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Article: J.R.R. Tolkien

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• Lead
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• Biography
  • Family ancestry
    • Tolkiens
    • Suffields
  • Childhood
    • Story written when he was 6/7
  • Youth
  • Leeds and Oxford
  • The Hobbit
  • Lord of the Rings The Lord of the Rings
  • Later life and recognition

• Appearance
  • Humphrey Carpenters description? - B
  • Father's description in letter - Bvisit

• Character, personality, views
  • expand on political views
  • Expansion of views on nature
  • expand on religious views
• Writing
  • Expansion of the writing and publication of The Silmarillion
  • info abt legendarium

• Languages

• Art

• Influence on fantasy
  • Works inspired by Tolkien
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• Bibliography
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• Awards
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• Names and pseudonyms
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  • Note about the name Tolkien
  • Explanation of name origin

• Family Tree

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He enjoyed exploring Sarehole Mill and Moseley Bog and the Clent Hills and Lickey Hills, which would later inspire scenes in his books along with other Worcestershire towns and villages such as Bromsgrove, Alcester and Alvechurch and places such as his aunt's farm of Bag End, the name of which would be used in his fiction.- combines locations from diff times

He also made an appearance at SSC Highschool.

Tolkien's devout faith was significant in the conversion of C.S. Lewis to Anglicanism.

He commented in 1965, while editing The Hobbit for a third edition, that he would have preferred to completely rewrite the entire book.

J.R.R. Tolkien

The name J.R.R. Tolkien refers to more than one character, item or concept. For a list of other meanings, see J.R.R. Tolkien (disambiguation).

The name Tolkien refers to more than one character, item or concept. For a list of other meanings, see Tolkien (disambiguation).

J.R.R. Tolkien
Biographical information
Born	3 January, 1892
Died	2 September, 1973 (aged 81 years)
Education	University of Oxford
Occupation	Academic Author Philologist Poet
Location	United Kingdom
Website	Tolkien: The official site of the Tolkien Estate

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE, (3 January, 1892 – 2 September, 1973) was a philologist and writer, best known as the author of The Hobbit and its sequel The Lord of the Rings. He worked as reader and professor in English language at the University of Leeds from 1920 to 1925; as professor of Anglo-Saxon language at the University of Oxford from 1925 to 1945; and of English language and literature from 1945 until his retirement in 1959. Tolkien was a close friend of C.S. Lewis, and a member of the Inklings, a literary discussion group to which both Lewis and Owen Barfield belonged.

Tolkien created a legendarium, a fictional mythology about the remote past of Earth, of which Middle-earth in particular is the main stage. Included in his legendarium are The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings along with The Silmarillion and The History of Middle-earth series (both posthumously published by his son, Christopher Tolkien). Tolkien's other published works include philological essays, modern adaptations of medieval literature and other stories not directly related to the legendarium, many of which were originally stories written for his children. Tolkien is often referred to as the "father" of modern fantasy and is widely regarded as one of the most influential authors of all time.

Biography

Family ancestry

See also: Tolkien Family

Many of Tolkien's paternal ancestors were craftsmen. According to Tolkien's own understanding, the Tolkien family had its roots in Saxony (present-day Germany), but had been living in England since the 18th century, becoming "quickly and intensely English (not British)". Tolkien believed that the Tolkien is the anglicised form of Tollkiehn (i.e. German: tollkühn, "foolhardy", the etymological English calque would be "dull-keen", a literal translation of "oxymoron"). Research by linguist Ryszard Derdziński suggests that the family is of Low Prussian descent and consequently, the name is of Old Prussian origin and probably means "son/descendant of Tolk". Tolkien was dismissive of this theory.

His mother's family, the Suffields, were from Evesham, Worcestershire and for that reason he considered Worcestershire to be somewhat of a home to him.

Childhood

Plaque commemorating J.R.R. Tolkien's birthplace on President Steyn Avenue, Bloemfontein.

Tolkien was born on 3 January, 1892, in Bloemfontein in the Orange Free State (now the Free State province of South Africa) to Arthur Reuel Tolkien (1857 – 1896), an English bank manager, and his wife Mabel, née Suffield (1870 – 1904). He was addressed by his family as “Ronald” as it had no history of use in the Tolkien family. He was christened later that month, on January 31 at the Cathedral of St. Andrew and St. Michael.

Around the time he was learning to walk, he was bitten by a large tarantula, which many believe echoes in his stories. However, Tolkien said that he did not develop a particular fear of spiders after this event, and, when he was older, recalled picking small spiders up and putting them outside. Tolkien had one sibling, his younger brother, Hilary Arthur Reuel, who was born on 17 February, 1894 when Tolkien was age.

Tolkien's health struggled in the South African environment, having to stay inside much of the day because of the heat. Believing that cooler air would help, when he was three, Tolkien's mother brought him and Hilary to England on what was intended to be a lengthy family visit. His father, however, died in South Africa of a severe brain haemorrhage before he could join them. This left the family without an income, so Tolkien's mother took him to live with her parents in Birmingham, England. Soon after in 1896, they moved to Sarehole (now in Hall Green), then a Worcestershire village, later annexed to Birmingham. Tolkien later described his years in Sarehole as the most formative of his life.

Mabel tutored her two sons, and Tolkien was a keen pupil. She taught him a great deal of botany, and she awoke in her son the enjoyment of the look and feel of plants. But his favourite lessons were those concerning languages, and his mother taught him the rudiments of Latin very early. He could read by the age of four and could write fluently soon afterwards. The first story Tolkien could remember writing was about a Dragon and later all he could recall of it was being perplexed by the rules regarding adjective order.

After originally failing the entrance exam in 1899, Tolkien was enrolled at King Edward's School in 1900. Trains were too expensive and the trams did not run to their house so the 8-year-old Tolkien was forced to walk 8 miles to school every day so they moved to a house in Moseley, a suburb of Birmingham, nearer to the city centre. While a student at King Edward's he helped "line the route" for the coronation parade of King George V, being posted just outside the gates of Buckingham Palace.

His mother converted to Roman Catholicism in 1900, and afterwards raised her sons Catholic, despite vehement protests by her Baptist family. For the rest of his life, Tolkien felt that she had become a martyr for her faith; this had a profound effect on his own Catholic beliefs. In 1902 she enrolled her sons at St Philip's Grammar School which had lower tuition and where they could receive a Catholic education and they moved to a house next door to the school. Tolkien quickly outpaced his classmates so after receiving a scholarship his mother pulled him out and reenrolled him in King Edward's School.

