Tolkien, His Life, and His Books Brief Summaries of some of Tolkien's Books by Joel Biography of Tolkien by Tom

The Hobbit

Ý
"There is a hole, in the hole there is a hobbit." Until Tolkien wrote that word, there were no hobbits. The story began when he wrote that sentence on a blank page of a student's notebook. The hobbit we meet is Bilbo Baggins, and he is visited by a wizard named Gandalf. Soon after Bilbo is visited by a group of Dwarves who call themselves Thorin and Co. because their leader is Thorin. That night Gandalf, Bilbo, and the Dwarves have a meeting and decide to set out on a quest to recover the gold that Smaug the dragon stole from the dwarves. The group goes over and under hills on their way to the the mountain were Smaug lives. They encounter many dangers, hobbit-eating spiders, evil goblins, and fierce blood hungry wolves. When they reach the mountain they tell Bilbo to go in alone! What will happen, who will live, read to find out.
Like this book, the Fellowship of the Rings is very well written and they are good books
The Lord of the Rings Ý
Ý The Lord of the Rings was supposed to be published as one book, but the publishers thought it was too long and made Tolkien divide it into three books: The Fellowship of the Rings; The Two Towers; and The Return of the King.
According to the The Fellowship of the Rings, Bilbo lived in his hobbit hole until he was 111. Bilbo had a large party and in the the middle of the party, a strange thing happened. Bilbo stood up on a chair and yelled, "I am leaving now, so long!" With that he was gone! Disappeared!
This is were Frodo comes in. Bilbo Baggins's nephew, Frodo Baggins, was given a ring. Gandalf, a wise wizard, told Frodo that the ring had to be destroyed. It held unimaginable power! With this power the dark lord, Sauron could take over and destroy all that was good in Middle Earth! Gandalf told Frodo to take the ring to Mt. Doom and destroy it. Frodo and his faithful friend, Sam, went through many dangers and by the end of the story had reached familiar places and then far beyond.

Now, meet Mr. Tolkien

JRR Tolkien Biography by Tom
    JRR Tolkien stands for John Reuel Ronald Tolkien. Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa, on January 3, 1892. Tolkien had a brother named Hillary who was two years younger. When Tolkien was three years old, his family moved to Birmington, England. His father, however, returned to Bloemfontein to look for diamonds. On February 15, 1896, his father suffered a hemorrhage and died. By the time the family knew about his death, he was already buried in Bloemfontein.
    JRR Tolkien learned to read when he was four years old. His mother taught him French and Latin. In 1900, Tolkien went to King Edward's school in Birmingham. His mother took him out for a time to attend a Catholic school, but eventually he went back to Kind Edward's. Tolkien's great love was languages, and it started at an early age. He became interested in languages when his mother thought him French and Latin at such an early age. When he attended King Edward's, one of his teachers read him the Canterbury Tales in Modern English. Tolkien was so interested in them that he began to read them himself. He studied Greek, Latin, Anglo-Saxon, and French. He also studied philology, which is the study of the development of languages. When Tolkien went to visit his cousins, they used a made up language called Animalic. This was a language made of of animal names. They also made up a language called Nivbosh or New Nonsense. We went on to study Old and Middle English, Old Norse, and German.
    Tolkien's mother died in 1904 after being in a diabetic coma for six days. Father Morgan, a friend of Tolkien's mother and their local priest, helped Tolkien and his brother. They went to live with their Aunt Beatrice for a time, but they were unhappy there. They went to live in a boarding house near Father Morgan. Here Tolkien met Edith Bratt, who he fell in love with. They acted very romantic with each other, sometimes sharing tea and company. Father Morgan, however, said that it was not proper for a 19-year-old girl to be in love with a 16-year-od boy! So they were not allowed to see each other or to write to each other.
    While at King Edward's, Tolkien also loved rugby and debating. When he was a senior, Tolkien started the Tea Club, or T.C. for short. The club was made up of Tolkien and some of his friends. They shared tea and talked about whatever interested them. During the summer, it was called the T.C.B.S, because they met in Barrow's Store.
    After two tries, Tolkien was awarded a scholarship to attend Oxford's Exeter College. This was in 1911. He went there and continued to study languages, including Finnish. At Oxford, Tolkien met a wonderful teacher named Mr. Wright. He knew Wright so well that he went to dinner at Mr. Wright's house and listened to Mr. Wright talk about ancient Greek.
    Once during a holiday, Tolkien went to see his old friends in Birmingham and went to a T.C.B.S. club meeting. Later, he went to see Edith. This was good because she was engaged to someone else, and he won her back. This was good because later in life, he married Edith.
    Before he left Oxford, he began to create another new language. Finnish words and phrases influenced this language. After he graduated, he went to fight in World War One as part of the British Army. Tolkien began his Army career on the twenty-second of March, 1916 right after he married Edith. He was stationed in France, but went back to France for recovery after shell shock. Eventually, he was discharged from the service in 1918.
    Tolkien and his wife had children, four to be exact. They were John (1917), Michael (1920), Christopher (1924), and Priscilla (1929). Christopher actually edited some of Tolkien's books.
    Tolkien taught at Anglo-Saxon and Middle English at Leeds University. He was surprised to get the position. Every week he would ride the train to Leeds and return to Oxford each weekend.   Finally in 1925, he changed his position to Oxford, where he taught Anglo-Saxon. While there he joined a club called the Inklings. The members there shared the things they were writing. It was here that he met C.S. Lewis who became a life-long friend. Lewis also wrote some books of fantasy for young people.
    In 1930, Tolkien started to write The Hobbit, the beginning of The Lord of the Rings. In 1937, The Hobbit wa published. After that, he began to write The Lord of the Rings. The book was finished in 1949. Tolkien originally wanted The Lord of the Rings to be one single book, but because it was so long, it was divided into three books: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King.   The Fellowship of the Rings and The Two Towers were published in 1954; The Return of the King was published in 1955.
    In 1959, Tolkien retired from teaching at Oxford. He was free to write what he pleased. Then a tragic event happened in 1971. Edith Tolkien died. She had an inflamed gallbladder and died on November 29th. Tolkien lived only a little bit longer, and he finished his book, The Silmirillion, which he had started in 1917. Tolkien did get the book done, but it was Christopher Tolkien, his son, who edited it, because once it came to editing time, Tolkien was dead. He died on September 2, 1973, in Bournemouth, England, two years after Edith.
    Today, however, Tolkien has not been forgotten. People continue to read and love all of his books. Many people even have web sites devoted to Tolkien, his works, his special languages, and the art that was inspired by his writing.
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