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1925

Mid- to late 1920s Tolkien creates alphabets in which he refines the work he has done with the Alphabet of Rúmil and the Valmaric script, leading eventually to the Tengwar of the 1930s. Documents of this period are written on paper which Tolkien began to use in summer 1924 as an external examiner at Oxford.

?1925–?1926 Tolkien begins to make a Modern English translation of the Middle English poem Pearl. – Possibly around this time, he and E.V. Gordon plan to produce a joint edition of Pearl similar to their edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Tolkien, however, will make little or no contribution by June 1937.

1925 ‘Gerald of Wales on the Survival of Welsh’, an essay by W. Rhys Roberts, former Professor of Classics at Leeds, is published in the Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion: Session 1923–1924. It contains, among other versions of a prophecy by Gerald of Wales (Giraldus Cambrensis), one in late twelfth-century English of the South-west Midlands prepared by Tolkien.

?Early 1925 Tolkien writes, but does not finish, an alliterative poem. Each of its three manuscripts has a different title: The Flight of the Gnomes as Sung in the Halls of Thingol; Flight of the Gnomes (added later); and *The Flight of the Noldoli from Valinor.

5 January 1925 Kenneth Sisam writes to George S. Gordon that the glossary for the Clarendon Chaucer must be cut by ten pages. He leaves it to Gordon to discuss with Tolkien how this might be done. – Sisam also writes to Tolkien, returning the glossary and advising him to abandon all easy words and practically all references as a way of reducing its length. He asks how Tolkien is progressing with Sir Gawain and the Green Knight – evidently Tolkien is now correcting proofs.

8 January 1925 A review-essay by Tolkien, Philology: General Works, is published in *The Year’s Work in English Studies, vol. 4 (1924, for 1923). He discusses at length some fifteen works (mainly books, some in French or German), and refers to many others in passing.

13 January 1925 Term begins at Leeds.

20 January 1925 Tolkien attends a meeting of the Board of the Faculty of Arts at Leeds.

21 January 1925 Tolkien attends a meeting of the Senate of the University of Leeds.

24 January 1925 Tolkien attends a meeting of the Senate of the University of Leeds.

26 January 1925 Tolkien writes a letter of appreciation to Joseph Wright on his retirement.

4 February 1925 Tolkien attends a meeting of the Senate of the University of Leeds. He is appointed to a committee on the terms of appointment of junior staff.

5 February 1925 Kenneth Sisam reminds Tolkien that he is supposed to have completed the notes for the Clarendon Chaucer by 31 January. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is progressing well through the press.

17 February 1925 Tolkien attends a meeting of the Board of the Faculty of Arts at Leeds.

Late February or early March 1925 Tolkien sends George S. Gordon a revised glossary for the Clarendon Chaucer.

4 March 1925 George S. Gordon sends Tolkien’s revised glossary to Kenneth Sisam, saying that it is now the right length. Gordon feels, however, that Tolkien’s preface is too curt and professional for the school audience at which the book is aimed. He sends Sisam a ‘chattier’ version, which the latter will prefer. – Tolkien attends a meeting of the Senate of the University of Leeds.

17 March 1925 Tolkien attends a meeting of the Board of the Faculty of Arts at Leeds.

23 March 1925 Kenneth Sisam sends Tolkien an advance copy of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Oxford University Press are to change the binding and add guard sheets to protect the collotype plates. Since he can send only one copy, Sisam asks Tolkien to show it to E.V. Gordon and to let him know of any faults as soon as possible.

25 March 1925 Term ends at Leeds.

April 1925 An article by Tolkien, *Some Contributions to Middle-English Lexicography, is published in the Review of English Studies for April 1925.

23 April 1925 Term begins at Leeds. – Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, edited by Tolkien and E.V. Gordon, is published.

May 1925 Tolkien receives proofs of the glossary to the Clarendon Chaucer probably in mid-May. George S. Gordon seems to have corrected galley proofs of the text: these and probably Tolkien’s corrected glossary are set in page proof and sent to Gordon and Tolkien later in May.

