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1923

1923–1939 During this period Tolkien is inducted into the Catenian Association (*Societies and clubs), an international brotherhood of Roman Catholic business and professional men. He will remain a member until 1956.

?1923 Tolkien translates a prophecy by Gerald of Wales (Giraldus de Barri, Giraldus Cambrensis, c. 1146–1223) into late twelfth-century English of the South-west Midlands for W. Rhys Roberts, Professor of Classics at Leeds (retired 1923) to include in a paper, ‘Gerald of Wales on the Survival of Welsh’ (published 1925). – Tolkien begins work on *‘Qenya Declensions’, extending to c. 1930–1.

1923 Tolkien rewrites his poem May Day (first composed in April 1915) and makes the first of three typescripts of his poem Light as Leaf on Lindentree. – Tolkien first becomes acquainted with a manuscript glossary of the dialect of the Huddersfield District in South Yorkshire, prepared by Walter E. Haigh. Tolkien will urge Haigh to continue to work on it, and will later contribute a foreword; see entry for 12 January 1928. – He inscribes the date ‘1923’ in his copy of Barddas, or A Collection of Original Documents, Illustrative of the Theology, Wisdom, and Usages of the Bardo-Druidic System of the Isle of Britain, vol. 2, translated with notes by John Williams ab Ithel (London, 1874). – Tolkien is named as one of the scholars who will contribute to the Oxford Language and Literature Series. Under the general editorship of C.T. Onions, the series is to consist of small volumes concerned with a variety of languages and associated literatures, intended primarily for students.

January 1923 Tolkien’s poem Iumonna Gold Galdre Bewunden is published in The Gryphon for January 1923.

10 January 1923 Term begins at Leeds.

13 February 1923 Tolkien writes to Elizabeth Wright, the wife of his former teacher Joseph Wright and herself a scholar (see *Joseph Wright), to thank her for an offprint of an article by her about Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (presumably ‘The Word “Abloy” in “Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight”, l. 1174’, in the section ‘Miscellaneous Notes’, Modern Language Review 18, no. 1 (January 1923), pp. 86–7). He notes that ‘Philology is making headway’ at Leeds. ‘The proportion of “language” students is very high, and there is no trace of the press-gang!’ (Letters, p. 11).

20 February 1923 Tolkien attends a meeting of the Board of the Faculty of Arts at Leeds.

20 March 1923 Tolkien attends a meeting of the Board of the Faculty of Arts at Leeds.

21 March 1923 Term ends at Leeds.

Spring 1923 Tolkien’s poem The City of the Gods (composed April 1915 as Kôr) is published in the Leeds magazine The Microcosm for Spring 1923.

19 April 1923 Term begins at Leeds.

20 April 1923 Tolkien attends a meeting of the Board of the Faculty of Arts at Leeds.

26 April 1923 A review by Tolkien of Hali Meidenhad: An Alliterative Prose Homily of the Thirteenth Century, ed. F.J. Furnivall, is published in the Times Literary Supplement for 26 April under the title *Holy Maidenhood. Hali Meidenhad belongs to a group of works (*Katherine Group) to which Tolkien will devote a great deal of attention in his career.

May 1923 Tolkien catches a severe cold, which turns into pneumonia. He is gravely ill, his life in danger; but he will begin to recover by 12 June. His grandfather, John Suffield, aged 90, stays with Tolkien and his family at this time.

23 May 1923 Henry Bradley, Tolkien’s former supervisor on the Oxford English Dictionary, dies.

June 1923 Three of Tolkien’s poems are published in A Northern Venture: Verses by Members of the Leeds University English School Association: *Enigmata Saxonica Nuper Inventa Duo (‘two Saxon riddles newly discovered’), comprising two original riddles in Old English, one of which Tolkien sent to Henry Bradley in June 1922; Tha Eadigan Saelidan: The Happy Mariners (see *The Happy Mariners), previously published with slight differences in June 1920; and *Why the Man in the Moon Came Down Too Soon, first composed in March 1915 and retouched in 1923.

Early June 1923 George S. Gordon discusses the Clarendon Chaucer with Tolkien, perhaps while Gordon is at Leeds as an external examiner.

14 June 1923 Tolkien is first mentioned (in extant correspondence) as coeditor of the Clarendon Chaucer, in a letter by George S. Gordon to Kenneth Sisam, now an official at Oxford University Press. By now, the Press has agreed to publish the book in its Clarendon English Series of student texts. It is to emphasize Chaucer’s works other than the Canterbury Tales, together with selections from critical literature and a glossary. Although Gordon and Tolkien had originally proposed to prepare a fresh text, they are required to use the existing edition of Chaucer by Professor Skeat (also published by Oxford).

30 June 1923 Term ends at Leeds.

Late June or July 1923 Once Tolkien has recovered from his illness, he and his family travel on holiday: the University of Leeds has instructions to forward his post to various addresses. One of these is Evesham (*West Midlands) where Tolkien’s brother Hilary now owns a market garden and a plum and apple orchard. The visitors help Hilary with chores, and he and his brother amuse John and Michael by flying giant kites.

27 July 1923 George S. Gordon writes to Kenneth Sisam that Tolkien has agreed, or will soon agree, to provide a glossary for the Clarendon Chaucer. Gordon optimistically thinks that Tolkien will be ready to begin work as soon as he receives the texts, and will be able to finish in September.

