15 May 1931 Tolkien and Nichol Smith submitted to the English Board a draft on the needs of the English Faculty for submission to the General Board. As submitted after emendation this listed three main needs: the establishment of a statutory University Lecturership in English Literature; the endowment of a readership or lecturership in (medieval) Scandinavian languages; and a new building for the English Faculty library. Tolkien surely drafted the justification for the second request, for the burden of Scandinavian studies fell on him: ‘Norse literature and philology are of central importance in the mediaeval curriculum of the English School. Adequate provision for the teaching of these subjects, and for the direction of advanced studies is urgently required. No provision for Scandinavian studies has been made by the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages since 1916’ (Oxford University Archives FA 4/5/2/3). It was not until 1941 that the first election to the newly created Vigfússon Readership in Ancient Icelandic Literature and Antiquities relieved Tolkien of those duties.
The Second World War produced added problems and burdens. There might have been fewer male students in Oxford, but several members of the English Faculty left to take up war work, and University restrictions made replacing them difficult. In addition, the English Faculty were asked to provide short courses for Navy and Air Force cadets during their training, which not only needed new lectures but successive courses continued through traditional university vacations; and a special course for undergraduates who took part of their course of study before military service, and would later return to complete their degree. It was national policy in Britain that soldiers, sailors, and airmen were better for having experienced, even for a brief time, the enlargement of their mental horizons provided by a university education (alongside more specific military training). Oxford offered short courses of six months’ duration to service probationers from 1941, beginning with Army signallers and Royal Air Force cadets; Navy cadets joined the programme at Oxford in 1943. Although Army cadets were restricted to the science and technical curriculums, the Navy and Air Force not only permitted but encouraged their cadets to read in other subject. (See further, Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull, ‘Oxford Cadets’, Too Many Books and Never Enough blog, 27 December 2011.)
With the end of the war in sight, Tolkien submitted on 26 March 1945 a statement on the ‘Needs of the English Faculty’ drawn up by himself and Nichol Smith to H.M. Margoliouth, Secretary of Faculties. They asked for more University Lecturerships and pointed out that the English School
receives small support in the way of fellowships from the men’s colleges as a whole, least of all in linguistic and mediaeval subjects; and it can never count on reappointment in the same subject, if one of its few male teachers that hold fellowships either retires or dies. An important part of the lecturing has in recent years been provided without fee or emolument.
In spite of this shortage the tendency appears to be to reduce the number of men supported either by fellowship or university appointment, and those that remain are over-worked. In order to conduct a Cadet Course all the resident men, fellows and professors (with the exception of the late Professor Wyld, whose sight and health were failing), had to take part, and most of these have now had no break in teaching and examining since January 1943.
At present there are not enough men and women with a fellowship or appointment to provide for the proper relief and change of examiners in those examinations of which the English Board has charge …. The Professor of Anglo-Saxon [i.e. Tolkien] has for years been obliged to take a large share in the examination of Pass Moderations and Sections. [Oxford University Archives FA 4/5/2/7]
*Lord David Cecil and *Dorothy Whitelock were appointed to University Lecturerships from 1 October 1946.
The report of a committee (of which Tolkien was a member) on the needs of the faculty for the quinquennium 1947–1952, approved by the English Faculty Board in October 1946, addressed
the immediate and pressing need of the School of English … for an increase in teaching staff. This has never been adequate; it is now gravely deficient. There are not enough teaching members of the Faculty to cover the linguistic and literary tuition, or the supervision of advanced students, or the requisite changes of examiners in the preliminary and final examinations.
When the Faculty of English was separated from Modern Languages in 1926 the School possessed: 3 Professors: 1 English Literature; 1 Language; 1 Anglo-Saxon. 1 Goldsmiths’ Reader. 4 University Readers: 3 Literature; 1 Language.
In spite of the growth of the School the provision remains much the same. Instead of the 4 University Readerships the School now has:
1 University Reader. Language.
1 Statutory Lecturer. Language.
*1 Lecturer. Literature. [Lord David Cecil].
*1 Lecturer. Mediaeval English. [Dorothy Whitelock]
(* These last two have only recently been established. For most of the intervening period the School has been deprived of the equivalent of 2 of the Readerships with which it started its independent existence.)
The only increase has been the recent appointment of Mr Ker as Reader in Palaeography. His services, mainly in the graduate (‘postgraduate’) department, are shared with History.
A Readership in Ancient Icelandic was established in 1940 (by a legacy) and attached to the English School. This has been of assistance to the professor of Anglo-Saxon, whose work has very greatly increased since 1926; but Scandinavian studies are a separate subject, of which the English School has become the caretaker.
In addition to the general growth of the School, in scope and numbers, there has been a considerable growth in the department of advanced (‘post-graduate’) studies. For the last twenty years this department has had the services, at small cost, of Mr S.R. Gibson. If the bibliographical work is to be maintained, the loss of his services will have to be replaced.
Since 1926 a few of the men’s colleges have assisted the School by tutorial fellowships and lectureships (other than those held by Readers and Lecturers). There has recently been (balanced against losses) some slight increase in this assistance. It is still inadequate, even on the tutorial side, and there appears to be small prospect of any substantial increase. A large part of the tuition, lecturing, and supervision, will still have to be provided by the School independently …. [Oxford University Archives FA 4/5/2/8]
The Board asked for the Goldsmiths’ Readership to be upgraded to a second chair of English Literature, and for two additional lecturerships in English Literature and one in Old and Middle English, and a readership or lecturership in Textual Criticism.
Raymond Edwards in Tolkien (2014) comments that Tolkien’s standing in the English Faculty at Leeds ‘had meant real authority over all who taught his subject in the University, and the capacity, funds permitting, to hire and fire staff’, but at Oxford ‘the faculties were comparatively insignificent, particularly in their responsibility for personnel other than the handful of professors and readers. Tutorial fellows were hired by, responsible to, and under the authority of, their colleges above all, and the colleges were jealous of their autonomy.’ At the same time, the shortage of teaching staff ‘had a significant effect on Tolkien’s scholarly productivity’, as he was overworked as a lecturer and in setting and marking examinations (p. 135). Under Oxford’s collegiate structure,
the vast majority of tenured staff are hired not by the University (as Tolkien was) but by individual colleges according to an almost infinitely variable, and unpredictable, schedule of their own private priorities. Thus, if a particular college had a fellow who was able and willing to teach undergraduates a particular part of the English course, he might be able (and willing) to do so only for undergraduates from his own college, or for his own and one other; and should he die or retire
