J.R.R. Tolkien Timeline – The Tolkien Society

J.R.R. Tolkien Timeline

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Sections

Early Life
Oxford and Early Career
The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and Academic Career
Retirement and Later Life
Posthumous Events
Acknowledgements

Early Life

1857	Birth of Arthur Reuel Tolkien, Tolkien’s father, in Birmingham.
1870	Birth of Mabel Suffield, Tolkien’s mother, in Birmingham.
21 January 1889	Birth of Edith Mary Bratt, Tolkien’s future wife, in Gloucester.
16 April 1891	Arthur Tolkien and Mabel Suffield get married in Cape Town Cathedral.
3 January 1892	Birth of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien in Bloemfontein, Orange Free State (now part of South Africa).
17 February 1894	Birth of Tolkien’s younger brother, Hilary.
Spring 1895	Mabel Tolkien returns to England with her two boys.
15 February 1896	Death of Arthur Tolkien in Bloemfontein.
Summer 1896	Mabel Tolkien rents a cottage near Sarehole Mill, Moseley, on the outskirts of Birmingham.
June 1900	Mabel is accepted into the Roman Catholic Church.
Autumn 1900	Tolkien attends King Edward’s School, Birmingham as a fee-paying student, but he does not attend in December.
c. 1901	Mabel and her boys move to King’s Heath, another suburb of Birmingham.
1902	The Tolkiens move to Edgbaston, Birmingham. The boys are enrolled at St Philip’s Grammar School, but later in the year Ronald is educated at home.
January 1903	Tolkien attends King Edward’s School again, this time on a scholarship.
Spring 1904	Mabel is diagnosed with diabetes, and is hospitalised for a few weeks. She dies in November. Ronald and his brother Hilary become wards of Father Morgan, a priest at the Birmingham Oratory.
1905	Aunt Beatrice accepts the boys into her home in Stirling Road.
Autumn Term 1907	Tolkien probably invents his private language ‘Naffarin’ based on Spanish and Latin.
1908	The boys move to Duchess Road and live with Mrs. Faulkner. Tolkien meets Edith Bratt, another lodger.
Autumn 1909	Father Francis Morgan discovers the romance between Tolkien and Edith. Ronald fails a scholarship to Oxford.
January 1910	The Tolkien brothers move to new lodgings where Ronald’s romance with Edith continues until Father Francis forbids him to communicate with her.
March 1910	Edith moves to Cheltenham.
4 November 1910	Tolkien speaks in his school debating society deploring the occurrence of the Norman Conquest.
17 December 1910	Tolkien obtains a scholarship at Oxford’s Exeter College.
March 1911	Tolkien’s poem ‘The Battle of the Eastern Field’ is printed in the King Edward’s School Chronicle.
Summer Term 1911	Tolkien becomes school librarian, and the T.C.B.S. is formed.
August 1911	Tolkien visits Switzerland before starting university.

