Tolkien and the Great War (42 page)

pp.115-16

CLW to the
Superb
: CLW to Dr Peter Liddle. ‘Then I plunge…': CLW to JRRT, 30 December 1915. Cruiser
Natal
sinks: Gilbert,
First World War
, 222. Torpedo nets: Phil Russell to the author.

p.116

RQG embarks; ‘I wish I could describe…'
: RQG to EK, 8 January 1916. Italy: ibid., 19 February 1916. New Testament and
Odyssey:
RQG to MCG, 7 January 1916.

Oxford Poetry 1915
: Hammond with Anderson,
Bibliography
, 279-80. ‘The idols have fallen…':
The Oxford Magazine
, 10 December 1915, 127-8.

p.117

‘
The truth is…
': GBS to JRRT, 22 December 1915. ‘terrible fellow', etc.: ibid., 12 January 1916. 2nd Manchesters: Platt papers.

pp.117-18

‘
It is a strange and dreary…
': RQG to EK, 4 February 1916. ‘the real business of life': RQG to MCG, 7 April 1912. RQG's absurd vision: Lt. P. V. Emrys-Evans to RCG, 13 July 1916. (Emrys-Evans, 11th Suffolks, was later a member of parliament and under-secretary in the British Dominions Office.)

pp.118-19

‘a good friend of mine…', etc.
: GBS to JRRT, 3 February 1916. (The ‘three other heroes' include Tolkien again, in addition to Gilson and Wiseman.)

19th

LF in Thiepval Wood trenches, 2-6 February 1916: war diary; Platt papers. Patrols: Winter,
Death's Men
, 87-8.

2nd Lt. A. C. Dixon: CWGC.

p.119

The Trumpets of Faërie
: Priestman,
Life and Legend
, 30; GBS to JRRT, 9 February 1916 (‘I remember how…'). JRRT must despatch ‘Kortirion': ibid., 22 February 1916.

‘
too many precious stones
': RQG to JRRT, 26 December 1915.

‘
I am immensely braced…
': CLW to JRRT, 4 February 1916.

p.120

‘
there was more form…
': RWR to JRRT, 10 March 1916.

pp.121-2

Quarrel over JRRT's ‘freakish' earlier poetry
: CLW to JRRT, 1 March (‘Old days, Harborne Road…', etc.) and 14 March 1916 (‘I say they are not…', etc.).

‘
the Eldar…
': JRRT, quoted in ibid.

p.122

‘lacking in the strings…', etc.: RQG to EK, 14 January 1916.

p.123

‘
Legend
': GBS,
A Spring Harvest
, 22.

p.124

blimp
: JRRT, ‘Philology: General Works', in Lee and Boas (eds.),
The Year's Work in English Studies 1923
, 52.
‘Bosch'
: GBS to JRRT, 12 January 1916. ‘I fully intended…': RQG to MCG, 12 April 1916.

p.125

‘
in a dirty wet marquee…
': ‘A Secret Vice',
Monsters
, 199. ‘I have been reading up…': JRRT to EMT, 2 March 1916 (
Letters
, 8).

November quatrain (‘Narqelion'): Douglas A. Anderson to the author. The second version appears in
Mythlore
56, 48, with an analysis by Paul Nolan Hyde, and in
Vinyar Tengwar
40, 8, with an analysis by Christopher Gilson.

pp.125-7

State of the mythology
: this reconstruction is based primarily on the Qenya lexicon, along with the available poetry of 1915, and notes on Eärendel's Atlantic wanderings and ‘The Shores of Faëry' (
LT2
, 261-2; internal evidence suggests other outlines in
LT2
, 253ff., were written later). JRRT is unlikely to have risked taking the lexicon on active service, and its state
circa
March 1916 may be broadly surmised by excluding all entries lacking in ‘The Poetic and
Mythologic Words of Eldarissa', a list copied from it probably soon after he returned to England (
Parma Eldalamberon
12, xvii-xxi). Some details appearing only in that list are assumed to postdate the initial lexicon phase, and omitted here. The reconstruction takes no account of unpublished poems, notes or outlines, and covers a period (beginning in early 1915) in which conceptions were probably very fluid.

p.128

Personal significance of
Erinti
, etc.: Gilson,
‘Narqelion
and the Early Lexicons',
Vinyar Tengwar
40, 9.

