Tolkien and the Great War (41 page)

p.82

Book loans: Exeter College library register.

‘
Don't worry about Schools…
': GBS to JRRT [5 June].

Welsh grammar
: ibid. [14 May].

English finalists:
The Times
, 3 July 1915, 6.

Stainforth certain to take JRRT: GBS to JRRT [10 June 1915].

‘matters Martian', etc.
: GBS to JRRT [19 June 1915].

GBS promoted (on 16 June):
The Times
, 16 July 1915, 15.

‘
Do not be afraid…
': GBS to JRRT [28 June 1915]. To Brough Hall Camp: ibid. [19 June 1915].

pp.82-3

RQG to Lindrick Camp: RQG to MCG, 19 and 22 June 1915.

p.83

‘
bolted
':
Letters
, 53.

Enlistment: JRRT service record.

Schools results:
The Times
, 3 July 1915, 6. ‘one of the highest distinctions', etc.: GBS to JRRT [4 July].

With EMB in Warwick: GBS to JRRT [4 July] 1915.

pp.83-4

‘The Shores of Faëry' (poem)
: version from the ‘Book of Ishness',
Artist
, 48-9. Variants appear in
Biography
, 76-7, and (alongside evidence for composition date)
LT2
, 271-2.

‘
First poem…
':
LT2
, 271; start of a ‘Lay of Eärendel':
Biography
, 76. Perhaps ‘The Shores of Faëry' was meant to introduce the already existing ‘Eärendel fragments'.

p.85

Fusion of language and mythology: by contrast, September 1914's ‘The Voyage of Éarendel the Evening Star' featured aspects of a Tolkienian cosmology but none of the nomenclature that would accompany them later; the name
Éarendel
was Old English, not Qenya.

‘It was just as…', etc.
:
Letters
, 231.

‘
thought and experience…
': ibid., 144; see also 345.

Wartime rumours: Fussell,
The Great War and Modern Memory
, 116-24.

pp.85-6

‘
Angels of Mons
': ibid., 115-16; Gilbert,
First World War
, 58. Machen's ‘The Bowmen' appeared in the London
Evening News
on 29 September 1914.

p.86

Wartime language: Strachan,
The First World War
, i. 142.

Neverland and Valinor
: on a copy of ‘The Shores of Faëry' JRRT wrote much later ‘Valinor [?thought of about] 1910' (
LT2
, 271). This was the year he saw
Peter Pan;
but it seems perhaps too early for the conception of Valinor.

pp.86-7

Guingelot
: JRRT stated the influence of this name in a note from 1968 or later (
The Peoples of Middle-earth
, 371). Cf.
The Lays of Beleriand
, 143-4. ‘Concerning Wade…': Thomas Speght, in Skeat's
Complete Works of Chaucer
, v. 356-7
(borrowed by JRRT from Exeter College library over Christmas 1914).

‘timbered a boat…', etc.
: Grimm,
Teutonic Mythology
, i. 376-8; cf. Chambers,
Widsith
, 95-100, on Wade. For JRRT's use of Germanic sources, see especially Shippey,
The Road to Middle-earth.

p.87

‘and the meaning…', etc.
: CLW to JRRT, 11 July 1915. Naval recruitment advertisement: CLW to Dr Peter Liddle.

p.88

‘
You have been posted…
': Col. W. Elliot to JRRT, 9 July 1915 (Bodleian Tolkien).

‘
I am simply bowled over…
': GBS to JRRT [13 July 1915]. Safer in 13th LF: ibid. [18 July 1915].

To Bedford; allowance
: Col. W. Elliot to JRRT (Bodleian Tolkien). ‘All else seems to me…', etc.: GBS to JRRT [19 June 1915].

p.89

Report to Col. Tobin: Col. W. Elliot to JRRT (Bodleian Tolkien). At Bedford:
Biography
, 77. Comfortable: RWR to JRRT, 2 August 1915.

