The Start of his Life

It was 3 January 1892,  the date of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien’s birth.  He was a bright man who grew to have a passion for writing and making books.

Family & Childhood

Johns childhood was black and white until he met the special girl who brang colour to his life.  At the age of 4 Johns father, Arthur Tolkien passed from the rheumatic fever on 15 February 1896.  Only a couple of years later when he was 12 his mother, Mabel Tolkien passed on 14 November 1904 from acute diabetes, putting him and his siblings in an orphanage.  While he was in the orphanage he met a girl a couple years older than him and they immediately had a connection.  Once John was taken into care his new father said he wasn’t allowed to see Edith (the girl), until he was 21 years old.

Aging

As he grew old his and Edith’s bond grew stronger and eventually they felt romantic feelings towards each other, leading to marriage.  They were married on Wednesday 22 October 1916 at St. Mary Immaculate Roman Catholic Church.  Not long after the wedding they had their first child, John Francis Reuel Tolkien.  He was brought to life in a nursing home on 16 November 1917.   His life was good until dark clouds came and someone accused him of being an abuser.  They accused him of abusing boys in his parish but the charges towards him eventually dropped. “The Crown Prosecution service has advised the police not to bring charges against Father John Tolkien following allegations of historic sexual abuse.”.  He later on died in 2003.  Their next child was Michael Hilary Reuel Tolkien who was born on 22 October 1920.  When he was 4 he lost his toy dog on the beach when on holiday at Filey.  To cheer him up John (father not brother) made the incident into a story called “Roverandom” – The story of a dog turned into a toy after biting a wizard.  He served in the army as an anti-aircraft gunner in WW2.  By 1947 he was married to Joan Griffiths and had an infant son named after him.  He took up a teaching career in the midlands and by then he and his wife had 2 more additional members to their family as they had 2 daughters now.  Michael later on died in 1984 due to leukemia.  Their third child was born on 21 November 1924, his name was Christopher Reuel Tolkien and was named after John’s great friend, Christopher Wisemen.  Christopher Tolkien served as pilot in South Africa during WW2.  Years later after being back at home safe from the war, Christopher worked closely during the creation of “The Lord of the Rings” and was given the task of creating the original maps for the first edition of “The Lord of the Rings”.  Later on 16 January 2020 he passed away.  John and Edith’s fourth and final child, Priscilla (Prisca to her father) Mary Reuel Tolkien was welcomed to the planet on 18 June 1929.  She was the only female amongst 3 brothers.  From 1986 to her death she was the honorary vice-president of the Tolkien society.  She died on 28 February 2022.

Career

John’s career started off on 21 September, 1937 when he wrote “The hobbit” since it was his first published book.  He had other books that he had already written but none of them were published therefore not the start of his career.  His career progressed as he published more and more books overtime and so did his money.  His fame was created because of his children’s book, “The hobbit”, and his book sequence “The Lord of the Rings”.  These books were and still are famous and are the mostly reason he is known for his astonishing work.

His Books

Though he may have died, his books still survive.  Tolkiens first book, “The hobbit” has sold over 100 million copies but his book sequence LOTR (Lord of the Rings)  has sold over 150 million copies and is one of the best selling books of all time.  At this current time “The Hobbit” does not have an estimated price for how much the book has made but LOTR has an estimated price of approximately $2.25 billion.  You could buy around 2,500 of the current most expensive car (Rolls-Royce Boat Tail) in the world.  Some of Tolkiens not so particularly famous books are “Farmer Giles of Ham” which is a comedic mediaeval fable written by him in 1937 and published in 1949, the book is about Farmer Giles saving his farm and as a consequence, the local village from a rampaging giant. By doing this it earns him a fierce reputation for heroism; from there he is rewarded by the King with a rather glamourous sword.  Another one of his books are called “Leaf by Niggle”.  “Leaf by Niggle” is a short story that teaches us to work together functionally as a society.  Tolkien has many other masterpieces that people like and these are just a few.

Accomplishments

As he wrote more and more his fame grew bigger and bigger.  Overtime some of his books were some of the best-selling books out there and they still are.  Tolkien was a professor at Oxford and specialised in English and Literature.  He knew about Anglo Saxon (Old English) and it made an impact on his writing.  His will (1973) was £190,577 which would be at least £1.8 million currently in 2024 due to inflation.

The End of his Life

As time went on he lived a colourful life until, all that colour slowly faded away as his eyes closed forever.  Tolkien died at the age of 81 on 2 September 1973 due to a bleeding ulcer and chest infection (stomach ulcer).