Ronald and Hilary Tolkien in 1905

In April of 1904 Mabel Tolkien was hospitalized and diagnosed with diabetes and Tolkien went to stay with his Aunt Jane. When she was well enough, they moved to a cottage in Rednal where she could recover in the country air. Unfortunately, his mother's health began to deteriorate again and she died on 14 November after six days in a coma.

During his subsequent orphanhood, he was under the guardianship of Francis Xavier Morgan of the Birmingham Oratory. Where they should be raised quickly became an issue. Several family members wanted to contest Mable Tolkien's will and send them to a protestant boarding school but a few weeks after their mother's death they were sent to live with their aunt Beatrice Suffield. She was not the most caring guardian, at one point burning their mother's letters, not realizing they would want to keep them and as a result, they spent much of their time at the Oratory which they came to view as their true home. In 1908 they moved to 37 Duchess Road where a Mrs Faulkner gave them a room.

Youth

J.R.R. Tolkien in 1911

While living at 37 Duchess Road, Tolkien met and fell in love with Edith Mary Bratt, three years his senior, at the age of sixteen Father Francis forbade him from meeting, talking, or even corresponding with her until he was twenty-one. They only once tried to disobey this rule but after Father Francis found out they didn't see each other aside from accidental sightings for another three years.

In 1911, while they were at King Edward's School, Tolkien and three friends, Robert Quilter Gilson, Christopher Wiseman, and later Geoffrey Bache Smith, formed a semi-secret society which they called "the T.C.B.S.", the initials standing for "Tea Club and Barrovian Society", alluding to their fondness of drinking tea in Barrow's Stores near the school and, illegally, in the school library. After leaving school, the members stayed in touch, and on 25 December, 1914, they held a "Council" in London, at Wiseman's home. For Tolkien, the result of this meeting was a strong dedication to writing poetry.

In the summer of 1911, Tolkien went on holiday in Switzerland, a trip that he recollects vividly in a 1968 letter, noting that Bilbo's journey across the Misty Mountains ("including the glissade down the slithering stones into the pine woods") is directly based on his adventures as their party of twelve hiked from Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen, and on to camp in the moraines beyond Mürren. Fifty-seven years later, Tolkien remembers his regret at leaving the view of the eternal snows of Jungfrau and Silberhorn ("the Silvertine (Celebdil) of my dreams"). They went across the Kleine Scheidegg on to Grindelwald and across the Grosse Scheidegg to Meiringen. They continued across the Grimsel Pass and through the upper Valais to Brig, and on to the Aletsch glacier and Zermatt.

Tolkien wearing his British Army uniform in a photograph from the middle years of WWI (colourized)

On the evening of his twenty-first birthday (1913), Tolkien wrote to Edith a declaration of his love and asked her to marry him. She replied saying that she was already engaged, but had done so because she had believed Tolkien had forgotten her. The two met up and beneath a railway viaduct renewed their love, with Edith returning her ring and choosing to marry Tolkien instead. A condition of their engagement was that she was to convert to Catholicism for him. They were engaged in Birmingham, in January 1913.

By late 1914, his final year at the University of Oxford, he joined the Officer's Training Corps. After his graduation (Exeter College, Oxford) with a first-class degree in English language in 1915, Tolkien joined the British Army effort in World War I. In late 1915 he received military training at Rugeley Camp in Staffordshire and served as a second lieutenant in the eleventh battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers.

Tolkien married Edith in Warwick, England, on 22 March, 1916 before leaving for the War. His battalion was moved to France in 1916, where Tolkien served as a communications officer during the Battle of the Somme, until he came down with trench fever on 27 October, and was moved back to England on 8 November. Many of his fellow servicemen, as well as many of his closest friends, were killed in the war. During his recovery in a cottage in Great Haywood, Staffordshire, England, he began to work on what he called The Book of Lost Tales, beginning with The Fall of Gondolin. Throughout 1917 and 1918 his illness kept recurring, but he had recovered enough to do home service at various camps, and was promoted to lieutenant. When he was stationed at Thirtle Bridge, East Yorkshire, one day he and Edith went walking in the woods at nearby Roos, and Edith began to dance for him in a clearing thick with hemlock plants in bloom. This incident inspired the account of the meeting of Beren and Lúthien, and Tolkien would later write in a letter to his son Christopher that he considered Edith to be his Lúthien.

Tolkien and Edith had four children: John Francis Reuel (16 November, 1917 - 22 January, 2003), Michael Hilary Reuel (22 October, 1920 - 27 February, 1984), Christopher John Reuel (21 November, 1924 - 16 January, 2020) and Priscilla Anne Reuel (18 June, 1929 - 28 February, 2022).

Leeds and Oxford

Tolkien's first civilian job after World War I was at the Oxford English Dictionary, He later said of that "I learned more in those two years than in any other equal period of my life". In 1920 he took up a post as Reader in English language at the University of Leeds, and in 1924 was made a professor there. The start was rough: though Gordon found Tolkien a room in Leeds, Edith and young John still lived in Oxford. In weekends, Tolkien would go to his family - now expanded with the birth of Michael. Not until 1921 did Tolkien get full housing for his family, first at 5 Holly Bank and then at 11 St. Mark's Terrace. They later moved to 2 Darnley Road.

Since 1920, Tolkien dedicated his time, even vacations, to finding extra work to supplement his family's income, especially for doctor bills and educate his children. He "stole" some free time for himself and his personal hobby of writing his own mythology.

W. A. Craigie resigned from the post of Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College, Oxford and Tolkien wrote a letter expressing his desire to return there which he did in 1925. Tolkien assisted Sir Mortimer Wheeler in the unearthing of a Roman Asclepieion at Lydney Park, Gloucestershire, in 1928. During his time at Pembroke, Tolkien wrote The Hobbit and the first two volumes of The Lord of the Rings.

The Hobbit

It was during his time as Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College, in the late 1920s, that he semi-randomly scribbled the words "In a hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit" on the back of a School Certificate paper that he was marking. These words evolved into a story like the ones he was making up for his children. He did not go any further than that at the time, although in the following years, he drew up Thrór's Map.

The tale itself he wrote in the early 1930s. It was mostly enjoyed by his eldest son John (13) than the younger ones. His peers at Oxford also "forced" him to lend copies to read. Eventually he lent it to the Reverend Mother Superior of Cherwell Edge and to his former pupil Elaine Griffiths who was staying in the Cherwell Edge girl's hostel, and it was seen by her student, Susan Dagnall, who worked at Allen & Unwin. It was the 10-year-old son of Sir Stanley Unwin, Rayner, who wrote such an enthusiastic review of the book.

The 1936 lecture "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics" had a lasting influence on Beowulf research. By January of 1937 Tolkien was corresponding with Allen & Unwin (who also showed interest in Mr. Bliss). Around the time The Hobbit was published (1937) Tolkien suffered from an ailment and had to use crutches, the only time he was free from examining work.

