A warm welcome in a not quite dead language

In their Chronology, Christina Scull and Wayne Hammond tell us that on October 7, 1925, just a few months shy of 100 years ago:

The Vice-Chancellor of Oxford delivers a speech in Latin to Convocation reviewing the past academic year and welcoming newcomers to positions in the University, including Tolkien as Professor of Anglo-Saxon. [1]

They don’t identify the vice-chancellor by name, but this would have been Joseph Wells, who was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford from 1923 to 1926.

For those who might be interested, here is the paragraph in which Wells welcomes Tolkien and others:

Salutamus etiam comiter sex novos professores, et te primum ex Aede Christi ad Cathedram ’Αρχαιολογίας unanimo consensu vocatum, Ioannes Beazley, qui, ut Ioannes ille alter versibus immortalibus, ita doctrina tua et acumine, Graeca vasa omnibus, quicunque aliquid humanarum litterarum sapiunt, patefacis et illustras. Arcessivimus etiam Gustavum Braunholtz ex Academia Cymrica ut nostros doceat leges secundum quas et in Graeco et in Latino sermone verba mutentur, et Ioannem Tolkien, Collegii Exoniensis alumnum, ex Academia Leodensi, virum in antiquo nostrae gentis sermone si quis alius versatum, unicum et eximium illustrissimi illius Arturi Napier discipulum. E nostris doctoribus summa voluptate elegimus David Capel Simpson e Collegio Wadhami ut ex altiore professoris sede labores suos insignes, tam diu ab omnibus in Sancta Theologia versantibus, in honore habitos continuet et promoveat, elegimus etiam Professorem Historiae Militaris e Britannico exercitu illum militem praeclarum et ingeniosurn, Ernestum Dunlop Swinton equitem, qui olim et nos calamo suo delectavit et hostes nostros contudit essedis, magis horrendis quam ea quae olim Caesaris ipsius legionibus terrorem iniecerunt. [2]

And a loose translation:

We also cordially greet the six new professors, and you, the first from Christ Church to the Chair of Archaeology, John Beazley, who, like the other John, by your immortal verses, so by your learning and acumen, you open and illuminate Greek vessels to all who are interested in human literature. We have also summoned Gustav Braunholtz from the Welsh Academy to teach our students the laws according to which words are changed in both Greek and Latin, and John Tolkien, a student of Exeter College, from the University of Leeds, a man more versed in the ancient language of our nation than anyone else, the singular and outstanding disciple of the most illustrious Arthur Napier. From our teachers, we have chosen with the greatest pleasure David Capel Simpson from Wadham College to continue and promote from the higher chair of professorship his distinguished labors, so long held in honor by all those engaged in Sacred Theology. We have also chosen as Professor of Military History from the British Army that illustrious and ingenious soldier, Sir Ernest Dunlop Swinton, who once delighted us with his pen and crushed our enemies, more terrifying than those which once struck terror into the legions of Caesar himself.

I’ve provided the entire paragraph for context, but the bit about Tolkien in particular I’ve put into boldface to make it easier to spot in the wall of words. The Napier referred to is Arthur Sampson Napier, who was both the first Merton Professor of English Language and Literature, Oxford, from 1885 to 1916, and the last Rawlinsonian Professor of Anglo-Saxon from 1903 to 1916. The latter, following Napier’s time, was renamed the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon. Tolkien was the only other professor besides Napier to hold both these professorships — but not simultaneously, as Napier had.

And since we’re quoting Latin greetings, a few months later on March 9, 1926, the Public Orator delivered to Convocation an oration “on the occasion of the conferment of the Honorary Degree of D.Litt. upon Tadensz Zieliński, Professor at the University of Warsaw” [3], a prominent Polish philologist of the day. It looks to me like this one did not make it into the Chronology.

This speech contained another reference to the university’s new professors, so here is the relevant bit:

Professorum nuper creatorum alii tantum ex hoc in illud se transferunt collegium, alii ex locis remotis in sellas suas venerunt. Atque inter illos invenitur Iohannes Beazley [...]; et David C. Simpson, qui professor professorem Henricum C. Davis brevi temporis intervallo in collegium Orielense secutus est. [...] Iohannes Tolkien, collegii Exoniensis alumnus, brevi in provinciam relegatus, in patriam suam, ut ita dicam, restitutus est ut sellae potitus Pembrochianae nostrorum maiorum patriae sermonis studia ope adiuvet sua. [4]

And done back into English for convenience:

Of the newly created professors, some only transfer themselves from this college to that, others have come to their chairs from distant places. And among them is found John Beazley [...]; and David C. Simpson, who succeeded Professor Henry C. Davis at a short interval of time as professor at Oriel College. [...] John Tolkien, a student of Exeter College, was briefly banished to the province, and is, so to speak, restored to his homeland, so that, having obtained a chair at Pembroke, he may assist with his studies of the language of our ancestors.

There’s a touch of humor and Oxonian pride here in saying that Tolkien’s time in the province, i.e., at Leeds, was a “brief banishment” and that he has finally been brought back in patriam suam, literally, “to his fatherland”.

I also really like the way Joseph Wells described Tolkien in the earlier quoted passage: virum in antiquo nostrae gentis sermone si quis alius versatum, “a man more versed in the ancient language of our nation than anyone else”. Very true, and worth quoting again.

[1] Scull, Christina and Wayne G. Hammond. The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide: Chronology. Rev. and exp. ed. HarperCollins, 2017, p. 142.

[2] Oxford University Gazette. Vol. LVI, No. 1781 (October 8, 1925), p. 24.

[3] Oxford University Gazette. Vol. LVI, No. 1799 (March 19, 1926), Supp. 2, p. 484.

[4] ibid., pp. 485–6.