John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

Tolkien is best-known today for his fantasy fiction

A member of Bradley's editorial staff between 1919 and 1920, Tolkien's contribution to the OED was in the range waggle-warlock. After his stint on the Dictionary, Tolkien went on to publish many works on Old and Middle English, later taking up professorships in Anglo-Saxon and English language and literature at Oxford. Tolkien is best-known today for his fantasy fiction, most notably The Hobbit (1937) and the Lord of the Rings trilogy (1954-55). The quotation which Tolkien had intended for walrus was not used, and reads: ‘1896 Cosmopolitan xx. 356/2 Near Herbert Island I secured a goodly number of walruses - cows, calves, yearlings and two-year-olds.’ Tolkien had added a note at the bottom of the slip: ‘(See cutting walrus-calf)’. Compare the reverse of this slip, on which there is one of many of Tolkien's discarded drafts for the etymology of walrus, with the example published in the June 2002 edition of OED News.