6 May 1925 Tolkien attends a meeting of the Senate of the University of Leeds.

19 May 1925 Tolkien attends a meeting of the Board of the Faculty of Arts at Leeds.

28 May 1925 Tolkien attends a meeting of the Board of the Faculty of Arts at Leeds.

June 1925 Tolkien’s poem Light as Leaf on Lindentree (composed 1919–20 and later) is published in The Gryphon for June 1925.

5 June 1925 Tolkien attends a meeting of the Senate of the University of Leeds.

11 June 1925 English Final Honour School Examinations begin at Oxford; Tolkien is an external examiner. Other examiners are George S. Gordon, Oliver Elton, and Edith Wardale. There are 154 candidates.

12 June 1925 W.A. Craigie having decided to leave the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship of Anglo-Saxon, it is announced in the Oxford University Gazette that candidates for the chair must submit their names to the Registrar by 4 July, together with no fewer than eight copies of any statement, references, and testimonials. The notice states that the Professor will be required to lecture on Old English language and literature, and may also lecture on other Old Germanic languages, especially Icelandic. He must give no fewer than forty-two lectures during the academic year, and must reside within the University during six months at least between 1 September and the following 1 July. The stipend is to be £1,000 a year. – If he has not done so already, having heard that Craigie, his former tutor, is leaving Oxford, Tolkien now writes to several of his colleagues for letters testifying to his qualifications for the Rawlinson and Bosworth chair. – Tolkien writes to Mr Ashton, the father of an exceptionably able student at Leeds who has been unable to sit the final examination. Tolkien assures Ashton that if his son is unable to take the examination the following year he could still be granted ‘an “aegrotat’ degree without class’, which together with recommendations from himself and C.E. Gough, Professor of German Language and Literature at Leeds, ‘will be worth nearly as much to him conceivably as a first class without such strong recommendations’ (Swann Galleries, Autographs, New York, 25 September 2008, lot 253).

Mid-June 1925 By now, Tolkien and George S. Gordon finish correcting page proofs of the Clarendon Chaucer.

Summer 1925 By now, Tolkien has abandoned The Lay of the Children of Húrin and now begins a new poem, the *Lay of Leithian, in octosyllabic couplets. He will continue to work on this for six years, abandoning it in its turn unfinished in September 1931. Tolkien will write in his diary that he began ‘the poem of Tinúviel’ during the period of the summer examinations of 1925 (quoted in *The Lays of Beleriand (1985), p. 150).

23 June 1925 Oxford University Press produces revised page proofs of the Clarendon Chaucer. These however do not include the notes, which Tolkien has not yet written, nor George S. Gordon’s introduction and notes on the critical essays.

End of June 1925 Tolkien submits a formal printed application for the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford, dated 25 June 1925 but with a covering letter dated 27 June. The application includes letters of support from distinguished colleagues, all but one of which Tolkien by now has solicited: L.R. Farnell, Rector of Exeter College, Oxford (23 June); Joseph Wright, the retiring Professor of Comparative Philology (22 June); the late Henry Bradley (7 June 1920, a letter undoubtedly written in support of Tolkien’s readership at Leeds); M.E. Sadler, former Vice-Chancellor at Leeds, now Master of University College, Oxford (17 June); George S. Gordon, Merton Professor of English Literature, Oxford (28 June); Allen Mawer, Professor of English Language and Philology in the University of Liverpool (25 June); and Lascelles Abercrombie, Professor of English Literature, Leeds (June 1925).

July 1925 An article by Tolkien, *The Devil’s Coach-horses, is published in the Review of English Studies for July 1925.

4 July 1925 Term ends at Leeds.

14 July 1925 Tolkien writes out the examiners’ statement for the English Final Honour School at Oxford. Later in the year, the examiners’ report will note ‘signs … that the candidates were beginning to combine their literary and linguistic knowledge, and that the modern unnatural division between Literature and Philology was beginning to break down’ (Oxford University Archives FA 4/10/2/3).

