J. R. R. Tolkien - A chart of Quenya noun declensions.doc

The Bodleian Declensions

Analysis by
Patrick Wynne, Christopher Gilson & Carl F. Hostetter

This chart (see facing page) of Quenya noun declensions was found among J.R.R. Tolkien's manuscripts at the Bodleian (Ms. Tolkien A26/2 fol. 95v). The initial transcription was made by Patrick Wynne, and this was then proofed against the original by Christopher Gilson. The manuscript is neatly written in ink on the back of a page from a late draft of 'Beowulf' and the Critics, the essay from which Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics was derived. On November 25, 1936 Tolkien read Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics to the British Academy as the Sir Israel Gollancz Memorial Lecture (see MC:1). This provides an approximate date for the chart. In our transcription, forms struck out are indicated by brackets {}; when illegible, such forms are indicated by {?}. The entire page was crossed out with an X.

This is the earliest extant chart of Quenya noun inflections. The only other chart that has come to light contains the so-called "Plotz declensions", written some thirty years later in 1966-67.[1] As will be shown, the noun endings on the Bodleian chart resemble those of the "Secret Vice" poems of 1931, with some signs of development in the inflectional system. The arrangement of the forms, however, closely resembles that of the Plotz chart. The forms on the Bodleian chart are unlabelled, but comparison of their endings and layout with the Plotz chart provides clues to their identity and function.