Читать книгу The J. R. R. Tolkien Companion and Guide: Volume 1: Chronology - Christina Scull - Страница 58

1936

?1936–?1937 In 1936 (possibly early to mid-1936) or early 1937, Tolkien and C.S. Lewis agree that there are too few stories of the kind they like to read, and that they will try to write some themselves. They further agree that Lewis should write a ‘thriller’ based on ‘space-travel’, and Tolkien one on ‘time-travel’, with each leading to the discovery of Myth. See note. The effort by Lewis will result in his Out of the Silent Planet, finished by September 1937. Tolkien on his part draws upon his still developing mythology, and upon a dream he has had since early childhood, of a great wave coming out of the sea and towering over the land: his ‘Atlantis-haunting’ (*Atlantis). He produces, first, a brief outline for the story of Atalantë (*Númenor), an island created as a gift to Men who aided in the defeat of the evil Morgoth, but engulfed by the sea when the Númenóreans dare to assail the land of the Gods. Tolkien follows this with a full narrative in manuscript, hastily written and much corrected in the course of composition, and that in turn with a more finished manuscript with the title (added later) The Last Tale: The Fall of Númenor, and with an amanuensis typescript.

After the sketch and first version of *The Fall of Númenor, but contemporary with the second and intimately connected, Tolkien also begins to work on *The Lost Road, ‘of which the end was to be the presence of my hero in the drowning of Atlantis. This was to be called Númenor, the Land in the West’ (letter to Christopher Bretherton, 16 July 1964, Letters, p. 347). He writes two chapters of The Lost Road, introducing a father and son who are to appear and reappear in different phases of Germanic and Celtic legend, and then nearly two chapters of the Númenórean episode before deciding that this should come last. He makes rough notes of what might be included in the intervening parts, but does not write them except for a fragment of an Anglo-Saxon episode which includes prose and alliterative versions of the legend of King Sheave. By autumn 1937, however, he abandons The Lost Road altogether, while The Fall of Númenor will evolve ultimately into the *Akallabêth. – It is probably in association with The Lost Road that Tolkien rewrites his poem The Nameless Land (first composed in May 1924), entitling it Ælfwine’s Song Calling upon Eärendel and The Song of Ælfwine (on Seeing the Uprising of Eärendel).

1936 Two poems by Tolkien, The Shadow Man (see *Shadow-Bride) and *Noel, are published in the 1936 Annual of Our Lady’s School, Abingdon (near Oxford). – Thirteen poems by Tolkien written for the amusement of students at Leeds are published, without his knowledge, in *Songs for the Philologists, a booklet privately printed by students in the Department of English of University College, London. These are: From One to Five; Syx Mynet; Ruddoc Hana; Ides Ælfscyne; Bagme Bloma; Eadig Beo Þu!; Ofer Widne Garsecg; La, Huru; I Sat upon a Bench; Natura Apis; The Root of the Boot (revision of Pēro & Pōdex, later *The Stone Troll), Frenchmen Froth; and Lit’ and Lang’. Some are printed with errors, or altered to remove references to Leeds. They had been provided by A.H. Smith, who had been a student of Tolkien at Leeds. See note.

?By early 1936 Tolkien offers his Modern English translation of Pearl to the London publisher J.M. Dent. It is not accepted, but is seen by Guy Pocock, who in 1936 joins the staff of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and recommends that part of the translation be read on radio.

?Early 1936 Tolkien is asked by the publisher George Allen & Unwin if he would be interested in producing a revised edition of John R. Clark Hall’s Modern English translation of Beowulf and The Fight at Finnesburg. He replies that he does not have time to spare, but suggests that Elaine Griffiths is qualified to undertake the work and offers to read what she produces and to write a preface or introduction. *Susan Dagnall, a member of the Allen & Unwin staff who had been a student in the English School at Oxford, is sent to discuss the project with Griffiths and probably also with Tolkien. While there Dagnall learns of the existence of The Hobbit and borrows a typescript. See note. Upon reading The Hobbit she urges Tolkien to finish the book and to submit it for publication. Tolkien agrees to do so. Returning to the story at the point he seems to have left off some three years earlier, he writes ‘Not at Home’, originally as Chapter 14, and the first part of ‘The Gathering of the Clouds’ (published Chapter 15), but then decides that the structure of the story would be improved if ‘Not at Home’ preceded ‘Fire and Water’. In the course of several months, he works out the remaining text in a new manuscript.

