J. R. R. Tolkien

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (January 3, 1892 – September 2, 1973) is the author of The Hobbit and its sequel The Lord of the Rings.

Biography

The Tolkien family

As far as is known, most of Tolkien's paternal ancestors were craftsmen. The Tolkien family had its roots in Saxony (Germany), but had been living in England since the 18th century. The surname Tolkien is anglicised from Tollkiehn (i.e. German tollkühn, "foolhardy", the etymological English translation would be dull-keen, a literal translation of oxymoron). The character of Professor Rashbold in The Notion Club Papers is a pun on the name.

Related Topics:
Saxony - Germany - 18th century - Oxymoron - The Notion Club Papers

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Childhood

Tolkien was born on January 3, 1892 in Bloemfontein in the Orange Free State

Related Topics:
January 3 - 1892 - Bloemfontein - Orange Free State

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(now Free State), South Africa, to Arthur Tolkien, an English bank manager, and his wife Mabel Tolkien (maiden name Suffield). Tolkien only had one sibling, his brother Hilary Arthur Reuel Tolkien, who was born on February 17, 1894.

Related Topics:
Free State - South Africa - February 17 - 1894

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When he was three, Tolkien went to England with his mother and brother on what was intended to be a lengthy family visit. His father, however, died in South Africa of a severe brain hemorrhage before he could join them. This left the family without an income, so Tolkien's mother took him to live with her parents in Birmingham, England for a short time. Soon after, in 1896, they moved to Sarehole, then a Worcestershire village, later annexed to Birmingham. He enjoyed exploring Sarehole Mill and Moseley Bog and the Clent Hills and Lickey Hills, which would later inspire scenes in his books along with other Worcestershire towns and villages such as Bromsgrove, Alcester and Alvechurch, as would places such as his aunt's farm of Bag End, whose name would be used in his fiction.

Related Topics:
England - Hemorrhage - Birmingham, England - 1896 - Sarehole - Worcestershire - Sarehole Mill - Moseley Bog - Clent Hills - Lickey Hills - Bromsgrove - Alcester - Alvechurch

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Mabel tutored her two sons, and Ronald, as he was known in the family, was a keen pupil. She taught him a great deal of botany, and she awoke in her son the enjoyment of the look and feel of plants. Young Tolkien liked to draw landscapes and trees. But his favourite lessons were those concerning languages, and his mother taught him the rudiments of Latin very early. He could read by the age of four, and could write fluently soon afterwards. He attended King Edward's School, Birmingham, St Phillip's School, and Exeter College, Oxford.

Related Topics:
Botany - Latin - King Edward's School, Birmingham - St Phillip's School - Exeter College, Oxford

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His mother converted to Roman Catholicism in 1900, despite vehement protests by her Baptist family. She died of diabetes in 1904, when Tolkien was 12, and he felt for the rest of his life that she had become a martyr for her faith; this had a profound effect on his own Catholic beliefs. Tolkien's devout faith was significant in the conversion of C. S. Lewis to Christianity and in his writings, which express a Christian mythos and worldview.

Related Topics:
Roman Catholicism - 1900 - Baptist - Diabetes - 1904 - Martyr - C. S. Lewis - Christianity - Worldview

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During his subsequent orphanhood he was brought up by Father Francis Xavier Morgan of the Birmingham Oratory, in the Edgbaston area of Birmingham. He lived there in the shadow of Perrott's Folly and the Victorian tower of Edgbaston waterworks, which may have influenced the images of the dark towers within his works. Another strong influence was the romantic medievalist paintings of Edward Burne-Jones and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood; the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery has a large and world-renowned collection of works and had put it on free public display from around 1908.

Related Topics:
Birmingham Oratory - Edgbaston - Perrott's Folly - Victorian - Romantic - Edward Burne-Jones - Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood - Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery - 1908

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Youth

Tolkien met and fell in love with Edith Bratt, three years his senior, at the age of 16. Father Francis forbade him from meeting, talking, or even corresponding with her until he was 21. He obeyed this prohibition to the letter.

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In 1911, while they were at King Edward's School, Birmingham, Tolkien and three friends, Rob Gilson, Geoffrey Smith and Christopher Wiseman, formed a semi-secret society which they called "the T.C.B.S.", the initials standing for 'Tea Club and Barrovian Society', alluding to their fondness of drinking Tea in Barrow's Stores near the school and, illegally, in the school library. After leaving school, the members stayed in touch, and in December 1914, they held a 'Council' in London, at Wiseman's home. For Tolkien, the result of this meeting was a strong dedication to writing poetry.

Related Topics:
1911 - Birmingham - 1914

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In the summer of 1911, Tolkien went on holiday in Switzerland, a trip that he recollects vividly in a 1968 letter (Letters, no. 306), noting that Bilbo's journey across the Misty Mountains ("including the glissade down the slithering stones into the pine woods") is directly based on his adventures as their party of 12 hiked from Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen,and on to camp in the morains beyond Mürren. 57 years later, Tolkien remembers his regret at leaving the view of the eternal snows of Jungfrau and Silberhorn ("the Silvertine (Celebdil) of my dreams"). They went across the Kleine Scheidegg on to Grindelwald and across the Grosse Scheidegg to Meiringen. They continued across the Grimsel Pass and through the upper Valais to Brig, and on to the Aletsch glacier and Zermatt.