The Lord of the Rings

See also: The Lord of the Rings#Writing process

The success of The Hobbit and a request for its sequel, was an opportunity to combine his personal desire for writing and financial needs, and he agreed to write a sequel.

In the turn of 1939, and in the midst of writing The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien faced financial stress and was obliged to do exams and lectures: his son, Michael was preparing for university, and Christopher, being home-schooled for health reasons, wanted to go to school. In the summer of that year, while gardening, Tolkien fell and suffered a concussion which required stitches; he was unwell for some time and this, along with his fatigue, worries, obligations, Edith's illness, his loss of his chief assistant and understudy, prevented him from continuing his writing, including a foreword to Beowulf as had promised. At the outbreak of WWII, his academic duties increased. Juggling between work, "Civil Defence" and writing in intervals, he doubted that, because of the War, completing the book had any use. Failing to progress during Christmas vacations, he resumed only two years later. It was the enthusiasm of his friends and Christopher (to whom he was sending copies by mail to South Africa) who encouraged him to continue.

Cover design for the three volumes of The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

In 1945, he moved to Merton College, Oxford, becoming the Merton Professor of English Language and Literature, in which post he remained until his retirement in 1959. In 1946 he faced fatigue from academic work and an illness, and although he recovered, and was free from examining work, he had to deal with a "mountain of neglects".

Tolkien spent the late summer (August-September) of 1948, at the home of Michael at Payables Farm, Woodcote. As Michael and his family were on holiday, Tolkien found the time and quiet he needed to finish The Lord of the Rings, close to a decade after the first sketches.

After a disagreement with Allen & Unwin concerning "The Silmarillion", and failing to reach an agreement with Collins, he settled the dispute with the Unwins. He reported to Rayner Unwin that he had been unwell (having recovered from "a terrible bout" of fibrositis and neuritis of the arm) burdened and downhearted. In the prospect of a nearing retirement of poverty, during which he would work as an examiner to survive, and the rising paper costs, he had modified his views ("Better something than nothing!"). Tolkien readily agreed to the 'profit-sharing' arrangement, where Tolkien would not receive an advance or royalties until the books had broken even. Between 1953 and 1955 Tolkien worked closely with Allen & Unwin on the production of The Lord of the Rings, agreeing on the division of volumes, their titles, correcting proofs that arrived at intervals, complete and correct artwork, the maps and the dust-jacket designs.

Later life and recognition

The last known photograph of Tolkien, taken 9 August 1973, next to one of his favourite trees (a Pinus nigra) in the Botanic Garden, Oxford

During the 1950s, Tolkien spent many of his long academic holidays at the home of his son John Francis in Stoke-on-Trent, visiting his brother Hilary while he was there.

In 1959 Tolkien went to compulsory retirement, which he found "both distressing, and extremely laborious", especially with his less than desirable pension. For him, 1963 was a "dreadful year", including the death of C.S. Lewis (22 November), an illness that prevented Tolkien and Edith from celebrating Christmas, and after that, Faith Faulconbridge leaving Christopher; Tolkien expressed "fear they have left their allegiance to our Mother [the Church]". In the 1960s he complained about the effects of old age, and other difficulties and anxieties, some of which were caused by his own family.

By the time of his retirement, Tolkien increasingly turned into a figure of public attention and literary fame. The sale of his books was so profitable that Tolkien regretted he had not taken early retirement. While at first, he wrote enthusiastic answers to reader inquiries, he became more and more suspicious of emerging fandom, especially among the hippie movement in the USA. In a 1965 letter, he warned W.H. Auden not to join the New York Tolkien Society, believing them to be "real lunatics", and shortly after declined to join the Tolkien Society of America but wrote that he was complimented and would be happy to help them in an informal capacity.

Fan attention became so intense that he and Edith moved to Woodridings in Branksome, Poole near Bournemouth to escape his fame in Oxford. In June 1968, and got two phone numbers, one a private number only given out to friends and family. While preparing to move house, Tolkien fell down a set of stairs and had to stay in an Oxford hospital, leaving behind his obligations. He was expected to use crutches for all summer. The couple lived in Poole until Edith's death in November 1971. The widowed professor moved back to Oxford, 21 Merton Street in March 1972.

Grave of Ronald and Edith Tolkien

Queen Elizabeth II appointed J.R.R. Tolkien a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the New Year Honours of 1 January 1972 "For services to English Literature". Tolkien received the insignia of the Order at Buckingham Palace on 28 March.

Edith Tolkien died on 28 November, 1971, at the age of eighty-two, and Tolkien had the name Luthien engraved on the stone at Wolvercote Cemetery, Oxford. When Tolkien died 21 months later of pneumonia on 2 September, 1973, at the age of 81, he was buried in the same grave, with Beren added to his name, so that the engraving now reads:

Edith Mary Tolkien, Luthien, 1889 – 1971

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, Beren, 1892 – 1973

Appearance

It has beautiful hands and ears (very long fingers) very light hair, ‘Tolkien’ eyes and very distinctly a ‘Suffield’ mouth. In general effect immensely like a very fair edition of its Aunt Mabel Mitton.
—Arthur Tolkien in a letter written the day after Tolkien's birth

The early images of J.R.R. Tolkien in school and university show a serious young man, average height, slender, clean-shaven, and with his hair parted in the middle. At school he was considered too light for the rugby team, and in order to join he tried to make it up with ferocity during the game, and eventually he was accepted. By 1916 Tolkien had joined the army he had changed to a more conventional haircut, as well as a moustache for a short period of time.

Richard Plotz, who visited Tolkien in 1966, described him as

...a medium-sized man ... [who] looks much younger than his seventy-four years. Like one of his creations, the Hobbits, he is a bit fat in the stomach ...
—"J.R.R. Tolkien Talks about the Discovery of Middle-earth, the Origins of Elvish", Seventeen (January 1967), p. 92

In a letter on 8 February, 1967, to inter­viewers Charlotte and Denis Plimmer, Tolkien stated that he was not "tall, or strongly built. I now measure 5 ft 8 1/2, and am slightly built, with notably small hands. For most of my life I have been very thin and underweight. Since my early sixties I have become 'tubby'. Not unusual in men who took their exercise in games and swimming, when opportunities for these things cease". In "The Man Who Understands Hobbits", the Plimmers also noted that Tolkien had 'grey eyes, firm tanned skin, silvery hair and quick decisive speech'.

During Tolkien's time at King Edward's School he was noted for his choice in coloured socks.

