Home / About the Site / Contents / New / Creating Your Own Classic /Authors / Timeline / Tours / Interact! / Search / Children's Corner

J. R. R. Tolkien

J. R. R. Tolkien Home / JRRT Biography / JRRT Works / JRRT Links

  John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born January 3, 1892 in Bloemfontein, the capital of the then-existing Orange Free State, a part of the area which is now South Africa. His parents were English- his father, Arthur Tolkien, had moved to Bloemfontein after accepting a position as manager of a new English bank there. Two years after their first son was born, Mabel Tolkien gave birth to another son, named Hilary (1894). In 1895, Mabel and her two sons moved back to Birmingham, England because the climate in Africa wasn't good for the babies and they were sickly. Arthur Tolkien stayed behind and planned to join them when he could resign from his job or stay until the children were well enough to return to Bloemfontein. However, Arthur Tolkien never got to see his family again- he died on February 15, 1896 in Bloemfontein because of complications of the flu.

  Mabel, John Ronald and Hilary eventually settled in the small hamlet of Sarehole, near Birmingham. John loved it in Sarehole, and it was this place that he eventually turned into the hobbit's beloved land of the Shire. In 1903, Tolkien won a scholarship to King Edward VI School in Birmingham, which was the finest secondary school in the area. His mother was very proud of him, as she had been in charge of her sons' education before that. However, unfortunately, only a year later, Mabel also died. She had apparently been sick for some time and already arranged for Father Morgan, the priest at the Birmingham Oratory. Mabel was afraid if the boys went to live with their grandparents, who were Protestant, they wouldn't continue in the Catholic faith. After their mother's death, Father Morgan obtained lodging for the boys at a private boarding house in Birmingham. Tolkien was for the most part happy here and Father Morgan and the boys got along well.

  After finishing King Edward VI school, Tolkien went on to Oxford (Exeter College). After graduating from Oxford in 1915 (with a First Class Honours degree in English Language and Literature), he went on to join the British army. In 1916, when Tolkien was home in England on leave, he married Edith Bratt. After returning to the army, he fought in the battle of the Somme and was eventually discharged and spent a lot of time in the hospital, suffering from "trench fever," or "shell shock." This same year-1917- Tolkien's first son was born. He was named John Francis Reuel (all Tolkien's children would share his second middle name-Reuel).

  After his recovery from "shell shock," he got a job as a staff member of the New English Dictionary, which lasted from 1918 to 1920. In 1920, his second son, Michael Hilary Reuel, was born. This same year, he also got a job at University of Leeds- first as a Reader, but eventually Tolkien became a Professor of the English language. Tolkien's third son, Christopher Reuel, was born in 1924. In 1925, Tolkien went to back to Oxford to teach as a Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon. It was in 1926 that Tolkien met C.S. Lewis (author of the Chronicles of Narnia) and the two became life-long friends. They had a lot in common- both were veterans of the war, both loved English and writing, both were very religious. In 1929, Tolkien's last child, Priscilla Anne Reuel, was born. In 1945, Tolkien took the job of Merton Professor of English Language and Literature at Oxford. He worked there until 1959. Tolkien had always been interested in languages- he spent a lot of time as a child inventing his own. His focus as a professor was the study of Anglo-Saxon (Old English) and its relation to other languages that shared certain similarities (Old Norse, Old German, and Gothic). He was especially interested in the dialects of Mercia, the part of England, around Sarehole and Birmingham, in which he grew up and lived. He was an expert of the literature that were written in these languages.

  It was in 1937 that Tolkien published The Hobbit. He had been telling his children the story of a funny little creature named Bilbo for so long he finally turned it into a children's book. However, when the Lord of the Rings trilogy was published in 1954 and 1955, it was published as an adult's book. It was a surprise to many when The Lord of the Rings was such a success- it an adult's book that was a continuation of a children's story, plus, the three books of the trilogy put together was longer than War and Peace. However, Tolkien's series was soon a best-seller in both the U.S. and Britain. The sales of The Lord of the Rings, as well as the Hobbit (which found it's way to the adult fiction shelves), were unprecedented- stores reported that the sales eclipsed such popular writers as Kurt Vonnegut and William Golding. Graffiti appeared everywhere- reading "Frodo Lives!" or "Gandalf for President" or "Reading Tolkien Can Be Hobbit-Forming." Some say imitation is the best form of flattery- but graffiti has to be high ranking too! Tolkien followed his success with The Adventures of Tom Bombadil in 1962, as well as Smith of Wotton Major and The Road Goes Ever On in 1967.

  In 1968, the Tolkiens moved to Poole, England, which is near Bournemouth, because there was too much noise and publicity in Oxford. They needed to get away to somewhere more quiet. Edith Tolkien, who had been ill for quite some time, finally died in 1971. They had been married 55 years and the loss was a great one to Tolkien. In 1972, Tolkien was made a member of the Order of the British Empire-which is one step below knighthood. The medal he received was given to him by Queen Elizabeth in Buckingham Palace. If he had lived longer, he probably would have been knighted as well.

  The next year, however, J.R.R. Tolkien died-on September 2, 1973, due to pneumonia complicated by a gastric ulcer. His last words to his daughter, at a meeting a few days earlier, were, "I feel on top of the world!" And indeed, his works are still loved and cherished by people all over the world (The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings has been translated into 12 languages).

Home / About the Site / Contents / New / Creating Your Own Classic /Authors / Timeline / Tours / Interact! / Search / Children's Corner