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John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (January 3, 1892 - September 2, 1973) worked as Professor of Anglo-Saxon at the University
of Oxford from 1925 to 1945, and as Professor of
English Language and Literature, also at Oxford, from 1945 to 1959. He also wrote fiction and poetry throughout his adult life, and this latter pursuit has enhanced his fame.
Outside academia, many people have come to know Tolkien as the author of
The Lord of the Rings, its precursor
The Hobbit, and a number of posthumous books about the history of the
imaginary world of Middle-earth where they take place. The enduring
popularity and influence of these works have established Tolkien's reputation as the father of the modern high fantasy genre. He also produced much
critical scholarly work on Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. He
belonged to the literary discussion group The Inklings, and had a close
friendship with C. S. Lewis.
Biography
Though born in Bloemfontein in the Orange Free State (today a part of South
Africa), Tolkien moved with his mother to England when he was 3 - his father died
in South Africa before he could join them. He spent most of his childhood in Sarehole, Birmingham, England; he attended King Edward's School, St.
Phillip's Grammar School, and Exeter College,
Oxford. His mother converted to Roman Catholicism, despite the vehement
protests of her family. She died of diabetes in 1904, when Tolkien was 12, but 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 proved a significant factor in the conversion of C. S. Lewis
to Christianity, and his writings contain Christian symbolism and
values.
During his subsequent orphandom he was brought up by Father Francis Morgan from the
Birmingham Oratory.
He met and fell in love with Edith Bratt (later to serve as his model for
Lúthien). Despite many obstacles, he succeeded in marrying her, the first and
truest love of his life.
Tolkien joined the British Army during World War I. He served in the Lancashire Fusiliers, the most-decorated British unit in that war. He saw a number of his
fellow servicemen, as well as several of his closest friends, lose their lives, and he himself ended up in a military hospital
suffering from trench fever.
During his recovery he began to write an invented series of fairy tales,
based upon his studies of mythology and folklore, which he called 'The Book of Lost
Tales'. Scholars of his work say that the war influenced his writings; that he saw fantasy as a way to escape from the harsh
reality of factories, machines, guns and bombs of the 20th century.
After World War I Tolkien worked for a time on the Oxford English Dictionary. 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. 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.
Engraved on the stone at the Wolvercote Cemetery, Oxford, where he and his wife are buried, is Beren and Lúthien, paying homage to one of the greatest love stories in
all of Middle-earth.
Writings
Tolkien enjoyed inventing fantasy stories to entertain his children. He wrote annual Christmas letters from Father Christmas for them, building up
a series of short stories (later compiled and published as The Father Christmas Letters).
Tolkien never expected his fictional stories to become popular. Through the intercession of a former student, he published a
book he had written for his own children called The Hobbit in 1937. Though intended for children, the book gained an adult readership as well, and it became
popular enough for the publisher (Allen & Unwin) to ask Tolkien to work on a sequel. This prompted him to create his most
famous work, what would become the epic three-volume novel The Lord of the Rings (1954 - 55). The writing of this saga took nearly ten years, during which time he received the constant support of the
Inklings, in particular his closest friend, C. S. Lewis, the author of the
Narnia books.
While The Lord of the Rings became immensely popular with many students in the 1960s, and has remained highly popular since, many scholars (particularly those working in the field of Norse mythology), aware of Tolkien's sources, consider the work highly
derivative. Tolkien at first thought that The Lord of the Rings would tell another children's tale like The
Hobbit, but it quickly grew darker and more serious in the writing. Though a direct sequel to The Hobbit, it
addressed a much older audience, drawing upon the immense back-story of
Middle-earth that Tolkien had constructed and that eventually saw posthumous publication in The Silmarillion and in other posthumous volumes.
The Lord of the Rings became, judged both by sales and by surveys of readers, one of the most popular works of
fiction of the twentieth century. The influence of Tolkien weighs heavily on the fantasy genre that grew up after the success of The Lord of the Rings.
