The Oxford Tolkien Conference 2006 at Exeter College

[Iolanthe]

The Oxford Tolkien Conference
The Lord of the Rings: Sources of Inspiration

Exeter College 21st August - 25th August 2006

© Iolanthe

Merry and I have just returned from this, the first Tolkien Conference in Oxford which took place in the college where Tolkien spent his days as an undergraduate. We'll be posting reports and comments here (when we can absorb what we heard and can get around to putting our thoughts on paper), and in the hope that there will other commments, questions and even the appearance of a few of our wonderful fellow delegates here, I've started a special thread. As you will see from the list below we had some wonderful speakers who shared some fascinating and challenging ideas. I feel that those of us that were lucky enough to attend will be thinking and talking about this conference for a very long time to come.



List of Speakers and Papers:

Tokien, Exeter, and the Great War
John Garth

Tolkien and the English Language: The Word as Leaf
Peter Gilliver, Jeremy Marshall and Edmund Weiner

Gilson Smith and Baggins: Sacrifice and Meaning in France and Middle-earth
Verlyn Flieger

The Influence of Holiness: The Healing Power of Tolkien's Narrative
Father Guglielmo Spirito

Tolkien Studies in Germany
Marcel Bülles

Tolkien and Enchantment
Patrick Curry

Inside the Belly of the Dragon: Levels of Initiation in Tolkien's Works
Robert Lazu (read by Stratford Caldecott)

Tolkien, Thomism, and Chesterton
Alison Milbank

Morals Makyth Man - and Hobbit
Leon Pereira OP

The Mythopoeia of Gianbattista Vico and J.R.R. Tolkien (revised title)
Marek Oziewicz

Tolkien and Louis Bouyer: A Friendship between Writers
Michaël Devaux

Tolkien and the Green Man
John Matthews

Tolkien's England
Stratford Caldecott

And including:

Remembering J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis
A conversation with Priscilla Tolkien, Robert Murray SL and Walter Hooper

[Iolanthe]

Before any reports, just a few quick comments. I had a fantastic week. Not only were the general surroundings beautiful and gracious (though I'm keeping mum about my room ) but I met so many wonderful people with such a great love of the Professor. The questions and conversations after the papers were just as stimulating as the talks themselves. I felt extremely flat when I said goodbye to everyone (and Merry ). I felt rather like the Fellowship did when they left Lothlorien.

As well as the papers we had a chance to ask Priscilla Tolkien, Walter Hooper and Robert Murray questions and I was, quite frankly, overawed. We also took a trip to Tolkien and Edith's grave where Father Guglielmo said prayers for Beren and Luthien and I cried a river.

It wasn't all serious though as we did visit the Eagle and Child (and partake of that which is to be found within ).

I have a lot of notes to go through and lots of thoughts on them. Let's hope that I can still make sense of it all .

[Merry]

Well, I'm back!

I echo Iolanthe's enthusiasm for the conference. Being at Exeter/Oxford made it very special (although . . . well, I'll keep mum on the accomodations, too!), most of the speakers were well worth listening to, the community was an international one, both smart and friendly, and the food was great! I'll try to gather some ideas together over the next week, too.

And what a treat to meet Iolanthe in person!--a gentle, friendly, dignified soul who made some converts to interest in a wide variety of Tolkien artists during the week, as she has done here. I also met Elen from Writers of Rohan during the week: both old friends that I was meeting for the first time. What a wonderful thing!

Most of the conference attendees left on Friday afternoon, but eight or nine of us weren't leaving until Saturday, so we gathered Friday at the Eagle and Child for the evening. Wonderful! By my count, we represented six different countries. The conversation was fast, smart, funny, and full of references to Tolkien. We were a little more subdued this morning at breakfast (in the 17th century great dining hall which had to be the inspiration for the dining room in Harry Potter!), and the good byes were sad indeed. I love the way Tolkien brings people together.

