Timeline (1892-1949)
1890
1892
Born in Bloemfontein
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien is born to English parents in Bloemfontein (Orange Free State, now in South Africa). His father, Arthur Reuel Tolkien, is the manager of the Bank of Africa.
3 January
1894
Brother is born
Hilary Arthur Reuel Tolkien is born in Bloemfontein.
17 February
1895
Visits England
Arrives in England with his mother Mabel and his younger brother Hilary to visit family. Mabel had not been home for four years and it was the boys’ first visit to England.
April
1896
Father dies
Arthur Reuel Tolkien planned to join his family in England at the end of their extended visit and travel back to South Africa with them. Unexpectedly he falls ill with rheumatic fever and dies in Bloemfontein, aged thirty-eight.
15 February
1896-1900
Sarehole
Mabel decides to remain in England. She and her two young sons move to the village of Sarehole, near Birmingham where she educates the boys at home.
1900
1900
Mother converts to Catholicism
Mabel Tolkien is received into the Catholic Church against the wishes of her family.
June
1900
School-years in Birmingham
Mabel and her children move closer to King Edward’s School in Birmingham, where her eldest son is now a pupil.
September
1904
Mother dies
Mabel Tolkien dies of diabetes, aged thirty-four. Father Francis Morgan, a Catholic priest, becomes the boys’ guardian.
14 November
1908
Meets Edith Bratt
Moves to a new lodging house in Duchess Road, Edgbaston, with his brother Hilary. They meet fellow lodger, Edith Bratt, who is also an orphan.
1910
1909-1915
Invents languages: Qenya
After Nevbosh, after the Book of the Foxrook (1909), he keeps on inventing new languages such as Qenya: after new developments in 1914, the language is recorded in the 1915 Qenyaqetsa.
1910
Discovers sagas & the Kalevala
Reads the Icelandic sagas and the Finnish Kalevala in translation and discovers a love of northern myths and legends.
1910-1916
Writes poetry
He writes many poems; some like ‘The Voyage of Éarendel the Evening Star, (Sep 1914) are related to his burgeoning mythology. A volume of poetry is rejected by the publisher, Sidgwick and Jackson, in 1916.
1911
Foundation of the T.C.B.S.
Becomes part of the Tea Club & Barrovian Society (T.C.B.S.), a group formed at school with his friends Chris Wiseman, Rob Gilson and Geoffrey Smith. The four young men, each with their different individual talents, aim to make the world a better place and to create, ‘beauty in daily life.’
1911
Holiday in Switzerland
During the summer, before starting at university, he goes on a walking tour in the Swiss Alps, with a group that includes his brother Hilary and his aunt Jane Neave. Their experiences will inspire the mountain episodes in The Hobbit.
1911-1915
Student in Oxford
Studies Classics at Exeter College, Oxford for two years before changing to the English course so that he can pursue his interests in Germanic philology, and Old and Middle English in particular.
1912
‘The Bloodhound, the Chef and the Suffragette’
Writes (and plays the lead role in) the comic play, ‘The Bloodhound, the Chef and the Suffragette’, as part of family festivities with his Incledon cousins in Barnt Green, Worcestershire.
Christmas
1913
Trip to France
Employed as a tutor for three Catholic Mexican boys, he accompanies them to Paris and Brittany with their two aunts. One of the aunts is knocked down and killed by a car.
July-August
1914
‘The Story of Kullervo’
Rewrites the story of Kullervo from the Kalevala. Influenced by William Morris, the story is a mixture of prose and poetry.
1915
Graduates
Completes his studies and is awarded a first class honours degree in English.
June
1915
Enlists in army
Enlists as an officer in the Lancashire Fusiliers, and by May 1916 completes specialist training in signalling. The T.C.B.S. meet for what will be the last time in Lichfield in September.
1916
Wedding
Marries Edith Bratt in St Mary’s Catholic church in Warwick.
22 March
1916
Active service
Sent to France in June for the start of the Somme offensive, he experiences the ‘animal horror’ of trench warfare. Rob Gilson is killed on the first day of the Somme. Tolkien falls ill in October with trench fever and is invalided home in November. Geoffrey Smith dies from his wounds in France on 3rd December.
1916-1917
Writes the ‘Lost Tales’
Starts to write The Book of Lost Tales, a fiction in prose, partly rewritten in 1920 – and later published by Christopher Tolkien in The Book of Lost Tales, vols. 1 & 2 (1983-4).
1916-1923
Invents languages
Works on Primitive Eldarin and Gnomish (grammar & lexicon); makes lists of names used in The Lost Tales, and The Fall of Gondolin; works on Qenya pronouns.