‘
philosophick
': GBS to JRRT [22 July 1915]. Chances of transfer;
‘tact, tact, tact'
, etc.: ibid. [23 July 1915].

pp.89-91

‘
The Happy Mariners
':
The Stapeldon Magazine
, June 1920 (with ‘Earendel' where I provide ‘Eärendel'). The 1915 form is unpublished. A 1940 revision appears in
LT2
, 273-6.

p.91

Waking of the Sleeper in the Tower of Pearl:
LT1
, 15.

pp.91-2

‘
Lost Tales' cosmology and ‘the song of the Sleeper
': ‘The Hiding of Valinor', in
LT1
, 215-16.

p.92

‘“The Happy Mariners” was apparently…':
LT2
, 274.

pp.92-3

Submissions to
Oxford Poetry:
GBS to JRRT [23 July 1915]. GBS first proposed to submit verse in May (ibid. [14 May 1915]). In the event it included one poem apiece by JRRT and GBS, and three by Wade-Gery.

p.93

RWR:
KESC
, December 1921, 24; December 1922, 79-80; obituary,
OEG
, 1948.

Response to JRRT's verse: RWR to JRRT, 19 July. Advice on publishing a collection: ibid., 2 August 1915.

p.94

Lichfield units (9th Lincolnshires, 13th and 14th Sherwood Foresters, 14th Manchesters); 50 officers: monthly Army returns.

View of high-ranking officers; ‘Gentlemen are non-existent…'
:
Biography
, 77-8. Contrary to Carpenter's assertion, this does not mean JRRT disliked the majority of other officers, the subalterns with whom he spent most of his time.

‘
All the hot days…
':
Letters
, 8.

‘
What makes it so…', ‘toad under the harrow', Fr Reade:
Letters
, 78. ‘war multiplies…', ‘men and things
': ibid. 73. ‘a deep sympathy…': ibid. 54.

p.95

‘
It isn't the tough stuff…
':
Letters
, 46.

Icelandic
:
Biography
, 78. RQG's designs: RQG to MCG. ‘early work', etc.:
Letters
, 231.

pp.95-6

‘
A Song of Aryador
':
LT1
, 138-9.

Impact of Mercian language and culture on JRRT: see Shippey,
Author of the Century
, 90-7, and
The Road to Middle-earth
, 111-16. For Tamworth as the capital of the Middle Kingdom in
Farmer Giles of Ham
, see ibid. 89.

p.96

Aryador
:
Parma Eldalamberon
12, 32 (with thanks to Patrick Wynne).

Aryan
: Mallory,
In Search of the Indo-Europeans
, 126.

p.97

Gothic source of
miruvōrë:
JRRT note in
Parma Eldalamberon
12, xi.

pp.97-8

‘
Iumbo, or ye Kinde of ye Oliphaunt
': one of two poems comprising ‘Adventures in Unnatural History and Medieval Metres, being The Freaks of Fisiologus',
The Stapeldon Magazine
, vii. 40 (June 1927), 125.

p.98

The Irminsûl
:
Teutonic Mythology
, i. 115-19; ‘works of the giants': ‘Philology: General Works', in Lee and Boas (eds.),
The Year's Work in English Studies 1923
, 21.
pelekus, parasu:
Mallory,
In Search of the Indo-Europeans
, 122 (with thanks to Bill Welden).

ond
:
Letters
, 410. See Carl F. Hostetter and Patrick Wynne,
Vinyar Tengwar
30, 8-25.

pp.98-9

‘
A Song of Aryador
':
LTI
, 138-9.

p.100

‘
I am really angry with myself…
': RQG to JRRT, 13 September 1915. RQG received poems: ibid., 31 March 1915. Sent them on: CLW to JRRT, 15 April 1915.

RQG declares love for EK: RQG to MCG, 18 April, 10 June, and 17 October 1915. Her father's warning: Wilson King to RCG, 30 November 1915.

‘
a compartmented life
': JRRT to CLW, 16 November 1914.

p.101

‘
of course includes your missis
': CLW to JRRT, 4 February 1916.

Silence from RQG
: GBS to JRRT [14 May, 28 June and 18 July 1915]. His summer and influenza: RQG to MCG. News of
Oxford Poetry:
MCG to RQG, 12 September. ‘I confess that I have often…', etc.: RQG to JRRT, 13 September 1915.

Second sheaf of poems; ‘At times like this…'
: RQG to JRRT, 17 September 1915.

pp.101-2

Council of Lichfield
: ibid., 21, 23, and 24 September 1915. ‘that delightful…': GBS to JRRT, 6 October 1915.

p.102

GBS and RQG on Salisbury Plain, ‘The rain stopped…'
: RQG to MCG, 5 October 1915. ‘Songs on the Downs': GBS,
A Spring Harvest
, 48. ‘The steps I have taken…': GBS to JRRT, 6 October.

p.103

They visit Bath; ‘Gibbonian periods'
: RQG to MCG, 17 October 1915. ‘I feel that we shall…': GBS to JRRT, 6 October.