5 January 1936 Tolkien writes to Mabel Day of the Early English Text Society. He apologizes for not having given a firm decision about Ancrene Wisse by 31 December. He explains that Elaine Griffiths, on whose assistance he relies and who has been preparing a diplomatic transcription of MS CCCC 402 and a complete index and glossary, had to go home early in December and has only just resumed her work; while he himself has been busy with Seinte Iuliene. He can now offer to produce an edition of Ancrene Wisse for the Society, but feels that he must explain about work he has already done. He has transcribed 75 of the 117 folios of the manuscript and has almost completed a verbal index. He has also spent time preparing a complete vocabulary and grammar of ‘AB’ (a variant of Middle English related to MS CCCC 402 and MS Bodley 34). Because he has been working from rotographs, he will need to collate his transcriptions with the original manuscript in Cambridge, and intends to begin that work soon. He can let the Society have four requested specimen pages in the following week. He asks what format and what accompanying material will be required for the Society edition. He suggests that the text be printed line by line, as Elaine Griffiths’ glossary is keyed to folio and line as in the original manuscript. As an example of what he would like, he sends a specimen proof of Seinte Iuliene. He inquires also if, after Ancrene Wisse, the EETS would be interested in an edition of the Middle English life of St Katherine (Seinte Katerine), for which he and Simonne d’Ardenne have already prepared the text.

By 14 January 1936 Tolkien assists *R.G. Collingwood, the Waynflete Professor of Metaphysical Philosophy at Oxford and a colleague at Pembroke College, ‘untiringly with problems of Celtic philology’, as Collingwood will write in the preface (dated 14 January 1936) to Books I–IV of Roman Britain and the English Settlements by Collingwood and J.N.L. Myres (1936; 2nd edn. 1937), p. vii. Collingwood will mention in a footnote regarding Sulis, the goddess of the hot springs at Bath, that ‘she is traditionally called Sul; but Professor Tolkien points out to me that the Celtic nominative can only be Sulis, and our authority for believing that even the Romans made a nominative Sul on the analogy of their own word sol – perhaps meaning the same – is not good. The Celtic sulis may mean ‘the eye”, and this again may mean the sun’ (p. 264).

14 January 1936 Tolkien writes to Mabel Day. Because he has not had time to type the promised specimen pages, he sends pages of manuscript transcription, from which printed specimens may be produced. He asks again about the general editorial policy of the Early English Text Society, and about matters of presentation.

15 January 1936 Mabel Day writes to Tolkien, acknowledging his two letters. She has sent the first to A.W. Pollard, Honorary Director of the Early English Text Society. She explains some points of the Society’s editorial policy, which will be better developed once all of the specimens for proposed editions of Ancrene Riwle manuscripts have been set up. She promises to send Tolkien specimens of the edition of the French manuscript of the Ancrene Riwle. – A.W. Pollard writes to Tolkien. While he can see advantages of reproducing a (prose) text in print line by line, he prefers a uniformity of style in printing editions of the five or six Ancrene Riwle texts, of which the Cambridge manuscript will be only one. It is still to be decided what editorial matter should accompany the texts.

16 January 1936 Tolkien replies to Mabel Day, thanking her for answering his queries and arguing against altering texts, for the sake of future editors who often will be obliged to reconstruct what has been altered, if not driven back to the original manuscripts. He will proceed with an edition of Ancrene Wisse as quickly as he can. – Probably on or soon after this date Tolkien also writes to A.W. Pollard; two versions of a letter survive, one certainly a draft. See note. Although he will bow to the Early English Text Society Committee’s decision, Tolkien puts forward a long and detailed argument in favour of line-by-line transcription. Such a transcription, preserving the arrangement in the original manuscript, has enormous advantages to the scholar. Also, as he has already transcribed most of the Cambridge manuscript by folio and line, and has prepared a nearly complete glossary and index according to this plan, he is reluctant to see this work upset. To follow the EETS plan would require a great deal of labour in recasting references already in being, and would set back other work on Ancrene Wisse and related texts.