Oxford and Early Career

October 1911	Tolkien begins studying at Oxford.
November 1911	Tolkien begins studying Finnish.
3 November 1912	Tolkien becomes a member of the Exeter College Essay Club.
1913	Tolkien writes to Edith on his 21st birthday, and soon after they become engaged.
Late Jul-Aug 1913	Tolkien is paid to accompany two Mexican boys and their aunts to Paris and Dinard. One of the aunts is hit by a car and dies.
January 1914	Tolkien and Edith become betrothed after she is received into the Catholic Church.
24 September 1914	Tolkien writes his first identifiable “Middle-earth” fragment ‘The Voyage of Éarendel the Evening Star’.
Autumn 1914	Tolkien begins to write The Story of Kullervo.
27 November 1914	Tolkien revises the poem later called ‘The Horns of Ylmir’ [ie. Ulmo].
April 1915	The poems ‘You & Me and the Cottage of Lost Play’ and ‘Kôr’ are written. Tolkien gains a First Class Honours degree. He obtains a commission in the Lancashire Fusiliers and trains in Bedford and Staffordshire.
12 September 1915	Tolkien writes the poem ‘A Song of Aryador’ while stationed in Staffordshire.
25-6 Sep 1915	Final meeting of all four main members of the T.C.B.S. in Lichfield.
c. 8 Nov 1915	Tolkien writes the poem ‘Kortirion among the Trees’.
December 1915	Tolkien’s poem ‘Goblin Feet’ is published in Oxford Poetry 1915.
Jan-Feb 1916	Tolkien writes ‘Over Old Hills and Far Away’ a poem featuring Tinfang Warble.
22 March 1916	Ronald and Edith are married in Warwick.
Apr-May 1916	Tolkien was based in Otley, near Leeds as he took an army signalling course. Edith lives in Great Haywood.
6 June 1916	Tolkien travels to France. On the boat he writes the poem ‘The Lonely Isle’. Tolkien becomes a Battalion Signalling Officer.
1 July 1916	Battle of the Somme begins. Rob Gilson, close friend and member of the T.C.B.S. dies.
27 October 1916	Tolkien reports sick.
9 November 1916	Suffering from trench fever, Tolkien returns to England.
3 December 1916	G.B. Smith, a member of the T.C.B.S., dies from wounds received 4 days earlier.
Jan-Feb 1917	Tolkien works on The Book of Lost Tales during convalescence in Great Haywood.
12 February 1917	The first version of The Cottage of Lost Play is completed by this date.
Spring 1917	‘The Fall of Gondolin’ is probably written before June. He is posted to Yorkshire, but he suffers recurring bouts of illness.
c. May 1917	Tolkien is inspired by watching Edith dance in a ‘hemlock’ glade near Roos. This is the germ for the meeting of Lúthien and Beren in his legendarium.
Before 13 Aug 1917	Tolkien is admitted to Brooklands Officers’ Hospital, Hull, where among other things he works on ‘The Tale of Tinúviel’, ‘The Grey Bridge of Tavrobel’, and on a lexicon and grammar of his Gnomish language.
16 November 1917	The Tolkiens’ eldest son, John, is born in Cheltenham.
Late 1917	Tolkien probably starts work on The Tale of Turambar.
c. Jul-Sep 1918	Tolkien is readmitted to Brooklands Officers’ Hospital.
November 1918	The Tolkiens return to Oxford. Tolkien obtains employment with the New English Dictionary [Oxford English Dictionary]. Tolkien probably begins work on the first version of ‘The Music of the Ainur’.
1919	Tolkien works as a freelance tutor in addition to work for the Oxford English Dictionary. He probably writes an early version of ‘The Chaining of Melko’, ‘The Coming of the Elves and the Making of Kôr’ and ‘The Theft of Melko and the Darkening of Valinor’.
