Tag Archives: Tolkien’s friends

Making an ass of yourself, with Geoffrey Bache Smith

Posted on 24 March 2023 by John Garth

I’ve just returned from the first-ever conference focusing on Geoffrey Bache Smith, his poetry, and his influence on his great friend, Tolkien. In a previous post, I spotlighted an under-appreciated aspect of Smith: his sense of humour. In this new … Continue reading →

Posted in John Garth’s writing, Research tangents | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

In search of T.W. Earp and the origin of ‘twerp’

Posted on 27 November 2022 by Peter Gilliver

In a guest post, Oxford English Dictionary historian and lexicographer Peter Gilliver sheds new light on one of the most curious characters to cross the young J.R.R. Tolkien’s path The classical scholar E.R. Dodds, who matriculated at Oxford a year … Continue reading →

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The dream of Geoffrey Bache Smith

Posted on 18 October 2021 by John Garth

It’s not often you stumble upon a piece of writing by a key member of Tolkien’s school circle, the T.C.B.S. Today I am pleased as Punch to be able to present such a piece by G.B. Smith, to mark his … Continue reading →

Posted in Research tangents, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Testing time for Tolkien, the Inklings and the T.C.B.S.

Posted on 12 June 2021 by John Garth

Even after 30-odd years it still happens. I’m in the middle of dusty nowhere trying to lug a broken television set across Spain, or I’m arguing with some bureaucrat who won’t let me get going, or I’m hopelessly lost in … Continue reading →

Posted in Research tangents, Tolkien’s creative spirit | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Tolkien’s last friend in Oxford when the world went to war

Posted on 29 July 2019 by John Garth

‘Not a single man I know is up except Cullis,’ Tolkien lamented at the start of his final year as an Oxford student. It was 1914, war had just broken out, and their friends had left in droves to enlist … Continue reading →

Posted in 100 years of Middle-earth, Research tangents, Tolkien in the First World War | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

Robert Quilter Gilson, TCBS – a documentary

Posted on 11 May 2016 by John Garth

When Tolkien writes in the Foreword to The Lord of the Rings that ‘by 1918 all but one of my close friends were dead’, he is referring to his friends in a clique formed at school but later bonded by … Continue reading →

Posted in Research tangents, Tolkien in the First World War | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Tolkien’s ‘immortal four’ meet for the last time

Posted on 25 September 2015 by John Garth

Best Article, Tolkien Society Awards 2016 Also available in Spanish and Portuguese. One hundred years ago today, four young men convened in an English town, not having seen each other for some time. What makes this trivial event significant is … Continue reading →

Posted in Research tangents, Tolkien in the First World War | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 23 Comments

Why World War One Is at the heart of Lord of the Rings

Posted on 29 July 2014 by John Garth

It’s sixty years since the publication of J.R.R. Tolkien’s first volume of The Lord of The Rings. Why was he so inspired by the Great War—and a group of schoolfriends? War runs like iron ore through the bones of Tolkien’s … Continue reading →

Posted in 100 years of Middle-earth, Tolkien in the First World War, Tolkien’s creative spirit | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Secrets of The Hydra: how Tolkien research uncovered lost Wilfred Owen magazines

Posted on 17 June 2014 by John Garth

Historic missing issues of a magazine edited by First World War poet Wilfred Owen have been found and donated to archives in Oxford, in a move hailed as ‘a stunning discovery’. When copies also went to an Edinburgh university, it … Continue reading →

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100 years of Middle-earth

Posted on 25 January 2014 by John Garth

Tolkien’s Middle-earth began in 1914. That may come as a surprise, considering The Lord of the Rings was published in 1954–5 and even The Hobbit appeared no further back than 1937. But the fact is that before and beneath those … Continue reading →

Posted in 100 years of Middle-earth | Tagged , , , , | 19 Comments