1917
John is born
First son, John Francis Reuel Tolkien, is born in Cheltenham.
16 November
1918-1919
Oxford English Dictionary
Returns to Oxford after the war, and works as a lexicographer for the Oxford English Dictionary.
1920
1920
Michael is born
Second son, Michael Hilary Reuel Tolkien, is born in Oxford.
22 October
© Artemis, Leeds City Council
1920-1925
University of Leeds
Appointed Reader in English Language at Leeds in 1920; promoted to Professor of English Language in 1924.
1920-1925
Writes lays and poems
Besides The Lay of the Children of Húrin, he writes The Flight of the Noldoli, a Lay of Eärendel and a Lay of the Fall of Gondolin…, and leaves them unfinished. The texts are later published by Christopher Tolkien in The Lays of Beleriand (1985).
1921-1924
‘The Lay of the Children of Húrin’
Writes the first version of this alliterative poem, later published by Christopher Tolkien in The Lays of Beleriand (1985).
1922
A Middle English Vocabulary
This glossary, intended to accompany Kenneth Sisam’s Fourteenth Century Verse & Prose (1921), was not completed in time and was published separately.
1923-1925
Invented languages
Compiles earlier work on Elvish into a Noldorin dictionary; also works on an English-Qenya dictionary, and a Qenya phonology and grammar.
1924
Christopher is born
Third son, Christopher Reuel Tolkien, is born in Leeds.
21 November
1925
Professor at Oxford
Elected Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at the University of Oxford and Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford. Purchases a family home at 22 Northmoor Road, Oxford.
1925
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Publishes an edition of the Middle English poem with his colleague at Leeds, E.V. Gordon.
1926
Meets C.S. Lewis
C.S. Lewis, a Fellow and tutor in English Language and Literature at Magdalen College, Oxford becomes a lifelong friend. They are key members of an informal literary club called the Inklings, whose members meet once or twice a week to read aloud their own compositions in an atmosphere of male camaraderie.
1926
Beowulf
Completes his prose translation of Beowulf but it is not published until 2015.
1929
Priscilla is born
Fourth child and only daughter, Priscilla Mary Reuel Tolkien, is born in Oxford.
18 June
1930
1930
Moves to 20 Northmoor Road
He and Edith purchase a larger house next door (from the publisher, Basil Blackwell) and the family move their belongings over the fence. They live here for seventeen years.
February
1935
Francis Morgan dies
Father Francis Xavier Morgan, his former guardian and ‘second father’ dies aged 78.
11 June
1936
Songs for the Philologists
Booklet of poems, privately printed at University College, London, containing thirteen poems by Tolkien written to amuse his students at Leeds.
1936
Beowulf lecture
Delivers, ‘Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics’, the Sir Israel Gollancz Memorial Lecture at the British Academy.
25 November
1937
The Hobbit
His first work of fiction is published by George Allen & Unwin, with illustrations and maps by the author.
21 September
1937
‘The Silmarillion’ is rejected
Following the commercial success of The Hobbit, he submits prose and verse sections of his unfinished work, ‘The Silmarillion’ but this work is rejected by his publisher.
December
1937-1955
Writes The Lord of the Rings
Starts writing a sequel to The Hobbit in December 1937. The book is eventually published in three volumes, 1954-55.
1939
‘On Fairy-Stories’
Delivers ‘On Fairy-Stories’, the Andrew Lang Lecture at the University of St. Andrews. The lecture is later published in Essays Presented to Charles Williams (1947).
8 March
1939-1945
Second World War
Takes part in the civil defence in Oxford as an Air Raid Warden. His son Michael trains as an anti-aircraft gunner and defends aerodromes during the Battle of Britain. His son Christopher trains as a fighter pilot in the Royal Air Force.
1940
1940-1950
The Notion Club Papers
Writes The Notion Club Papers. This unfinished tale is published after his death in Sauron Defeated (1992).
1945
‘Leaf, by Niggle’
Publishes this short story, written several years earlier, in the Dublin Review.
January
1945
Merton Professor at Oxford
Elected Merton Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Oxford and Fellow of Merton College.
June
1945
‘Aotrou and Itroun’
Publishes ‘The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun’, a fairy tale in verse based on Breton folk-tales, in the Welsh Review.
December
1947
Sells 20 Northmoor Road
Tolkien and his wife sell the family home which is now too large and move into a house owned by Merton College in Manor Road, closer to the centre of Oxford.
March
1949
Farmer Giles of Ham
This comic tale is published with illustrations by Pauline Baynes.
1950