Víga-Glúms Saga, ed. *(E.O.) G. Turville-Petre (1940) was originally a thesis produced under Tolkien’s supervision. In this Turville-Petre wrote: ‘It would be difficult to overestimate all that I owe to Professor Tolkien; his sympathy and encouragement have been constant and, throughout the work, I have had the benefit of his wide scholarship’ (p. vi).
Elizabethan Acting by B.L. Joseph (1951) includes a brief acknowledgement to Tolkien, among others.
Þorgils saga ok Hafliða, ed. Ursula Brown (1952) thanks Tolkien and *Alistair Campbell for ‘valuable criticism and advice’ (p. vi). The chief guide of the original thesis was Gabriel Turville-Petre.
Sir Orfeo, ed. *A.J. Bliss (1954) records a debt to Tolkien, the editor’s B.Litt. supervisor, ‘whose penetrating scholarship is an inspiration to all who have worked with him’ (p. vi).
The Peterborough Chronicle 1070–1154, ed. Cecily Clark (1958) includes no acknowledgement to Tolkien, but correspondence indicates that he was concerned with its publication.
*The Old English Apollonius of Tyre, ed. Peter Goolden (1958), for which Tolkien wrote a brief prefatory note, includes thanks to Tolkien for suggesting ‘revisions in presentation and style’, though the ‘prime mover of the work’ was *C.L. Wrenn (p. vi).
Sonnets by William Alabaster, ed. G.M. Story and Helen Gardner (1959), includes no acknowledgement to Tolkien.
Oxford English School. A chair of Anglo-Saxon was established at the University of *Oxford as early as 1795; from 1873 English was among the subjects that could be taken in the lesser pass examination; from 1881 English Language and Literature was one of the special examinations for women; and in 1885 the Merton Professorship of English Language and Literature was created. It was not until 1894, however, that an English Final Honour School was established by statute.
Several earlier attempts had failed, partly because of the competing interests of *Philology and Literature, resulting in different views as to what the School should teach. There was a deep feeling that the study of English Literature might be a ‘soft’ option compared with other subjects, and therefore Philology and Language studies, which would provide a more exacting discipline, should form a substantial part of the English syllabus. The statute that eventually established the English School laid down that only those who had already obtained Honours in another school, or had passed the First Public Examination (either Classical Honour Moderations or Pass Moderations) would be admitted. D.J. Palmer points out in The Rise of English Studies (1965) that this ‘meant in effect that apart from the women candidates, the English School recruited largely from undergraduates who had passed Honour Moderations’ (p. 112). This was still the case when Tolkien transferred to the Oxford English School after taking Honour Moderations in 1913.
The syllabus introduced in 1894 was intended to provide a balance between Language and Literature. All candidates were required to take papers on Old English Texts; Middle English Texts; *Chaucer and Piers Plowman; *Shakespeare; Authors from 1700 to 1832; History of English Literature to 1800 (including criticism); History of the English Language; and (together) Gothic and unseen translations from Old and Middle English. Only two papers devoted to Special Subjects allowed any choice. The first Honour Examination was held in 1896. The committee that drafted the syllabus had hoped that at least some of the examination papers would cover both literary and linguistic matters (for example, literary as well as linguistic aspects of *Beowulf), but in most cases this did not happen. In 1898 History of English Literature to 1800 (including criticism) was replaced by two papers devoted to a general History of English Literature (including criticism) before and after 1700.
Palmer notes that the new school was dominated by philologists who did not adapt their teaching to the wider view encompassed by the syllabus, and for many years there was only one teacher on the Literature side, due to lack of support by the University and the colleges. It was not until the appointment of *Walter Raleigh in 1904 to a newly created Professorship of English Literature that there was any real development of the Literature side. Raleigh also introduced an important change in the syllabus which came into effect in 1908, and
recognized the de facto division between ‘literature’ and ‘language’ created by the nature of the available teaching, and which therefore abandoned the original principle that literature and language should not be identified with modern and medieval periods respectively. Raleigh’s notion … was that those who wished to specialize in either literature or language should be allowed to take separate papers …. [Palmer, p. 128]
In submitting proposals to the Board of Studies Raleigh and his colleague *A.S. Napier stated that ‘the [Oxford English] School has to provide for the needs of two classes of students – those who are primarily students of language, and those who are primarily students of literature. Experience has shown that the existing scheme is too rigid, and does not allow sufficient freedom for the development of excellence in either branch of the subject’ (quoted in Palmer, p. 129). Palmer calls this division ‘a recognition of defeat so far as a genuine combination of “English Language and Literature” was concerned’, and places the blame mainly on ‘the failure of the philologists to treat medieval texts as literature … their neglect of literature after the age of Chaucer, and … the inadequate provision of teaching on the literature side’ (pp. 129–30).
Four papers on Beowulf and Old English texts, *Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and other Middle English texts, Chaucer, and Shakespeare remained compulsory. Otherwise students could choose to take papers devoted to Literature (with the exception of a compulsory paper on the History of the English Language) or to Language (with the exception of a compulsory paper on the History of English Literature). With minor adjustments, this scheme was the one Tolkien followed as an undergraduate.
To deal with the lack of suitable tuition provided by the colleges, a Committee of English Studies was formed, which put forward a proposal to establish a ‘pool’ of teachers who would provide adequate lectures, classes, and tutorials in return for the payment of a fee for each student of English by his college. Most colleges welcomed this offer, and the English Fund was established. During the years that Tolkien was an undergraduate, those lecturing and teaching in the English School included *H.F.C. Brett-Smith, lecturer and tutor in English; *W.A. Craigie, Taylorian Lecturer in Scandinavian Languages, for those who chose Scandinavian Philology as a special subject; *George S. Gordon, fellow of Magdalen College; A.S. Napier, Merton Professor of English Language and Literature and Rawlinson Professor of Anglo-Saxon; *David Nichol Smith, Goldsmiths’ Reader in English; Sir Walter Raleigh, Professor of English Literature, from 1914 attached to Merton College; *Percy Simpson, lecturer in English; Napier’s assistant *Kenneth Sisam; and *Joseph Wright, the Professor of Comparative Philology.
From its inception the English School was also intended to foster graduate studies. It attracted a large number of B.Litt. students, and from 1917, when the degree was introduced, a smaller number of students working towards the D.Phil. David Nichol Smith defined the difference between the B.Litt. and the D.Phil. in his paper ‘The Degree of Doctor of Philosophy’ delivered to the Fourth Congress of the Universities of the British Empire in Edinburgh on 8 July 1931:
All B.Litt. Probationers attend classes in such subjects as Elizabethan handwriting, the relation of manuscripts, the establishment of texts, the history of English editing of English Studies, bibliography, the resources of the Bodleian. In these classes they are instructed in the use of their tools, and after three terms’ instruction they are examined. They have then to submit a specimen piece of prentice work – their dissertation. They have to pass