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1934

c. 1934–1935 Tolkien writes a review of the Devonshire volumes published by the English Place-Name Society in 1931 and 1932. This also mentions the Northampton and Surrey volumes, which appeared in 1933 and 1934, but not the 1935 Essex volume. In the event, the review is never published.

14 January 1934 Hilary Full Term begins. Tolkien’s scheduled lectures for this term are: Waldere and Deor’s Lament, together with the Old Norse Völundarkviða, on Tuesdays at 11.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools, beginning 16 January; and The Historical and Legendary Traditions in Beowulf and Other Old English Poems (continued) on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12.00 noon in the Examination Schools, beginning 16 January. Tolkien will continue to supervise B.Litt. students J.E. Blomfield, A.F. Colborn, M.E. Griffiths, and E.O.G. Turville-Petre.

18 January 1934 Tolkien’s poem Looney is published in the Oxford Magazine for 18 January 1934.

19 January 1934 Tolkien attends a meeting of the Committee for Comparative Philology at 5.15 p.m. in the Delegates Room of the Clarendon Building. In the absence of the usual chairman, he is asked to take the chair. He is made a member of the Committee for the Nomination of Examiners for the Diploma in Comparative Philology for two years from the beginning of Hilary Term 1934.

25 January 1934 Tolkien chairs an English Faculty Library Committee meeting at 2.15 p.m. in the Library.

31 January 1934 Tolkien attends a Pembroke College meeting.

15 February 1934 Tolkien’s poem The Adventures of Tom Bombadil is published in the Oxford Magazine for 15 February 1934.

21 February 1934 Tolkien attends a Pembroke College meeting.

23 February 1934 By this date Priscilla Tolkien has been ill for five weeks, and doctors have been unable to diagnose the cause. Tolkien’s own and his family’s ill health in the past few years, with consequent doctors’ bills, and the expense of sending his sons to school, have made it difficult for him to make ends meet, even by undertaking tasks such as marking examination papers.

1 March 1934 Tolkien certifies that E.O.G. Turville-Petre has completed course work towards his B.Litt.

9 March 1934 Tolkien attends an English Faculty Board meeting. The Applications Committee has appointed Tolkien and E.V. Gordon examiners of the B.Litt. thesis of E.O.G. Turville-Petre, An Edition of Víga-Glúms Saga from the Manuscripts, with Introduction and Notes.

10 March 1934 Hilary Full Term ends.

12 March 1934 First Public Examination (Pass Moderations) begins. Tolkien is an moderator.

25 March 1934 Tolkien’s poem Firiel is published in the Chronicle of the Convents of the Sacred Heart 4 (1934).

26 March 1934 Tolkien goes to C.S. Lewis’s rooms in Magdalen College at 4.00 p.m. After tea, he and the Lewis brothers read Wagner’s Die Walküre, Warren in English, the others in German. See note. – Soon after 6.00 p.m. Tolkien goes home, but later meets the Lewises at the Eastgate Hotel for dinner. They then return to Magdalen to finish the reading and to drink whiskey. The reading leads to a discussion about Wotan, and to long and interesting conversation on religion. The meeting breaks up at about 11.30 p.m.

28 March 1934 L.R. Farnell dies.

18 April 1934 Elaine Griffiths, the B.Litt. student working on aspects of the Cambridge manuscript of the Ancrene Riwle (Ancrene Wisse), writes to Tolkien, sending references in the manuscript for which he had asked. By now Tolkien has been preparing an edition of Ancrene Wisse, and Griffiths is his de facto assistant.

22 April 1934 Trinity Full Term begins. Tolkien’s scheduled lectures for this term are: Old English Verse (for those beginning the Honour Course) on Tuesdays at 11.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools, beginning 24 April; Völundarkviða, Atlakviða, and Atlamál on Tuesdays at 11.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools; and The Fight at Finnesburg (continued; probably a further continuation of The Historical and Legendary Traditions in Beowulf and Other Old English Poems) on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12.00 noon in the Examination Schools, beginning 24 April. (Thus announced in the Oxford University Gazette, without correction for the listing of two lectures scheduled for Tuesdays at 11.00 a.m.) Tolkien will continue to supervise B.Litt. students J.E. Blomfield and M.E. Griffiths.

