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1929

?1929–1930 At the request of R.E.M. Wheeler (later Sir Mortimer Wheeler), during 1928–9 director of excavation at a site at Lydney Park, Gloucestershire with prehistoric, Roman and post-Roman remains including a temple to Nodens, Tolkien writes a note on the name Nodens. – During this period Tolkien and C.S. Lewis become allies in a campaign to reform the Oxford English School syllabus.

1929 Tolkien works on a Qenyatic script. – Tolkien becomes a member of the Philological Society (*Societies and clubs). – Hilary Tolkien marries Magdalen Matthews in Evesham. After the wedding, the bride and groom travel to Oxford to spend the rest of the day with Ronald and Edith.

2 January 1929 Tolkien writes to E.V. Gordon, referring to Gordon’s plan to start an Icelandic collection at the University of Leeds and enclosing songs.

9 January 1929 The committee appointed at the 7 December meeting of the English Faculty Board meets to consider the question of the remuneration of examiners in the Final Honour School. The members agree that there is a need for some adjustments, but think it would be advisable for the chairman to take the matter up informally with the appropriate authorities.

17 January 1929 An article by Tolkien, Ancrene Wisse and Hali Meiðhad, is published in Essays and Studies by Members of the English Association, vol. 14.

20 January 1929 Hilary Full Term begins. Tolkien’s scheduled lectures for this term are: the Old English Exodus (continued), Tuesdays at 11.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools, beginning 22 January; Old English Verse (Miscellaneous Pieces), Thursdays at 10.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools, beginning 24 January; Völsunga Saga and Related Lays, Fridays at 12.00 noon in the Examination Schools, beginning 25 January; Legends of the Goths, Tuesdays at 10.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools, beginning 22 January; and The Germanic Verb (continued), Thursdays at 11.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools, beginning 24 January.

23 January 1929 Tolkien attends a Pembroke College meeting.

28 January 1929 Tolkien gives a public lecture at Leeds, Celts and the Teutons in the Early World. A report will note that

the English School owes a very great debt to Professor Tolkien; but it is not only for academic reasons that his old students remember him, and some of them were glad to share again his obvious regret that the lecture must somehow be terminated at the end of the allotted period, though the subject is nowhere near exhausted; to be flattered by the assumption that they could instantly recognise Old Welsh and [Proto-Germanic] forms; to know that on some minute point all the world’s available learning was placed before them; to plunge down a remote and devious path, and emerge in the old familiar fashion at ‘our old friend Vortigern, of Hengist and Horsa fame’. [‘Professor Tolkien on Celts and Teutons’, The Gryphon n.s. 10, no. 4 (February 1929), p. 146]

8 February 1929 Tolkien attends an English Faculty Board meeting. The committee on the payment of examiners in the Final Honour School presents a report written out by Tolkien.

20 February 1929 Tolkien attends a Pembroke College meeting.

15 March 1929 Tolkien attends an English Faculty Board meeting. The Board resolves that George S. Gordon and Tolkien should draw up a memorandum, to be submitted to the General Board of the Faculties, on the need for the appointment of a Lecturer in English Language. – Tolkien also attends a Pembroke College meeting.

16 March 1929 Hilary Full Term ends.

28 April 1929 Trinity Full Term begins. Tolkien’s scheduled lectures for this term are: Old English Verse (Miscellaneous Pieces) on Thursdays at 10.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools, beginning 2 May; and (Old Norse) Carmina Scaldica on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 11.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools, beginning 30 April.

9 May 1929 Tolkien attends an English Faculty Library Committee meeting at 2.15 p.m. in the Library.

14 May 1929 Tolkien attends a Pembroke College meeting.

17 May 1929 At a meeting of the English Faculty Board, in Tolkien’s absence, he is appointed to a committee to consider the annual scheme of lectures.

20 May 1929 Tolkien, with H.C. Wyld and C.T. Onions, signs a letter to the Secretary of Faculties asking the University to consider appointing a lecturer to teach ‘English Language’. The draft of the letter is in Onions’ hand, but the typescript appears to have been made by Tolkien. The submission points out that there are three official teachers of English Language: the Merton Professor of English Language and Literature (Wyld), the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon (Tolkien), and the Reader in English Philology (Onions), and that ‘the two Professors normally give from two to three times the amount of public instruction required by statute, not infrequently dealing with elementary parts of their subjects…. All three, if they are to consider the needs of the School, are obliged to neglect considerable sections of the subjects which ought to be adequately represented in the University, and still the linguistic syllabus of the School is not covered’ (Oxford University Archives FA 4/5/2/2).

31 May 1929 Tolkien certifies that R.A. Crook of Somerville College has completed course work towards her B.Litt.

5 June 1929 Tolkien attends a Pembroke College meeting.

12 June 1929 Tolkien certifies that A.C. Corlett of St Edmund Hall has completed course work towards his B.Litt.

13 June 1929 English Final Honour School Examinations begin. There are 105 candidates. E.V. Gordon should be an external examiner, but is granted a leave of absence; Tolkien serves in his place.

