Christina Scull - The J. R. R. Tolkien Companion and Guide - Volume 1 - Chronology

16 December 1914The German navy bombards the English coast, attacking Scarborough, Whitby, and Hartlepool.

21 December 1914Tolkien writes a poem, Dark .

22 December 1914Tolkien writes a poem, Ferrum et Sanguis: 1914 (i.e. ‘Iron and Blood’).

27 December 1914Tolkien paints in The Book of Ishness an elaborate watercolour, The Land of Pohja ( Artist and Illustrator , fig. 41), inspired by the Kalevala story of the magician Väinämöinen whose music entices the Moon to settle in a birch-tree and the Sun in a fir-tree; when the Moon and Sun are captured by Louhi, the evil Mistress of Pohja (or Pohjola), darkness and frost descend on the world. This episode foreshadows, perhaps, Tolkien’s pivotal tale in *‘The Silmarillion’ of the destruction of the Two Trees, the theft of the Silmarils, and the Darkening of Valinor. The Land of Pohja continues the theme of darkness already expressed by Tolkien in the poems Dark and Ferrum et Sanguis .

1915

?Early 1915Mary Jane Tolkien, Tolkien’s paternal grandmother, dies.

January 1915Tolkien writes a poem, As Two Fair Trees , perhaps to celebrate the anniversary of his reunion with Edith. – He revises his poem The Tides , now called Sea-Chant of an Elder Day .

17 January 1915Hilary Full Term begins.

Hilary Term 1915Tolkien attends the continuation of A.S. Napier’s lectures on Pearl on Tuesdays at 12.00 noon in the Ashmolean Museum, beginning 26 January, and on Beowulf on Thursdays and Saturdays at 12.00 noon in the Ashmolean, beginning 21 January. He also attends Sir Walter Raleigh’s lectures on Drama in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 11.00 a.m. at Magdalen College, beginning 19 January. If he has not done so already in 1914, he now attends W.A. Craigie’s lectures on Hrafnkel’s Saga on Thursdays at 5.00 p.m. in the Taylor Institution, beginning 21 January. He probably continues to have a weekly tutorial with Kenneth Sisam, and probably attends Sisam’s lectures on English Poetry before the Norman Conquest on Saturdays at 11.00 a.m. in the Ashmolean, beginning 23 January. He possibly attends lectures by Sir John Rhys on Welsh on Tuesdays and Fridays at 6.00 p.m. at Jesus College, beginning 22 January.

Hilary and Trinity Terms 1915Tolkien is President of the Junior Common Room.

25 January 1915At a meeting of the Stapeldon Society a member proposes that a key to the baths at Exeter College should be placed in a glass case to provide for the possibility of Zeppelin raiders (presumably, so that the baths can be used for shelter). Tolkien is among those who oppose the motion, which fails. The members strongly disapprove of the curtailment of baths as a method of economy. Tolkien tells the House that the Bursar believes that half the College is unwashed, and if the baths were closed down the other half might become likewise. The minutes record that ‘Class II O.T.C. [Officers Training Corps] in the person of Mr Tolkien then gave Class I and others valuable hints on drilling a boy entitled “Jones best ever ready word of command, always useful, will never wear out, Hip hop!”’ (Exeter College archives).

February 1915Tolkien reads to the Exeter College Essay Club the essay on the Kalevala he had earlier read to the Sundial Society (22 November 1914).

1 February 1915The Stapeldon Society meets.

8 February 1915Tolkien attends a meeting of the Stapeldon Society. The members discuss the tearing up of troublesome tram lines by the Oxford Town Clerk. They decide that the Secretary should write to applaud his actions, and ask for the gift of a tram rail or even a portion of one.

15 February 1915The Stapeldon Society meets.

22 February 1915Tolkien attends a meeting of the Stapeldon Society. The Town Clerk has given them a seven-foot length of tram rail. The minutes of the meeting will read:

On the motion of Mr Tolkien it was carried (a) that it should be present at the last meeting in every term (b) that it should be carried in procession to the new Pres[ident]’s rooms by the first year [i.e. the first-year members] (c) that every Pres[ident]’s name should be engraved upon it. The House then adjourned to the quad and a procession was formed headed by the officers, who were followed by the tram line supported by selected members of the first year followed by the rest of the house in order of precedence, slowly and steadfastly round the quad, the first year stentoriously breathing, the rest all singing a mournful dirge alternating with Tipperary [the song ‘It’s a long way to Tipperary’]. When they reached the foot of the staircase enthusiasm grew apace and the line was soon safely deposited under the Pres[ident]’s bed. [Exeter College archives]

March 1915At a meeting of the Exeter College Essay Club Tolkien reads a further revised version of his poem Sea-Chant of an Elder Day ; but when sending a typed copy of the work to G.B. Smith during this month, the title becomes Sea-Song of an Elder Day . Possibly at the same time, he paints in The Book of Ishness a watercolour entitled Water, Wind & Sand ( Artist and Illustrator , fig. 42) and inscribes on the facing page ‘Illustration to Sea-Song of an Elder Day’. The small figure enclosed in a white sphere in the foreground of the painting may be the seed from which the ‘Silmarillion’ frame-story emerged, that the poem was the song that Tuor sang to his son Eärendel in their exile after the fall of Gondolin. – Tolkien writes a poem for Edith, Sparrow-song (Bilink) (later simply Sparrow Song ). The word bilink will later occur in a lexicon of his invented language Gnomish, in the form bilin, bilinc ‘a small bird, esp. sparrow’.

1 March 1915The Stapeldon Society meets. – Rob Gilson writes to Tolkien, urging him to attend a T.C.B.S. meeting at Cambridge on the weekend of 6–7 March.

2 March 1915Christopher Wiseman writes to Tolkien, urging him to come to the T.C.B.S. meeting. He is sure that he can get him rooms in college. G.B. Smith is to attend, and if they do not take this opportunity Wiseman does not know when the four will be able to gather together again.

6 March 1915Tolkien having failed to reply to their letters, Gilson and Wiseman send him a telegram, in jest claiming his resignation from the T.C.B.S. unless he appears at the weekend. – In the event, he does not go to Cambridge.

8 March 1915Tolkien rewrites his poem Dark (first composed in December 1914), now with the alternate title Copernicus v. Ptolemy or Copernicus and Ptolemy . He shares it with Wiseman and Smith, who will mention it in letters of 15 April and ?25 March respectively. – Tolkien attends a meeting of the Stapeldon Society. He is recorded as making criticisms of the minutes.

?10 (possibly, less likely 17) March 1915G.B. Smith writes to Tolkien ( see note ) from Magdalen College, Oxford, where he is billeted with the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. Tolkien has sent him either the whole poem concerning Eärendel that he wrote late in 1914, or the first part to which he will later give the title The Bidding of the Minstrel . Smith thinks that it is very good, except that it tails off at the end. He asks Tolkien to send him typewritten copies of his poems, which after reading he will send on to Gilson if Tolkien wishes. He is having typed the poem he intends to enter for the annual Newdigate Prize for poetry (established 1806; the set topic in 1915 was ‘Glastonbury’).