19 January 1936 Hilary Full Term begins. Tolkien’s scheduled lectures for this term are: The Legend of Wayland the Smith, followed by a study of the text of Deor’s Lament and of Völundarkviða on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 11.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools, beginning 21 January; and Atlakviða on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12.00 noon in the Examination Schools, beginning 21 January. These are probably cancelled, however, after Tolkien injures his leg on 1 February; he will offer them as classes at his home in Northmoor Road in Trinity Term 1936. He will continue to supervise B.Litt. student M.E. Griffiths.

20 January 1936 Death of George V. Edward VIII succeeds to the throne.

22 January 1936 Tolkien attends a Pembroke College meeting.

23 January 1936 Members of Convocation (see *Oxford, University of) meet in the Sheldonian Theatre at 12.00 noon to hear the proclamation of Edward VIII, and then walk in procession, led by the Vice-Chancellor and the Proctors, to St Mary’s Church to witness the proclamation there by the City authorities. Lectures which would interfere with attendance at the ceremony are cancelled.

27 January 1936 A.W. Pollard writes to Tolkien. Robin Flower has been asked by the Early English Text Society Committee to take special charge of the Ancrene Riwle editions. Tolkien’s specimens are being forwarded to him.

28 January 1936 Day of mourning for the funeral of George V. Lectures are cancelled. The Vice-Chancellor, Proctors, and graduates, in academic dress, meet in the Divinity School by 11.35 a.m. and process to a Memorial Service at noon in the Church of St Mary the Virgin.

1 February 1936 Warren Lewis notes in his diary that Tolkien has torn a ligament in his leg playing squash and will be in bed for ten weeks. – C.S. Lewis visits Tolkien after tea.

7 February 1936 The Faculté de Philosophie et Lettres, Liège, authorizes publication of Simonne d’Ardenne’s thesis on Seinte Iuliene. Oxford University Press will print one thousand copies by early March. Librairie E. Droz of Paris will publish it under d’Ardenne’s name only, to satisfy requirements of her degree at Liège; but for this, the book would appear as a joint work by d’Ardenne and Tolkien. Simonne d’Ardenne herself privately refers to it as a joint effort, and some of Tolkien’s colleagues will recognize his contribution. The Seinte Iuliene probably contains more of his views on early Middle English than anything he will ever publish under his own name.

19 February 1936 C.H. Firth dies.

26 February 1936 Mabel Day sends Tolkien a list of possible amendments for A Middle English Vocabulary. She thinks that Robin Flower has seen Tolkien in Oxford to discuss the specimen pages for Ancrene Wisse.

Early March 1936 Tolkien reads The Place of the Lion by *Charles Williams, which C.S. Lewis has recommended.

1 March 1936 By this date Tolkien must have submitted his application for a Leverhulme Research Fellowship, which he will be granted from October 1936 for two years.

7 March 1936 Germany reoccupies the Rhineland.

9 March 1936 Simonne d’Ardenne writes to Tolkien, asking how he is recovering from his leg injury, and referring to his surgeon. She will tell him the date of her viva at Liège when she knows it. A copy of Seinte Iuliene has gone to Tolkien. She regrets that ‘our profit’ will be smaller than they had thought, because of the percentage demanded by Droz (Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford).

14 March 1936 Hilary Full Term ends.

30 March 1936 At the suggestion of Elaine Griffiths, C.A. Furth of George Allen & Unwin approaches Tolkien to ask if he would edit the new edition of Clark Hall’s Beowulf, or suggest someone else for the job. The context of his letter suggests that this is not the first time he has made this request. (See entry for ?Early 1936.)

