We would also like to point out, in reply to a criticism we received after publication of the Companion and Guide, that it is in no way feasible to cite our precise source for every piece of data. We have done so to the extent possible, identifying sources of quoted matter and documenting (at some length) the printed and principal online resources upon which we relied; but to do more would have needed another volume for that purpose alone. A single sentence in the Chronology, for instance, might be drawn from two or three sources, while some Reader’s Guide articles are based on dozens.
As always, we are grateful to members of the Tolkien family for their assistance and support. For the original edition, Christopher Tolkien acted as our mentor, a greater task than could be imagined when this book was first proposed (as a single volume), and with his sister Priscilla shared memories of their father. Priscilla Tolkien also read parts of the first edition text in draft, and suggested valuable additions and improvements. Joanna Tolkien, Michael George Tolkien, and Simon Tolkien were also of assistance.
We would like to thank David Brawn at HarperCollins for his suggestion that we write for J.R.R. Tolkien the equivalent of Walter Hooper’s excellent C.S. Lewis: A Companion & Guide, and Chris Smith for help in matters of production. Thanks are due as well to Cathleen Blackburn of Maier Blackburn, legal representatives of the Tolkien Estate, who has guided us in matters related to copyright and permissions to quote from Tolkien’s writings.
Also for the original edition, we owe special thanks to Arden R. Smith, who kindly read most of the book in typescript and advised us especially on matters concerning Tolkienian linguistics; to Douglas A. Anderson, for reading parts of the Companion and Guide, for sharing with us information about Tolkien’s early poetry, and for supplying other useful details; and to John Garth, for allowing us to read an early draft of part of his Tolkien and the Great War (2003) and for saving us time during our own early research in the National Archives by supplying us with pertinent reference numbers.
We are deeply grateful to the highly knowledgeable staff of many libraries and archives, including: Owen Dobbs, Blackwell’s Bookshops; Neil Somerville, BBC Written Archives Centre, Caversham Park, Reading; Philippa Bassett, University of Birmingham Archives; Sandy Botha, Bloemfontein Cathedral; Judith Priestman, Colin Harris, Catherine McIlwaine, and other staff of the Department of Special Collections and Western Manuscripts, Bodleian Library, Oxford; the staff of Duke Humfrey’s Library, Bodleian Library; the staff of the Bodleian Law Library; Angela Pusey, British Academy; the staff of the Department of Manuscripts, British Library, London; John Wells, Department of Manuscripts and University Archives, Cambridge University Library; the staff of the Centre for Oxfordshire Studies, Oxford Central Library; Richard Hamer, Vincent Gillespie, and Judith Curthoys of the library of Christ Church, Oxford, for the Early English Text Society archive; the staff of Christie’s, South Kensington; Thomas Lecky and Francis Wahlgren of Christie’s, New York; Christine Butler, archives of Corpus Christi College, Oxford; Susan Usher, the English Faculty Library, Oxford; Paul Cavill, the English Place-Name Society; Lorise Topliffe and John Maddicott, Exeter College Library, Oxford; Natalie Milne, Glasgow University Archive Services; the staff of HarperCollins, London; the staff of the Houghton Library, Harvard University; Ólöf Dagný, Hið íslenska bókmenntafélag (Icelandic Literary Society), Reykjavík; Kerry York, King Edward’s School, Birmingham; Ann Farr and Sarah Prescott, Brotherton Library, the University of Leeds; Mark Shipway, Leeds University archives; Charles Elston, Matt Blessing, William Fliss, and others in the Department of Special Collections and University Archives, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Fiona Wilkes and Sarah Bendall, Merton College Library, Oxford; the staff of the National Archives, Kew (formerly the Public Record Office); Tony Cadogan, National Sound Archives, British Library, London; John Foley, National University of Ireland; Simon Bailey and Alice Blackford, Oxford University Archives; Martin Maw and Jenny McMorris, Oxford University Press Archives; Rob Wilkes, Oxford Theses (Humanities), Bodleian Library; Naomi Van Loo and Ellena J. Pike, McGowin Library, Pembroke College, Oxford; the staff of the Radcliffe Science Library, Oxford; Michael Bott, Department of Archives and Manuscripts, University of Reading; Meic Pierce Owen, University of St Andrews Library; David Smith, St Anne’s College Library, Oxford; Carolyn Warne, St Leonard’s School, Fife; Claire Goodwin, Simmons College Archives, Boston, Massachusetts; Roger Dalrymple, Society for the Study of Mediaeval Languages and Literature; Sister Helen Forshaw, archives of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus; Phillip Errington, Sotheby’s, London; the staff of the Staffordshire Archives Service; the staff of the Taylor Institution Library, Oxford; Lucy Wright, the library of University College, London; Kirsten Williams, Viking Society for Northern Research; Christopher Mitchell, Marjorie Mead, and the staff of the Marion E. Wade Center, Wheaton College, Illinois; the libraries of Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts; and Joanna Parker, Worcester College Library, Oxford.
