John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was an English writer and scholar best known for his high fantasy works The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy. He was born in South Africa in 1892 and grew up in England, where he became a professor specializing in Old English. Tolkien invented several languages and used them to construct the fictional world of Middle-earth, where much of his fantasy fiction takes place. Some of his other notable works include The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, and short stories. Tolkien is renowned for his creative imagination, intricate world-building, and popularity in establishing the modern fantasy genre.

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John Ronald Reuel Tolkien
He was an English writer, poet, and scholar
and is hailed as the greatest fantasy writer of all
time but is less known for his nonfiction works
and illustrations. As a scholar, Tolkien is well-
regarded for his translations of Old and Middle
English verse, and for fiction-loving readers, he is
the godfather of the contemporary fantasy genre.
Born
January 3, 1892, in Bloemfontein, South Africa
Died
September 2, 1973, in Oxford, England
Notable Works:
“The Hobbit”
“The Lord of the rings”
“The Silmarillion”
"The History of Middle-earth'"
"Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth"

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Quick facts
He was the older of two sons: his younger brother
Hilary Arthur Reuel Tolkien was born in 1894.
He lost his parents early in his life.
Tolkien's mother ignited in him his passion for
languages.
Tolkien loved making up languages since his school
days. The firs language invented by Tolkien was
Nevbosh. By 1917 Tolkien had developed Quenya, an
elvish language.
Tolkien and his wife Edith had an epic love story.
Tolkien met Edith Bratt when he was 16 and she
19. While their married life was not without day to
day frictions, Tolkien and Edith remained devoted
to each other until her death in 1971.
Tolkien fought in the first world war. During the
war, Tolkien signed up and specialized in signalling,
in order to utilize his penchant for words.
Tolkien considered himself a hobbit.
Tolkien loved a good laugh.

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Mabel moved to England with her sons in 1895.
Arthur Tolkien died of rheumatic fever in early
1896, before he could join his family. Mabel
singlehandedly raised her sons until 1904, when
she died of diabetes — a fatal condition prior to
the discovery of insulin. Tolkien was 12 years old
at this time.
Mabel had converted to Catholicism despite
opposition from her family, and the Catholic faith
remained an important part of Tolkien’s life.
Tolkien's mother taught her children how to read
and write. John was a diligent student: by four,
he could read and devoured classic books rapidly.
The boy adored Lewis Carroll and George
MacDonald, but he did not fancy brother
Grimm’s and Stevenson’s works.
After mother's death the pastor Francis Morgan
took care of the boys. In his spare time, Tolkien
gladly painted landscapes and studied biology and
ancient languages: Welsh, Old Norwegian, Finnish,
and Gothic; he demonstrated his remarkable
linguistic talent. When John turned eight, he
entered King Edward's School.
Mabel Tolkien and her sons

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Tolkien met Edith Bratt when he was 16 and she
19, at one of the houses where Tolkien stayed with
his brother after the death of their mother. The
Francis Morgan did not like this relationship: he
believed it was an obstacle to the young man’s
studies. Besides, Edith’s faith was different: she
was a Protestant. To marry Tolkien, she converted
to Catholicism later. Morgan made a condition: he
could receive a blessing only when he would turn
21. Immediately after he turned of age, Tolkien
sought Edith out and asked her to marry him.
Edith agreed, breaking off a previous engagement.
They got married with the blessing of Father
Francis, not long before Tolkien was called up for
the First World War. While their married life was
not without day to day frictions, Tolkien and Edith
remained devoted to each other until her death in
1971.
Edith and John had four children: the sons John,
Michael, Christopher, and the daughter Priscilla.
J.R.R.Tolkien and his wife Edith

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J.R.R.Tolkien and his family

6. After the graduation from the
university, John joined the
army: in 1914, he went to the
First World War
voluntarily.Because of the war,
John was disabled.
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Literature
When he came back home, he started teaching
and building his career. At 30, he was
Professor of Anglo-Saxon and Literature. Later,
he admitted he created the magical worlds so
that the invented language he liked seemed
natural.
Tolkien introduced the collection of myths and
legends Middle-earth which later transformed
into The Silmarillion (the cycle was published
by the writer’s son in 1977).
On September 21, 1937, Tolkien pleased fantasy
lovers by his book The Hobbit, or There and
Back Again. It is peculiar that John made it up
for his small children: he was going to tell
them about the adventure of courageous Bilbo
Baggins and the wise magician Gandalf who
owned a Ring of Power.