26 April 1936 Trinity Full Term begins. Tolkien’s scheduled lectures for this term are: Outlines of Old English Phonology and Grammar on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12.00 noon in the Examination Schools, beginning 28 April; and Introduction to Old English Poetry on Thursdays at 11.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools, beginning 30 April. But because Tolkien is still recovering from his squash injury, his lectures are cancelled, and instead he reads Old Norse and Old English texts with small classes at home in 20 Northmoor Road: Atlakviða on Tuesdays at 11:00 a.m.; Völundarkviða and Deor’s Lament on Thursdays at 11.00 a.m.; and Andreas with other Old English texts on Thursdays at 5.00 p.m. Undergraduates wishing to attend are required to inform Tolkien in advance, if possible before 28 April. – Tolkien will continue to supervise B.Litt. student M.E. Griffiths, who is required to apply for a certificate during this term (but apparently abandons her thesis, as she is no longer listed in Michaelmas Term 1936).

28 April 1936 Tolkien writes a nine-page historical note on inflexions in Primitive Quendian, entitled *Primitive Quendian Structure.

April or May 1936 The Rev. Adrian Morey writes to Tolkien. He has discovered an Anglo-Saxon version of the Lord’s Prayer (‘Our Father’) in a manuscript in the British Museum, and asks if it is worth publishing. Tolkien suggests that Morey write an article, which would be useful to students.

?May–?June 1936 C.S. Lewis lends Tolkien his copy of The Silver Trumpet by Owen Barfield. It is much appreciated by the Tolkien children.

1 May 1936 In the evening, Tolkien, on crutches, attends a dinner of The Society hosted by Sir Francis Wylie at Brasenose College, Oxford. Nineteen members are present; no paper being presented, they give themselves up to conversation.

9 May 1936 Italy formally annexes Ethiopia. The King of Italy assumes the title ‘Emperor of Ethiopia’.

13 May 1936 The Rev. Adrian Morey acknowledges Tolkien’s reply. Tolkien will later recall that he

once (lightheartedly) began to collect material for the history of the “Our Father” in English – inspired by some correspondence with Dom Adrian Morey. I thought it would mainly concern minor changes in syntax (as which, who), and the variants used for temptation and trespass(es); but I soon found that it was a much more complicated matter, not only because of the divergence between the use as a prayer and the translations of the Gospels, but because of the difficulties in the Greek and Latin texts. Also there have been a very large number of divergent versions in English, and there are still several in use…. [Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford]

E.O.G. Turville-Petre will send him copies of two Icelandic versions in April 1943.

15 May 1936 Tolkien attends an English Faculty Board meeting. He submits manuscript and mimeographed proposals for a revision of texts prescribed or cited in the regulations for the English Honour School. – He also attends a Pembroke College meeting.

17 May 1936 The Catholic Archbishop of Birmingham, Dr Williams, comes to Oxford to commemorate the seventh centenary of the death of the Blessed Agnellus of Pisa, sent to England by St Francis to found a province of the Franciscan Order. The Archbishop visits the site of the first Franciscan church in the country. The Times of 19 May will list Tolkien among those ‘who took part in the procession from Campion Hall to the site of the church’ and that ‘during the morning a Mass was sung in the church of [St] Edmund and St Frideswide, near the new Greyfriars Friary, in the presence of the Archbishop’ (p. 28).

21 May 1936 The Allegory of Love: A Study in Medieval Tradition by C.S. Lewis is published. In his preface Lewis notes that ‘the first chapter was read and commented upon by Mr. B. Macfarlane [i.e. Bruce McFarlane] and Professor Tolkien so long ago that they have probably forgotten the labour, but I do not therefore forget the kindness.’

June 1936 The June number of Medium Ævum no longer lists Tolkien as a member of the Executive Committee of the Society for the Study of Mediæval Languages and Literature, but he is now on its Editorial Board with C.T. Onions, Eugène Vinaver, and others. He will continue to be on the Editorial Board until his retirement from academic duties in 1959.

2 June 1936 Tolkien has apparently undertaken to act as one of the examiners for the M.A. degree at the University of London for four years. He receives some M.A. papers to mark on this date, from E.V. Gordon who seems to have acted as liaison.