Clyde S. Kilby, who spent some time with Tolkien in the summer of 1966, noted that he "was always neatly dressed from necktie to shoes. One of his favourite suits was a herringbone with which he wore a green corduroy vest [waistcoat]. Always there was a vest, and nearly always a sport coat. He did not mind wearing a very broad necktie which in those days was out of style".

Tolkien had a particular liking for decorative waistcoats: he told one correspondent that he had "one or two choice embroidered speci­mens, which I sometimes wear when required to make a speech, as I find they so fascinate the eyes of the audience that they do not notice if my dentures become a little loose with excitements of rhetoric"

Interviewers have noted that Tolkien almost clung to his smoking pipe, cradling it in his hand, or speaking with it in his mouth, sometimes making him difficult to understand. One of these, Richard Plotz, wrote that Tolkien "took out a pipe as he entered his study, and all during the interview he held it clenched in his teeth, lighting and relighting it, talking through it; he never removed it from his mouth for more than five seconds".

Character, personality, views

Tolkien attempted to describe himself for Deborah Rogers:

I am in fact a Hobbit (in all but size). I like gardens, trees and unmechanized farmlands; I smoke a pipe, and like good plain food (unrefrigerated), but detest French cooking; I like, and even dare to wear in these dull days, ornamental waistcoats. 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). I do not travel much. I love Wales (what is left of it, when mines, and the even more ghastly sea-side reasons, have done their worst), and especially the Welsh language. But I have not in fact been in W. for a long time (except for crossing it on the way to Ireland). I go frequently to Ireland (Eire: Southern Ireland) being fond of it and of (most of) its people; but the Irish language I find wholly unattractive.
—Letter 213

Tolkien was a devout Roman Catholic. While his parents were both raised Anglican, his mother converted to Catholicism when Tolkien was 8 years old. His mother's death had a profound impact on his religious beliefs and he came to view her as a martyr, citing stress from persecution (in large part from her intolerant family) as a root of her health issues. While his writings were not an allegory for Christianity they contained religious elements.

Tolkien had a great love for nature. He was especially fond of plants, and trees most of all, which may have been inspired by his father's garden and tree grove which Tolkien spent much time in as a child along with his mother's teaching of botany. He was saddened to learn that others didn't share his love for trees, one event that stuck with him was when as a child, a willow tree he enjoyed climbing was cut down only for the log to remain there unused.

Tolkien had an intense dislike for the side effects of industrialization, which he considered a devouring of the English countryside. For most of his adult life, he eschewed automobiles, preferring to ride a bicycle. This attitude is perceptible in some parts of his work, such as the forced industrialization of The Shire in The Lord of the Rings.

In retrospect, Tolkien claimed that from the age of seven or eight, two interests dominated his subsequent perception of everything: elves and orcs. Throughout his life he collected every detail related to it, which, along with the "Atlantis complex" dream, was the embryo of his legendarium.

Jesting on the name of Puffin Books, Tolkien said he disliked penguins and puffins for eating other birds's eggs. He considered that Siamese cats "belong to the fauna of Mordor" He also disliked spiders although not that much as to kill them. He refused that this has anything to do with being bitten by a tarantula as a toddler.

Tolkien boasted of himself to be "a world-class niggler". He wrote The Lord of the Rings laboriously, preoccupied with detail, consistency and careful consideration of every word.

Tolkien was insecure and lacked confidence in his own work, even when he was assured that it had value for others. Father Robert Murray, Tolkien's personal friend, considered the professor "a complex and depressed man" and his work "projects his very depressed view of the universe".

While a proud Englishman, Tolkien was often critical of the British government. Writing in 1943:

My political opinions lean more and more to Anarchy (philosophically understood, meaning abolition of control not whiskered men with bombs) – or to 'unconstitutional' Monarchy.
—Letter 52

Writing

Legendarium

Main article: Legendarium

In a 1951 letter to Milton Waldman, Tolkien wrote of his intention to create a "body of more or less connected legend", of which:

The cycles should be linked to a majestic whole, and yet leave scope for other minds and hands, wielding paint and music and drama.
—Letter 131

Tolkien's legendarium is the entirety of his works concerning his imagined world of Arda. Much of Tolkien's life was spent developing the legendarium.

Beginning with The Book of Lost Tales, written while recuperating from illness during World War I, Tolkien devised several themes that were reused in successive drafts of his legendarium. The two most prominent stories, the tales of Beren and Lúthien and that of Túrin, were carried forward into long narrative poems (published in The Lays of Beleriand). Tolkien wrote a brief summary of the mythology these poems were intended to represent, and that summary eventually evolved into "The Silmarillion", an epic history that Tolkien started three times but never published. The story of this continuous redrafting is told in the posthumous series The History of Middle-earth. From around 1936, he began to extend this framework to include the tale of The Fall of Númenor, which was inspired by the legend of Atlantis.

Tolkien never expected his fictional stories to become popular, but he was persuaded by a former student to publish a book he had written for his own children called The Hobbit in 1937. However, the book attracted adult readers as well, and it became popular enough for the publisher, George Allen & Unwin, to ask Tolkien to work on a sequel.

Even though he felt uninspired on the topic, this request prompted Tolkien to begin what would become his most famous work: the epic three-volume novel The Lord of the Rings (published 1954–55). Tolkien spent more than ten years writing the primary narrative and appendices for The Lord of the Rings, during which time he received the constant support of the Inklings, in particular his closest friend C.S. Lewis, the author of The Chronicles of Narnia. Both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are set against the background of "The Silmarillion", but in a time long after it.

Tolkien at first intended The Lord of the Rings as a children's tale like The Hobbit, but it quickly grew darker and more serious in the writing. Though a direct sequel to The Hobbit, it addressed an older audience, drawing on the immense back story of Beleriand that Tolkien had constructed in previous years, and which eventually saw posthumous publication in The Silmarillion and other volumes. Tolkien's influence weighs heavily on the fantasy genre that grew after the success of The Lord of the Rings.

Tolkien continued to work on the history of his legendarium until his death. His son Christopher, with some assistance from fantasy writer Guy Gavriel Kay, organised some of this material into one volume, published as The Silmarillion in 1977. In 1980, Christopher Tolkien followed this with a collection of more fragmentary material under the title Unfinished Tales, and in subsequent years he published a massive amount of background material on the creation of Middle-earth in the twelve volumes of The History of Middle-earth. All these posthumous works contain unfinished, abandoned, alternative and outright contradictory accounts, since they were always a work in progress, and Tolkien only rarely settled on a definitive version for any of the stories. There is not even complete consistency to be found between The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, the two most closely related works, because Tolkien was never able to fully integrate all their traditions into each other.