10 March 1920	Tolkien reads a shortened version of ‘The Fall of Gondolin’ to the Exeter College Essay Club.
Autumn 1920	He begins work as a Reader in English Language at Leeds University. Michael, the Tolkiens’ second son is born on 22 October.
December 1920	Tolkien writes a letter to John as if from Father Christmas, which is the first of The Father Christmas Letters.
March 1921	Tolkien finds suitable rented rooms in Headingley, Leeds for his family, who move up from Oxford to join him a few weeks later. Tolkien may have begun an alliterative poetic version of The Children of Húrin once he was settled in Leeds.
Late August 1921	The Tolkiens move nearer to Leeds University at St Mark’s Terrace, Woodhouse Lane. Tolkien and E.V. Gordon begin work on their edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
11 May 1922	A Middle English Vocabulary is published. Tolkien and E.V. Gordon begin work on their edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
Summer 1923	Convalescing from pneumonia on his brother’s farm, Tolkien turns to his mythology again, and probably works on an early form of Qenya.
Oct/Nov 1923	‘The Cat and the Fiddle: A Nursery-Rhyme Undone and its Scandalous Secret Unlocked’ is published in Yorkshire Poetry.
December 1923	The Father Christmas Letters become more elaborate.
17 March 1924	The Tolkiens move into a three-storey house in Darnley Road, West Park, Leeds.
May 1924	Tolkien writes the poem ‘The Nameless Land’.
16 July 1924	Tolkien is appointed as Professor of English Language at Leeds University.
21 November 1924	Christopher, the Tolkiens’ third son is born.
Early 1925	Tolkien works on the alliterative poem ‘The Flight of the Noldoli from Valinor’.
23 April 1925	Tolkien and E.V. Gordon’s edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is published by the Clarendon Press.
June 1925	Publication of the poem ‘Light as Leaf on Lindentree’ in The Gryphon.
Summer 1925	Tolkien begins work on the Lay of Leithian.
Early Sep 1925	On holiday in Filey, Yorkshire, Tolkien relates the story of a toy dog, ‘Rover’, which is posthumously published as Roverandom.
Autumn 1925	Tolkien takes up an appointment as Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford. He purchases a house in Oxford.
7 January 1926	The Tolkien family move to 22 Northmoor Road, Oxford.
February 1926	Tolkien forms the Kolbítar club (Coalbiters).
11 May 1926	First known meeting between C.S. Lewis and Tolkien, and they soon become friends.
Autumn 1926	Tolkien lectures on The Old English Exodus for the first time. Tolkien probably writes the Sketch of the Mythology and the first version of Farmer Giles of Ham may date from this year.
January 1928	A New Glossary of the Dialect of the Huddersfield District with Tolkien’s foreword is published.
Mar-Apr 1928	Tolkien works on Cantos IV-IX of The Lay of Leithian.
Summer 1928	Tolkien probably illustrates and writes Mr. Bliss.
18 June 1929	Priscilla, the Tolkiens’ only daughter, and youngest child is born.
December 1929	C.S. Lewis reads and critiques the Lay of Leithian.
14 January 1930	The Tolkiens move next door to 20 Northmoor Road.
Spring 1930	Tolkien composes a large part of The Fall of Arthur.

