is based; or if Tolkien and Edith were to visit Wiseman’s mother in Wandsworth, she would welcome them both. Now that Tolkien is free of the censor, Wiseman asks to be told as much as Tolkien knows about Gilson’s death, what engagements he himself has been in, where Smith is, and any news about him. Since their ‘skirmish’ in the spring Tolkien has not sent him any of his poetry.
18 November 1916 Smith writes to Tolkien at the General Hospital. He forgot to say in his last letter that he is sure that his mother would be glad to get Tolkien books or anything else he wants, and to visit him. – The Battle of the Somme officially ends.
22 November 1916 Tolkien completes a War Office form, recording the date he left his unit while overseas, when he embarked for and arrived in England, the name of the vessel on which he travelled, and the cause of his return (trench fever), among other details.
27 November 1916 A letter is sent from the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion to the South General Hospital, Edgbaston, directing that orders should be issued for Tolkien at an early date. See note.
29 November 1916 Smith is hit by shrapnel when his battalion is shelled. Although wounded in his right arm and thigh, he is able to walk to the dressing station to wait for an ambulance. He writes to his mother that his wounds are not serious.
2 December 1916 Tolkien is examined by a Medical Board at the 1st Southern General Hospital. Although his temperature has been normal for a week, he is still suffering from headaches and pains in the leg and is very weak. The Board declares him unfit for any service for the next six weeks and grants him leave from 9 December 1916 to 12 January 1917. By this date he has been attached to the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers, based at Thirtle Bridge on the east coast of England near Hull. – By now, Smith’s wounds are considered dangerous. Gas gangrene has set in.
3 December 1916 G.B. Smith dies at 3.30 a.m.
8 December 1916 Wiseman writes a long letter to Tolkien, mainly about politics and the war. He thanks Tolkien for his letter and for his latest poems. He hopes that Tolkien will begin to publish, and is convinced that ‘if you do come out in print you will startle our generation as no one has yet’ (Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford). He knows that R.W. Reynolds thought Tolkien much influenced by Francis Thompson, and that Tolkien has studied Thompson deeply, but Wiseman cannot see any obvious connection. Tolkien apparently having expressed a wish to join the Royal Engineers, Wiseman suggests that he write to Brigadier-General Sir John Barnsley (T.K. Barnsley’s father), who might be able to help.
9 December 1916 Between now and mid-December Tolkien travels to Great Haywood to spend his leave with Edith.
16 December 1916 (postmarked 18 December) Wiseman writes a brief letter to Tolkien to say that he has just received news from home that G.B. Smith died on 3 December. His letter is addressed to Tolkien at the 1st Southern General Hospital but is redirected to Great Haywood. Soon after Tolkien receives this letter, he sends his condolences to Smith’s mother.
22 December 1916 Mrs Smith responds to Tolkien’s message with details of her son’s last days. Since Smith had asked that his poetry be published if he fell, his mother asks Tolkien for any of her son’s verses that might be included. – Upon receipt of her letter, Tolkien replies at once. Around this time he also writes to R.W. Reynolds.
?c. 25 December 1916 Tolkien writes a poem, GBS (later G.B.S.) in memory of G.B. Smith. He will later note on a typescript copy ‘Great Haywood Christ[mas] 1916–17’.
26 December 1916 Mrs Smith writes to thank Tolkien for the copy of her son’s verses, and tells him to keep the original.
28 December 1916 R.W. Reynolds replies to a letter from Tolkien. Reynolds is glad that Tolkien has found a congenial spot to convalesce. Mrs Smith has been in touch with him too about her son’s wish that a book of his poems should be published; Reynolds asks if Tolkien knows anything of Smith’s wishes in this matter. He understands that Mrs Smith has also written to H.T. Wade-Gery.
End of 1916–first half of 1917 Tolkien begins to write the first prose version of his mythology, The Book of Lost Tales, either while still in the 1st Southern General Hospital or after going on sick leave to Great Haywood on 9 December 1916. One of the first parts to be written is The Cottage of Lost Play, which introduces the framework of the tales: a mariner, Eriol, reaches the island of Tol Eressëa and hears from the fairies (or elves) who dwell there stories of the creation of the world and its subsequent history. In the mythology as originally conceived, Tol Eressëa will be eventually uprooted and moved across the sea to become England. – Another part written at this time is a story from near the end of the mythology, Tuor and the Exiles of Gondolin (*‘Of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin’), which Tolkien will tend to call simply The Fall of Gondolin. See note. – Tolkien also continues to work on his invented languages. He makes additions to the Qenyaqetsa, and traces the ‘development’ of the language from an earlier form, Primitive Eldarin. He begins to develop another Elvish language, Gnomish or Goldogrin, also with roots in Primitive Eldarin; eventually this will become ‘Sindarin’. Possibly as early as the end of 1916, but no later than early 1917, Tolkien begins work on a Gnomish grammar, Lam na nGoldathon (‘Tongue of the Gnomes’, *Gnomish Grammar) and a Gnomish lexicon, i·Lam na·Ngoldathon ‘Goldogrin’ (*Gnomish Lexicon). – It is perhaps during his time of convalescence at Great Haywood that Tolkien draws heraldic devices for three places in England of great significance to himself and Edith, the village of Great Haywood and the towns of Warwick and Cheltenham, to which he gives names in Goldogrin: Tavrobel, Kortirion, and Celbaros.
?1916–?1919 While working on The Book of Lost Tales Tolkien keeps a notebook, originally inscribed ‘Names and Lang[uage] to Book of Lost Tales’ (later ‘Notebook B’). This includes a list of words in Eldarissa (i.e. Qenya), a chart of races of beings, and a table comparing two forms of the proper names in the story of Tuor (see *The Poetic and Mythologic Words of Eldarissa, *‘Early Chart of Names’, *Official Name List). Associated with this notebook are various tables and lists on loose sheets (see *The Creatures of the Earth, *‘Matar and Tulir’, *‘Names of the Valar’, *Kainendan, and *Otsan). – Probably in this period Tolkien also writes *‘Name-list to The Fall of Gondolin’, derived from the Official Name List; a parallel list of Qenya names from The Cottage of Lost Play with Gnomish (Goldogrin) equivalents (*Names and Required Alterations); and, related to the Qenyaqetsa, a description of the conjugation of the verb in Qenya (*The Qenya Verb Forms).
2 January 1917 Tolkien writes to the War Office from Great Haywood, reporting himself for further orders and giving his address from 12 January as 185 Monument Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham.
18 January 1917 Wiseman writes to Tolkien. He apologizes for not sending a letter before, explaining that this is the fifth he has written and has torn up his earlier attempts. He is glad to hear that Tolkien is ill again (because it keeps him from the front) and asks what exactly is wrong with him. He comments: ‘As you said, it is you and I now … the old and original. The whole thing is so ineffably mysterious. To have seen two of God’s giants pass before our eyes, to have lived and laughed with them, to have learnt of them, to have found them something like ourselves, and to see them go back again into the mist whence they came out.’ He understands that R.W. Reynolds has been in touch with Tolkien about publishing Smith’s poems, and says though he thinks Reynolds will do justice to Smith as a poet, he will see him ‘as a poet and not a man, as something like a successful protégé … as a genius, as a prodigy, anything but a soul who is saying what it feels and how it thinks.’ He asks Tolkien if he can do anything; he feels that the T.C.B.S. should have a hand in the matter, but if they do they must be ‘cruelly honest and not allow sentiment to cloud judgement’. He does not think that Smith’s last poems were