Other writings

In addition to his mythological compositions, Tolkien enjoyed inventing fantasy stories to entertain his children. He wrote annual Christmas letters from Father Christmas for them, building up a series of short stories (later compiled and published as The Father Christmas Letters). Other stories included Mr. Bliss, Roverandom, Smith of Wootton Major, Farmer Giles of Ham and Leaf by Niggle. Roverandom and Smith of Wootton Major, like The Hobbit, borrowed ideas from his legendarium. Leaf by Niggle appears to be a somewhat autobiographical work.

Influences

Tolkien was strongly influenced by Anglo-Saxon literature, Germanic and Norse mythologies, Finnish mythology, the Bible, and Greek mythology. The works most often cited as sources for Tolkien's stories include Beowulf, the Kalevala, the Poetic Edda, the Volsunga saga and the Hervarar saga. Tolkien himself acknowledged Homer, Oedipus, and the Kalevala, as influences or sources for some of his stories and ideas. His borrowings also came from numerous Middle English works and poems. It has been suggested that a major philosophical influence on his writing is King Alfred's Anglo-Saxon version of Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy known as the Lays of Boethius. Characters in The Lord of the Rings, such as Frodo Baggins, Treebeard and Elrond make noticeably Boethian remarks.

It is commonly accepted that Tolkien was influenced by World War I. Despite denying this in a letter, in an earlier letter to his son Christopher, he revealed that his experience in the war had influenced him to write about Morgoth and the history of the Gnomes. Connections have been drawn between Samwise Gamgee and batmen -- Garth

Tolkien acknowledged the interest many would have in his influences and the difficulty there would be in analyzing it, writing in 1971:

I fear you may be right that the search for the sources of The Lord of the Rings is going to occupy academics for a generation or two. I wish this need not be so. To my mind it is the particular use in a particular situation of any motive, whether invented, deliberately borrowed, or unconsciously remembered that is the most interesting thing to consider
—Letter 337

Unpublished materials and manuscripts

The John P. Raynor, S.J. Library at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, preserves many of Tolkien's original manuscripts, notes and letters; other original material survives at Oxford's Bodleian Library. Marquette has the manuscripts and proofs of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, and other manuscripts, including Farmer Giles of Ham, while the Bodleian holds much of Tolkien's art, "The Silmarillion" papers and Tolkien's academic work. Much of Tolkien's work remains unpublished and can be viewed only by Tolkien scholars and researchers.

Languages

See also: Languages

Both Tolkien's academic career and his literary production are inseparable from his love of language and philology. Aside from English (Modern, Old and Middle), Tolkien knew Hebrew, Finnish, French, Gothic, Greek, Icelandic (Including Old Icelandic), Latin, Spanish, Welsh (including medieval Welsh).

He could read by the age of four and could write fluently soon afterwards. His mother taught him the rudiments of Latin very early. He took to this quickly, especially enjoying Latin phonetics. His mother, realizing his aptitude for languages then taught him French which he enjoyed much less. While living in Moseley he discovered Welsh which would become one of his favorite languages.

In the early 1900s, he was introduced to a secret "code" created by his Incledon cousins, called Animalic replacing words with animal-names. Soon after, with Mary they created Nevbosh, a more sophisticated language, with Tolkien contributing to the vocabulary and influencing the spelling.

In 1909 he wrote the Book of the Foxrook in a notebook, with notes in Esperanto, describing Privata Kodo Skauta ("Private Scout Code"). "consisting of a rune-like phonetic alphabet and a sizable number of ideographic symbols". In the 1910s he composed Naffarin, a private language,

Heavy emphasis was put on Latin and Greek at King Edward's School. It was here that Tolkien was introduced to Old English though he disliked Shakespeare's works and begrudged the usage of them to teach English. He specialised in Greek philology in college, and in 1915 graduated Exeter College with a first-class degree in English language with Old Icelandic as a special subject. While at Exter he discovered a Finnish grammar and focused intensely on learning the language. By the time of his military training in 1915 he was working on a "mad hobby": a "nonsense fairy language" which would become his "elvenlatin", the first seed of his legendarium.

He worked for the Oxford English Dictionary from 1918 specifically on entries beginning with the letter W. In 1920, he went to Leeds as Reader in English Language, where he claimed credit for raising the number of students of linguistics from five to twenty and even formed a "Viking Club". He gave courses in Old English heroic verse, history of English, various Old English and Middle English texts, Old and Middle English philology, introductory Germanic philology, Gothic, Old Icelandic, and Medieval Welsh. In 1925, aged 33, Tolkien applied for the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship of Anglo-Saxon.

Privately, Tolkien was attracted to "things of racial and linguistic significance", and he entertained notions of an inherited taste of language, which he termed the "native tongue" as opposed to "cradle tongue" in his 1955 lecture English and Welsh, which was crucial to his understanding of race and language. He considered west-midland Middle English his own "native tongue", and, as he wrote to W.H. Auden in 1955, "I am a West-midlander by blood (and took to early west-midland Middle English as a known tongue as soon as I set eyes on it)".

Parallel to Tolkien's professional work as a philologist, and sometimes overshadowing this work, to the effect that his academic output remained rather thin, was his affection for the construction of artificial languages. The best developed of these are Quenya and Sindarin, the etymological connection between which is at the core of much of Tolkien's legendarium. Language and grammar for Tolkien were a matter of aesthetics and euphony, and Quenya in particular was designed from "phonæsthetic" considerations. It was intended as an "Elvenlatin", and was phonologically based on Latin, with ingredients from Finnish and Greek. A notable addition came in late 1945 with Adûnaic, a language of a "faintly Semitic flavour", connected with Tolkien's Atlantis myth, which by The Notion Club Papers ties directly into his ideas about inheritability of language, and via the "Second Age" and the Eärendil myth was grounded in the legendarium, thereby providing a link of Tolkien's 20th-century "real Primary World" with the mythical past of his Middle-earth.

Tolkien considered languages inseparable from the mythology associated with them, and he consequently took a dim view of auxiliary languages. In 1930 a congress of Esperantists was told as much by him, in his lecture A Secret Vice, "Your language construction will breed a mythology", but by 1956 he concluded that "Volapük, Esperanto, Ido, Novial, &c &c are dead, far deader than ancient unused languages, because their authors never invented any Esperanto legends".

Tolkien's often unusual and archaic way of writing led to frequent erroneous corrections from editors, most famously 'dwarfs' to 'dwarves' and 'elvish' to 'elfish'.. Tolkien's linguistic influence can be seen in the once rare spellings being now the most prevalent.