Related Topics:
Switzerland - 1968 - Interlaken - Lauterbrunnen - Mürren - Jungfrau - Silberhorn - Celebdil - Kleine Scheidegg - Grindelwald - Grosse Scheidegg - Meiringen - Grimsel Pass - Valais - Brig - Aletsch glacier - Zermatt

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On the evening of his 21st birthday, Tolkien telephoned Edith and asked her to be his bride and she converted to Catholicism for him. They were engaged in Birmingham, in January 1913, and married in Warwick, England on March 22, 1916.

Related Topics:
January - 1913 - Warwick, England - March 22 - 1916

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With his childhood love of landscape, he visited Cornwall in 1914 and he was said to be deeply impressed by the singular Cornish coastline and sea. After graduating from the University of Oxford with a first-class degree in English language in 1915, Tolkien joined the British Army effort in World War I and served as a second lieutenant in the 11th battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers. His battalion was moved to France in 1916, where Tolkien served as a communications officer during the Battle of the Somme, until he came down with trench fever on October 27, and was moved back to England on November 8. Many of his fellow servicemen, as well as many of his closest friends, were killed in the war. During his recovery in a cottage in Great Haywood, Staffordshire, England, he began to work on what he called The Book of Lost Tales, beginning with The Fall of Gondolin. Throughout 1917 and 1918, his illness kept recurring, but he had reconvalesced enough to do home service at various camps, and was promoted to lieutenant. When he was stationed at Kingston upon Hull, one day he and Edith went walking in the woods at nearby Roos, and Edith began to dance for him in a thick grove of hemlock. The memory of this is wrought into the account of the meeting of Beren and Lúthien, and Tolkien often referred to Edith as his Lúthien.

Related Topics:
Cornwall - 1914 - University of Oxford - English - 1915 - British Army - World War I - Second lieutenant - Battalion - Lancashire Fusiliers - 1916 - Battle of the Somme - Trench fever - October 27 - November 8 - Cottage - Great Haywood - Staffordshire, England - The Book of Lost Tales - The Fall of Gondolin - 1917 - Kingston upon Hull - Roos - Hemlock - Beren and Lúthien

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Leeds, Oxford

Tolkien's first civilian job after World War I was at the Oxford English Dictionary (among others, he initiated the entries wasp and walrus). In 1920 he took up a post as Reader in English language at the University of Leeds, but in 1925 he returned to Oxford as a Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College, where he wrote the Hobbit and the first two volumes of The Lord of the Rings. In 1945 he moved to Merton College, Oxford, becoming the Merton Professor of English Language and Literature, in which post he remained until his retirement in 1959.

Related Topics:
Oxford English Dictionary - Wasp - Walrus - 1920 - Reader - University of Leeds - 1925 - Professor - Pembroke College - 1945 - Merton College, Oxford - 1959

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It may be significant that Tolkien disliked intensely the devouring of the English countryside by the suburbs, even though, given his profession, he generally found it convenient to live in them. But for most of his adult life he eschewed automobiles, preferring to ride a bicycle. This strong dislike of industrialization influenced some parts of his work, such as the forced industrialization of the Shire in The Lord of the Rings, where he mentions ugly brick buildings as a negative development. Tolkien and Edith had four children: John Francis Reuel (November 17, 1917), Michael Hilary Reuel (October, 1920), Christopher John Reuel (1924) and Priscilla Anne Reuel (1929). During the 1950s, Tolkien spent many of his long academic holidays at the home of his son John Francis in Stoke-on-Trent.

Related Topics:
November 17 - 1917 - October - 1920 - Christopher John Reuel - 1924 - 1929 - 1950s - Stoke-on-Trent

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Retirement, Old Age

During his life in retirement, from 1959 up to his death in 1973, Tolkien increasingly turned into a figure of public attention and literary fame. The sale of his books was so profitable that Tolkien regretted he had not taken early retirement. While at first he wrote enthusiastic answers to reader inquiries, he became more and more suspicious about emerging Tolkien fandom, especially among the Hippy movement in the USA. Already in 1944 he made a somewhat sarcastic comment about a fan letter by a 12 year old American reader ( It's nice to find that little American boys do really still say 'Gee Whiz'., Letters no. 87). In a 1972 letter he deplores having become a cult-figure, but admits that

Related Topics:
Tolkien fandom - Hippy - 1972

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:even the nose of a very modest idol (younger than Chu-Bu and not much older than Sheemish) cannot remain entirely untickled by the sweet smell of incense! (Letters, no. 336).

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Fan attention became so intense that Tolkien had to take his phone number out of the public directory, and eventually he and Edith moved to Bournemouth at the south coast.

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Edith Tolkien died on November 29, 1971, at the age of 82, and Tolkien had the name Lúthien

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engraved on the stone at Wolvercote Cemetery, Oxford, and when Tolkien died, 21 months later at the age of 81 on September 2, 1973, he was buried in the same grave, with Beren added to his name, so that the engraving now reads:

Related Topics:
Wolvercote - Oxford - Beren

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Edith Mary Tolkien, Lúthien, 1889-1971

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John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, Beren, 1892-1973

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Posthumously named after Tolkien are the Tolkien Road in Eastbourne, East Sussex, and the asteroid 2675 Tolkien. Tolkien Way in Stoke-On-Trent is named after J.R.R.'s son, Father John Francis Tolkien, who used to be the priest in charge at the nearby Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady of the Angels and St. Peter in Chains.

Related Topics:
Eastbourne - East Sussex - Asteroid - 2675 Tolkien - Stoke-On-Trent

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