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Lord of Fantasy
Lord of Fantasy
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (J.R.R Tolkien), a fantasy author, was an English writer best known for his tales of Middle Earth in the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. His family descended from middle class Prussians. His father, Arthur Reuel Tolkien, was an English bank manager. When Arthur was promoted to head the Bloemfontein branch in what was then the Orange Free State, (now Free State Province of South Africa), he moved there with his wife. It was there that J.R.R was born on 3 January 1892. His brother, Hilary Arthur Reuel, was born there in 1894.
Tragedy struck the family when his mother, Mabel, went back for a lengthy visit to England. While she was there, Arthur died of rheumatic fever before he could join them. Stranded and without means of support, she took her two sons and went to live with her family in Birmingham. She home schooled her two sons. Ronald, as he was known in the family, was a keen pupil and was able to read by the age of four and soon after could also write fluently. He was allowed to read all he wanted.
At the age of 12, Mabel died of acute diabetes. Thereafter, he was raised by a guardian, Father Francis Xavier Morgan. After his mother's death, Tolkien grew up in the Edgbaston area of Birmingham and attended King Edward's School, Birmingham and later St Philip's School. In 1903, he won a Foundation Scholarship and returned to King Edward's.
Among the works that he read, he especially liked the fantasy of George MacDonald and the “Fairy Books” of Andrew Lang. The works of Lord Dunsany may have also had an influence on him. He had a very storied academic career at institutions like the University of Leeds and Oxford. He enjoyed inventing fantasy stories for his children.
“Tolkien never expected his stories to become popular, but by sheer accident a book called The Hobbit, which he had written some years before for his own children, came in 1936 to the attention of Susan Dagnall, an employee of the London publishing firm George Allen & Unwin, who persuaded Tolkien to submit it for publication. When it was published a year later, the book attracted adult readers as well as children, and it became popular enough for the publishers to ask Tolkien to produce a sequel.” He followed with The Lord of the Rings in three volumes in 1954 & 1955.
Tolkien died on 2 September 1973 from a bleeding ulcer and chest infection after receiving many prestigious awards for his writing.
The preceding material was taken from the Wikipedia article.
Other Works of Tolkien
Other Works of Tolkien
His most well-known works are "The Hobbit" and its sequel, "The Lord of the Rings." Among his other works are "The Children of Hurin," "The Silmarillion," "The Fall of Arthur," "Beowulf A Translation and Commentary," "The Story of Kullervo," "Beren and Lúthien," "The Fall of Gondolin," and "The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún."
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