25 April 1934 Tolkien attends a Pembroke College meeting.

3 May 1934 Tolkien attends an English Faculty Library Committee meeting at 2.15 p.m. in the Library.

11 May 1934 Tolkien attends an English Faculty Board meeting. The Applications Committee has appointed Tolkien and *M.R. Ridley examiners of the B.Litt. thesis of Mary M. McEldowney of the Society of Oxford Home-Students, The Fairy Tales and Fantasies of George MacDonald.

26 May 1934 Tolkien and E.V. Gordon examine E.O.G. Turville-Petre of Christ Church viva voce on his B.Litt. thesis, An Edition of Víga-Glúms Saga from the Manuscripts, with Introduction and Notes, at 12.00 noon in the Examination Schools.

28 May 1934 Tolkien and E.V. Gordon sign their report (written by Tolkien) on the examination of E.O.G. Turville-Petre.

June 1934 The second part of Tolkien’s essay Sigelwara Land is published in Medium Ævum for June 1934.

7 June 1934 Tolkien attends an English Faculty Library Committee meeting at 2.15 p.m. in the Library. – English Final Honour School Examinations begin.

12 June 1934 Tolkien and M.R. Ridley examine Mary M. McEldowney of the Society of Oxford Home-Students viva voce on her B.Litt. thesis, The Fairy Tales and Fantasies of George MacDonald, at 10.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools. Later they sign their report of the examination.

15 June 1934 Tolkien attends an English Faculty Board meeting at 3.30 p.m. – Tolkien attends a meeting of the Committee for Comparative Philology at 5.15 p.m. in the Delegates Room of the Clarendon Building. – Tolkien also attends a Pembroke College meeting.

16 June 1934 Trinity Full Term ends.

19 June 1934 There is a Gaudy at Pembroke College. The Master and Fellows entertain guests in the Hall.

20 June 1934 Encaenia.

Second half of 1934 Tolkien’s paper Chaucer as a Philologist: The Reeve’s Tale is published in the Transactions of the Philological Society for 1934. Although delivered three years earlier, its publication has been delayed ‘principally due to hesitation in putting forward a study, for which closer investigation of words, and more still a much fuller array of readings from [manuscripts] of the Reeve’s Tale, were so plainly needed. But for neither have I had opportunity, and dust has merely accumulated on the pages. The paper is therefore presented … practically as it was read, though with the addition of a “critical text”, and accompanying textual notes, as well as of various footnotes, appendices, and comments naturally omitted in reading’ (p. 1).

19 July 1934 Hugo Dyson, who has been an examiner in the English Honour School, gives a dinner at Exeter College to celebrate the end of exams. He, the Lewis brothers, Tolkien, H.F.B. Brett-Smith, C.T. Onions, C.L. Wrenn, and Nevill Coghill dine in rooms there. Warren Lewis will recall in his diary that ‘everyone was in uproarious spirits – the reaction I suppose after examining. In fact the evening was just a little too high-spirited – too much farce and too little real talk’ (Marion E. Wade Center, Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois). After the dinner they adjourn to Coghill’s rooms in Exeter.

28 July 1934 Tolkien and his wife attend Prize Day at the Oratory School. Father Vincent Reade expresses the satisfaction of the Fathers of the Birmingham Oratory with recent developments at the School, in particular the appointment of a lay headmaster.

September 1934 From 1934 the Tolkien family usually spend two weeks at the beginning of September, before the boys return to school, at *Sidmouth on the southern coast of Devon. On this occasion Tolkien drives there with the family luggage, including many of Priscilla’s bears and other soft toys which she refuses to leave behind. As there is no room in the car for anyone else, Edith, Christopher, and Priscilla travel by train, and John and Michael cycle down in the course of two or three days. The family stays at a guest house named ‘Aurora’, operated by a Mr and Mrs Livesey and their son Edgar. They enjoy themselves on the beach but also explore the surrounding countryside and other beaches in the car. – Later in the month Michael Tolkien begins to attend the Oratory School at Caversham.

