The Battle of the Eastern Field

The Battle of the Eastern Field is a poem written by J.R.R. Tolkien about a rugby match sometime before March of 1911 when he was still at King Edward's School in Birmingham. It is notably the first poem that Tolkien published.

Preface and first stanza

[On Friday March 31st I came across this curious fragment in the waste paper basket, in the Prefects' room. Much of it was so blotted that I could not decipher it. I publish it with emendations of my own. G.A.B.]
I
Ho, rattles sound your warnote!
Ho, trumpets loudly bray!
The clans will strive and gory writhe
Upon the field to-day.
To-day the walls and blackboards
Are hung with flaunting script,
From Atlas on the staircase
To Bogey's darkling crypt.
Each knight is robed in scarlet,
Or clad in olive green;
A gallant crest upon each breast
Is proudly heaving seen.
While flows our Yellow River,
While stands the great Pavil,
That Thursday in the Lenten Term
Shall be a beanfest still.

Background

It is unknown when Tolkien wrote the poem nor whether any earlier versions survive, but it is possible that he wrote it in the same year that the poem was published.

In March 1911, The Battle of the Eastern Field was first published as entry 186 in the 26th issue of the King Edward's School Chronicle on pages 22–6. The mock author's notes published with the poem were signed with the pseudonym G.A.B., possibly short for Gabriel, Tolkien's schoolboy nickname.

Sometime shortly after the poem was published, Tolkien made an annotated copy that he signed with his initials.

In 1978, the poem was reprinted in Mallorn 12 on pages 24–8. In an article published in Mallorn 13 in 1979, the poem was first identified by Jessica Yates as being a parody of 'The Battle of Lake Regillus' from Thomas Babbington Macaulay's 1842 The Lays of Ancient Rome. In the autumn of 2008, the poem was reprinted again in Mallorn 46 on pages 20–2 with commentary by Maggie Burns. In 2017, the first four lines were reprinted in the second edition The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide.

In September of 2024, the poem was included as entry 6 in The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien along with Tolkien's annotated copy.