3 June 1936 E.V. Gordon, having realized that he had said nothing about the marking system when he sent the papers, writes to explain it. He has read the edition of Seinte Iuliene and is ‘grieved that your name is not attached to it, because … practically all that is especially valuable in it is recognisably yours. There is really no other piece of Middle English editing to touch it. And the financial interest in it is really not sufficient reward or return for the wealth of new material you have given’ (Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford).

Between 3 and 11 June 1936 Tolkien writes to E.V. Gordon with queries about the London M.A. papers.

11 June 1936 Tolkien attends an English Faculty Library Committee meeting in the Library. It is noted that Professor Tolkien, Dr Onions, and the Librarian have been requested to act as the Bodleian committee for the purchase of foreign books on English. – English Final Honour School Examinations begin. – E.V. Gordon writes in response to Tolkien’s queries. Vivas will be held in London on 12 June, before which date the marked scripts are required. Tolkien will not be concerned with vivas until the last two years of his appointment. The papers from overseas candidates will arrive for marking later. Gordon, the Smith Professor of English Language and Germanic Philology at the University of Manchester since autumn 1931, discusses the viva date for Manchester, where Tolkien is also an external examiner; Tolkien had hoped to be able to change it, but that will not be possible. Gordon hopes that Tolkien can be in Manchester on 26 June, as the relevant documents must be signed by both external examiners to be legal. He is sorry that Tolkien cannot stay for the weekend. As a result of the publication of Seinte Iuliene several scholars are revising their works in progress.

14 June 1936 G.K. Chesterton dies.

19 June 1936 Tolkien attends an English Faculty Board meeting. – He also attends a Pembroke College meeting.

20 June 1936 Trinity Full Term ends.

24 June 1936 Encaenia.

18 July 1936 The Spanish Civil War begins.

21 July 1936 Tolkien receives a letter from the BBC asking for permission to broadcast part of his translation of the Middle English poem Pearl in the late evening during August. Tolkien replies on the same day, authorizing the reading.

7 August 1936 Part of Tolkien’s translation of Pearl is read on London regional radio at 11.40 p.m.

10 August 1936 Tolkien writes to his son Christopher. ‘The Hobbit is now nearly finished, and the publishers clamouring for it’ (quoted in Biography, p. 180).

22 August 1936 Edith Mary ‘May’ Incledon dies.

?Summer 1936 Tolkien learns that he has been awarded a Leverhulme Research Fellowship from October 1936 for two years. – He engages his son Michael to help in making a fresh typescript of The Hobbit. In the event, Tolkien completes this himself.

?September 1936 The Tolkien family have two weeks’ holiday at Sidmouth.

13 September 1936 The Rev. Adrian Morey writes to Tolkien. He has decided to include the text of the Anglo-Saxon ‘Our Father’ in a book, and asks Tolkien to write out a version to send to Cambridge University Press. The text will be published in Bartholomew of Exeter, Bishop and Canonist: A Study in the Twelfth Century (1937), in which Morey thanks Tolkien for his assistance.

25 September 1936 Simonne d’Ardenne writes to Tolkien. As soon as she finishes an article on the Brussels Cross she will send it to him as he had asked. She is sending him three versions of Seinte Katerine; in these she has noted the illuminated capitals and thinks that the printer might represent each of these with a larger capital letter. She has made rough notes on the various manuscript readings, which will be useful if they succeed in getting the texts printed. She wishes him success in his forthcoming British Academy Lecture.

27 September 1936 Tolkien replies to a letter from the Reverend Professor Dr A. Pompen in Nijmegen, Holland, who has asked if the Tolkien family would be willing to take a paying guest. Although Tolkien would welcome additional income to offset the cost of accidents this year to himself and one of his sons, and of another son about to enter university, the family are not in a position suitably to entertain a guest. Edith is in poor health, and for help they are reduced to brief daily maid service.

3 October 1936 Tolkien has finished retyping The Hobbit, but sends Allen & Unwin an earlier typescript with the final chapters added.

