University of Leeds

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University of Leeds

The University of Leeds is a centre for learning in the city of Leeds in Yorkshire, England. J.R.R. Tolkien taught there between 1920 and 1925; first as Reader but later a full Professor.

Tolkien at Leeds

The University was Tolkien's second post-war employer. After the New English Dictionary and a year of tutoring students in Oxford, Tolkien decided to apply for a post at the University of Leeds. Tolkien had an interview with George S. Gordon, the University's Professor of English, in June 1920.[1] It was a fruitful job interview: Tolkien was appointed a Reader in English Language in October of the same year, with a free commission to develop the linguistic side of a large and growing School of English Studies.[2]

The start was rough: though Gordon found Tolkien a room in Leeds,[3] Edith and young John still lived in Oxford. In weekends, Tolkien would go to his family - now expanded with the birth of Michael. Not until 1921 did Tolkien get full housing for his family, first at 5 Holly Bank[4] and then at 11 St. Mark's Terrace.[5] They later moved to 2 Darnley Road.[6]

Under Gordon, Tolkien began focusing on philology, and taught various courses, such as "History of English", "Middle English texts", "Old and Middle English philology", "introductory Germanic philology", the second-year course "Old Icelandic" and "Medieval Welsh".[2] He might even have continued to fret on some of his hardest assignments of his time at the OED; several notes of his time show his added thoughts on "walrus" and "walnut" in Leeds notebooks.[7] The post of Reader was changed into a Professorship,[3] and in 1922, Tolkien was joined by E.V. Gordon.[5] Together, they started work on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and Tolkien continued to work on his A Middle English Vocabulary.[8] A year later, they would be joined by Lascelles Abercrombie[3] and Wilfred Rowland Childe.[9]

Tolkien left Leeds somewhat abruptly in 1925 when he was elected to the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford, so that he actually occupied both posts simultaneously for the duration of 1926.[3] Reflecting on his time at Leeds in a later letter, Tolkien refuted the idea that he did not enjoy his time there:

I was devoted to the University of Leeds, which was very good to me, and to the students, whom I left with regret. The present students are among my most attentive readers...[10]

Publications

Tolkien contributed several poems to The Gryphon, Yorkshire Poetry, A Northern Venture and Leeds University Verse. He also finished stories that would later become The Book of Lost Tales Part One.[5]

See also

References

External links