The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and Academic Career

Summer 1930	About this time, Tolkien may have written the first sentence of The Hobbit: “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit“.
Sep-Oct 1930	Tolkien works on Cantos X-XIII of The Lay of Leithian.
23 September 1930	Tolkien completes a fair manuscript copy of The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun.
Autumn 1930	Quenta Noldorinwa, an expansion of the Sketch of the Mythology may have been written at this time.
September 1931	Tolkien works on The Lay of Leithian, but abandons it at Canto XIV, line 4223.
19-20 Sep 1931	Tolkien and Hugo Dyson talk with C.S. Lewis, who begins to shift from believing in God to accepting Christ. This event also inspires Tolkien to later write the poem ‘Mythopoeia’.
Autumn 1931	The essay A Secret Vice about inventing private languages is probably written at this time.
Late? 1932	Tolkien probably lends the typescript of The Hobbit to C.S. Lewis, which at this time ends with the death of Smaug.
Early Autumn 1933	Tolkien probably writes lectures on Beowulf, which will provide the basis for his famous essay Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics.
Autumn 1933	The Inklings meetings under the auspices of C.S. Lewis become an important part of Tolkien’s social life.
9 November 1933	His poem ‘Errantry’ is published in The Oxford Magazine.
15 February 1934	The poem ‘The Adventures of Tom Bombadil’ is published in the Oxford Magazine. Tolkien’s paper Chaucer as a Philologist: The Reeve’s Tale is published in the second half of 1934.
11 June 1935	Death of Father Francis Morgan, Tolkien’s guardian.
Early 1936	Susan Dagnall of Allen & Unwin reads the unfinished manuscript of The Hobbit. She urges him to finish the narrative, and it is accepted for publication.
7 August 1936	An excerpt from Tolkien’s translation of Pearl is read on BBC Radio. Some time this year Songs for the Philologists by Tolkien, E.V. Gordon et al is privately printed by students at University College, London.
25 November 1936	Tolkien delivers his lecture, Beowulf: the Monsters and the Critics, to the British Academy in London. Tolkien probably wrote The Lost Road at about this time, which marks the invention of Númenor.
April 1937	Tolkien takes an exhausting walking holiday in the Quantock Hills with C.S. Lewis and Owen Barfield.
1 July 1937	Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics is published.
21 September 1937	The Hobbit is published. Because of its success, Stanley Unwin subsequently urges Tolkien to write a sequel, which he begins. This is the germ of The Lord of the Rings.
15 Nov-19 Dec 1937	Tolkien resumes work on the Quenta Silmarillion, but abandons this to work on ‘The new Hobbit’.
14 January 1938	Tolkien’s talk Anglo-Saxon Verse is broadcast on BBC Radio.
14 February 1938	Tolkien reads an expanded early version of Farmer Giles of Ham to the Lovelace Society.
4 March 1938	Before this date the Black Riders have appeared during the writing of The Lord of the Rings.
Late August 1938	The narrative has reached the seventh chapter – the Hobbits arrival at the Prancing Pony.
1-15 Sep 1938	Tolkien continues writing and reaches Rivendell.
15 Sept-Oct 1938	Tolkien rewrites earlier parts of the narrative, and continues to alter the names of the Hobbits.
8 March 1939	At St. Andrews University, Scotland, Tolkien gives his lecture On Fairy-Stories.
27-29 March 1939	Tolkien in London does 3 days’ code and cipher training.
Autumn 1939	Charles Williams starts attending meetings of ‘The Inklings’. Tolkien works on early versions of ‘The Council of Elrond’, ‘The Ring Goes South’, and a first draft of ‘The Mines of Moria’.
26-7 August 1940	Tolkien invents Saruman as a reason for Gandalf’s delay in reaching Bag End in The Lord of the Rings.
Autumn 1940	He rewrites many sections of The Fellowship of the Ring before taking the narrative beyond Balin’s tomb in Moria.
Late 1941	Tolkien works on the Lothlórien chapters and the first versions of ‘The Breaking of the Fellowship’ and commences work on the early chapters of The Two Towers.
9 February 1942	After this date ‘The King of the Golden Hall’ is written.
c. April 1942	Tolkien writes Leaf by Niggle.
Mid 1942	Tolkien writes what becomes ‘Helm’s Deep’, ‘The Road to Isengard’, ‘Flotsam and Jetsam’, ‘The Voice of Saruman’, and ‘The Palantír’.
1943	Tolkien is busy with university duties, work as an air-raid warden plus other distractions and is unable to work on The Lord of the Rings.
December 1943	Tolkien writes his final Father Christmas Letter to Priscilla.
April 1944	Tolkien works on ‘The Taming of Sméagol’, ‘The Passage of the Marshes’, ‘The Black Gate is Closed’ and ‘Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit’.
