Tolkien and Leeds

Tolkien's time in Leeds is coming to an end

Portrait of Tolkien from the 1930's

 

In 1925 there were many significant events in the life of the Tolkien family and since the start of the last academic year there had been developments in Tolkien's professional and creative life.

In November 1924 the Tolkien family welcomed the arrival of Christopher Reuel Tolkien, born at home at 2 Darnley Road. The new addition to the family would have been a joy to John Ronald and Edith as their life in Leeds was continuing to improve.

Tolkien had been appointed Professor of English at the University of Leeds and their life in West Park (then on the outskirts of north Leeds) was suiting the family on both the domestic and academic fronts.

Tolkien and E.V. Gordon were well into thier collaboration on a new version of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Tolkien's glossary was being reviewed and the completed work was published in April 1925.

At the end of April the Tolkien family had a holiday on the east coast near the seaside town of Filey, where Micheal (Tolkien's second son) lost a treasured toy, a model of a little dog called Rover.

In June 1925 W.A. Craigie left the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford and by the end of June Tolkien had submitted his formal application. This was well received in the city of dreaming spires and by the end of July his successful election was announced in The Times. This announcement and the change of Tolkien's academic position was delayed by six months, the notice period required by the University of Leeds.

Toward the end of 1969, in a letter to Christopher, Tolkien referred to his time teaching in Leeds,

As to your last paragraph! I am wholly in favour of the 'dull stodges'. I had once a considerable experience of what are/were probably England's most (at least apparently) dullest and stodgiest students: Yorkshire's young men and women of sub-public school class and home backgrounds bookless and cultureless. That does not, however, necessarily indicate the actual innate mental capacity – largely unawakened – of any given individual. A surprisingly large proportion prove 'educable': for which a primary qualification is the willingness to do some work (to learn) (at any
level of intelligence).

The Letters of J.R.R Tolkien, H. Carpenter (Ed.), (London: HarperCollins, 1981) 403 

 

Tolkien and his family moved to Oxford in early January 1926 and Tolkien's last connection with Leeds was in April of the same year. 

This is the end of the Tolkiens' time in Leeds 

  

 

Tolkien in Leeds 1924

A belated entry this year, but a fond and treaured memory from this correspondent.

It is 2024 and here we are celebrating this enduring memorial to Tolkien's time in Leeds.

https://leedsbookclub.com/2012/10/02/j-r-r-tolkien-blue-plaque-in-leeds/#:~:text=Did%20you%20know%20that%20J.R.R.%20Tolkien%20lived%20in%20Leeds%20for

This is what it means to treasure the hoard of memory that Tolkien drew from..

'The Bagginses had lived in the neighbourhood of The Hill for time out of mind, and people considered them very respectable, not only because most of them were rich, but also because they never had any adventures or did anything unexpected: you could tell what a Baggins would say on any question without the bother of asking him.

..   the fact remained that the Tooks were not as respectable as the Bagginses, though they were undoubtedly richer. Not that Belladonna Took ever had any adventures after she became Mrs. Bungo Baggins. Bungo, that was Bilbo’s father, built the most luxurious hobbit-hole for her (and partly with her money) that was to be found either under The Hill or over The Hill or across The Water.' 

 

 

Eve of an Anniversary

Mae Govannen

A big thank you to you for visiting at this time.

Next year will be the start of many commentaries and accounts of Tolkien and his life in Oxford.

It is important though to note the place that Leeds and the North had in his published literary and academic progress.

In June of 1923 A Northern Venture was published by the Leeds University English School Association.

In October 1923 the poem The Cat and the Fiddle was published  in Yorkshire Poetry.

By December in 1923 a 'clean copy' of 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight' had been sent for review

Ten Years Old

 

 

 

On a sunny day in 2012 the Leeds Civic Trust in partnership with The Tolkien Society and the University of Leeds unveiled the plaque at 2 Darnley Road, West Park, Leeds.

 

Here is a postcard of this suburb of north Leeds from 1905.  It presents the property at the  end of Spen Lane in its semi-rural aspect.

 (Darnley Road circled)

Tolkien and Leeds 1921

 After a year in post Tolkien was establishing 

his position as an advocate of the study of Middle English

Having been given a free-hand in the revision of the English syllabus by George S. Gordon, Tolkien began to develop English studies at Leeds. He proposed the series of Middle English texts for study and was in favour of the normalization of texts. This would involve making the translation of the texts consistent in thier spelling. 

Kenneth Sisam had suggested in January of 1921 that a student edition of 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight' was long overdue. C. T. Onions suggested to Tolkien that he should prepare such an edition. 

In October 1921 George S. Gordon asked the opinion of David Nichol Smith of a student, one Eric Valentine Gordon (no relation) who had been recommended by Tolkien for a staff position at Leeds.

With his family now in Leeds and after taking rooms at Holly Bank on the Otley Road in Headingley the Tolkien's had moved to 11 St Mark's Terrace, close to the University where they would stay till March 1924.

 

 

Tolkien and Leeds 1920

One hundred years ago John Ronald Reuel Tolkien 

was appointed

 Reader in English Language at the University of Leeds 

and arrived in the city take up the post

Tolkien would be joined by his growing family after his wife Edith gave birth (in Oxford) to their second son Michael. Initially Tolkien rented a room at 21a St Michael's Road, Headingley and returned to Oxford at the weekends.

 

As the Tolkien's approached Christmas 1920 they were starting down a road that would see the family move to Leeds and become part of the community of which the University was the centre.

To maintain the connection with his young family, Tolkien began a tradition that would last till the eary 1940s,  festive letters to his children. The first was written to his eldest son John, in Oxford (from Father Christmas, North Pole) in December 1920.

Christopher Tolkien (1924 - 2020)

 

Christopher John Reuel Tolkien (21 November 1924 – 15 January 2020) was the third son of the author J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973), and the editor of much of his father's posthumously published work. He drew the original maps for his father's The Lord of the Rings, which he signed C. J. R. T.

 

Christopher was born in Leeds in the same year that his father had been made Professor of the English Language at Leeds University at the age of thirty-two. His parents had purchased 2 Darnley Road and had moved with their children, John (6) and Michael (4) from St Marks Terrace.
He was baptised Christopher Reuel, the first name being in honor of Christopher Wiseman.

The Tolkien Society  is an educational charity, literary society, and international fan club, devoted to promoting the life and works of J.R.R. Tolkien.