5 October 1936 Allen & Unwin receive the Hobbit typescript, as well as one illustration for that work, probably one of the maps Tolkien has drawn to accompany the story. – Stanley Unwin writes to Tolkien, acknowledging receipt of the typescript. Both Unwin and his ten-year-old son *Rayner will read it before 20 October. Unwin expresses an interest in publishing Tolkien’s translation of Pearl and asks if he can see it.

10 October 1936 The typescript of The Hobbit is read by Stanley Unwin.

11 October 1936 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 13 October; Elene on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12.00 noon in the Examination Schools, beginning 13 October; and Alliterative Verse on Thursdays at 11.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools, beginning 15 October. – Tolkien’s eldest son, John, is now a student at his father’s old college, Exeter.

16 October 1936 In the evening, Tolkien attends a dinner of The Society hosted by Nevill Coghill at Exeter College, Oxford. Fifteen members are present. Coghill speaks about the making of good Europeans by an exchange of schoolboys.

21 October–2 November 1936 The children’s author Rose Fyleman, also a free-lance reviewer for Allen & Unwin, reads the Hobbit typescript.

22 October 1936 Tolkien attends an English Faculty Library Committee meeting in the Library.

26 October 1936 R.W. Chapman of Oxford University Press writes to George S. Gordon. He is pleased to learn that Tolkien has received an increase in salary, which he hopes will relieve him of drudgery, and that he has been given a Leverhulme Research Fellowship; but the type for the Clarendon Chaucer has been standing for more than ten years, and Chapman does not think there is much chance that Tolkien will finish his part of the work. Kenneth Sisam has suggested E.V. Gordon or Oxford D.Phil. student *J.A.W. Bennett to replace Tolkien on the project.

27 October 1936 Formation of the Berlin-Rome Axis.

28 October 1936 George S. Gordon replies to R.W. Chapman. He thinks that Tolkien finished most of his annotation years ago, but on too large a scale, and found it too tedious to abbreviate. He will speak to Tolkien about making another effort to finish his work.

30 October 1936 Tolkien attends an English Faculty Board meeting. He is re-elected to the Applications Committee. It is resolved that the Standing Committee on Applications should meet at 3.30 p.m. on the Thursday preceding the day of the Board’s meeting. – Rayner Unwin writes a favourable review of The Hobbit, for which he is paid one shilling.

c. November 1936 Tolkien writes out a chart of Quenya noun inflections (*‘The Bodleian Declensions’).

4 November 1936 Tolkien attends a Pembroke College meeting.

5 November 1936 George S. Gordon has spoken to Tolkien about completing the Clarendon Chaucer. He informs Oxford University Press that Tolkien will try again to do so.

11 November 1936 Tolkien attends a Pembroke College meeting.

17 November 1936 Agreement of the German-Japanese Pact.

25 November 1936 Tolkien delivers the Sir Israel Gollancz Memorial Lecture, Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics, to the British Academy in London, setting a new standard in Beowulf criticism.

26 November 1936 Tolkien chairs an English Faculty Library Committee meeting in the Library. He successfully proposes that the Library house the Bibliographia Oxoniensis, for which the Bodleian Library cannot not find room.

28 November 1936 Susan Dagnall visits Tolkien in Oxford. They certainly discuss The Hobbit, and possibly also the Clark Hall Beowulf. On being shown a specimen page for The Hobbit, Tolkien suggests changes. It is perhaps at this point that he hands over five maps to be included in The Hobbit: Thror’s Map, to be tipped in at its first mention in Chapter 1 or at a later mention in Chapter 3, with its ‘moon-letters’ so printed on the verso of the sheet as to be visible when held up to the light (Artist and Illustrator, fig. 85; Art of The Hobbit, fig. 25); Wilderland, a more general map of the lands in which the story takes place (Artist and Illustrator, fig. 84; Art of The Hobbit, fig. 88); and lesser maps of the land between the Misty Mountains and Mirkwood, of the area east of Mirkwood to just east of the River Running (Art of The Hobbit, figs. 46, 83), and of the Long Lake combined with a view of the Lonely Mountain (Artist and Illustrator, fig. 128; Art of The Hobbit, fig. 87). Having been asked by Allen & Unwin to submit any other children’s stories he has written, to be considered for publication, Tolkien gives Susan Dagnall Farmer Giles of Ham and Roverandom, both of which he has retyped and revised, and his picture book, Mr. Bliss. He hands over his translation of Pearl as well. Tolkien and Dagnall also discuss a ‘prolegomena’ by C.S. Lewis which Allen & Unwin are interested in publishing as a text for students (probably his celebrated lectures ‘Prolegomena to Medieval Poetry’ begun in January 1932, much later partly the basis of his book The Discarded Image). Tolkien promises to ask Lewis about it.

