Palacký University in Olomouc Philosophical

University Studies

In October 1911, he left Birmingham for the Exeter College at Oxford, a place he felt he would be able to love and consider a home – the first place after his mother’s death. He went there to study Classical languages – Greek and Latin but during his first two semesters he got bored with them and was more fascinated by Germanic languages. He also met a very inspiring person – his teacher Joseph Wright who learnt to read and write on his own and later even became an expert in comparative philology at Oxford. They shared similar interests and because of him Tolkien decided he would like to become an Oxford teacher as well.

During the first year of his Oxford studies Tolkien realized he was not really working hard at all and decided to learn Finnish - at least a little bit. In the end he never really learnt much of it but it strongly influenced his approach to creating his own languages. He started creating a new language again – a language which later became known as “Quenya”, the language spoken by elves in the Middle Earth.
In January 1913 he was finally twenty-one years old, immediately after his birthday he wrote a letter to Edith only to be rejected by her answer – she was already engaged to George Field, the brother of her friend. This broke Ronald’s hearth and he decided he will convince her personally. He went to her current place and they had a long talk. In the end she promised him she would marry him.
Absolutely delighted he went back to Oxford to take an important exam, but he was not quite ready for it and “obtained a disappointing second class degree in Honour Moderations, the “midway” stage of a 4-year Oxford “Greats” (i.e. Classics) course, although with an “alpha plus” in philology“.⁶ After this he was advised by his professors to change the subject of his studies to English Philology and he agreed.
Studying English at Oxford was however harder then he thought and he came across some texts he had never seen before. One of them was a poem Crist by Cynewulf, particularly these two verses amazed him: “Eala Earendel engla beorhtast / ofer middangeard monnum sended” which translates as “Hail Earendel brightest of angels / over Middle Earth sent to man”.⁷ As he later wrote he was strongly moved by its beauty, something distant and strange.
In the meantime he and Edith discussed her religion – she was member of the Church of England which meant they could not marry in a Catholic church, she had to convert. And she did even though this angered the people she lived with, the ones she considered her family and she had to move out soon. For her new home she chose Warwick, a beautiful place known for its amazing medieval castle. Tolkien liked Warwick as well, mainly for its intact nature. While Edith was trying to establish her new home Roland enjoyed his “manly” university life. He also started to create his first works, during his stay in Nottinghamshire in 1914 he wrote a poem named The Voyage of Earendel the Evening Star inspired by Crist. This poem marked the beginning of his own mythology.



⁶ “Biography – Who was Tolkien?.“
⁷ “Biography – Who was Tolkien?.“

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