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The Genesis of the Hobbit
The first line of the Hobbit was conceived on
a blank sheet in an exam paper Tolkien was
grading:
"One of the candidates had mercifully left one
of the pages with no writing on it (which is
the best thing that can happen to an
examiner) and I wrote on it: “In a hole in the
ground there lived a hobbit”. Names always
generate a story in my mind. Eventually I
thought I’d better find out what hobbits were
like. But that’s only the beginning."

8. Later, the writer began to
work on the epic novel The
Lord of the Rings that
continued the story of the
brave hobbit and the powerful
magician in the wonderful
world of Middle-earth.
The manuscript turned out to be large. The
publisher decided to divide the book into three
parts: The Fellowship of the Ring (1954), The
Two Towers (1954), and The Return of the
King (1955). The book series was so popular
that the Tolkien “boom” overwhelmed the
United States, and the books were flying off
bookstore shelves.
Later on, John created the poetic cycle The
Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Other Verses
from the Red Book (1962), The Road Goes
Ever On (1967), and the short story Smith of
Wootton Major (1967).
Other works, such as Tales from the Perilous
Realm (1997), The Children of Húrin (2007),
The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún (2009),
were published after the writer’s death; it was
his son Christopher, also a writer, who did it.
He wrote The History of The Lord of the Rings
and analyzed his father’s non-published books.
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Literature

9. SIMPLICITY
Tolkien’s first stories including The Hobbit were
written for his children and he didn’t exactly
write them for the general public. The style in
which he wrote them was simple, and the
stories were easy to read and follow, elegant,
and beautiful. This is the same simplicity he
used for The Lord of the Rings and other
stories, winning him a lot of fans—both young
and old.
ORIGINALITY AND CREATIVITY
Creativity is something Tolkien didn’t lack, and
he gave middle earth and all its mythical
creatures. Now, having made it onto the
screens, this world is so believable that you
tend to wonder if such a world—full of wonder
and magic—never existed.
ATTENTION TO DETAIL
The level of detail in his stories instantly
induces sparks of imagination and swallows the
reader into a world full of mystique, horror, and
wonders.
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Why we love J.R.R.Tolkien

10. HIMSELF
“For myself, I find I become less cynical rather
than more - remembering my own sins and
follies; and realize that men's hearts are not
often as bad as their acts, and very seldom as
bad as their words.”
"I am fond of mushrooms (out of a field);
have a very simple sense of humour (which
even my appreciative critics find tiresome); I
go to bed late and get up late (when
possible)."
“The invention of languages is the foundation.
The 'stones' were made rather to provide a
world for the languages than the reverse. To
me a name comes first and the story follows.”
“I am in fact a Hobbit in all but size.”
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J.R.R.Tolkien about ...

11. WRITING AND LIFE
"It is a wonderful thing to be told that I have
succeeded, at least with those who have still
the undarkened heart and mind.”
“Most of my philological colleagues are
shocked (cert. behind my back, sometimes to
my face) at the fall of a philological into
'Trivial literature'; a,d anyway the cry is: 'now
we know how you have been wasting your time
for 20 years'."
“I wisely started with a map, and made the
story fit (generally with meticulous care for
distances). The other way about lands one in
confusions and impossibilities, and in any case
it is weary work to compose a map from a
story.”
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J.R.R.Tolkien about ...

12. 1. To be yourself.
2. To do what you like, and to love what you
do.
3. Not to worry if others like what you do.
4. To be childish a bit.
5. To know what your place in this life is.
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J.R.R.Tolkien's Rules
Tolkien did not fully understand the success
of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
But maybe the secret of this success was his
sincerity and natural writing? He did not plan
to make his works world-famous and loved,
and that's why the whole world loves them
today.

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Resources
Vos, L. (2014). Tolkien's Writings To Understand
His Rules Of Life
https://tolkienlibrary.com/press/1152-tolkien-
writings-to-understand-rules-of-life.php
Majewski, J. (2023). Complete List Of Jrr Tolkien
Books In Order. https://whenyouwrite.com/jrr-
tolkien-books-in-order/
https://en.24smi.org/celebrity/43695-john-
ronald-reuel-tolkien.html
Doughan, D. BACK TO THE AUTHOR
J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biographical Sketch.
https://www.tolkiensociety.org/author/biography/
Senjuti Patra. (2022). 15 THINGS YOU MAY NOT
KNOW ABOUT J.R.R. TOLKIEN
https://bookriot.com/facts-about-j-r-r-tolkien/