21 September 1934 Tolkien attends the funeral of Francis Fortescue Urquhart, Senior Fellow of Balliol College, a requiem Mass at the Church of St Aloysius, and burial at Wolvercote Cemetery.

Between late summer and early autumn 1934 Tolkien, as ‘Father Christmas’, writes to Christopher in reply to a telegram and letters from Christopher and Priscilla. Father Christmas tells them that his post office does not open until Michaelmas Term.

14 October 1934 Michaelmas Full Term begins. Tolkien’s scheduled lectures for this term are: Beowulf: General Criticism on Tuesdays at 11.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools, beginning 16 October; Elene and The Vision of the Cross on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12.00 noon in the Examination Schools, beginning 16 October; and Outlines of the History of English (Old English Period) on Tuesdays at 12.00 noon in the Examination Schools, beginning 16 October. (Thus announced in the Oxford University Gazette, without correction for the listing of two lectures scheduled for Tuesdays at 12.00 noon.) Tolkien will continue to supervise B.Litt. students J.E. Blomfield and M.E. Griffiths.

Oxford academic year 1934–5 Tolkien attends a time-travel play, Berkeley Square by John L. Balderson, at the Oratory School.

17 October 1934 Tolkien attends a Pembroke College meeting.

18 October 1934 At a dinner attended by members of The Society (*Societies and clubs), men who meet generally to discuss Oxford education, Tolkien is among those suggested for election.

23 October 1934 Robin Flower of the British Museum Department of Manuscripts reports to a meeting of the Early English Text Society Committee that Professor Tolkien will allow the Society to use his text of the Corpus Christi College, Cambridge manuscript of the Ancrene Riwle. Dr Flower has called on Tolkien at some time before this date.

25 October 1934 Tolkien attends an English Faculty Library Committee meeting at 2.15 p.m. in the Library.

2 November 1934 Tolkien attends a Pembroke College meeting. – At an English Faculty Board meeting, in Tolkien’s absence, he is re-elected to the Applications Committee.

20 November 1934 Tolkien, as ‘Father Christmas’, sends Christopher birthday greetings, and says that he is sorry that Priscilla has not been well.

23 November 1934 Tolkien certifies that J.E. Blomfield of Somerville College has completed course work towards her B.Litt.

7 December 1934 Tolkien attends an English Faculty Board meeting. He is appointed to a committee to draft regulations for English Literature in Pass Moderations. – He also attends a Pembroke College meeting.

8 December 1934 Michaelmas Full Term ends.

9 December 1934 R.W. Chambers, having been lent a copy of The Fall of Arthur as far as it had progressed, writes to Tolkien, praising the poem and urging him to finish it.

23 December 1934 Tolkien sends Christmas greetings to his former Leeds colleague G.H. Cowling, now chair of English at the University of Melbourne. He apologizes for his tendency to procrastinate when it comes to writing letters, and acknowledges a dependence on his wife and Cowling’s to keep up a correspondence. He thanks Cowling for having sent an ‘admirable Chaucer’ (an edition of the Prologue and three tales from the Canterbury Tales, 1934), proof of Cowling’s ability to ‘get things done’ (Bay East Auctions, online catalogue, Sydney, 27 November 2011, lot 390). Tolkien sends in return a small ‘study’ of Chaucer of his own, evidently Chaucer as a Philologist: The Reeve’s Tale (1934), while noting his own relative lack of publications due to the press of teaching and of steering and shaping the Oxford English School. He thanks Cowling also for other gifts, including a toy koala for Priscilla Tolkien.

Christmas 1934 Tolkien, as ‘Father Christmas’, writes letters dated Christmas Eve to Christopher and Priscilla. He apologizes for not having time to write as long a letter as in 1932 and 1933. The letter to Christopher tells of the Polar Bear’s nephews and the Cave cubs, and of the Christmas tree that Father Christmas brought from Norway and planted in a pool of ice. He sends love to Mick (Michael) and John. In a shorter letter to Priscilla, he hopes that she will be well soon, and comments on her toy bear, Bingo. He sends a picture for both children, showing the Christmas tree with its magic lights.