Vocabulary for wartime
: this selection takes no account of chronology of composition (in contrast to the reconstructed ‘state of the mythology' above). Only
enya, kasiën, makil
and
Kalimban
, etc., seem likely to have predated the Somme. ‘the “Germanic” ideal':
Letters
, 55.

p.129

‘
bleed to death
': Gilbert,
First World War
, 221. ‘intolerable', etc.:
Letters
, 53.

pp.129-30

Marriage:
Biography
, 78. ‘My goodness…': GBS to JRRT, 9 February 1916. ‘on the contrary…': CLW to JRRT, 1 March 1916. ‘The imminence…': RQG to MCG, 9 March 1916. ‘I rejoice…': RQG to JRRT, 9 March 1916.

p.130

‘
always had something…
': RQG to EK, 10 March 1916. Degree ceremony: How,
Register of Exeter College.

pp.130-3

‘
The Wanderer's Allegiance
': quotations are from the November 1916 revision, ‘The Town of Dreams and the City of Present Sorrow',
LT2
, 295-6.

p.130

Paternal ancestors in Germania: CLW saw only the revised poem, more than a year later; it is apparent that JRRT did not explain it all to him and, as CLW suspected (‘Perhaps I know too much or too little…'), some of his suppositions may be wrong. CLW to JRRT, 4 March 1917.

p.134

Marriage service
: Priscilla Tolkien in
Angerthas in English
3, 5.

Honeymoon
:
Biography
, 80.
The Trumpets of Faërie:
Priestman,
Life and Legend
, 30.

Farnley Park
: CLW to JRRT, 14 March 1916. Test results: JRRT provisional instructor's certificate (Bodleian Tolkien);
Encyclopaedia Britannica
, 11th edition. Leave: JRRT to Capt. C. A. McAllard, 8 May 1916 (Bodleian Tolkien).

Mrs Kendrick
: GBS to JRRT, 26 May 1916.

pp.134-5

Nuptial blessing
: Priscilla Tolkien in
Angerthas in English
3, P. 5.

p.135

‘
Now spring has come…
': GBS, ‘April 1916',
A Spring Harvest
, 65. ‘I wish another council…': GBS to JRRT, 12 January 1916.
Odyssey:
ibid., 4 March 1916. April Fool's: ibid., 6 April 1916.

pp.135-6

GBS at Great Haywood: GBS to JRRT, 23, 24, and 26 May 1916. ‘Nothing could be more…': ibid. [1 June 1916].

p.136

‘
There be still some…
': GBS, ‘April 1916',
A Spring Harvest
, 65.

School exams, ‘The real days…'
: CLW to JRRT, 14 March 1916. ‘oasis': cited in RQG to JRRT, 22 June 1916.

‘
The most magnificent…
': GBS to JRRT [23 July 1915].

p.137

‘
world-shaking power
': cited in CLW to JRRT, 16 November 1914.

‘
travail underground
': RQG to JRRT, 9 March 1916. ‘I have faith…': ibid., 21 November 1915. ‘Providence insists…': GBS to JRRT [13 July 1915].

‘
Really you three…
': CLW to JRRT, 4 February 1916.

‘
republic
': GBS to JRRT, 12 January 1916.

Embarkation orders: 13th LF adjutant to JRRT, 2 June 1916 (Bodleian Tolkien).

p.138

Plough and Harrow
:
Family Album
, 39. Departure:
Biography
, 80. ‘Junior officers…': Cater,
The Daily Telegraph
, 29 November 2001, 23.

From JRRT's arrival on the Somme until the end of Chapter 10, unless otherwise stated:

JRRT's movements are derived from his diary.

11th LF activities are drawn from the battalion's war diary, supplemented by those of the 74th Brigade HQ; 13th Cheshires, 9th Loyal North Lancashires, and 2nd Royal Irish Rifles; the 25th Division and its signal company. Military histories consulted
include principally
The Lancashire Fusiliers' Annual 1917
, 213-34; Latter,
Lancashire Fusiliers;
Kincaid-Smith,
The 25th Division in France and Flanders
, 10-22.

Great War soldiers' experience: especially Winter,
Death's Men
, and for the Battle of the Somme itself Keegan,
The Face of Battle.