Works by Tolkien published in his lifetime
Works by Tolkien published posthumously
Tolkien continued to work upon the history of Middle-earth until his death. His son Christopher Tolkien, with assistance from fantasy writer Guy Gavriel Kay, organised some of this material into one volume, published as The Silmarillion in
1977. Christopher Tolkien continued over subsequent years to publish background material on
the creation of Middle-earth:
and culminating with The History of
Middle-earth series:
Note that the posthumous works such as The History of Middle-earth and the Unfinished Tales contain
unfinished, abandoned, alternative, and outright contradictory versions of the stories simply because Tolkien kept working on his
mythology for decades, constantly rewriting, re-editing and expanding the stories. Only The Silmarillion maintains full
consistency with The Lord of the Rings, and this only thanks to heavy editing by Christopher Tolkien — and even he
states that many inconsistencies remain in The Silmarillion. Even The Hobbit never became fully synchronised
with The Lord of the Rings.
An interesting posthumous piece of Middle-earth material is the poem
Non-Middle-earth childrens' books, stories told to Tolkien's children when they were young:
Non-Middle-earth academic material:
A compilation of Tolkien's art, both Middle-earth and non-Middle-earth:
- 1995 J. R. R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator
The library of the Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, preserves many
of Tolkien's original manuscripts, notes and letters; other original material survives at Oxford's Bodleian Library. Marquette
has the manuscripts and proofs of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, manuscripts of many "lesser" books like
the Farmer Giles of Ham, and Tolkien fan material, while the Bodleian holds the Silmarillion papers and
Tolkien's academic work.
Languages
Philology, the study of languages, remained Tolkien's first academic love, and
his interest in linguistics inspired him to invent fifteen artificial languages (most famously the two Elvish languages in
The Lord of the Rings: Quenya and Sindarin). He later elaborated an entire cosmogony and history of Middle-earth as background.
Tolkien had fluency in as many as a dozen European languages, ranging from Old
English and Gaelic to the Romance languages of French and Spanish, as well as having experience in other Germanic languages. In his personal correspondence he noted the sound of the Finnish language as the most pleasing to his ears.
The popularity of his books has had a small but lasting effect on the use of language in fantasy literature, especially the
use of the forms "dwarves" versus the standard "dwarfs", and "elvish" as opposed to "elfin".
See also: Languages of Middle-earth,
Quenya, Sindarin, Tengwar
Books about Tolkien and Tolkien's worlds
A small selection of the dozens of books about Tolkien and his worlds:
- 1977 J. R. R. Tolkien - A Biography (Humphrey Carpenter)
- 1978 The Complete Guide to Middle-earth (Robert Foster, a reference, covers
The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and The Silmarillion, but not Unfinished Tales)
- 1981 Journeys of
Frodo (Barbara
Strachey - an atlas of The Lord of the Rings)
- 1981 The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien (Christopher Tolkien and Humphrey Carpenter)
- 1991 The Atlas of Middle-earth (Karen Wynn Fonstad - an atlas of The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, The
Silmarillion, and The Unfinished Tales)
- 2000 J. R. R. Tolkien - Author of the Century (T. A. Shippey)
- 2002 The Complete Tolkien Companion (J. E. A. Tyler - a reference, covers
The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, and Unfinished Tales; substantially
improved over the two earlier editions of this book.)
Works based on Tolkien's worlds
The Lord of the Rings forms the basis and namesake of a trilogy of films (2001–2003) directed by Peter Jackson.
Ralph Bakshi directed an earlier movie in 1978 (made with the rotoscope technique), which however covered only
the first half of the books. Rankin-Bass covered the second half with a
children's TV animation The Return of the King (1980); earlier they had made a TV
animation of The Hobbit (1977).
Tolkien originally sold the film, stage, and merchandise rights of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings to
United Artists in 1968, but they
never made a film, and in 1976 the rights were sold to Tolkien Enterprises, a
division of the Saul Zaentz Company. In addition to Jackson's and Bakshi's
films, many computer games, and role-playing games such as MERP (Middle-earth Role-playing) have been created. The rights of The Silmarillion and
other material remain with The J.R.R. Tolkien Estate Ltd. a company owned by Tolkien's heirs. The split of Tolkien's
works between Tolkien Enterprises and the Estate means that none of the Tolkien Enterprises products can include source material
from outside the Hobbit and LOTR, and therefore a film or stage version of The Silmarillion is highly unlikely.
Artists who have found inspiration in Tolkien's works include:
Donald Swann set music to The Road Goes Ever On, a collection
of Tolkien's lyrics and poems. Other composers working with Tolkien lore include Howard Shore, the composer of the movies directed by Peter
Jackson; David Arkenstone; the Tolkien Ensemble; and Blind Guardian.
Named after Tolkien
External links
Informational, academic, or thematic sites:
Fan or community sites:
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