[Iolanthe]

Merry , glad you're back home safely

a gentle, friendly, dignified soul who made some converts to interest in a wide variety of Tolkien artists during the week, as she has done here

Although I hardly recognise myself (especially dignified ) I can say 'right back at you' . It's been a great pleasure and great fun having your company all week! And listening to you asking some very astute questions (I never asked one ) and not pulling any punches.

I knew I should have dumped my wretched suitcase (and all those books) in my car, taken the bus back into the city, stayed for the evening and driven home late. I sounds as though you had a ball at the Eagle and Child, as I knew you would.

I'm glad you mentioned the beautiful dining hall. We ate royally all week and even had a rather wonderful banquet there where we all got togged up in our best. I have now put on so much weight I can hardly move .

I think the Professor was well served at the conference too, by everyone's passion for him, though I think he might have scratched his head at one or two of the ideas . But what fun to be able to talk and speculate and bounce those ideas about.

And yes, I evangelised the cause of Tolkien art and learned of more artists that I must take a look at. Everyone has their favourite!

[Airwin]

It sounds like you all had a wonderful time. I'm just ! Please, do tell us more!

[Iolanthe]

We did, Airwin. It was truly a wonderful week!

It's time I started writing up some reports before I forget everything! I’ll start with John Garth who opened up the Conference with his talk on Tolkien, Exeter and the Great War:

John Garth (left) Stratford Caldecott (centre) and Patrick Curry (right) at the Wednesday evening reception in the Senior Common Room

© Iolanthe

I think this was such an appropriate way to begin, setting the scene with Tolkien’s time at Exeter College which was to be our home for the week. John had been at Exeter before us completing research on Tolkien’s undergraduate days and presented some interesting new material taking us beyond his highly regarded book Tolkien and the Great War.

My notes are very sketchy. I spent more time listening than writing and they cover the points that particularly interested me, so please don’t take this as a definitive – or even accurate – account of all that John covered in his paper. It’s just a flavour of it. Much of what I jotted down is already known about Tolkien.

It seems Tolkien’s first year was one filled with everything but hard work and John, who had been through all the relevant borrowing slips in the University Library (a gargantuan task I don’t even want to think about) had discovered that he had, in fact, only borrowed one book in that entire year! But although Tolkien only borrowed one book – though one hopes he was reading some of them in the library anyway – he certainly joined a lot of University Societies, some dedicated to debate and some to food and fun. He was also involved in organising the 600th anniversary celebrations.

About the time that he promised Edith to dedicate more time to his studies there was a flurry of library borrowing, but classics wasn’t his passion and Tolkien discovered the English School, then in its infancy, by looking through the examination lists and changed from Classics to English Language and Literature. He won the Skeat Prize for English which he spent on books on Medieval Welsh. John also noted another flurry of last minute ‘catch-up’ borrowing before his finals.

When war broke out Tolkien didn’t initially enlist as he wanted to finish his studies. This is when he started writing about Earendil the Mariner, both Tolkien and Earendil steering their own course through difficult waters. At some point there were only 75 undergraduates left at Exeter; all the others had gone to war and Exeter must have seemed a very empty and strange place during these days. He enrolled in the cavalry of the Officer Training Corps and threw himself into working on the Kullervo out of which grew his own story of Túrin Turambar who meets the same fate of a family lost, an unknown sister seduced and her subsequent suicide.

One of the many important debates that Tolkien took part in at Exeter was on Nationalism and this led to many thoughts on nationalism, language, legend and their role in national identity, and 1915 saw the first flowering of his ideas on these seminal themes.

23 young men out of the 57 in Tolkien’s year at Exeter died in the Great War, many at the Battle of the Somme where Tolkien endured 4 months before catching the trench fever which ended the war for him. A memorial listing the names of all the Exeter men who died can be seen in the Chapel at Exeter College. There is also a bust of Tolkien himself in the Chapel.

John Garth went into much more detail about Tolkien’s friends at Oxford, the multitudinous societies he joined and his very active involvement with them and how his studies at Oxford were transformed by his moving from Classics to English and by his hopes of marrying Edith.

I’m sure Merry will have more to add that will fill in some of my gaps!

One of the nice things about the conference was that all the speakers were there for the majority, if not all, of the week and there were only between 30 -40 delegates, so we had many opportunites to chat with them over meals and get to know them and their ideas better (see happy drinking picture above ). I now know what they all thought about the films, but my lips are sealed .

Here are a couple more pics (more to come...)

Tolkien and Edith's Grave at Wolvercote Cemetary
[copyright]Iolanthe[/copyright]

There were lots of trinkets left by Tolkien lovers at the grave, including rings, bracelets, a stuffed lamb and an eagle nestling in the ivy by the headstone, and a Barbie token hanging from a rose bush left by some little girl.

Headless statue in the Fellows Garden, Exeter College
[copyright]Iolanthe[/copyright]

Does this remind you of anything from Return of the King ?

[Merry]

Iolanthe! I never thought of that! Do you think . . .?

Great job reporting. I'd add only a couple of things from my notes. I knew that Tolkien had been influenced by William Morris, but I didn't know until last week that Morris and Edward Burne-Jones had also attended Exeter College in the middle 19th century. They collaborated on making this tapestry:

http://www.artgallery.sa.gov.au/adoration.html

the original of which hangs in Exeter's chapel. Burne-Jones and Morris were friends who were engaged in "a crusade against the world", Garth told us, and thought that a return to Medievalism would cure the world. I don't think it's much of a stretch to see Tolkien influenced by this.

At the time that Tolkien was enrolled, Exeter had more Catholics than any other college at Oxford, so maybe that's why JRRT enrolled there. But Garth reported that the young Tolkien lapsed a bit in his religious practice during his first year. (One of the greatest thing about the conference was that JRRT's daughter, Priscilla, was in attendance for many of the talks. She warned us at this point that her father was 'scrupulous' in his Catholicism, and that his 'lapse' had to be understood in this context. I think she meant that his lapse might look like anyone else's fervent practice!) Tolkien's official record after his first year had a note in it by one of the faculty that said that he was 'self-indulgent'--indeed, he had been arrested after one night of youthful hi-jinx!

But as Iolanthe reports, he promised Edith he'd work harder. Also, life in the outside world was beginning to get more serious: the assasination of Archduke Ferdinand happened during Tolkien's time at Exeter. Oxford was turned into a military camp: troops practiced marching on Turl Street outside Tolkien's dorm room window. (He used to practice drawing the views he saw of Turl Street from his window.) It wasn't long before he was in King Edward's Horse, a unit that recruited foreign-born Englishmen especially. (JRRT was born in Africa.)

My only other memory of Garth's talk was that Tolkien wrote about "the Oxford sleepies", which seemed to affect him his first year. Many of the conference attendees certainly experienced the sleepies in the form of having to take afternoon naps a few days during the conference. I attributed this, however, to the loud drunken students on Turl Street at all hours of the night and also to the nearby church bells that struck every hour--all night long.

[Iolanthe]

The church bells was the Exeter College clock (I think). I know because my room was nearly on top of it .

One of the greatest thing about the conference was that JRRT's daughter, Priscilla, was in attendance for many of the talks. She warned us at this point that her father was 'scrupulous' in his Catholicism, and that his 'lapse' had to be understood in this context. I think she meant that his lapse might look like anyone else's fervent practice!

I loved this - it was wonderful to see her there and to hear her input. As well as this she had interesting things to say about Tolkien's relationship with Louis Bouyer (a talk given by Michaël Devaux). She didn't remember her father ever mentioning Bouyer, even though they corresponded, and suggested the relationship may have been built up by Bouyer through hope and desire and memory, with Bouyer as a much younger man looking up to an older man who he was in awe of.

I thought Michaël took the comment very well as his whole paper was based on it! But more of that later....

[Iolanthe]

Some more from the Tolkien Conference !

One of the best bits of the conference was the chance to ask Priscilla Tolkien, Walter Hooper (C.S Lewis’s Secretary) and Robert Murray questions. It was quite an evening and has been recorded for posterity so I hope I get all that follows right. Some of what they told us was new, some treasured anecdotes which were wonderful to hear straight from the ‘horses mouth’ as it were. I’m sure Merry can fill in any gaps for stuff I’ve forgotten. Neither of us took any notes at the time – we were too busy watching them!

Priscilla Tolkien (centre) with Father Guglielmo (left) and Michaël Devaux (right). Sorry I only got a back view!

© Iolanthe

Priscilla was asked about whether Tolkien read to her as a child and she said that she was too young to have heard any of The Hobbit, but she remembered typing up passages from Lord of the Ring. She said that he was thrilled by the reception The Lord of the Rings received when it came out and did feel somewhat vindicated by it. But he did hate the fame and intrusion that came with success. She was asked about his interests outside his work and she said that he loved his garden, meeting his friends over a good pint, walking in the hills, all simple pleasures. She was also asked whether he loved music and she said that he never had much time to really enjoy music like he would have liked to have done. She didn’t remember him going to many concerts. But he did love listening to Edith playing the piano and the two of them loved Gilbert and Sullivan and went to every touring production they could. Music to my ears as a G&S singer (guess where I get my board name from…).

Priscilla was asked whether her mother and father ever talked about the difficulties they had when they first met and she said that they talked about it quite openly. She also told us a wonderful story about her father and Edith when they first started seeing each other. They were taking tea in a first floor tea-room and took great delight in throwing sugar cubes onto the hats of people passing below the window. When they ran out of sugar cubes they went to another first floor tea-room and did it all over again !

She was also asked about his friendship with Lewis and Priscilla said that it was a friendship carried out more at work and in the Pub than at home, but that Lewis did come to the house for special occasions. She remembered one party where Lewis lost his pipe and he and Tolkien spent most of the evening looking for it and, when they couldn’t find it, going through all of Tolkien’s many pipes to find one that might suit Lewis. All this took them away from the guests for ages to Edith’s dismay. Finally Lewis discovered that his pipe had been in his pocket the whole time.

Walter Hooper

© Iolanthe

Hooper recounted the first time he met Lewis. He arrived a few days early to start working as his Secretary so Lewis wasn’t expecting him and he was very nervous about knocking on the door and meeting the great man. Lewis was, of course, very kind and gracious, invited him in and offered him endless cups of tea. Eventually Hooper had to ask if he could use the bathroom. Lewis took him to a room and invited him in and to Hooper’s dismay it was a bathroom. Of course, what he really wanted was the lavatory. Lewis asked him if everything was OK, showed him where the soap and everything else he might need was and, after disappearing for a while, reappeared with fresh towels and left him to it. Eventually Hooper had to come out and admit that it wasn’t what he really wanted. Lewis then told him it was far better to always say what he really meant – it was, of course, a great joke with a message – and Hooper said he ‘loved him from that moment on’.

He was asked what Lewis would have thought of the Narnia films. Hooper thought he would have loved them. He said he was always open to a film version but was very aware that in his day, special effects just weren’t up to it. Hooper was invited to the premier and was asked by the Director what Lewis would have thought and he replied that Lewis would have said ‘When’s Prince Caspian?’

Hooper also told us that Puddleglum was based on Lewis’ old gardener, who was hopelessly pessimistic and the most depressing man he had ever met. When Lewis and his wife were flying for the first time for a holiday in Italy, he took great delight in sticking his head through their car window as they were leaving and telling them that there had just been a terrible plane crash where everyone had been burned alive. Of course they still went but it can’t have helped them enjoy their journey!

Robery Murray talking to Verlyn Flieger

© Iolanthe

I really think we were privileged to hear these three people so close to Tolkien and Lewis remembering them so affectionately. I had to keep pinching myself to make sure I was really there!

There was a lot more asked.... I hope Merry can fill in the gaps!

[Merry]

This really was a special evening! Iolanthe, your memory is so much better than mine! Priscilla also told a charming story of her father: she remembered him being home a lot more than other fathers, because he could do some of his writing, correcting and grading student work, and tutorials at home. There was a rule that the children couldn't go into the study when Tolkien had a visitor there, but she told a story of running in there, not knowing there was a visitor, and being afraid she would be in trouble. But her father invited her in and introduced her to the student. This doesn't seem remarkable today, but at the time, it was probably not done. She also said that he had some of her childish artwork prominently displayed in his study.

I asked Ms. Tolkien about her father's statement in the letters that, of all his characters, he was most like Faramir. I've always wondered why he thought that. She answered that it was a very interesting question! and that it might have been because he was very stern on the outside but tender on the inside.

I was most impressed that the three panel members refused to embellish on the memory of Tolkien and Lewis: they said what they remembered, but didn't really fall into the 'hero worship' that some of us obviously wanted them to do! It made them more into real people, in my mind.

[Iolanthe]

I've remembered one more annecdote .

Someone asked Priscilla about the Father Christmas letters and she said how much they all looked forward to them (of course, who wouldn't!). They started writing their letters to Father Christmas at the beginning of November, the excitement was so intense. One year, just as she was beginning to suspect that Father Christmas and Tolkien were one and the same person, she asked for a whole set of books by an author she'd come accross and liked very much. After she'd sent her letter, she overheard her father telling someone how worried he was - he'd looked everywhere and couldn't find them for her because the author was no longer in print. Alas, she never got that full set of books but with 'Father Christmas' for a dad she couldn't have been too disappointed .

[Airwin]

I'm really enjoying these reports. Thanks so much!

[Iolanthe]

There will be more to come - there were so many interesting talks and so much said!

[Merry]

I have a few extra minutes between classes today, so I'll report what I remember from the series of talks given by three lexicographers (definition writers!) from the Oxford English Dictionary.

Tolkien and the English Language: The Word as Leaf

Peter Gilliver, Jeremy Marshall and Edmund Weiner

Iolanthe and I had tea with these three delightful gentleman on the first day of the conference. They are the authors of the newest scholarly book on Tolkien, which I think is called Ring of Words, so I was happy to meet them before their talk. Upon his return from WWI, Tolkien's first job was as a lexicographer at the OED, and I think he wrote somewhere that he learned more during this stint than at any other time in his life.

I was full of questions about what it was like to write the dictionary. First of all, there are about 60 people who write definitions at the OED, and some of the words are divied up according to specialty: one of the guys (I think Edmund) had a background in science, and so he is assigned words that are in the area: his latest term to work on was 'effective range'. I asked them if they had favorite words, and of course they did! One even said he has a favorite letter (q) and a least favorite one (p)! One of them could give the etymology and first recorded use of almost any word we could think of--they were a lot of fun! (We had a long discussion about 'face flannels' and 'sponge bags'.) They also said that plain ordinary reading was kind of ruined for them because they really got lost in the words.

I don't have my notes with me, but I remember that Gilliver talked about words that Tolkien worked on during his time at the OED and other scholarly projects that he worked on at the same time--one that he 'niggled' to death and never really finished, although a hilarious written record of excuses and apologies exists. Tolkien had the W words at the OED, and some of those words ended up in LOTR. (He dodged the dreaded U-words: nobody wants those because of all the un- words, which I suppose are dreadfully boring to define!)

I'm out of time! Iolanthe, carry on!

[Iolanthe]

That conversation over tea was fun! The fact that we Brits keep our 'face flannels' in our 'sponge bags' was a priceless example of two nations divided by a common language .

I have four pages of notes on their talk and some photos too. I shall endeavour to make sense of it and report back .