Art

Taniquetil by J.R.R. Tolkien

From as young as the age of three, Tolkien enjoyed creating art. He was taught to draw and paint by his mother. He in particular enjoyed drawing landscapes and trees. Tolkien was quite modest about his artwork, at one point telling his publisher that he "cannot draw".

The first British edition of The Hobbit included ten drawings by Tolkien and the American edition had 4 watercolor paintings.

Tolkien often provided sketches to help artists illustrating his works. He was often critical of the artists chosen by Allen & Unwin to design covers for his books. Many illustrations for his books were done by Pauline Baynes whose artwork Tolkien was quite fond of.

Tolkien (helped at times by his son Christopher) created several maps of Middle-earth and Arda, two of which were published in The Hobbit, two in The Silmarillion and three in The Lord of the Rings.

Many of the Letters from Father Christmas featured art "made" by Father Christmas and the North Polar Bear, depicting landscapes and happenings in the North Pole. Tolkien was also the illustrator of Mr. Bliss.

From 1973 to 1979 (except for 1975, Allen and Unwin released calendars featuring art by Tolkien. Many of these, along with previously unpublished art were publishedPictures by J.R.R. Tolkien . In 1976 the Ashmolean Museum had an exhibit featuring Tolkien's art. Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull have published 3 books about Tolkien's art, The Art of The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien in 2011, The Art of The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien in 2015 and J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator in 2018. Tolkien's art was also published in Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth by Catherine McIlwaine, whose 2018 publication coincided with an art of the same name, also curated by McIlwaine.

Christopher Tolkien has stated that Tolkien research is complete without the study of Tolkien's artwork but despite this early Tolkien scholarship focused on his writings with little attention given to his art. John R. Holmes writes in J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment that "Tolkien’s pictures and designs are nearly as important a window into his imagination as is his fiction."

Influence on fantasy

--VERY ROUGH DRAFT-- Tolkien is often referred to as the "father" of modern fantasy, specifically high fantasy. Tolkien's influence on the fantasy genre was described in The Oxford Companion to English Literature as "the greatest influence within the fantasy genre".

Tolkien has been credited with cementing fantasy as a respected genre. Prior to the publication of The Lord of the Rings, fantasy was viewed by publishers as light reading, only for children, and fantasy and science fiction stories were rarely longer than 130,000 words (around 130 pages). The most striking difference between Tolkien's stories and pre-Tolkenian fantasy is Tolkien's respect for and seriousness with which he treated his stories. The popularity and commercial success of The Hobbit and especially The Lord of the Rings works proved to readers and publishers that fantasy could have fully fleshed out stories and explore ethics in the same depths as any other genre.

While not the first author to write fantasy, his works fundamentally changed the genre.

• Fantasy authors are split between trying to imitate his work and trying to make their work distinct from his.
• secondary world
  • secondary belief™
    • geography
    • linguistics

Tolkien's lecture On Fairy-Stories, in which he discusses the fantasy genre (fairy-stories) has been described as one of the most influential explorations of fantasy. Many of the ideas he put forth have since become common fantasy elements. This includes the concepts of primary and Secondary world, Subcreation and eucatastrophe.

The popularity of Tolkien's books has had a small but lasting effect on the use of language in fantasy literature in particular, and even on mainstream dictionaries, which today commonly accept Tolkien's revival of the spellings dwarves and elvish (instead of dwarfs and elfish), which had not been in use since the mid-1800s and earlier.

Works inspired by Tolkien

The hands and minds of many artists have indeed been inspired by Tolkien's legends. Personally known to him were Pauline Baynes (Tolkien's favourite illustrator of The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Farmer Giles of Ham) and Donald Swann (who set the music to The Road Goes Ever On). Queen Margrethe II of Denmark created illustrations for The Lord of the Rings in the early 1970s. She sent them to Tolkien, who was struck by the similarity to the style of his own drawings.

United Artists never made a film, though at least John Boorman was planning to make a film in the early seventies. It would have been a live-action film, which apparently would have been much more to Tolkien's liking than an animated film. In 1976 the rights were sold to Saul Zaentz, who in turn formed Tolkien Enterprises, now named Middle-earth Enterprises, a division of its company, and the first movie adaptation (an animated rotoscoping film) of The Lord of the Rings appeared only after Tolkien's death (in 1978, directed by Ralph Bakshi). The screenplay was written by the fantasy writer Peter S. Beagle. This first adaptation, however, only contained the first half of the story that is The Lord of the Rings. In 1977 an animated TV production of The Hobbit was made by Rankin/Bass, and in 1980 the company produced an animated film titled The Return of the King, which covered some of the portion of The Lord of the Rings that Bakshi was unable to complete. In 2001-3 The Lord of the Rings was filmed in full and as a live-action film as a trilogy of films by Peter Jackson. A decade later, Jackson proceeded with The Hobbit, envisioned as a prequel trilogy.

In 2019, Fox Searchlight Pictures released the film Tolkien about the life of J.R.R. Tolkien in his youth, with Tolkien himself being portrayed by Nicholas Hoult and Harry Gilby.

Bibliography

For a complete list of all of Tolkien's published writings, see Writings by J.R.R. Tolkien.

Fictional and poetic works

• 1936: Songs for the Philologists, with E.V. Gordon (very few copies now exist)
• 1937: The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
• 1945: Leaf by Niggle
• 1945: The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun (published in Welsh Review)
• 1949: Farmer Giles of Ham
• 1953: The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son (published with the essay Ofermod)
• 1954-1955: The Lord of the Rings
  1. The Fellowship of the Ring (1954)
  2. The Two Towers (1954)
  3. The Return of the King (1955)
• 1962: The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Other Verses from the Red Book
• 1964: Tree and Leaf (a collection of writings)
  • Leaf by Niggle
  • On Fairy-Stories (essay)
• 1966: The Tolkien Reader (a collection of writings, published only in the US)
• 1967: Smith of Wootton Major
• 1967: The Road Goes Ever On, with Donald Swann
  • Bilbo's Last Song (included in 1978 edition)

Academic works

• 1922:A Middle English Vocabulary
• 1925: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, with E.V. Gordon
• 1925: Some Contributions to Middle-English Lexicography
• 1925: The Devil's Coach-Horses
• 1929: Ancrene Wisse and Hali Meiðhad
• 1932: The Name 'Nodens' (published in Report on the Excavation in Lydney Park)
• 1932-1934: Sigelwara Land parts I and II
• 1934: Chaucer as a Philologist: The Reeve's Tale
• 1936: Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics (lecture on Beowulf criticism)
• 1939: On Fairy-Stories (essay on Tolkien's philosophy on fantasy)
• 1939: The Reeve's Tale: Version Prepared for Recitation at the 'Summer Diversions'
• 1944: Sir Orfeo (translation of a Middle English poem)
• 1953:Ofermod (published with the poem The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth)
• 1953: Middle English 'Losenger'
• 1962: Ancrene Wisse
• 1963: English and Welsh
• 1966: The Jerusalem Bible (contributing translator and lexicographer)