For assistance in ways both large and small, we are grateful to Mikael Ahlström; Chris Anderson; Pauline Baynes; Paula Bergstrom; Craig Bowen; David Bratman; Denis Bridoux; Hugh Brogan; John Buckelew; Maggie Burns; Marjorie Burns; Raymond Chang; Joe R. Christopher; Oronzo Cilli; ‘Darkstone’; David ‘Hisilome’; Merlin DeTardo; Michaël Devaux; ‘diedye’; David Doughan; Brad Eden; Jeremy Edmonds; Julian Eilmann; John Ellison; Andrew Ferguson; Jason Fisher; Matt Fisher; Timothy Fisher; Michael Flowers; Troels Forchhammer; Mike Foster; Steve Frisby; Christopher Gilson; Diana Pavlac Glyer; Nelson Goering; David M. Gransby; Colin Harper; John Hayes; David Henshall; William C. Hicklin; ‘hisataka’; Mark Hooker; Carl F. Hostetter; Charles A. Huttar; Jeff Kinder; David King; Stuart Lee; R.G. Leonberger; Josh B. Long; Julia Margretts; Jeremy Marshall; Fiona Mercey; Ed Meskys; Gregory Miller; Peter Miskech; Andrew H. Morton; Matthias Nauhaus; Rumas Nicholas; Ed Pierce; Juha-Matti Rajala; John D. Rateliff; Alan and Louise Reynolds; Paolo Romeo; René van Rossenberg; Elena Rossi; William A.S. Sarjeant; Marek Srodziemie; Simon Stacey; Vivien Stocker; Beregond (Anders Stenström); Yvan Strelzyk; Richard Sturch; Agnieszka Sylwanowicz; Makoto Takahashi; Tonny ten Dam; Paul Edmund Thomas; George H. Thompson; Morgan Thomsen; Johann Vanhecke; Tony Wearing; Richard C. West; Diana and Barry Willson; Susan Wood; and Jessica Yates. Our apologies to anyone whose name we have missed.
Too many of the kind readers, dear friends, and valued colleagues acknowledged here are no longer with us; to them we give special thoughts and thanks for their contributions. Most especially, we remain indebted to the dedicatee of this book, the late Rayner Unwin, for advice in the writing of the Companion and Guide and for many years of friendship and encouragement.
Christina Scull & Wayne G. Hammond
Williamstown, Massachusetts
April 2017
IN ADDITION to matters with which J.R.R. Tolkien was directly concerned, the Chronology includes selected events from the wider history of the world, as useful points of reference. Subjects marked with an asterisk (*), for the most part only at their first mention, are treated more fully in the Reader’s Guide volumes of the Companion and Guide. Dates are given as precisely as possible, qualified if approximate (c. = circa) or uncertain (?). Here it has seemed appropriate to refer to the young Tolkien as ‘Ronald’ before he went up to Oxford (October 1911), and thereafter usually as ‘Tolkien’. Unless otherwise noted, ‘Gilson’ refers to Robert Q. (Rob) Gilson, ‘Smith’ to Geoffrey Bache (G.B.) Smith, and ‘Wiseman’ to Christopher Wiseman, three of Tolkien’s closest friends during his schooldays and the First World War.
18 February 1857 *Arthur Reuel Tolkien, son of John Benjamin and Mary Jane Tolkien (see *Tolkien family),