21 July 1925 The electors to the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship of Anglo-Saxon meet: they are H.M. Chadwick, Elrington and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Cambridge; R.W. Chambers, Quain Professor of English Language and Literature, University College, London; Hermann G. Fiedler, Taylorian Professor of the German Language and Literature, Oxford; C.T. Onions, Lecturer in English, Oxford; the Rev. Charles Plummer, Fellow of Corpus Christi College, editor of medieval texts; Joseph Wells, Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University; and H.C. Wyld, Merton Professor of English Language and Literature, Oxford. Professor Allen Mawer of Liverpool having decided not to apply, and Professor Chambers having declined a direct offer of the chair, the electors consider three applications: two of these are from Tolkien and his former tutor, Kenneth Sisam. Tolkien is elected by four votes to three. – E.S. Craig, the University Registrar, writes to Tolkien with his congratulations, and sends him an undertaking to sign.

22 July 1925 Tolkien’s election to the Rawlinson and Bosworth chair is announced in The Times. – He returns the signed undertaking to E.S. Craig at once. He assumes that the statutes governing the chair can be mitigated during Michaelmas Term 1925, as he has to give six months’ notice to Leeds. – He informs the Vice-Chancellor at Leeds that he has been elected to the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship, and resigns his Leeds chair ‘only with feelings of great regret at this sudden severance, in spite of this unexpected turn of fortune for myself’ (Letters, p. 13). – Tolkien is in the process of marking School Certificate examination papers, having read two hundred answers on ‘Caesar’s ghost’, when he writes to H.F.B. Brett-Smith at Oxford. Brett-Smith has sent Tolkien congratulations on his election to the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship. Tolkien encloses a poem with his reply.

24 July 1925 Oxford Registrar E.S. Craig replies that Tolkien should be able to arrange his schedule, in consultation with his colleagues, so that he can teach at both Leeds and Oxford during Michaelmas Term. He sends Tolkien a schedule of lectures for Michaelmas Term, the proposed lecture list, and the corresponding list for Michaelmas Term 1924.

7 August 1925 In a letter to R.W. Chambers Tolkien mentions that he has only just finished marking School Certificate examination papers, which he must do in order to pay doctor’s bills.

8 August 1925 Tolkien replies to a letter from H.F.B. Brett-Smith. He promises to send more of his poetry, and remarks on the tedious labour of correcting examination papers.

23 August 1925 Tolkien works on the Lay of Leithian, marking this date on the manuscript page that begins with line 557.

Late August 1925 The Tolkiens have professional family photographs taken in Leeds. A comb in the photographer’s waiting room is used to tidy John and Michael’s hair; some weeks later, they will develop ringworm.

30 or 31 August 1925 Partly to celebrate his new appointment, Tolkien and his family take a three-week holiday at Filey. They stay in a cottage on a cliff overlooking the sea.

2 September 1925 When the Tolkiens look out of the window for several nights, they see the full moon rise and make a silver ‘path’ across the sea.

3 or 4 September 1925 Tolkien takes John and Michael for walks on the shingle beach and shows them how to skim stones into the sea. Michael carries his favourite toy, a miniature dog, made of lead and painted black and white, which he normally refuses to let go even to have his hand washed. Now, in his excitement, he puts it down on the shingle, and when he looks for it later it cannot be found. Tolkien and the boys will search for two days with no success.

5 September 1925 In the afternoon, the east coast of England is struck by a severe storm which continues into the night. The Tolkiens’ cottage is shaken by the winds so severely that they fear the roof might blow off. Tolkien calms his sons by telling them a story, which is also intended to comfort Michael for the loss of his toy dog. In *Roverandom a real dog is turned into a toy, taken to the moon along a silver ‘moon path’, and (returned to earth) brought under the sea where he disturbs a great serpent, causing a terrible storm. Tolkien does not write down this story at once, but at some time before the end of 1925 he will draw the lunar landscape described in it, titling it in a variety of his Valmaric alphabet (Artist and Illustrator, fig. 72).

6 September 1925 The Tolkiens go down to the beach at Filey. The high tide, blown inland by the storm, has destroyed beach huts and swept over the promenade. There is now even less hope of finding Michael’s lost toy.

Mid-September 1925 On one day during their holiday at Filey the Tolkiens walk a long way to see the remains of a German submarine sunk in the First World War near Flamborough Head. – Tolkien writes lines 649–757 of the Lay of Leithian.