?August 1923–1925 Tolkien begins to combine the list of Noldorin words and names compiled earlier at Leeds into a Noldorin dictionary (see *‘Noldorin Dictionary’). – Around this time he also begins to compile an English–Qenya dictionary, with Qenya words given in Valmaric script (*‘English–Qenya Dictionary’).

October 1923 Henry Bradley, 3 December 1845–23 May 1923, an appreciation by Tolkien, is published in the Bulletin of the Modern Humanities Research Association for October 1923.

October–November 1923 Tolkien’s poem The Cat and the Fiddle: A Nursery Rhyme Undone and Its Scandalous Secret Unlocked (*The Man in the Moon Stayed Up Too Late, first composed probably in 1919–20) is published in Yorkshire Poetry for October–November 1923.

1 October 1923 Term begins at Leeds.

Leeds academic year 1923–1924 The University of Leeds Calendar for 1923–4 lists several lectures or classes to take place during the year for which Tolkien (or E.V. Gordon) may have responsibility: History of the English Language to the Close of the Fourteenth Century, and the special study of West Saxon Texts and of the Language of Chaucer, on Mondays and Fridays at 3.00 p.m. and Thursdays at 12.00 noon; Chaucer on Thursdays at 12.00 noon; Old English Verse with a special study of Beowulf, The Fight at Finnesburg, Widsith, Waldere, and Deor’s Lament on Mondays at 10.00 a.m.; The History of English on Wednesdays at 10.00 a.m.; Old and Middle English Texts on Mondays at 12.00 noon; Old and Middle English Dialects, fortnightly on Fridays at 12.00 noon; Introduction to Germanic Philology, with special reference to Old English, on Wednesdays at 11.00 a.m.; and Early English Literature on Thursdays at 11.00 a.m. A Third Year Essay Class is also offered, involving discussions following upon papers read by students to the class, and chiefly concerned with Early English Literature and Civilization, fortnightly on Fridays at 12.00 noon, as well as a Special Subject (Gothic, Old Icelandic, etc.) on Tuesdays at 2.00 p.m. or at hours to be arranged. – The pressure of academic duties on Tolkien and Gordon by now has delayed completion of their edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. On 10 November 1923 Gordon will inform Kenneth Sisam that he and Tolkien each have to conduct about fifteen hours of lectures and classes per week at Leeds, which leaves them little leisure. They are also hampered by the lack of good library facilities.

16 October 1923 Tolkien attends a meeting of the Board of the Faculty of Arts at Leeds. – George S. Gordon forwards to Kenneth Sisam a letter he has received from Tolkien, raising many points about the text for the Clarendon Chaucer, especially in relation to the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. Sisam will reply that although he agrees with Tolkien, to put all of his suggestions into effect would be too costly.

17 October 1923 Tolkien’s annual salary at the University of Leeds is raised from £600 to £700.

10 November 1923 E.V. Gordon writes to Kenneth Sisam regarding Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. He hopes that Oxford University Press will allow it to be longer than 160 pages. He and Tolkien will cut its glossary as much as possible, as glossaries are expensive to set in type, but even so they feel that they need another forty pages. If Oxford University Press insists, they will cut to 160 pages, but it will not be as good or as lively as they would like. Tolkien has agreed to submit the complete copy by 23 April, and the text in two weeks’ time.

13 November 1923 Kenneth Sisam writes to E.V. Gordon, agreeing to 200 pages for Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, but the copy must be so good that there will be few proof corrections. He must receive some of the copy before 23 April, or it might be difficult to publish in time for the following university year.

15 November 1923 E.V. Gordon replies to Kenneth Sisam, accepting his conditions. He and Tolkien will try to reduce the glossary to fifty pages, though Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is different from most Middle English works and needs more glossing. In regard to a question asked by Gordon in an earlier letter, if Oxford University Press would be interested in a Modern English translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Sisam has asked for a sample of the text, suggesting lines 2000–2200; Gordon now notes that Tolkien made a translation of these lines some time ago, which they will revise and send to Sisam.

20 November 1923 Tolkien attends a meeting of the Board of the Faculty of Arts at Leeds. He is appointed to a committee to make arrangements for the entertaining of members of other faculties.

Late November–early December 1923 The Tolkien house is ransacked by burglars. Among the items stolen (and never recovered) are Edith’s engagement ring and her best coat, but none of Tolkien’s books. The family discover that their new maid, hired that autumn, is a member of a gang of thieves.

8 December 1923 E.V. Gordon writes to Kenneth Sisam. Despite Tolkien’s misfortunes, they will soon be able to send Sisam the text for Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Gordon has more or less completed the notes, but Tolkien will have to go through them, and some material must be transferred from the glossary to the notes.

Last half of December 1923 Tolkien receives and corrects proofs of text for the Clarendon Chaucer.

14 December 1923 E.V. Gordon sends Kenneth Sisam a clean copy of the text of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. He adds that Tolkien has been lucky enough to acquire a copy of Thorkelin’s Beowulf (the first full edition of that poem) for seven shillings.

19 December 1923 Term ends at Leeds.

Christmas 1923 Tolkien writes a letter to John as from Father Christmas, dated Christmas Eve. He is sending Lotts Bricks to John and Michael for Christmas.