May 1944	Tolkien writes early versions of the later chapters ‘The Window on the West’, The Forbidden Pool’, ‘Journey to the Cross-Roads’, ‘The Stairs of Cirith Ungol’, ‘Shelob’s Lair’ and ‘The Choices of Master Samwise’.
January 1945	Leaf by Niggle is published in the Dublin Review.
23 June 1945	Tolkien becomes Oxford’s Merton Professor of English Language and Literature.
December 1945	The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun appears in the Welsh Review.
Christmas 1945	Tolkien works on The Notion Club Papers.
Summer 1946	Tolkien reads his newly-completed The Drowning of Anadûnê to his son, Christopher.
Autumn 1946	Tolkien works on the chapters ‘Minas Tirith’, ‘The Passing of the Grey Company’, ‘The Muster of Rohan’, ‘The Siege of Gondor’, ‘The Battle of the Pelennor Fields’ ‘The Pyre of Denethor’, ‘The Houses of Healing’, ‘The Last Debate’ and ‘The Black Gate Opens’.
March 1947	The Tolkien family move to Manor Road, Oxford.
4 December 1947	On Fairy-Stories is published in Essays Presented to Charles Williams.
Aug-Sep 1948	Tolkien drafts the chapters ‘The Land of Shadow’, ‘Mount Doom’, ‘The Field of Cormallen’, ‘The Steward and the King’, ‘Many Partings’, ‘Homeward Bound’, ‘The Scouring of the Shire’ and ‘The Grey Havens’.
Autumn 1948	Tolkien probably writes a new version of The Downfall of Númenor.
Feb-Oct 1949	Tolkien types up The Lord of the Rings making corrections as he works.
c. Autumn 1949	Tolkien begins negotiations with Milton Waldman at the publishers Collins about publishing The Lord of the Rings.
20 October 1949	Farmer Giles of Ham is published.
Winter 1949	Tolkien resumes work on The Lay of Leithian.
Early 1950	Tolkien resumes work on the Quenta Silmarillion including ‘Of Valinor and the Two Trees’, ‘Of the Coming of the Elves’ and ‘Of Men and Dwarves’.
April 1950	Tolkien gives an ultimatum to Sir Stanley Unwin requesting an immediate response in answer to his suggestion to publish both The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion. Later that year Waldman informs Tolkien that The Lord of the Rings must be cut.
August 1950	Tolkien probably works on ‘Durin’s Folk’ from Appendix A of The Lord of the Rings after this date.
Summer 1951	Tolkien probably works on the Annals of Aman, reworks The Tale of Years, and begins to write The Grey Annals. He writes a 12-page manuscript which is later named ‘Of Maeglin’.
July-August 1951	The Tolkiens holiday in Ireland.
10-13 Sep 1951	Tolkien gives a paper at an international conference in Liège.
Late 1951	Tolkien probably writes a long letter to Waldman explaining why The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings are indivisible and interconnected. During this year Tolkien probably works on a prose version of the later part of Narn i Chin Húrin from ‘The Return of Túrin’ to his death.
April 1952	Collins, the publishers, decline to publish The Lord of the Rings.
Late August 1952	Tolkien makes some recordings of the Gollum chapter in The Hobbit, and some poems from The Lord of the Rings.
September 1952	Tolkien polishes the text of The Lord of the Rings including ‘Eärendel was a Mariner’ and ‘The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen’.
November 1952	Allen & Unwin confirm that they would like to publish The Lord of the Rings on a profit-sharing basis.
Early Spring 1953	Tolkien finishes his translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
30 March 1953	The Tolkiens move to Sandfield Road, Oxford.
15 April 1953	Tolkien gives a lecture on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in Glasgow.
August 1953	The subtitles The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King are chosen for individual volumes of The Lord of the Rings.
October 1953	Publication of The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm’s Son.
6 December 1953	Tolkien’s translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is broadcast on BBC Radio.
1954	The early part of the year is taken up with correcting proofs for The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien works on the appendices and index throughout much of the second half of the year.
20 July 1954	Tolkien is awarded a D.Litt from Dublin University.
29 July 1954	Publication of The Fellowship of the Ring.
11 November 1954	Publication of The Two Towers.
3 December 1954	BBC Radio broadcast The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm’s Son.
January 1955	Tolkien reworks ‘Tal-Elmar’ in-between more work on the appendices.
30 Jul-14 Aug 1955	Tolkien and Priscilla cross Europe by train for a holiday in Italy.
2 October 1955	Tolkien is awarded an honorary doctorate at Liège University.
20 October 1955	Publication of The Return of the King.
21 October 1955	Tolkien gives the first O’Donnell lecture, English and Welsh.
Nov-Dec 1955	The Fellowship of the Ring is serialised in 6 half-hour episodes on BBC Radio.
3 December 1955	Tolkien’s poem ‘Imram’ is published in Time and Tide.