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| J R R
Tolkien |
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| Nationality - South African |
Profession - Author |
| Date of birth - 1892
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Date of death - 1973 |
| Place of birth
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John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born on the 3rd of January 1892 in Bloemfontein, South-Africa.
His father, Arthur Tolkien, moved to Africa to make his career as banker. His wife, Mabel Suffield came when she was old enough to marry him in 1891. At this time they had been engaged for three years. To fathom the books written by Tolkien you have to look into his childhood and his interest in languages.
His parents never agreed on what they would like their son to be named, so it ended in a compromise between his fathers wish, John after his father, and Reuel, which was his own middle name. Mabel wanted to call him Ronald and so it became John Ronald Reuel Tolkien.
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In 1911 Tolkien went to Exeter College in Oxford. Tolkien liked King Edwards' School and felt like "a bird that had been kicked out of it's nest".
On a holiday to Switzerland he came upon a postcard, a copy of the painting "The Berggeist", an old man sitting on a rock under a tree. This was to be the start of Gandalf.
At Exeter College in Oxford he discovered the Finnish language at the same time as he worked with Germanic, Gothic and Welsh. At the same time he was active in debating groups and he was playing rugby. Tolkien based the language "Quenya" or high-elvish on what he found in the Finnish language.
Halfway through his studies at Exeter College in Oxford he decided to study Old- and Middle-English. Tolkien already knew a whole lot about it and was familiar with a lot of it from earlier studies and this gave him time to do what he liked best, what he called "the mad hobby"; the making of languages. Early in 1915 he started on the Finnish-like language Quenya. This was the language of fairies and the Elves.
In 1924 Tolkien became Professor in literature at the University in Oxford at the age of 32. Also in 1924 they had their third son Christopher Tolkien and a new apartment, in Leeds this time. In 1925 they moved back to Oxford where Tolkien now had become Professor in Anglo-Saxon. The Tolkien family lived here for some decades.
In 1926 he started the debate group "The Coalbiters". They had an interest for literature from Iceland. This was a group where the professors at the university read Norse Mythology and then translated it into English. When we are talking about this group we cannot exclude "The Inklings". This was a gathering of young Christian men who discussed the works they were writing and got responses from the others. Here was where Tolkien and C. S. Lewis became the core of the gatherings in a pub called "The Eagle and The Child" or "The Bird and The Baby" as it was more commonly known. Tolkien used the Inklings a lot in the work with the Hobbit.
"The Hobbit " was published by Allen & Unwin in 1937. The publisher demanded a follow up novel and it took Tolkien eighteen years to finish it. It was in three books under the name "The Lord Of The Rings". In 1939 he gave his famous lecture "On Fairy-Stories" at St Andrew's University in Scotland. About this time he also wrote "Farmer Giles Of Ham", but it did not appear in book form before 1949 because of the war.
Work went slowly on the LOTR and in 1949 he finished the first sketch of the book. Fifteen years had by gone since The Hobbit had been published. The Lord of the Rings finally went to press in 1954. Tolkien was not completely happy with the last of the three books and wanted to write an appendix and to get his son Christopher to work hard on the maps of Middle-Earth. LOTR was the breakthrough for Tolkien as an author. At this time he stood at the end of his career as a Professor at Oxford University but now he had finally found fame. The family had never had to much money and after this they had no more financial problems. What he did not like about this was all the letters from the fans. He did not like that the book was read as an allegory because he had not written as one.
When Tolkien retired in 1959 he hoped for a quiet life, but he did not get it that way. People started to come along to see his home or to get an interview just to see him. Later Tolkien was offered secretary on a part-time basis from the publisher of LOTR and the Hobbit in order to be able to finish the Silmarillion. He accepted, but he was still a long time finishing the book.
Edith Tolkien's health grew worse and they decided to move to Bournemouth in the south of England. Here Tolkien found the possibility of being alone. In 1971 Edith died and he moved back to Oxford. His son Christopher was asked to finish The Silmarillion because Tolkien's health was getting worse. In 1973 he was put on diet but when he went back to Bournemouth and fell ill and died at a private hospital.
JRR Tolkien was buried beside his wife in Wolvercote cemetery in Oxford - their son conducted the burial ceremony. |
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J R R Tolkien
bibliography - 15
listed |
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