Topography and weather: various sources, notably Gliddon,
When the Barrage Lifts.

p.141

Scapa Flow
: CLW to Dr Peter Liddle; CLW to JRRT, 4 February 1916. ‘The Snotty…': ibid., 4 March [1917].

p.142

Jutland
: CLW to Dr Peter Liddle (‘No one below decks…'); Arthur J. Marder,
From the Dreadnought to Scapa Flow
, iii. 100;
The Battle of Jutland: Official Despatches
, 123-5, 365-7.

p.143

Train journey: JRRT diary; 13th LF adjutant to JRRT, 2 June 1916 (Bodleian Tolkien).

Channel crossing: JRRT diary; ‘The Lonely Isle',
Leeds University Verse 1914-1924
, 57. Gunship escorts were routine. RQG sketches: RQG to EK, 6 June 1916. Hoy: CLW to Dr Peter Liddle.

pp.143-4

Calais to Étaples: JRRT diary;
Biography
, 80.

p.144

Lt. W. H. Reynolds: Latter,
Lancashire Fusiliers
, 124.

‘
Habbanan
':
LT1
, 91. Details of a 25th Division officer's life at Étaples come from the diary of Capt. Lionel Ferguson of the 13th Cheshires (hereafter ‘Ferguson diary'), who was there at virtually the same time as JRRT. (Contrary to
Biography
, 81, JRRT did not meet up with his battalion proper until he reached the Somme hinterland.)

pp.144-5

‘
The Lonely Isle
':
Leeds University Verse 1914-1924
, 57. Dedication:
LT1
, 25.

p.145

‘
I do pray for you…
': GBS to JRRT, 9 June 1916.

p.146

Spies; a ‘show'
: Ferguson diary. Trench working party: RQG to RCG, 25 June 1916. ‘war was not now…': RQG on sportsmanship,
KESC
, March 1910, 5. ‘the war at last…': RQG to EK, 17 June 1916. ‘I have never felt…': RQG to JRRT, 22 June 1916. Amiens cathedral: ibid., 7 May 1916. GBS tantalizingly near: RQG to EK, 6 and 8 May 1916. Fear for
RQG's sanity: CLW to JRRT, 1 March 1916; perhaps simply thinking of RQG's sensitive nature. ‘I feel now as if…': RQG to EK, 13 June 1916.

p.147

‘
When it comes down to…
': ibid., 9 June 1916.

Peace rumour; ‘I often think of the extraordinary…': RQG to RCG, 25 June 1916. Artillery barrage: Middlebrook,
The First Day on the Somme
, 87-8.

pp.147-8

Étaples to Rubempré: JRRT diary;
Biography
, 81. The 11th LF did not travel with JRRT to Rubempré, though a draft of troops may have: the battalion received 248 new men in June.

p.148

Rubempré
:
Biography
, 81; Ferguson diary; Platt papers.

pp.148-9

Provenance of 25th Division soldiers: Latter,
Lancashire Fusiliers
, 93-4 and vol. ii. 146; Ferguson diary. Loos tradition: Evers memoir.

p.149

Platoon command
: available evidence does not reveal whether Tolkien ever ran a platoon, a routine responsibility of many subalterns.

Officer numbers: 25th Division administrative staff war diary. JRRT in ‘A' Company: mess accounts and other items (Bodleian Tolkien). No officers from 13th LF:
Army Book
officer lists, 1915-16. ‘were in many cases…':
Biography
, 81. ‘the most improper job…':
Letters
, 64.

p.150

Rubempré to Warloy-Baillon: 11th LF war diary. ‘My dear John Ronald…': GBS to JRRT, 25 June 1916. ‘Larkspur and Canterbury-bells…': RQG to EK, 25 June 1916. Bécourt château (footnote): Murphy,
History of the Suffolk Regiment
, 154.

p.151

‘
One of the few…
': RQG to RCG, 25 June 1916. ‘It is no use harrowing…': quoted in Lt. P. V. Emrys-Evans to RCG, 13 July 1916.

p.152

During the barrage: Middlebrook,
The First Day on the Somme
, 115-20. Cavalry: Peacock, ‘A Rendezvous with Death', 317-18, 325. ‘drum-fire': Ferguson diary. ‘as if Wotan…': Lewis,
Saggitarius Rising
, 103.

11th Suffolks on eve of battle: Murphy,
The History of the Suffolk Regiment
, 154;
The First Day on the Somme
, 113.

pp.152-3

Walkover; rum: Senescall memoir.

p.153