30 April. But because Tolkien is still recovering from his squash injury, his lectures are cancelled, and instead he reads Old Norse and Old English texts with small classes at home in 20 Northmoor Road: Atlakviða on Tuesdays at 11:00 a.m.; Völundarkviða and Deor’s Lament on Thursdays at 11.00 a.m.; and Andreas with other Old English texts on Thursdays at 5.00 p.m. Undergraduates wishing to attend are required to inform Tolkien in advance, if possible before 28 April. – Tolkien will continue to supervise B.Litt. student M.E. Griffiths, who is required to apply for a certificate during this term (but apparently abandons her thesis, as she is no longer listed in Michaelmas Term 1936).
28 April 1936 Tolkien writes a nine-page historical note on inflexions in Primitive Quendian, entitled *Primitive Quendian Structure.
April or May 1936 The Rev. Adrian Morey writes to Tolkien. He has discovered an Anglo-Saxon version of the Lord’s Prayer (‘Our Father’) in a manuscript in the British Museum, and asks if it is worth publishing. Tolkien suggests that Morey write an article, which would be useful to students.
?May–?June 1936 C.S. Lewis lends Tolkien his copy of The Silver Trumpet by Owen Barfield. It is much appreciated by the Tolkien children.
1 May 1936 In the evening, Tolkien, on crutches, attends a dinner of The Society hosted by Sir Francis Wylie at Brasenose College, Oxford. Nineteen members are present; no paper being presented, they give themselves up to conversation.
9 May 1936 Italy formally annexes Ethiopia. The King of Italy assumes the title ‘Emperor of Ethiopia’.
13 May 1936 The Rev. Adrian Morey acknowledges Tolkien’s reply. Tolkien will later recall that he
once (lightheartedly) began to collect material for the history of the “Our Father” in English – inspired by some correspondence with Dom Adrian Morey. I thought it would mainly concern minor changes in syntax (as which, who), and the variants used for temptation and trespass(es); but I soon found that it was a much more complicated matter, not only because of the divergence between the use as a prayer and the translations of the Gospels, but because of the difficulties in the Greek and Latin texts. Also there have been a very large number of divergent versions in English, and there are still several in use…. [Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford]
E.O.G. Turville-Petre will send him copies of two Icelandic versions in April 1943.
15 May 1936 Tolkien attends an English Faculty Board meeting. He submits manuscript and mimeographed proposals for a revision of texts prescribed or cited in the regulations for the English Honour School. – He also attends a Pembroke College meeting.
17 May 1936 The Catholic Archbishop of Birmingham, Dr Williams, comes to Oxford to commemorate the seventh centenary of the death of the Blessed Agnellus of Pisa, sent to England by St Francis to found a province of the Franciscan Order. The Archbishop visits the site of the first Franciscan church in the country. The Times of 19 May will list Tolkien among those ‘who took part in the procession from Campion Hall to the site of the church’ and that ‘during the morning a Mass was sung in the church of [St] Edmund and St Frideswide, near the new Greyfriars Friary, in the presence of the Archbishop’ (p. 28).
21 May 1936 The Allegory of Love: A Study in Medieval Tradition by C.S. Lewis is published. In his preface Lewis notes that ‘the first chapter was read and commented upon by Mr. B. Macfarlane [i.e. Bruce McFarlane] and Professor Tolkien so long ago that they have probably forgotten the labour, but I do not therefore forget the kindness.’
June 1936 The June number of Medium Ævum no longer lists Tolkien as a member of the Executive Committee of the Society for the Study of Mediæval Languages and Literature, but he is now on its Editorial Board with C.T. Onions, Eugène Vinaver, and others. He will continue to be on the Editorial Board until his retirement from academic duties in 1959.
2 June 1936 Tolkien has apparently undertaken to act as one of the examiners for the M.A. degree at the University of London for four years. He receives some M.A. papers to mark on this date, from E.V. Gordon who seems to have acted as liaison.
3 June 1936 E.V. Gordon, having realized that he had said nothing about the marking system when he sent the papers, writes to explain it. He has read the edition of Seinte Iuliene and is ‘grieved that your name is not attached to it, because … practically all that is especially valuable in it is recognisably yours. There is really no other piece of Middle English editing to touch it. And the financial interest in it is really not sufficient reward or return for the wealth of new material you have given’ (Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford).
Between 3 and 11 June 1936 Tolkien writes to E.V. Gordon with queries about the London M.A. papers.
11 June 1936 Tolkien attends an English Faculty Library Committee meeting in the Library. It is noted that Professor Tolkien, Dr Onions, and the Librarian have been requested to act as the Bodleian committee for the purchase of foreign books on English. – English Final Honour School Examinations begin. – E.V. Gordon writes in response to Tolkien’s queries. Vivas will be held in London on 12 June, before which date the marked scripts are required. Tolkien will not be concerned with vivas until the last two years of his appointment. The papers from overseas candidates will arrive for marking later. Gordon, the Smith Professor of English Language and Germanic Philology at the University of Manchester since autumn 1931, discusses the viva date for Manchester, where Tolkien is also an external examiner; Tolkien had hoped to be able to change it, but that will not be possible. Gordon hopes that Tolkien can be in Manchester on 26 June, as the relevant documents must be signed by both external examiners to be legal. He is sorry that Tolkien cannot stay for the weekend. As a result of the publication of Seinte Iuliene several scholars are revising their works in progress.
14 June 1936 G.K. Chesterton dies.
19 June 1936 Tolkien attends an English Faculty Board meeting. – He also attends a Pembroke College meeting.
20 June 1936 Trinity Full Term ends.
24 June 1936 Encaenia.
18 July 1936 The Spanish Civil War begins.
21 July 1936 Tolkien receives a letter from the BBC asking for permission to broadcast part of his translation of the Middle English poem Pearl in the late evening during August. Tolkien replies on the same day, authorizing the reading.
7 August 1936 Part of Tolkien’s translation of Pearl is read on London regional radio at 11.40 p.m.
10 August 1936 Tolkien writes to his son Christopher. ‘The Hobbit is now nearly finished, and the publishers clamouring for it’ (quoted in Biography, p. 180).
22 August 1936 Edith Mary ‘May’ Incledon dies.
?Summer 1936 Tolkien learns that he has been awarded a Leverhulme Research Fellowship from October 1936 for two years. – He engages his son Michael to help in making a fresh typescript of The Hobbit. In the event, Tolkien completes this himself.
?September 1936 The Tolkien family have two weeks’ holiday at Sidmouth.
13 September 1936 The Rev. Adrian Morey writes to Tolkien. He has decided to include the text of the Anglo-Saxon ‘Our Father’ in a book, and asks Tolkien to write out a version to send to Cambridge University Press. The text will be published in Bartholomew of Exeter, Bishop and Canonist: A Study in the Twelfth Century (1937), in which Morey thanks Tolkien for his assistance.
25 September 1936 Simonne d’Ardenne writes to Tolkien. As soon as she finishes an article on the Brussels Cross she will send it to him as he had asked. She is sending him three versions of Seinte Katerine; in these she has noted the illuminated capitals and thinks that the printer might represent each