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

10–11 March 1915Tolkien writes a poem, Why the Man in the Moon Came Down Too Soon (An East Anglian Phantasy) (* The Man in the Moon Came Down Too Soon ), later prefixed A Faërie .

11 March 1915Wiseman writes to Tolkien, adding comments from Gilson as they reread one of Tolkien’s letters. Tolkien seems to have explained that his failure to reply immediately to their letters of 1 and 2 March was due to the fact that he has set a specific day in the week for answering letters. They wonder why Tolkien is so often the one absent from T.C.B.S. meetings, and describe what he missed in Cambridge the previous weekend. Tolkien has evidently suggested a three-day meeting on a weekend early in Trinity Term. Wiseman explains that as his mother is recovering from an operation he does not think that they can meet at his home in London; they might meet instead at a hotel in the Cotswolds. Gilson adds a postscript that in order to obtain leave from the Army he needs to know early to plan his weekend leaves.

13 March 1915Hilary Full Term ends.

Easter vacation 1915Tolkien spends most or possibly all of his vacation in Warwick. He probably adds another watercolour, Tanaqui , to The Book of Ishness : this seems to depict Kôr, in Tolkien’s mythology the shining city of the Elves in Eldamar, about which he will write a poem on 30 April. The painting agrees with the poem, but also shows details such as the slender silver tower of the house of Inwë ‘shooting skyward like a needle’ which Tolkien will not describe in writing until several years later in * The Book of Lost Tales .

?15 (possibly, less likely, 22) March 1915Smith writes to Tolkien. He is very glad to have received Tolkien’s typed verses, and comments on The Sea-Song of an Elder Day, Outside, As Two Fair Trees , and Why the Man in the Moon Came Down Too Soon .

17–18 March 1915Tolkien reworks the latter part of the Eärendel poem of ?late 1914 as an independent work entitled The Mermaid’s Flute . This may be in response to comments made by Smith in his letter of ?10 March.

?Spring 1915Probably no earlier than spring 1915 Tolkien begins to make a systematic record of his invented language Qenya in a small notebook previously used for notes on Gothic, which he will now continue to use for several years. He will call this * Qenyaqetsa . Eventually the book will contain a phonology and a lexicon, both heavily worked.

22 March 1915Gilson writes to Tolkien, explaining that he can get leave only every other week, and cannot keep holding weekends open for a meeting of the T.C.B.S. He asks Tolkien to let him know at once, if possible, which weekends are best for him.

?25 March 1915Smith writes to Tolkien. He has shown Tolkien’s verses to their friend and fellow Oxford poet *H.T. Wade-Gery, who thinks Why the Man in the Moon Came Down Too Soon and As Two Fair Trees very good, but that Sea-Chant of an Elder Day though good in places is too exaggerated. He also approves of Copernicus and Ptolemy ( Dark ). Smith sends Tolkien the poem he intends to submit for the Newdigate Prize, ‘Glastonbury’. He will send Tolkien’s poems and his own to Gilson as soon as he can. He cannot arrange a meeting of the T.C.B.S. unless Tolkien comes to Oxford for Easter (Easter Sunday 1915 was on 4 April). He thinks that his battalion will be leaving before 12 April, and he cannot get leave before then.

26 March 1915 (postmark)Wiseman replies to a postcard from Tolkien. He thinks it doubtful that he can attend a T.C.B.S. meeting on 11 or 17 April.

30 March 1915 (postmark)Wiseman, now at Cleeve Hill, Cheltenham, writes to Tolkien, proposing a T.C.B.S. meeting on 18 April in Tolkien’s St John Street rooms. He relies on Tolkien to arrange this with his landlady.

31 March 1915Gilson writes to Tolkien that he has received his poems safely (via Smith) but has not yet read them. Wiseman has told him that a T.C.B.S. meeting on 18 April at Oxford has been settled.

April 1915Tolkien writes in a notebook, which he dates to this month, notes on The Owl and the Nightingale , chiefly about its vocabulary.

?3 April 1915Smith writes to Tolkien. He is unwell and sick at heart, but finds consolation in Tolkien’s letters and his comments on Smith’s Newdigate Prize entry. He has now forwarded to Gilson Tolkien’s poems, except the ‘“Earendel” things’. He thinks that Tolkien’s verse ‘is very apt to get too complicated and twisted and to be most damned difficult to make out’; The Mermaid’s Flute is rather bad in this respect (Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford). He would like Tolkien to make his verse more lucid without losing its luxuriance, and suggests that he read shorter lyrics by William Blake as an example of the clear and simple. He does not know if he will be in Oxford on 18 April.

4 April 1915Tolkien writes to Wiseman (letter not seen).

5 April 1915 (postmark)Wiseman again writes to Tolkien, repeating his message of 30 March.

6 April 1915Tolkien sends a postcard to Wiseman (not seen).

10 April 1915Tolkien writes to Wiseman, possibly giving news about Smith (letter not seen). Wiseman replies at once that he now received Tolkien’s messages of 4, 6, and 10 April. He has advised Smith to ask for leave next week.

12 April 1915Smith writes to Tolkien from his home in West Bromwich that he is on sick leave, and will not be able to attend the T.C.B.S. meeting on 18 April. He is trying to arrange a transfer into a battalion which Tolkien could also join after his examinations. Before Tolkien receives this letter, he sends a telegram (contents unknown) to Wiseman, who finds it disturbing.

13 April 1915Wiseman sends a telegram to Tolkien in Warwick, asking what arrangements he has made for their Oxford ‘council’ as problems have arisen. In a letter written the same day, he explains that Gilson has been ill since 6 April and it will be very difficult for him to get leave the next weekend. If Gilson cannot attend, Wiseman’s mother would welcome the smaller group at Cleeve Hill; if Smith also cannot attend, the meeting will not take place.

14 April 1915Gilson writes to Tolkien from Marston Green, where he has been on sick leave. He will return to his battalion on Friday, 16 April, and there is no possibility of getting leave for the weekend. He believes that Wiseman is now trying to arrange a meeting in Cambridge.

15 April 1915Wiseman writes to Tolkien. The ‘Council of Oxford’ must be abandoned. He has received Tolkien’s poems via Gilson and has nearly finished a musical setting for Wood-sunshine . He asks Tolkien to spend the next weekend with him and his family.

15–16 April 1915Tolkien writes a poem, Courage Speaks with the Love of Earth . The title will be changed to Courage Speaks with a Child of Earth , and later to Now and Ever and The Two Riders .

16 April 1915Wiseman receives a postcard from Tolkien indicating that the latter will not be able to visit the Wisemans at the weekend.

?19 April 1915Smith replies to a note from Tolkien. He is soon to join the 8th Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Regiment at No. 1 Camp, Sutton Veny, Wiltshire. By now, he has applied to transfer to the 19th Battalion of the *Lancashire Fusiliers, but is not yet able to join them at their training camp in Wales. He is not sure if he can get Tolkien a commission in the battalion he hopes to join, but will do his best. Apparently in response to doubts expressed by Tolkien, he gives arguments in favour of Tolkien enlisting as soon as he has taken his degree in June: these include better prospects for choosing a battalion, and Army pay.