Posthumous publications

1975—1990

• 1975: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, and Sir Orfeo, ed. Christopher Tolkien
• 1976: Letters from Father Christmas, ed. Baillie Tolkien
• 1977: The Silmarillion, ed. Christopher Tolkien
• 1980: Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth, ed. Christopher Tolkien
• 1980: Poems and Stories (a collection of stories)
  • The Adventures of Tom Bombadil
  • The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son
  • On Fairy-Stories
  • Leaf by Niggle
  • Farmer Giles of Ham
  • Smith of Wootton Major
• 1981: The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, eds. Christopher Tolkien, Humphrey Carpenter
• 1982:The Old English Exodus (translation of an Old English poem, only limited copies were printed)
• 1982: Finn and Hengest: The Fragment and the Episode, ed. Alan Bliss
• 1982: Mr. Bliss
• 1983: The Monsters and the Critics, and Other Essays, ed. Christopher Tolkien (a collection of linguistic essays and lectures)
  • Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics
  • On Translating Beowulf
  • On Fairy-Stories
  • A Secret Vice
  • Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
  • English and Welsh
  • Valedictory Address to the University of Oxford
• 1983–1996 The History of Middle-earth, ed. Christopher Tolkien
  1. The Book of Lost Tales: Part One (1983)
  2. The Book of Lost Tales: Part Two (1984)
  3. The Lays of Beleriand (1985)
  4. The Shaping of Middle-earth (1986)
  5. The Lost Road and Other Writings (1987)
  6. The Return of the Shadow (The History of TLotR vol. 1) (1988)
  7. The Treason of Isengard (The History of TLotR vol. 2) (1989)
  8. The War of the Ring (The History of TLotR vol. 3) (1990)
  9. Sauron Defeated (The History of TLotR vol. 4) (1992)
  10. Morgoth's Ring (The Later Silmarillion vol. 1) (1993)
  11. The War of the Jewels (The Later Silmarillion vol. 2) (1994)
  12. The Peoples of Middle-earth (1996)
  • Index (2002)
• 1985: J.R.R. Tolkien's Letters to Rhona Beare (only limited copies were printed)

1990—today

• 1990: Bilbo's Last Song
• 1997: Tales from the Perilous Realm (a collection of stories and poems)
  • Farmer Giles of Ham
  • The Adventures of Tom Bombadil
  • Leaf by Niggle
  • Smith of Wootton Major
  • Roverandom (included in 2008 edition)
  • On Fairy-Stories (included in 2008 edition)
• 1998: Roverandom, eds. Wayne G. Hammond, Christina Scull
• 1999: Farmer Giles of Ham, eds. Wayne G. Hammond, Christina Scull
• 2001: Tree and Leaf (a collection of writings)
  • On Fairy-Stories and Leaf by Niggle
  • Mythopoeia (included in 1988 edition)
  • The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son (newly included)
• 2002: Beowulf and the Critics, ed. Michael D.C. Drout (a lecture series)
• 2003: The Annotated Hobbit: Revised and Expanded Edition, ed. Douglas A. Anderson
  • containing The Dragon's Visit, among other writings (newly included)
• 2005: Smith of Wootton Major, ed. Verlyn Flieger
• 2007: The History of The Hobbit, ed. John D. Rateliff
• 2007: The Children of Húrin, ed. Christopher Tolkien
• 2008: Tolkien On Fairy-stories, eds. Verlyn Flieger, Douglas A. Anderson (an extended edition of the essay)
• 2009: The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún, ed. Christopher Tolkien
• 2013: The Fall of Arthur, ed. Christopher Tolkien
• 2014: Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary, together with Sellic Spell, ed. Christopher Tolkien
• 2014: The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Other Verses from the Red Book, eds. Wayne G. Hammond, Christina Scull
  • containing Once upon a Time, among other writings (newly included)
• 2015: The Story of Kullervo, ed. Verlyn Flieger
• 2016: A Secret Vice: Tolkien on Invented Languages, eds. Dimitra Fimi, Andrew Higgins (an extended edition of the lecture)
• 2016: The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun, ed. Verlyn Flieger
• 2017: Beren and Lúthien, ed. Christopher Tolkien
• 2018: The Fall of Gondolin, ed. Christopher Tolkien
• 2021: The Nature of Middle-earth, ed. Carl F. Hostetter
• 2022: The Fall of Númenor, ed. Brian Sibley
• 2023: The Battle of Maldon: together with The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth, ed. Peter Grybauskas

Artwork

• 1979: Pictures by J.R.R. Tolkien ed. Christopher Tolkien
• 1992: J.R.R. Tolkien: Life and Legend ed. Judith Priestman
• 1995: J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator, eds. Wayne G. Hammond, Christina Scull
• 2011: The Art of The Hobbit, eds. Wayne G. Hammond, Christina Scull
• 2015: The Art of The Lord of the Rings, eds. Wayne G. Hammond, Christina Scull
• 2018: Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth, ed. Catherine McIlwaine
• 2018: Tolkien: Treasures, ed. Catherine McIlwaine
• 2022: J.R.R. Tolkien: The Art of the Manuscript, eds. William M. Fliss, Sarah C. Schaefer

Audio recordings

Note: for a detailed listing of all recordings of Tolkien, see Audio recordings of J.R.R. Tolkien

• 1967: Poems and Songs of Middle Earth, Caedmon TC 1231
• 1975: J.R.R. Tolkien Reads and Sings his The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings, Caedmon TC 1477, TC 1478 (based on an August, 1952 recording by George Sayer)

Awards

Tolkien

• Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the National University of Ireland (1954)
• Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of Liège (1954)
• Commander of Order of the British Empire (1972)
• Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Oxford University (1972)
• Gandalf Grand Master Award for life achievement in fantasy writing (1974)
• 6th "best postwar British writer" (The Times, 2008)

The Lord of the Rings

~make into list~ The Lord of the Rings became immensely popular in the 1960s and has remained so ever since, ranking as one of the most popular works of fiction of the twentieth century, judged by both sales and reader surveys. In the 2003 "Big Read" survey conducted by the BBC, The Lord of the Rings was found to be the "Nation's Best-loved Book". In 2002 Tolkien was voted the ninety-second "greatest Briton" in a poll conducted by the BBC, and in 2004 he was voted thirty-fifth in the SABC3's Great South Africans, the only person to appear in both lists. His popularity is not limited just to the English-speaking world: in a 2004 poll inspired by the UK's "Big Read" survey, about 250,000 Germans found The Lord of the Rings (Der Herr der Ringe) to be their favourite work of literature.

