917).

September 1917 Tolkien further revises his poem The Mermaid’s Flute.

1 September, 7 and 10 October 1917 Wiseman replies in stages to a letter by Tolkien, who has heard about the death of Wiseman’s mother. Wiseman apologizes for not sending an earlier letter, and provides details. He has heard from Tolkien that he and Edith are expecting a baby and says it is great news. He agrees with Tolkien’s arrangement of G.B. Smith’s poems for publication. He has heard from Mrs Incledon that Tolkien is still in hospital in Hull. He approves of the poem Companions of the Rose which Tolkien had enclosed with his last letter, and says that he is ‘sorry it is the only one [presumably, the only entirely new poem] this year’. But the Muse ‘has not been entirely idle because you have spent a good time on the mythology’ (Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford). He discusses at length an anonymous leader he has read in the Times Literary Supplement (20 September 1917, pp. 445–6) entitled Creation and Invention, on the distinction between ‘invention’ and ‘imagination’. Wiseman sees the former in Tolkien’s poem Copernicus and Ptolemy and the latter in his mythology.

12 September 1917 By this date, Edith and Jennie move to 6 Royal Well Terrace, Cheltenham. They will lodge there through at least 15 October.

25 September 1917 German Zeppelins attack the Lincolnshire and Yorkshire coasts between midnight and 3 am. Although they are unable to penetrate far inland because of defensive gunfire, they drop sixteen bombs on Hull, with little material damage.

16 October 1917 Tolkien is examined by a Medical Board at Humber Garrison headquarters in Hull. He has been in hospital for nine weeks, and though his temperature returned to normal three weeks ago, he still has not recovered his strength, he suffers from debility and pain in his arms and shins, and he looks delicate. The Board declares him 30 per cent disabled, unfit for general and home service for one month but fit for light duty at home, and orders him to rejoin the 3rd Lancashire Fusiliers at Thirtle Bridge. He leaves the hospital on this date.

30 October 1917 *Walter Rolfe Brown of Exeter College, a member of the Apolausticks and the Chequers Clubbe, is killed in action with the Artists’ Rifles in the Second Battle of Passchendaele (Third Battle of Ypres).

16 November 1917 Tolkien is examined by a Medical Board at Humber Garrison headquarters in Hull. He is slowly recovering, and in the intervening month has suffered only one slight attack of fever. The Board declares him 20 per cent disabled, unfit for general service for two months but fit for home service, including active duty with troops. He is ordered to continue service with the 3rd Lancashire Fusiliers at Thirtle Bridge, but continues to receive hospital treatment. – Edith gives birth to a son in a Cheltenham nursing home. It is a difficult delivery, and for a while her life is in danger. Tolkien cannot get leave for some days, but May Incledon writes to reassure him. At some point he will sell the last of the shares in South African mines he inherited to pay for Edith’s medical care.

Mid-November 1917 Tolkien is transferred to the 9th Battalion, Royal Defence Corps, based at Easington, some ten miles south of Thirtle Bridge near the tip of the Holderness peninsula. He resides, however, a few miles still further south, at Kilnsea, while receiving medical care in Easington. See note.

19 November 1917 R.W. Reynolds writes to thank Tolkien for a parcel and for a poem or poems which he will read aloud to his wife. He is very interested ‘in the book of tales you are at work on’ (The Book of Lost Tales) and hopes to see it ‘when it is in a state to travel’ (Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford). Sidgwick & Jackson have been considering G.B. Smith’s poems for publication for three weeks.

c. 22 November 1917 Tolkien goes to Cheltenham to see Edith and the baby. Father Francis comes from Birmingham. The baby is baptized *John Francis Reuel Tolkien. His godparents are Hilary Tolkien and Mary Incledon (who has become a Roman Catholic). To pay the costs of Edith’s medical care, Tolkien sells the last few shares in South African mines remaining from his inheritance. According to Humphrey Carpenter, after the christening of John Tolkien ‘Edith brought the child back to Yorkshire, moving into furnished rooms at Roos’ (Biography, p. 97). See note.

24 November 1917 Tolkien’s promotion from second lieutenant to full lieutenant as of 1 July 1917 is listed in the London Gazette.

December 1917–March 1918 Tolkien revises part of The Town of Dreams and the City of Present Sorrow (see entry for 10 November–1 December 1916) as The Song of Eriol, referring to the wandering mariner in The Book of Lost Tales. One of the manuscripts of the poem includes a later note, ‘Easington 1917–18’.

?10 (?17 ?20) December 1917 Wiseman replies to a letter in which Tolkien told him of the safe birth of his son. He insists on being considered as an uncle. He has received several letters from Tolkien, in one of which Tolkien asked for more about the article in the Times Literary Supplement (see entry for 1 September 1917). Wiseman now writes at great length what he remembers about it, and replies to Tolkien’s comments on what Wiseman had written in his earlier letter.

24 December 1917 Tolkien’s cousin Lieutenant Thomas Ewart Mitton, a signals officer with the Royal Engineers, dies in an accident while erecting telegraph wires over a railway near Ypres.