J.R.R. Tolkien

Tolkien was born to a poor father and mother on  January 3, 1892 in Bloemfontein, South Africa. There he is said to have a vivid memory of a large hairy spider which has been said to influence certain future stories. Once he turned three years old, his mother brought him and his brother back to England. Soon after they arrived his father died of an illness in South Africa. His mother needed to find the family of three housing, and soon moved into a suburb called Moseley in Birmingham. Following his misfortunes, his mother passed away the year he turned 12. Since he was orphaned, him and his brother became wards to a Catholic priest, stayed with his aunt, and then went to a boarding home. It is stated that the happiness Tolkien felt living in the outskirts of Sarehole compared to the industrial Birmingham is greatly reflected in his later works. He was then sent to the King Edwards School where he would learn literature and the arts. He showed remarkable gifts linguistically, and learned a plethora of languages. He mastered English, Greek and Latin, and was affluent in Finnish and other ancient/Gothic languages. Around this time he began to even create his own languages for fun. He joined a hidden society called the Tea Club, Burrovian Society to critique and further his literature up until 1916. When Tolkien turned 16 years old he began to speak with an older girl named Edith Bratt. Their friendship would continue to blossom until the Father at his boarding school forbade Tolkien from speaking to her until he turned 21 years of age. In the summer of 1911 he was invited to the Swiss alps. This is where it is theorized Tolkien was inspired to create the Misty Mountains and Rivendell. Afterwards he proceeded to pick up his relationship with the aforementioned Edith Bratt.

He was given the second class degree in Honour moderations, but was highly disappointed as he was also granted an alpha plus in philology. He continued to take up a tutor job to two Mexican boys in Dinard, France over the summer of 1913. This crashed and burned, but was not his fault. On the other hand, his relationship with Edith continued to flourish, and she converted to Catholicism. The two got closer and closer as tensions continued to rise in Europe. The Great War was declared soon after. Unlike his friends, Tolkien chose to return to Oxford in an attempt to receive a first class degree. He managed this in June, 1915. During this time, Tolkien created numerous languages that fueled his desire to create new worlds through poetry and literature. After his graduation however, Tolkien enlisted in the Lancashire Fusiliers as a second lieutenant. He was originally in dreadful suspense primarily in Staffordshire in England, but was then deployed to France. This however did not happen until Tolkien and Edith married in Warwick on March 22, 1916. He proceeded to go through roughly four months of trench warfare before being diagnosed with trench fever. He continued to stay recovering in Birmingham until Christmas came where he was fit to go back to Stafforshire to stay with Edith. During this time, all but one of the original members of the T.C.B.S. had died in war. This enraged and saddened Tolkien enough to create a piece called the Book of Lost Tales. This is the first time elves and orcs had appeared with their respective languages in any of his pieces. Unfortunately, Tolkien was reinfected with the trench fever throughout 1917 and 1918, and subsequently he was unable to return to combat. However, Tolkien was promoted to lieutenant due to his outstanding work on base. As he and Edith took a walk near Roos, she danced for him, and he was infatuated once again with her. This inspired him to create two characters called Beren and Luthien. To no surprise the two had a child named John Francis Reuel in 1917.

After the Armistice was declared Tolkien was hired as an Assistant Lexicographer on the New English Dictionary (Oxford English Dictionary). He then gave one of his Lost Tales a public airing, and read his work The Fall of Gondolin at the Exeter College Essay Club where it received a lot of positive support. Tolkien then received a job at the University of Leeds in 1920 as a Reader in English Language (Assistant Professor). This is when he wrote Sir Gaewin and the Green Knight, Songs for the Philologists, and more of The Book of Lost Tales. Additionally, during his time teaching at the University, Tolkien had two more sons. One named Michael in 1920, and the other named Christopher in 1924. He returned to Oxford as a professor in 1925, and began to teach shortly thereafter. He proceeded to have his last child of four, a daughter named Priscilla, in the year 1929. His family life was extremely content, and he remained in his position teaching undergraduates until he became the Merton Professorship of the English Language in 1945, and then further into his retirement in 1959. He became one of the founding members of a club called “The Inklings” at Oxford, and became friends with other notable writers at the college. He is even credited with being partially responsible for C.S. Lewis’ conversion back to Christianity. Tolkien continued to develop his magical languages through his thirties and forties, and created the Hobbit in 1937. From this point on Tolkien’s international notoriety as the kickstarter for fantasy novels flourished, and led to him and his family becoming extremely well off. To step away from his accomplishments, Tolkien suffered the loss of his wife Edith in 1971, and he followed shortly thereafter in 1973. The two are buried together in Wolvercote’s Catholic burial section in a northern suburb of Oxford.