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

Tolkien keeps a diary written in a proto-Fëanorian alphabet (see *Writing systems).

      1926 Tolkien writes a poem, Pēro & Pōdex (‘Boot and Bottom’, later *The Stone Troll). – He inscribes ‘1926’ in his copy of Introduction to Early Welsh by John Strachan (Manchester, 1909).

      Early 1926 Tolkien writes a prose manuscript of twenty-eight pages entitled ‘Sketch of the Mythology with especial reference to “The Children of Húrin”’ (*Sketch of the Mythology) to explain the background of the poem to R.W. Reynolds. This is the first text to cover the whole of Tolkien’s mythology from the rebellion of Morgoth to the age of Men and ‘the last end of the tales’. The story has advanced since The Book of Lost Tales, apparently (to judge by the lack of intervening texts) only in Tolkien’s mind while he was at Leeds. He will revise the Sketch, in places heavily, between 1926 and 1930.

      First part of 1926 Tolkien sends R.W. Reynolds many of his poems, including the unfinished Lay of Leithian and part of The Lay of the Children of Húrin. In August 1926, having received Reynolds’ comments in return, Tolkien will write in his diary: ‘Tinúviel meets with qualified approval [by Reynolds], it is too prolix, but how could I ever cut it down, and the specimen I sent of Túrin with little or none’ (quoted in The Lays of Beleriand, p. 3).

      4 January 1926 Tolkien and his family leave their house in Leeds.

      7 January 1926 The Tolkiens move to 22 Northmoor Road, Oxford. *Basil Blackwell, the publisher and bookseller, lives next door at no. 20. John and Michael are not able to attend school immediately, as they still have ringworm. After a lengthy and expensive treatment they will attend the Dragon School in Bardwell Road, a few minutes’ walk from Northmoor Road.

      13 January 1926 Term begins at Leeds. E.V. Gordon succeeds to Tolkien’s chair, but as the successor to his own readership will not take up office until October 1926, Tolkien will undertake some teaching or lecturing at Leeds during the spring term. His last recorded payment by Leeds will be in April 1926.

      17 January 1926 Hilary Full Term begins at Oxford. Tolkien’s scheduled lectures for this term are: Introduction to Germanic Philology on Tuesdays at 10.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools, beginning 19 January; Beowulf (Text) on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 11.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools, beginning 19 January; and Anglo-Saxon Reader on Thursdays at 10.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools, beginning 21 January.

      Hilary Term 1926 Tolkien founds the Kolbítar (*Societies and clubs), an informal reading club for dons interested in the Icelandic sagas and eddic writings. They will meet regularly and translate sections in turn, the length of the section varying from a paragraph for the least skilled reader, to several pages for Tolkien; and they will discuss over drinks what has been translated. Sometimes they will meet in pubs, but often in the rooms of *John Bryson, at this time a Tutor and Lecturer at Merton College. See note.

      5 February 1926 Tolkien attends a meeting of the Board of the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages and Literature at 3.30 p.m. in the Board Room of the Clarendon Building.

      4 March 1926 A review-essay by Tolkien, Philology: General Works, is published in *The Year’s Work in English Studies, vol. 5 (for 1924). He discusses some fifteen works (mainly books) at length, and mentions many others in the course of forty pages.

      11 March 1926 Tolkien attends a meeting of the Board of the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages and Literature at 3.30 p.m. in the Board Room of the Clarendon Building. He is appointed to a committee to draft a reply to a letter from the Hebdomadal Council on the duties and payments of examiners. He and C.T. Onions are appointed examiners of the B.Litt. thesis of Joseph Reeves, a non-collegiate student, An Edition of the Vernon Text of the Ancrene Riwle and a Study of Its Relation to the Other MSS.

      13 March 1926 Hilary Full Term ends at Oxford.

      24 March 1926 Term ends at Leeds.

      21 April 1926 Term begins at Leeds.

      25 April 1926 Trinity Full Term begins at Oxford. Tolkien’s scheduled lectures for this term are: Beowulf (Text, continued) on Tuesdays and Fridays at 11.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools, beginning 27 April; Anglo-Saxon Reader (selected extracts) on Thursdays at 10.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools, beginning 29 April; and Introduction to Germanic Philology on Thursdays at 11.00 a.m., in the Examination Schools, beginning 29 April.

      ?26 April 1926 Tolkien writes to Kenneth Sisam. He has made a complete Modern English (prose) translation of Beowulf, though not much to his liking, and will send him a specimen. He offers to put it in order if Sisam likes it. In the meantime he encloses his Modern English translation of Pearl, which he has made in spare moments and wonders if it could be published by itself. He is laid up with shingles, so that he does not know if he will be able to lecture this week.

      4–12 May 1926 General Strike in support of miners. The miners will stay on strike until 19 November.

      ?9 May 1926 Tolkien, Edith, and their children visit Kenneth Sisam in the afternoon for tea.

      11 May 1926 Tolkien attends a meeting of the English Faculty in the afternoon at Merton College, Oxford. Also present is *C.S. Lewis, recently elected Fellow and Tutor in English Language and Literature at Magdalen College, who will write in his diary:

      In to Merton for the ‘English tea’ at 4…. Discussion turned on [*R.F.W.] Fletcher’s proposal to co-ordinate the lecture list with the ordinary course of tutorial work. Everyone agreed, tho’ [George] Gordon spoke of the danger of making the thing too much of ‘an easy running engine which can give no pleasure to anyone except the engineer’. Miss [Margaret Lucy] Lee [tutor in English for the Society of Oxford Home-Students] talked a lot of nonsense about the need for lessons in pronunciation and beginners’ ‘outlines of literature’.

      Tolkien managed to get the discussion round to the proposed English Prelim[inary examination, see entry for 9 December 1926]. I had a talk with him afterwards. He is a smooth, pale, fluent little chap – can’t read Spenser because of the forms – thinks the language is the real thing in the school – thinks all literature is written for the amusement of men between thirty and forty…. His pet abomination is the idea of ‘liberal’ studies. Technical hobbies are more in his line. [All My Road Before Me: The Diary of C.S. Lewis 1922–1927 (1991), pp. 392–3]

      12 May 1926 Tolkien is prevented by ill health from reading a paper on the Elder Edda to the Exeter College Essay Club.

      14 May 1926 Tolkien attends a meeting of the Board of the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages and Literature at 3.30 p.m. in the Board Room of the Clarendon Building. He and Joseph Wright are appointed examiners of the B.Litt. thesis of Huntington Brown of University College, Varieties of Pronunciation in the Standard English of the Sixteenth Century (The Vowels of Stressed Syllables).

      5 June 1926 Tolkien and Joseph Wright examine Huntington Brown viva voce on his B.Litt. thesis at 11.30 a.m. in the Examination Schools. Tolkien will write out their undated report. See note.

      10 June 1926 English Final Honour School Examinations begin.

      12 June 1926 Tolkien and C.T. Onions examine Joseph Reeves, a non-collegiate student, viva voce on his B.Litt. thesis, An Edition of the Vernon Text of the Ancrene Riwle and a Study of Its Relation to the Other [Manuscripts], at 10.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools.

      16 June 1926 Onions and Tolkien sign their report on the examination of Joseph Reeves.

      17 June 1926 Tolkien attends, for the last time, a meeting of the Board of the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages and Literature at 3.30 p.m. in the Board Room of the Clarendon Building.