John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born on the 3rd Jan 1892, and he grew up to be one of the greatest authors of all time, publishing 29 books, including ‘The Hobbit’ and the ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy.
Tokien was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa, but at the age of four, he moved to Birmingham, England after his father who was a bank manager sadly died of rheumatic fever. There he studied at King Edwards at the age of seven. In the year 1900 when Tolkien was eight, his mother converted to roman catholicism along with J.R.R. Tolkien’s brother Hilary Arthur Reuel Tolkien. After a while, J.R.R. Tolkien went to Exeter college. He then got a scholarship to Oxford university. He had to leave Birmingham, but he still visited his family often. At Oxford he studied English and Literature which influenced his style when writing
his stories.
Tolkien wrote his first story for his children. This story was called ‘The Hobbit’ and his sufficient literary knowledge on old english myths and Icelandic sagas really influenced his writing style. ‘The Hobbit’ was created out of his literary interest for these same sagas and myths. He got ‘The Hobbit’ published on 27 September 1937, and the 1500 that were originally made sold out incredibly fast due to the fact that the people loved it so much.
Tolkien’s first published book was ‘The Hobbit’ in 1937. There was then a big gap until 1954-1955 when he wrote the ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy. ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’ was published in 1954. So was ‘The Two Towers’, but ‘The Return of the King’ was published in 1955. The sad thing about Tolkien was that he only got very famous after he died. He had 35 posthumous works which were published thanks to his son Christopher Tolkien who sadly died in 2020. ‘The Hobbit’ and ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy were the only works of Tolkien’s that weren’t published posthumously.
I have given you some information about J.R.R. Tolkien, but here is a compilation of facts about him:
Tolkien was able to read at the age of four.
His literary interest started when his mother taught him some latin before he even went to school.
He served in the first world war.
Frodo, the main character of the ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy was originally going to be named Bingo.
Tolkien died on September 2nd 1973.
While Tolkien was in Africa, he was bitten by a baboon spider.
Tolkien was fascinated by his travels in Switzerland and the landscape which inspired the misty mountains in ‘The Hobbit’.
Tolkien was a great author who managed to write more than 29 books. We must also give credit to his son, Christopher, for if he wasn’t there, we wouldn’t have nearly as many of his brilliant books as we have today.