1 October 1925 Term begins at Leeds; Tolkien takes up his appointment as Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford. To fulfil the notice required by his contract, he will not vacate his chair at Leeds until 31 December 1925, but will continue to live and teach there during the autumn term as well as undertake his new duties at Oxford. His lectures and classes at Leeds are presumably similar to those of the previous year, but necessarily rescheduled to allow him to travel four times (fortnightly) to Oxford, where he lectures on Fridays and Saturdays. – Probably at some time after his return to Oxford, Tolkien makes a manuscript copy of his poem The Clerke’s Compleinte, using letterforms of Chaucer’s time and with emendations from the text published in December 1922. Later still, he will further emend the poem, replacing Leeds with Oxford as the place to which students travel in October.

6 October 1925 Tolkien attends a meeting of the Senate of the University of Leeds.

7 October 1925 The Vice-Chancellor of Oxford delivers a speech in Latin to Convocation reviewing the past academic year and welcoming newcomers to positions in the University, including Tolkien as Professor of Anglo-Saxon.

11 October 1925 Michaelmas Full Term begins at Oxford. Tolkien’s scheduled lectures for this term are: Anglo-Saxon Reader (Selected Extracts, for those who have already acquired the elements of Old English), fortnightly on Fridays and Saturdays at 10.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools, beginning 16 October; and Beowulf (Text), fortnightly on Fridays and Saturdays at 11.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools, also beginning 16 October.

?18 (received 19) October 1925 George S. Gordon sends to Kenneth Sisam text and notes for the essays for the Clarendon Chaucer. He reports that Tolkien has finished the glossary and has written a first draft of the notes on the text, which he is working to abbreviate when he can find the time.

20 October 1925 Tolkien attends a meeting of the Board of the Faculty of Arts at Leeds.

21 October 1925 The University of Leeds Council notes Tolkien’s resignation as of 31 December 1925.

30 October 1925 Tolkien attends a meeting of the Board of the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages and Literature (of which, at this date, the Oxford English School is still a part) at 3.30 p.m. in the Board Room of the Clarendon Building, Oxford. He is elected a member of the English Fund Committee for three years, and also a member of a committee ‘to consider the conduct of and regulations for the Examination in the Honour School of English and report to the Board’ (Oxford University Archives FA 4/10/1/1). He is appointed supervisor of M.G. Last of the Society of Oxford Home-Students, a probationer B.Litt. student wishing to study an Old English subject; and also supervisor of Julia Maud Keays-Young, also of the Society of Oxford Home-Students, who is working on a B.Litt. thesis, England and the English in the Icelandic Sagas. – At one of the Faculty Board meetings in Michaelmas Term 1925 Tolkien will be appointed an elector to the Merton Professorship of English Language and Literature for three years. Later he will be reappointed at intervals for further terms, but is never called upon to serve.

4 November 1925 Tolkien attends a meeting of the Senate of the University of Leeds.

12 November 1925 The University of Leeds Committee on the Chair of English Language discuss a successor to Tolkien and agree unanimously that E.V. Gordon should be appointed to the Chair from 1 January 1926. Tolkien, George S. Gordon, and Allen Mawer of Liverpool have written in support of E.V. Gordon’s application. The Committee also agree to accept an offer of occasional assistance that Tolkien made at some point in 1925, and that he should be paid accordingly.

17 November 1925 Tolkien attends a meeting of the Board of the Faculty of Arts at Leeds.

21 November 1925 The committee (including Tolkien) appointed to consider the examination in the Honour School of English at Oxford completes work on its report for the Board of the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages and Literature. It will be presented to a meeting of the Board, in Tolkien’s absence, on 3 December.

12 December 1925 Michaelmas Full Term ends at Oxford.

End of autumn term 1925 or early 1926 Students of the English School at Leeds take up a collection to pay for a photograph of Tolkien to be hung in the staff-house of the Department of English. They make a present to Tolkien of a print of a rejected version.

19 December 1925 Term ends at Leeds.

Christmas 1925 Tolkien, as ‘Father Christmas’, writes to John and Michael. He can write only one letter to them this year as he has been busy moving house (as the Tolkiens themselves will do very soon), his old home having been accidentally damaged by the North Polar Bear. But Tolkien also encloses a postscript as from the North Polar Bear, and a double illustration of the accident and of Father Christmas below his new house high on a cliff.

End of 1925 Tolkien resumes correspondence with R.W. Reynolds, who is now retired from King Edward’s School.