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Autograph manuscript, diagrams of Old English phonology, notes for Tolkien's lectures at the University of Oxford, [1942]
Details
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892-1973)
Autograph manuscript, diagrams of Old English phonology, notes for Tolkien's lectures at the University of Oxford, [1942]
4 pages. 240 x 184 mm. Ink and coloured pencil. Provenance: by descent from one of Tolkien's students.
Notes on the phonological history of Old English. These are part of Tolkien’s lectures on the Vespasian Psalter glosses – the earliest Old English translation of parts of the bible dating from the ninth century. The diagrams show the development of the vowel ‘a’ in West Mercian, Kentish, and West-Saxon. Tolkien lectured on the glosses at Oxford, 1932-1945.
Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford from 1925 to 1945. He circulated these notes to his Old and Middle English tutor groups, allowing one student to keep them. Much of Tolkien’s work as an historical philologist involved detailed analysis of the elements concerned in the evolution of words, particularly the relationship between the pronunciation and spelling. Tolkien also wrote several texts of his legendarium in Old English, with Mercian signifying his fictional Rohirric language.
Autograph manuscript, diagrams of Old English phonology, notes for Tolkien's lectures at the University of Oxford, [1942]
4 pages. 240 x 184 mm. Ink and coloured pencil. Provenance: by descent from one of Tolkien's students.
Notes on the phonological history of Old English. These are part of Tolkien’s lectures on the Vespasian Psalter glosses – the earliest Old English translation of parts of the bible dating from the ninth century. The diagrams show the development of the vowel ‘a’ in West Mercian, Kentish, and West-Saxon. Tolkien lectured on the glosses at Oxford, 1932-1945.
Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford from 1925 to 1945. He circulated these notes to his Old and Middle English tutor groups, allowing one student to keep them. Much of Tolkien’s work as an historical philologist involved detailed analysis of the elements concerned in the evolution of words, particularly the relationship between the pronunciation and spelling. Tolkien also wrote several texts of his legendarium in Old English, with Mercian signifying his fictional Rohirric language.
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Mark Wiltshire
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