2 December 1936 Stanley Unwin sends Tolkien a signed duplicate contract for The Hobbit, the final step in the process of accepting the work for publication.

4 December 1936 Tolkien attends an English Faculty Board meeting. – He also attends a Pembroke College meeting. – Susan Dagnall sends Tolkien a revised specimen page of The Hobbit for approval. She asks him to write a short paragraph describing the book, for Allen & Unwin to use in their forthcoming announcements list and for publicity.

5 December 1936 Michaelmas Full Term ends. – Simonne d’Ardenne again writes to Tolkien that she will send him her article on the Brussels Cross as soon as it is finished, and asks him to give her English prose some ‘Tolkienian’ flavour.

8 December 1936 Tolkien writes to Susan Dagnall. He does not like a star ornament placed at the beginning of the chapter on the revised Hobbit specimen. He also queries the margins as set. He encloses a paragraph describing the book as requested, and an alternative text by C.S. Lewis. See note. Lewis does not like the idea of his ‘prolegomena’ being used as a ‘cram’ text.

9 December 1936 Tolkien delivers his lecture Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics to the Manchester Medieval Society. He is delayed travelling to Manchester from Oxford; in the meantime, to entertain the audience, E.V. Gordon gives an impromptu account of the Norse settlements in Greenland.

10 December 1936 Susan Dagnall writes to Tolkien. His Hobbit maps need to be redrawn: they contain too many colours, and their shading would require reproduction by the more elaborate halftone process. Dagnall suggests that Thror’s Map and Wilderland be printed as endpapers in red and blue, or any other two colours, and that the other three maps be printed with the text in a single colour. She asks if the ‘moon-runes’ on Thror’s Map are very important, as they will be difficult to reproduce. She has told the Allen & Unwin production department to begin typesetting The Hobbit and to submit proofs to Tolkien; but they will need to know where to place the three smaller maps. The star ornament to which he objects will be removed. – Abdication of Edward VIII. George VI succeeds to the throne.

14 December 1936 Members of Convocation meet in the Sheldonian Theatre at 12.00 noon to hear the proclamation of George VI, and then process, led by the Vice-Chancellor and the Proctors, to St Mary’s Church to witness the proclamation there by the City authorities. Lectures which would interfere with attendance at the ceremony are cancelled.

Christmas 1936 Tolkien, as ‘Father Christmas’, writes a letter dated 23 December, addressed only to Christopher and Priscilla. He apologizes for not being able to send a long letter, but hopes that his picture will explain why. In fact the letter from Father Christmas is accompanied by another letter in a different script, as from the elf Ilbereth: this tells how the North Polar Bear worked hard to give each child an individual number to help in packing and record keeping, then fell asleep in the bath with the taps running, so that water poured into the English Delivery Room below. A picture, drawn in tiers, shows the North Pole and the Northern Lights; Polar Bear in the bath; water pouring through the ceiling; and Polar Bear explaining his numbering system to the elves. Also enclosed with the letters and picture are a copy of a goblin alphabet as by Polar Bear. – During the holidays members of the Tolkien family one by one are laid low with influenza, brought back from school by one of the boys. – Tolkien redraws some of his pictures for The Hobbit.

31 December 1936 Tolkien himself contracts influenza.