»(...) his taste for Germanic languages had no connection with his German ancestors on the Tolkien side, but from his Suffield mother [Mabel] who 'knew German, and gave me my first lessons in it...' (...). He continued to study German on his own at King Edward's School, where he was runner-up on the Clasical side for the German prize at Speech Day and prize-giving on 26 July 1909; the following year he was the winner. (...)
During the First World War Tolkien had some occasion to use German conversationally: in France he 'spoke to a captured [German] officer who had been wounded, offering him a drink of water; the officer corrected his German pronunciation' (Humphrey Carpenter, Biography, pp. 84–5).«
From J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide. Reader's Guide, p. 465–6
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| British soldiers giving a wounded German prisoner a drink. Date unknown. |
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