J.R.R. Tolkien - John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien - Born in Bloemfontain, South Africa in 1893, J.R.R. Tolkien was the elder of two sons of English emigrants Arthur and Mabel Tolkien. Arthur, working in the banking industry, had taken an assignment in South Africa to further his career. In 1896 he planned to return to England and sent Mabel and their two sons, John Ronald and Hilary, ahead to prepare their new home. But after the family left Arthur became ill and passed away, never seeing his wife and children again.

Mabel Tolkien continued to raise her sons for the next 9 years, and in that time she left the Church of England for the Roman Catholic Church. Mabel died when John Ronald Tolkien was 12 years old, and he and Hilary were then raised by their Catholic priest, Father Francis Morgan. A stern guardian, Father Francis insisted that the boys study hard and prepare themselves for a higher education. John Ronald became fluent in Greek and Latin before he attended university (Latin was required study in English secondary schools at the time).

When John Ronald Tolkien turned 16 years old he took a room in a boarding house. One of the other boarders there was a 19 year old girl named Edith Bratt. An orphan like John Ronald, she became his closest friend and the two eventually fell in love, much to Father Francis' displeasure. Tolkien's guardian eventually forbade him to see Edith, and the two were separated. Tolkien went on to enter Oxford University, but he never forgot Edith. When he turned 21, Tolkien sought out Edith and persuaded her to marry him even though she had already become engaged to another man.

When war broke out in Europe in 1914, Tolkien deferred enlisting in the military, but in 1915 he joined the Lancashire Fusiliers and was sent to northern France. Tolkien saw action in the dreadful Battle of the Somme, in which more than 300,000 British soldiers died. Tolkien subsequently contracted Trench Fever and was sent back to England to recuperate. He never returned to the front. But while in the hospital in 1916, J.R.R. Tolkien began writing a series of stories set in an imaginary prehistoric era of the British Isles. In these stories, Elves and Dwarves and other fairy creatures ruled what would eventually become England and Ireland.

This collection of stories, The Book of Lost Tales, was to become a mythology for England. But though he worked on the stories for several years, by 1925 Tolkien had lost interest in the project and instead turned to a new literary creation. He had taken two of the stories from The Book of Lost Tales and rewritten them as lays, very long epic poems. Although many of the characters and events from the mythology for England were included in the poems, Tolkien reimagined the setting as a forgotten time and place. Eventually, he wrote a narrative describing this new fictional world, and the narrative became the first of several successive attempts to create a mythology Tolkien called The Silmarillion.

From 1925 to 1937, Tolkien raised a family of three sons and one daughter with Edith, worked on his Silmarillion, and invented new stories to amuse his children. During these years Tolkien also took teaching positions specializing in Old English (Anglo-Saxon) and related languages such as Gothic. Tolkien established himself as one of the leading scholars of Anglo-Saxon studies in the world, writing a critical essay ("Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics") which is credited with launching a revolution in Old English literature critical evaluation.

But though Tolkien's primary creative interest lay in The Silmarillion, his very inventive mind constructed imaginary world after imaginary world. Several of these inventive worlds or mythologies were eventually published, including Mr. Bliss, Roverandom, Smith of Wootton Major, Farmer Giles of Ham, The Father Christmas Letters, and The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

Although not necessarily the first of his imaginary worlds (Roverandom is probably older), Tolkien's The Hobbit became the first of his published stories. The book was an instant success and he reluctantly agreed to take up the task of writing a sequel in late 1937. Tolkien only finished the primary narrative in 1948 after several interruptions and delays. He began working on the appendices in 1949 or 1950 and completed them by 1952, although some revisions would be made right up to the time of publication for each of the three volumes of The Lord of the Rings (The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers were published in 1954 and The Return of the King was published in 1955).

Through these years, Tolkien found little time to work on other significant projects, although he was invited to participate in the prestigious Jerusalem Bible. Tolkien's most significant contribution for the project was a translation of the Book of Jonah, although for many years researchers also believed that Tolkien had worked on Job. In 2005, Tolkien researcher Wayne Hammond concluded that an editor's account of Tolkien's contributions to the project was inaccurate, and Tolkien did not actually translate Job for the project after all.

After publishing The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien went on to publish two more books set in Middle-earth: The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and The Road Goes Ever On. But his goal of publishing a Silmarillion narrative set in the Middle-earth mythology eluded him. Time and time again Tolkien found himself distracted by other projects, and mucn of his writing on Middle-earth focused on subjects related to events and characters mentioned in The Lord of the Rings.

After Edith died in 1970, Tolkien quickly lost interest in writing. His son Christopher suggested, many years later, that perhaps J.R.R. Tolkien had "become too old, too tired." The mythology of Middle-earth had become so large that managing its details was a task too complex and demanding for the Professor. He passed away in October 1973 and was buried beside Edith.

Some people inappropriately call J.R.R. Tolkien the father of modern fantasy. Other auhtors made significant contributions to modern fantasy before Tolkien was ever published, including Edgar Rice Burroughs, H.G. Wells, and Robert E. Howard. But Tolkien proved to be a catalyst who sparked a revolution in creative literature that has spawned many echoes of his own work. His influence touched academic circles around the world, both in linguistic and literary studies. His stature as one of the giants of 20th century literary thought and invention is assured.

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