The Hobbit

The Silmarillion?

Other writings

Names and pseudonyms

For an explanation of the name 'Tolkien' see #Family ancestry.

JRRT monogram

It was tradition in Tolkien's family to name the first-born son John. His father Arthur Tolkien wanted to name him John Benjamin Reuel and his mother, confident he would be a girl liked the name Rosalind. In a letter to written by Arthur Tolkien his family after Tolkien's birth he describes the inspiration behind Tolkien's name:

"The boy’s first name will be ‘John’ after its grandfather, probably John Ronald Reuel altogether. Mab wants to call it Ronald and I want to keep up John and Reuel." Ronald had no familial precedent but Reuel was Arthur's middle name.

He went by the name Ronald only with close family and others referred to him as John or John Ronald.

Pseudonyms

• Arcastar - Quenya rendition of Tolkien used in Tolkien in Oxford, possibly meaning 'translator'.
• Eisphorides Acribus Polyglotteus, orator Graecorum - Tag name in the annual Latin debates during studies at Oxford.
• Fisiologus - From Physiologus, signature of a poem published in Stapeldon Magazine (1927).
• J. - Signature of a poem published in Stapeldon Magazine (1913).
• J. Rsquared - Name given to him by friends.
• JRRT or J.R.R.T - Abbreviation of J.R.R. Tolkien, often used when signing letters.
• Kingston Bagpuize- Signature of a poem published in the Oxford Magazine (1931).
• Luttro - Esperanto word for "otter", possibly referring to himself, in his private Book of the Foxrook (1909); possibly an allusion to Animalic
• Rægnold Hrædmóding - Old English rendition of Tolkien's name, used to sign the poem For W.H.A. (1967).
• Ruginwaldus Dwalakôneis - "Gothicizied" version of Tolkien's name.
• Tollers - His name among the Inklings.
• N.N. - Signature of a poem published in The Gryphon (1922), an abbreviation of Nomen Nescio.
• Oxymore - Signature of the poem Knocking at the Door, written c. 1927 and published in The Oxford Magazine (1937).

Family Tree

Mabel Suffield

Arthur Reuel Tolkien

Edith Bratt

J.R.R. Tolkien

Hilary Tolkien

Magdalen Matthews

John Tolkien

Michael Tolkien

Christopher Tolkien

Priscilla Tolkien

See also

• Chronology of Tolkien's writings
• Images by J.R.R. Tolkien
• Images of J.R.R. Tolkien
• J.R.R. Tolkien Quotes
• J.R.R. Tolkien Timeline
• Legendarium
• Plaques and Memorials
• Unpublished material

Further reading

A small selection of books about Tolkien and his works:

• Anderson, Douglas A., Michael D. C. Drout and Verlyn Flieger (founder eds.). Tolkien Studies: An Annual Scholarly Review
• Carpenter, Humphrey (1979). The Inklings: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams and Their Friends ISBN 0395276284
• Chance, Jane (ed.) (2003). Tolkien the Medievalist, London, New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-28944-0
• Chance, Jane (ed.) (2004). Tolkien and the Invention of Myth, a Reader, Louisville: University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0-813-12301-1
• Duriez, Colin and Porter, David (2001). The Inklings Handbook: The Lives, Thought and Writings of C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, Owen Barfield, and Their Friends. ISBN 1902694139
• Duriez, Colin (2003). Tolkien and C.S. Lewis: The Gift of Friendship. , ISBN 1587680262
• Flieger, Verlyn and Carl F. Hostetter (eds.) (2000). Tolkien's Legendarium: Essays on The History of Middle Earth, Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-30530-7. DDC 823.912. LC PR6039.
• O'Neill, Timothy R. (1979). The Individuated Hobbit: Jung, Tolkien and the Archetypes of Middle-earth, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 0-395-28208-X
• Pearce, Joseph (1999). Tolkien: A Celebration, London: HarperCollinsPublishers. ISBN 000-628120-6
• Pearce, Joseph (1998). Tolkien: Man and Myth, London: HarperCollinsPublishers. ISBN 000-274018-4
• Shippey, T. A. (2000). J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century, Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 0-618-12764-X, ISBN 0-618-25759-4 (pbk)
• Shippey, T. A. (2004). 'Tolkien, John Ronald Reuel (1892–1973)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Tolkien, John & Priscilla (1992). The Tolkien Family Album, London: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-26-110239-7
• White, Michael (2003). Tolkien: A Biography, New American Library. ISBN 0451212428

External links

• J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biographical Sketch
• J.R.R. Tolkien at Wikipedia

References

Éowyn/sandbox2
None Position created	President of The Tolkien Society 27 June 1972 - In perpetuo	Followed by: None; perpetual title

Illustrators of The Lord of the Rings
Internal art	J.R.R. Tolkien (1937-present) · Eric Fraser/Ingahild Grathmer (The Folio Society: 1979, 1992-present) · Alan Lee (1997-present)
Cover art only	J.R.R. Tolkien (1937-present) · Pauline Baynes (1970-1989) · Roger Garland (1983-1991) · John Howe (1991-present) · Ted Nasmith (1990) · Geoff Taylor (1999)

Illustrators of The Silmarillion
Internal art	Francis Mosley (The Folio Society: 1997-present)· Ted Nasmith (1998-present)
Cover art only	J.R.R. Tolkien (1937-present) · Roger Garland (1983-1991) · John Howe (1992-1995)

Illustrators of official Tolkien calendars

Emily Austin (2023) · Pauline Baynes (1973, 1974) · Cor Blok (2011, 2012) · Jemima Catlin (2014) · Jenny Dolfen (2023) · Inger Edelfeldt (1985) · Mary Fairburn (2015) · Roger Garland (1984, 1987, 1988, 1989) · Spiros Gelekas (2023) · Justin Gerard (2023) · Donato Giancola (2023) · Michael Hague (1986) · The Brothers Hildebrandt (1976 US, 1977 US, 1978 US) · John Howe (1987, 1988, 1991, 1995, 1997, 2001, 2013, 2021) · Tove Jansson (2016) · Michael Kaluta (1994) · Tim Kirk (1975) · Alan Lee (1987, 1993, 1999, 2007, 2008, 2013, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2024) · Ted Nasmith (1987, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2009, 2010, 2021, 2022) · Kip Rasmussen (2023) · Darrell Sweet (1982) · J.R.R. Tolkien (1973, 1974, 1976 UK, 1977 UK, 1978 UK, 1979, 2005, 2006, 2017)