12 January 1913 Hilary Full Term begins.
Hilary Term 1913 Tolkien works hard, but he has to take Honour Moderations at the end of February, and now has only a few weeks to make up for the four terms in which he has not devoted enough time to his studies. From 14 January he will attend Joseph Wright’s continuing lectures on Comparative Latin Grammar on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12.15 p.m. in the Taylor Institution, and perhaps also E.A. Barber’s lectures on Virgil (questions and translations) on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays at 10.00 a.m. at Exeter College, or those by Gilbert Murray on Euripides’ Bacchae (a set text) on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10.00 a.m. in the Examination Schools. – Presumably in preparation for Honour Moderations only six weeks later (see entry for 27 February), Tolkien borrows from the Exeter College library Œdipus Tyrannus and Elektra by Sophocles and the Eumenides, Agamemnon, and Choephoroe by Aeschylus. – Tolkien continues to play an active role in the Stapeldon Society; his participation in other societies or clubs during this term is not clear. Three meetings of the Exeter College Essay Club are held in Hilary Term, at which papers are presented on (at least) the poetry of Oscar Wilde, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti as a poet and artist. See note.
20 January 1913 At a meeting of the Stapeldon Society Tolkien is elected to the Kitchen Committee together with Mr Price. The minutes record that Mr Price said that he considered quantity of food more important than quality, but Mr Tolkien ‘expressed his capacity for discrimination and guaranteed the suppression of Mr Price’s tendencies’ (Exeter College archives). During a debate at the same meeting Tolkien speaks against the motion: ‘The Pipe is better than the Cigarette.’ The motion fails, 5 votes to 8. In fact, Tolkien usually smokes a pipe, only occasionally cigarettes.
27 January 1913 At a meeting of the Stapeldon Society the College charges committee, of which Tolkien is a member, presents its report. This is amended and carried for first reading.
1 February 1913 Tolkien sends Edith a picture postcard of the dining hall at Exeter College, with an ‘X’ marking where he sits. See note. He tells her that he has been to Holy Communion that morning and will go again the next day (Sunday), and that he is about to go to a meeting of the Old Edwardians.
3 February 1913 The Stapeldon Society meets.
10 February 1913 The Stapeldon Society meets.
17 February 1913 The Stapeldon Society meets. The minutes record that ‘Mr Gordon was censured for appearing on the towpath in a large overcoat and carrying a stick or cane borrowed from Hookham and tripping Mr Hoffman up and almost causing him to fall into The River. After the House had unanimously agreed in condemning Mr Gordon, Mr Tolkien rose and said it was he who tripped Mr Hoffman but even then the House remained adamant in its hostile attitude towards Mr Gordon’ (Exeter College archives). – Sydney Cohen, an Exeter College exhibitioner of Tolkien’s year and a fellow resident of the ‘Swiss Cottage’, kills himself in the presence of a fellow student, Henry ‘Rex’ Allpass.
Late February 1913 Tolkien apparently makes another visit to Cheltenham. See note.
24 February 1913 The Stapeldon Society meets.
27 February 1913 The First Public Examination for the Honour School of Greek and Latin Literature (Honour Moderations) begins. Tolkien takes probably twelve written papers, each of three hours’ duration, one in the morning and one in the afternoon over a period of several days. He is required to translate passages from Homer and Demosthenes, and from Virgil and Cicero (the Orations); and to translate, without preparation, passages from Greek authors other than Homer and Demosthenes, and from Latin authors other than Virgil and Cicero. He is also examined on four Greek plays, Œdipus Tyrannus and Elektra by Sophocles, Agamemnon by Aeschylus, and the Bacchae by Euripides, with special attention to Œdipus Tyrannus; on Plato, his choice of two of the Gorgias, Protagoras, and Phædo; on Annals I–IV by Tacitus; and on Latin prose composition, on Greek prose composition, and on Greek and Latin verse composition. In addition he takes a general paper on Greek and Latin grammar, literary criticism, and antiquities, including questions on Homer, Virgil, Demosthenes, and Cicero; and a paper on a subject of his choice, the elements of Comparative Philology as applied to Greek and Latin, with a special knowledge of Greek philology.
28 February 1913 Tolkien resigns from the King Edward’s Horse. His discharge certificate, dated 28 February 1913, certifies that Trooper no. 1624, who enlisted to serve in the Territorial Force of the County of London on 28 November 1911, is discharged in consequence of his own request, and that his claims have been properly settled. See note.
March 1913 Tolkien’s efforts to make up for lost time prove insufficient to achieve a First Class in Honour Moderations. He is placed in the Second Class, though the examiners give his paper on Comparative Philology an ‘alpha’ (see note). One examiner notes in the mark book (Oxford University Archives EX 2/2/23) that Tolkien’s Latin Prose paper was ‘largely illegible’ and his Greek Verse paper was written in ‘filthy script!’ His lowest marks are for the translation of Virgil, for the paper on Tacitus, and for Latin verse composition. His tutors having noted his success in the Comparative Philology paper, and at least Professor Joseph Wright knowing of his interest in Germanic languages, suggest that Tolkien change from Classics to the English Honour School in the following (Trinity) term. Exeter College very generously allows Tolkien to keep his Classics exhibition when he agrees to this suggestion; he will learn that this was due to the influence of his tutor, L.R. Farnell, at that time Sub-Rector of the College, who had a great respect for Philology.
3 March 1913 The Stapeldon Society meets.
End of Hilary Term or beginning of Trinity Term 1913 L.R. Farnell writes about Tolkien to *A.S. Napier, the Merton Professor of English Language and Rawlinson Professor of Anglo-Saxon. Tolkien visits Napier at his house in Headington, east of the centre of Oxford. ‘I recall that I was ushered into a very dim room and could hardly see Napier. He was courteous, but said little. He never spoke to me again. I attended his lectures, when he was well enough to give them’ (letter to *Neil Ker, 22 November 1970, Letters, p. 406).
8 March 1913 Hilary Full Term ends.
18 March 1913 Tolkien returns to Birmingham to take part in the annual Open Debate at King Edward’s School. The motion ‘That modern life is prosaic’ is introduced by Sidney Barrowclough (‘only the educated classes … would choose to discuss a motion of such a kind; any other class would take its truth for granted’), then argued by G.B. Smith in the negative (‘no life could be prosaic, which was lived in an age of problems as great and as interesting as those of the present day’), G.H. Bonner in the affirmative (‘The question before the House was, not whether romance was dead or not, but whether there was enough of it in modern life to make that life other than prosaic’), and R.S. Payton in the negative (‘The object of modern life … was universal knowledge. But the actual importance of this search has made it far more romantic than the mythical quest of the ancient demi-god’). The discussion being thrown open to all,
Mr J.R.R. Tolkien rose to oppose the motion. After to some extent criticising the speakers on both sides, he declared that romance did not mean megalomania, and was far more likely to be found in an age of small and limited efforts, than in one of boasting, and of excessive ambition. Finality was essential to it; what was not essential was, that there should be any knowledge or realisation of its existence before a romantic life could be lived.
Tolkien ‘considered that the proof of the motion would be found in the lives of the poor, and instanced their taste for exciting literature’ (‘Debating Society’, King Edward’s School Chronicle n.s. 28, no. 199 (May 1913), pp. 34–6). The motion fails, 19 votes to 52.
21 March 1913 Rob Gilson sends a postcard to Tolkien at Exeter College; on 25 March it will be forwarded to Tolkien at Phoenix Farm,