They urge JRRT to publish: RQG to JRRT, 5 October 1915; GBS to JRRT, 9 October 1915.

Cannock Chase camps: Whitehouse and Whitehouse,
A Town for Four Winters.
3rd Reserve Infantry Brigade Officers' Company: RQG to JRRT, 19 October and 21 November 1915.

p.104

‘
These grey days…
':
Biography
, 78. ‘The usual kind of morning…': JRRT to EMB, 26 November 1915, in
Letters
, 8. JRRT unhappy and EMB unwell: CLW to JRRT, 27 October 1915; RQG to JRRT, 21 November 1915.

pp.104-6

TCBS in London without JRRT: GBS to JRRT, 24 October 1915 (‘to drive from life…', ‘It struck me last night…'); RQG to JRRT, 31 October 1915 (‘I never before
felt…', ‘I suddenly saw…'); CLW to JRRT, 27 October 1915 (‘I laughed a little…', ‘bit of fun', ‘war babies', ‘woman was just…', ‘You and GBS…', ‘The TCBS stays…'). At school, CLW and JRRT had played rugby for Measures' house against Richards' house.

p.106

‘
sons of culture', etc.: GBS, ‘To the Cultured',
A Spring Harvest
, 60. ‘I have never read anything…
': GBS to JRRT, 24 October 1915.

p.107

‘
the fairies came…
':
Parma Eldalamberon
12, 35.

pp.107-10

‘
Kortirion among the Trees
': quotations are from the earliest published version, only slightly changed from the original MSS;
LT1
, 32-6.

p.108

‘
Ah! like gold…
':
The Lord of the Rings
, 368.

p.109

‘England in June attire…' etc.
: Graves, ‘To Robert Nichols',
Fairies and Fusiliers.

p.110

Week of frost
: RQG to MCG, 17 and 21 November 1915. ‘Kortirion' textual history:
Letters
, 8; RQG to JRRT, 21 and 26 November 1915; RQG to Estelle King, 2 December. Stray workings: RQG to JRRT, 19 October. Tolkien recalled writing ‘Kortirion' between 21 and 28 November in Warwick; yet he was back in camp by 25 November;
LT1
, 32.

pp.110-11

‘
I am now 21…
': GBS to JRRT, 19 October 1915. Units departing Salisbury Plain: RQG to MCG, 17 November 1915; Carter,
Birmingham Pals
, 90-1. GBS's movements, ‘It is impossible…': RQG to JRRT, 21 November 1915.

p.111

Barrowclough
: MCG to RQG, 12 September 1915; RW Reynolds to JRRT, 19 September 1915. T. K. Barnsley: Ross,
The Coldstream Guards
, i. 434; RQG to MCG, 27 August, 31 October 1915.

‘
We are now so pledged…
': GBS to JRRT, 24 October 1915. 19th LF embark for France: Barlow,
Salford Brigade
, 73; Latter,
Lancashire Fusiliers,
99. Stedman,
Salford Pals
, 64. ‘to the peril…': GBS to JRRT, 2 December 1915.

pp.112-13

‘
Habbanan beneath the Stars
':
LT1
, 91-2.

p.112

‘
perilmë metto
…
':
Parma Eldalamberon
12, 73.

p.113

‘
I had always…
': ‘The Ethics of Elfland', in Auden (ed.),
G. K. Chesterton: a selection
, 187.

p.114

Codes and alphabets
:
Biography
, 40; Priestman,
Life and Legend
, 13, 17, 18.

Milne
: Thwaite,
A. A. Milne
, 167.

To Brocton Camp: monthly Army returns. Envelope codework: RQG to JRRT, 26 December 1915; CLW to JRRT, 30 December 1915.

pp.114-15

Equipment training:
Biography
, 78; JRRT provisional instructor's certificate (Bodleian Tolkien).

p.115

Egypt rumour, ‘Imagine the general rejoicing…', etc.
: RQG to JRRT, 26 December 1915.

‘
Donna
': the name RQG and his sister Molly gave to Marianne Dunstall when she married their father in 1909; RQG to MCG, 10 August 1909.

RQG and EK: RQG to MCG, 17 October and 8 November 1915; MCG to EK, 26 December 1915.

‘
Kortirion
': RQG to EK, 2 December 1915.

‘
What a wonderful year!…
': ibid., New Year 1915-16.