January 3rd 1931 

 

It has been many years since I have starting work as an English Language professor at Oxford but also many years since there has been any spark of excitement in my life. My work is straight forward and well-paying but dull. I intend to start something new soon but I can’t quite figure out what. I am still haunted by memories of war and I am still left to swim in the guilt of abandoning my comrades but I am still grateful for the trench-fever I luckily contracted that took me out of the battles that would have played with my fate. Although I do love teaching my classes and sharing my knowledge and passions, I wonder how much I will contribute to this world if this is all that I will ever do. 

 

On a lighter note, my meetings with my fellow Inklings always puts me in a better mood. My good friend C S Lewis particularly inspired me to add forms of dialect into my nearly completed Elven language that I usually work on in my spare time. He loves to tell tales of exciting fantasy worlds and adventures that take place there. I have no doubt that many more exciting tales will come from him soon. While many meetings run smoothly, I forgot to bring my usual supply of tobacco to yesterday’s meeting. This was quite an embarrassment to me and put everyone in an unhappy mood for the duration of the meeting. 

 

Speaking of events yesterday, while I was marking exam papers something quite peculiar happened. A student had left one of the answer pages blank. While I noticed this, something scurried into a small hole in the side of my class wall. It was most likely a rat but it inspired me to write something. So, I wrote just one sentence. “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.” I doubt this will turn out to be something worth writing about but naturally I was struck by questions regarding this simple sentence. “What is a hobbit?”, “Why does it live in a hole?”, “What kind of hole does it live in?” Simple questions like those. I will start to write more and answer these questions tomorrow but I am beginning to get a little peckish. I will continue write after I get some cheese and a good smoke of tobacco. 

 

Back from trip to the pantry, too deep in thought trying to figure out what a hobbit is. Will write later.