18 June 1929 Priscilla Mary Reuel Tolkien is born at home in Oxford, the fourth and last child, and only daughter, of Ronald and Edith Tolkien. Her godparents are *Francis de Zulueta, Regius Professor of Civil Law at Oxford, and *Helen Buckhurst, former Fellow and English language tutor at St Hugh’s College, Oxford.

21 June 1929 Tolkien is elected to represent the Faculties of Theology, Law, Literae Humaniores, Modern History, English Language and Literature, Medieval and Modern European Languages and Literature, and Oriental Languages on the General Board for three years until Michaelmas Term 1932.

22 June 1929 Trinity Full Term ends.

26 June 1929 Encaenia.

Michaelmas Term 1929 Edward Tangye Lean matriculates at University College, Oxford. At some time during his undergraduate years he will found a literary society or club called *‘The Inklings’. It will last only a few terms at most, and not after Tangye Lean graduates in 1933. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis will become members. See note.

6 October 1929 Michaelmas Full Term begins. Tolkien’s scheduled lectures for this term are: The Common Germanic Consonant-Changes on Tuesdays at 10.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools, beginning 15 October; Beowulf on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 11.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools, beginning 15 October; Baldrs Draumar, Guðrúnarkviða en forna, and Atlakviða on Thursdays at 10.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools, beginning 17 October (listed also as Old Norse Texts under the School of Medieval and Modern Languages).

16 October 1929 Tolkien attends a Pembroke College meeting.

22 October 1929 Tolkien attends an English Faculty Library Committee meeting at 2.15 p.m. in the Library.

25 October 1929 Tolkien attends a General Board meeting.

November 1929 Tolkien returns to the Lay of Leithian. Beside line 3031 in the manuscript he writes ‘Nov. 1929’.

1 November 1929 At a meeting of the English Faculty Board, in Tolkien’s absence, he is re-elected to the Library Committee, and appointed to a committee to consider the regulations for Responsions and Pass Moderations.

6 November 1929 Tolkien attends a Pembroke College meeting.

8 November 1929 Tolkien attends a General Board meeting.

Mid-November 1929 Until they reach a certain age, the Tolkien boys usually write to Father Christmas in late autumn to tell him what they would like as presents. In 1929 they receive an early reply, as from the North Polar Bear, who tells them that he hurt his paw cutting Christmas trees, and that his real name is Karhu. He sends love to John for his birthday.

22 November 1929 Tolkien attends a General Board meeting.

?11 (?18 ?25) November 1929 Tolkien and C.S. Lewis attend a society meeting, then retire to Lewis’s rooms in Magdalen College and sit for three hours until 2.30 am talking of the gods and giants and Asgard.

Late November or early December 1929 By 6 December, Tolkien lends the typescript of the Lay of Leithian to C.S. Lewis to read.

30 November 1929 Michaelmas Full Term ends.

6 December 1929 Tolkien attends a General Board meeting. – He also attends an English Faculty Board meeting. The report of the committee appointed on 1 November to consider the regulations for Responsions and Pass Moderations is presented, and with a few changes is adopted by the Board. The archived report includes a manuscript page written by Tolkien on the requirements for candidates offering Old English. Tolkien is appointed to a committee to draft a letter to be sent to the colleges on tuition in English Language.

7 December 1929 C.S. Lewis writes to Tolkien that he sat up the previous night reading the Lay of Leithian and is delighted. He has not yet finished, and will send more detailed criticism later. It is clear that he has read as far as about line 2017, and that he has received more, perhaps as far as line 3031 (see entry for November 1929).

Christmas 1929 Tolkien, as ‘Father Christmas’, writes to his children. He tells how the residents of the North Pole celebrated the coming of winter with a bonfire and fireworks, and how the North Polar Bear opened a window during a gale, scattering the lists and letters on Father Christmas’s desk. He also sends an illustration in three tiers, of Father Christmas and Polar Bear at work in the office, the bonfire and fireworks, and the office with papers blown into the air. Father Christmas says that he was very pleased with Christopher’s card, and sends him a fountain pen and a picture just for himself, of Father Christmas flying in his sleigh above the sea on the upper North wind, with a South West gale raising big waves below.

?End of 1929 or early 1930 C.S. Lewis sends Tolkien at least fourteen pages of detailed criticism of the Lay of Leithian, to line 1161. Tolkien apparently considers Lewis’s comments carefully, for almost all the verses criticized are marked for revision in the typescript, and many of the proposed emendations, or modifications of these, are incorporated into rewritten and retyped versions of Canto I and the beginning of Canto IV. – Tolkien writes a composite poem (or two poems on a common theme) based on Breton verse, each entitled *The Corrigan. The second of these will develop into *The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun.