Editing J. R. R. Tolkien (section)

=== Academic and writing career ===

[[File:2 Darnley Road, the former home of J.R.R. Tolkien in West Park, Leeds.jpg|thumb|2 Darnley Road, the former home of Tolkien in West Park, [[Leeds]]]]

[[File:20 Northmoor Road, Oxford.JPG|thumb|20 [[Northmoor Road]], one of Tolkien's former homes in [[Oxford]]]]

After the end of World War I in 1918, Tolkien's first civilian job was at the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'', where he worked mainly on the history and etymology of words of Germanic origin beginning with the letter ''W''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gilliver |first1=Peter |title=The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary |title-link=The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary |last2=Marshall |first2=Jeremy |last3=Weiner |first3=Edmund |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2006}}</ref> In mid-1919, he began to tutor Oxford undergraduates privately, most importantly those of [[Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford|Lady Margaret Hall]] and [[St Hugh's College, Oxford|St Hugh's College]], given that the women's colleges were in great need of good teachers in their early years, and Tolkien as a married academic (then still not common) was considered suitable, as a bachelor don would not have been.<ref>{{cite book |last=Zettersten |first=A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6Q_GAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA134 |title=J. R. R. Tolkien's Double Worlds and Creative Process: Language and Life |date=25 April 2011 |publisher=[[Springer (publisher)|Springer]] |isbn=978-0-230-11840-9 |page=134 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181017123753/https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=6Q_GAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA134#v=onepage&q=lady%20margaret%20hall |archive-date=17 October 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1920, he took up a post as [[Reader (academic rank)|reader]] in English language at the [[University of Leeds]], becoming the youngest member of the [[academic staff]] there.<ref name="Grotta2001 page 64 ff">{{cite book |last=Grotta |first=Daniel |url={{Google books|9LHQvq6P5qIC |page=PA64 |keywords= |text= |plainurl=yes}} |title=J. R. R. Tolkien Architect of Middle Earth |date=28 March 2001 |publisher=Running Press |isbn=978-0-7624-0956-3 |pages=64– |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511071523/http://books.google.com/books?id=9LHQvq6P5qIC&pg=PA64 |archive-date=11 May 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref> While at Leeds, he produced ''A Middle English Vocabulary'' and a definitive edition of ''[[Sir Gawain and the Green Knight]]'' with [[E. V. Gordon]]; both became academic standard works for several decades. He also translated ''Sir Gawain'', ''[[Pearl (poem)|Pearl]]'', and ''[[Sir Orfeo]]'', but the translations would not be published until 1975. In 1924, he was promoted from a readership at Leeds to a [[professorship]].<ref name="ODNB">{{cite ODNB |first= T. A. |last= Shippey |title= Tolkien, John Ronald Reuel (1892–1973) |edition=revised |date=11 April 2024 |doi= 10.1093/ref:odnb/31766}}</ref> 

In October 1925, he returned to Oxford as [[Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon]], with a fellowship at [[Pembroke College, Oxford|Pembroke College]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Memorial to JRR Tolkien commissioned |url=https://www.pmb.ox.ac.uk/news/memorial-jrr-tolkien-commissioned |website=Pembroke College Oxford |publisher=University of Oxford |access-date=19 December 2023}}</ref> During his time at Pembroke College, Tolkien wrote ''[[The Hobbit]]'' and the first two volumes of ''The Lord of the Rings'', while living at 20 [[Northmoor Road]] in [[North Oxford]]. In 1932, he published a philological essay on the name "[[Nodens]]", following Sir [[Mortimer Wheeler]]'s unearthing of a [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] [[Asclepeion]] at [[Lydney Park]], Gloucestershire, in 1928.<ref>See ''The Name Nodens'' (1932) in the bibliographical listing. For the etymology, see [[Nodens#Etymology]].</ref>

==== ''Beowulf'' ====
{{further|Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary|On Translating Beowulf}}

In the 1920s, Tolkien undertook a translation of ''[[Beowulf]]'', which he finished in 1926, but did not publish. It was later edited by his son Christopher and published in 2014.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Acocella |first=Joan |date=2 June 2014 |title=Slaying Monsters: Tolkien's 'Beowulf' |url=https://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2014/06/02/140602crbo_books_acocella?currentPage=all |url-status=live |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140530222018/http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2014/06/02/140602crbo_books_acocella?currentPage=all |archive-date=30 May 2014}}</ref>

Ten years after finishing his translation, Tolkien gave a highly acclaimed lecture on the work, "[[Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics|''Beowulf'': The Monsters and the Critics]]", which had a lasting influence on ''Beowulf'' research.<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|p=143}}</ref> Lewis E. Nicholson said that the article is "widely recognized as a turning point in Beowulfian criticism", noting that Tolkien established the primacy of the poetic nature of the work as opposed to its purely linguistic elements.<ref>{{cite web |last=Ramey |first=Bill |date=30 March 1998 |title=The Unity of Beowulf: Tolkien and the Critics |url=http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/billramey/beowulf.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060421094854/http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/billramey/beowulf.htm |archive-date=21 April 2006 |website=Wisdom's Children}}</ref> At the time, the consensus of scholarship deprecated ''Beowulf'' for dealing with childish battles with monsters rather than realistic tribal warfare; Tolkien argued that the author of ''Beowulf'' was addressing human destiny in general, not as limited by particular tribal politics, and therefore the monsters were essential to the poem.<ref>Tolkien: ''[[Finn and Hengest]]''. Chiefly, p.4 in the Introduction by [[Alan Bliss]].</ref> Where ''Beowulf'' does deal with specific tribal struggles, as at [[Finnsburg]], Tolkien argued firmly against reading in fantastic elements.<ref>Tolkien: ''[[Finn and Hengest]]'', the discussion of ''Eotena'', ''passim''.</ref> In the essay, Tolkien revealed how highly he regarded ''Beowulf'': "''Beowulf'' is among my most valued sources"; [[Beowulf and Middle-earth|this influence may be seen]] throughout his [[Middle-earth]] [[Tolkien's legendarium|legendarium]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Kennedy |first=Michael |year=2001 |title=Tolkien and Beowulf&nbsp;– Warriors of Middle-earth |url=http://www.triode.net.au/~dragon/tilkal/issue1/beowulf.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060509110607/http://www.triode.net.au/~dragon/tilkal/issue1/beowulf.html |archive-date=9 May 2006 |website=Amon Hen}}</ref>

According to [[Humphrey Carpenter]], Tolkien began his series of lectures on ''Beowulf'' in a most striking way, entering the room silently, fixing the audience with a look, and suddenly declaiming in Old English the opening lines of the poem, starting "with a great cry of ''[[wikt:hwæt|Hwæt]]!''" It was a dramatic impersonation of an Anglo-Saxon bard in a mead hall, and it made the students realize that ''Beowulf'' was not just a set text but "a powerful piece of dramatic poetry".<ref name="Biog p133">{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|p=133}}</ref> Decades later, [[W. H. Auden]] wrote to his former professor, thanking him for the "unforgettable experience" of hearing him recite ''Beowulf'', and stating: "The voice was the voice of [[Gandalf]]".<ref name="Biog p133" />

==== Second World War ====
[[File:UK-2014-Oxford-Merton College 05.JPG|thumb|upright|[[Merton College]], where Tolkien was Professor of English Language and Literature (1945–1959)]]

In the run-up to the [[Second World War]], Tolkien was earmarked as a [[Cryptanalysis|codebreaker]]. In January 1939, he was asked to serve in the [[Cryptography|cryptographic]] department of the Foreign Office in the event of national emergency. Beginning on 27 March, he took an instructional course at the London HQ of the [[Government Code and Cypher School]]. He was informed in October that his services would not be required.<ref>{{cite book |last=Turing |first=Dermot |title=The Codebreakers of Bletchley Park |year=2020 |publisher=Arcturus Publishing |location=London |isbn=978-1-78950-621-1 |page=51}}</ref><ref name="spy1" group="T">{{harvnb|Carpenter|Tolkien|1981|loc=''Letters'' #35 to C. A. Furth, [[Allen & Unwin]], 2 February 1939 (see also editorial note).}}</ref><ref name="spy3">{{cite book |last1=Hammond |first1=Wayne G. |title=The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide |title-link=The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide |last2=Scull |first2=Christina |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-618-39113-4 |volume=2 |pages=224, 226, 232 |author-link=Wayne G. Hammond |author-link2=Christina Scull}}</ref>

In 1945, Tolkien moved to [[Merton College, Oxford]], becoming the [[Merton Professors|Merton Professor of English Language and Literature]],<ref name="Grotta2001 page 110 ff">{{cite book |last=Grotta |first=Daniel |url={{Google books|9LHQvq6P5qIC |page=PA110 |plainurl=yes}} |title=J. R. R. Tolkien Architect of Middle Earth |date=28 March 2001 |publisher=Running Press |isbn=978-0-7624-0956-3 |pages=110– |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140111194008/http://books.google.com/books?id=9LHQvq6P5qIC&pg=PA110 |archive-date=11 January 2014 |url-status=live}}</ref> in which post he remained until his retirement in 1959. He served as an external examiner for [[University College, Galway]] (now The University of Galway), for many years.<ref>{{cite news |last=McCoy |first=Felicity Hayes |date=11 June 2019 |title=When my father met Gandalf: Tolkien's time as an external examiner at UCG |newspaper=[[The Irish Times]] |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/when-my-father-met-gandalf-tolkien-s-time-as-an-external-examiner-at-ucg-1.3921043 |url-status=live |access-date=3 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210325113855/https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/when-my-father-met-gandalf-tolkien-s-time-as-an-external-examiner-at-ucg-1.3921043 |archive-date=25 March 2021}}</ref> In 1954 Tolkien received an honorary degree from the [[National University of Ireland]] (of which University College, Galway, was a constituent college).<ref>{{cite web |date=3 March 2021 |title=Honorary Degrees Awarded |url=http://www.nui.ie/college/Honorary_Degree_Recipients.asp |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210128030329/http://www.nui.ie/college/Honorary_Degree_Recipients.asp |archive-date=28 January 2021 |access-date=3 March 2021 |publisher=[[National University of Ireland]]}}</ref> Tolkien completed ''The Lord of the Rings'' in 1948, close to a decade after the first sketches.<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|pp=206–208}}</ref>