Author J. R. R. Tolkien – Biography, Life, and Career

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was an English philologist, novelist, and professor, best known to the public for his works The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Join us in exploring more information about the biography, life, and career of Author J. R. R. Tolkien through the article below!

Biography of Author J. R. R. Tolkien.

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, an English philologist, novelist, and professor, is best known to the public for his works The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. He taught Anglo-Saxon language at the University of Oxford from 1925 to 1945, and then held the Merton Professorship of English Language and Literature at Oxford from 1945 to 1959. Tolkien was a close friend of C. S. Lewis – the author of The Chronicles of Narnia series, and both were members of the famous literary group Inklings. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in 1972.

The Family Origins of Tolkien

The ancestors of the Tolkien family were mostly craftsmen. The Tolkien lineage originates from the Lower Saxony region, but began living in England from the 18th century. The Tolkien name is believed to be derived from the German word ‘tollkühn’. German authors also suggest that the family name may very well have originated from the name of the village Tolkynen, near Rastenburg, East Prussia. The name of this region has its origin in the Old Prussian language, which has now become extinct.

Tolkien’s grandparents, John and Edith Jane Suffield, were Baptist followers living in Birmingham and owned a shop in the city center. The Suffield family ran various businesses in the same house from the beginning of the 19th century. From 1810, Tolkien’s great-grandfather William Suffield had a stationery shop there; from 1826, Tolkien’s grandfather, also named John Suffield, ran a blanket and curtain store at that location.

The Childhood of Author Tolkien.

1892 A Christmas card printed with a color photo of the Tolkien family in Bloemfontein, sent to relatives in Birmingham.

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born on January 3, 1892, in Bloemfontein in the Orange Free State (now Free State province, South Africa), the son of Arthur Tolkien (1857–1896), an English bank manager, and Mabel Suffield (1870–1904). The couple had left England when Arthur was promoted to head the office in Bloemfontein of the Bank of England. Tolkien had a younger brother, Hilary Arthur Reuel, born on February 17, 1894.

Marriage of the Writer Tolkien.

At the age of 16, Tolkien met Edith Mary Bratt, three years his senior, when he and his brother Hilary moved to live in the same boarding house where Edith lived. As Humphrey Carpenter wrote:

Edith and Ronald often frequented tea shops in Birmingham, particularly the one with a balcony overlooking the street. There, they would sit together and throw small sugar lumps into the hats of passersby…. With two people of similar temperament and social status, love blossomed quickly. Both were orphans, lacking affection, and they realized that they could give their love to each other. In the summer of 1909, they decided to love each other.

Tolkien’s guardian, Father Francis Morgan, seeing that Edith was distracting Tolkien from his studies and fearing his ward’s love for a Protestant girl, forbade them from meeting, talking, or even communicating until Tolkien was 21. Tolkien adhered strictly to this prohibition, except for one transgression, which prompted Father Morgan to threaten him with expulsion from university if repeated.

On the afternoon of his 21st birthday, Tolkien wrote a letter to Edith, telling her that he loved her and asking for her hand in marriage. Edith replied that she had agreed to marry someone else, but did so thinking that Tolkien had forgotten her. The two met again, and right beneath a railway bridge, they reaffirmed their love; Edith returned the engagement ring and said that she would marry Tolkien. After their engagement, Edith reluctantly declared that she would convert to Catholicism at Tolkien’s insistence. Edith and Ronald officially became engaged in Birmingham in January 1913, and were married in Warwick, at the Catholic Church of the Immaculate Conception, on March 22, 1916.

The Life of the Writer J. R. R. Tolkien

The life of Tolkien is seen as an endless source of inspiration for his series of stories, including ‘The Lord of the Rings’. Much like the characters Frodo, Samwise, Pippin, and Merry in ‘The Lord of the Rings’, Tolkien himself grew up with his close friends Rob Gilson, Geoffrey Bache Smith, and Christopher Wiseman during his time at King Edward’s School. These friends founded a then-secret social group called the Tea Club and Barrovian Society. Unfortunately, the ensuing war ultimately tore this ‘Close Friendship Society’ apart, significantly affecting Tolkien’s life thereafter.

According to Deadline, Hoult is in negotiations to portray a young Tolkien. In the film, Tolkien will explore the life of an author during his time in school and on the battlefields of World War I, a period that shaped the ideas for his Middle-Earth series. The rise of a legend, the rise of ‘The Lord of the Rings.’

The writing style of author Tolkien: In 1914, 22-year-old John Ronald Reuel Tolkien encountered a phrase in an old English manuscript, and it was precisely this that later inspired him to write one of the most beloved fantasy novels in the world.

That was the word ‘Middle-Earth,’ and from there appeared a short poem in which he wrote about ‘the hobbits’ and a world quite different from our own.

But the journey for Tolkien to envision his grand story was not short. In fact, just looking at the timeline required for him to complete the work is overwhelming:

• 1917: Tolkien wrote his first short story based on his new world and mythology, titled “The Fall of Gondolin”.
• 1930: Before going to bed, Tolkien began telling his children stories about hobbits.
• 1937: The Hobbit, Tolkien’s first book about “Middle-Earth”, was published.
• 1949: After Tolkien’s publisher requested a sequel to ‘The Hobbit,’ he began writing ‘The Lord of the Rings.’ It took him twelve years to complete the series.
• 1954-1955: All three parts of ‘The Lord of the Rings’ were published.

How do you feel about this patience? Incredibly, the time span from when Tolkien read the old English manuscript and was inspired to the birth of ‘The Lord of the Rings’ series is nearly four decades.

The issue is that the only thing in the world that can make a person persevere like this is passion.

Today, most people are focused on achieving results in the shortest possible time, and therefore, they do not recognize the value of patience and the importance of allowing things time to grow.

Most of the time, you can’t control what will happen. You just need to have enough patience to let it unfold while you continue to work, allowing passion to guide and move you forward.

Without a genuine passion for something, it is hard to be patient. And when patience is lacking, the chance of you fulfilling any significant goal is very low. Seek your passion, hold on to everything you have, and never let go.

The Vietnamese sentence translates to English as:

• Songs for the Philologists (1936), Poetry, 12 poems
• The Hobbit 1937, novel
• Leaf by Niggle (1945), short story
• The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun (1945), poetry story
• Farmer Giles of Ham (1949), fables
• The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm’s Son (1953), dramatic
• The Lord of the Rings (1954 – 1954), set of 3 novels
• The Fellowship of the Ring (1954)
• The Two Towers (1954)
• The Return of the King (1955)
• The Adventures of Tom Bombadil (1962), poetry book, 16 poems
• Tree and Leaf (1964), fairy tales collection
• The Tolkien Reader (1966)
• The Road Goes Ever On (1967)
• Smith of Wootton Major (1967)

About the famous work ‘Tolkien’

The plot of the movie ‘Tolkien’

Raised by a single mother, Tolkien and his brother were helped by a local priest who moved them from their home to a small apartment in Birmingham due to financial difficulties. The mother always loved and filled her sons’ minds with adventurous and mysterious stories she told by the fireplace at night. However, she fell ill, and one day after returning from school, Tolkien found her slumped in a chair in an unusual position, and upon touching her, he realized she had passed away. The local priest returned once more to try to find a local orphanage or home that would take the boys in.

A wealthy, kind woman in the town supported Tolkien and his brother, allowing them to continue their education. Tolkien met Edith Bratt, who lived in the same house where he was taken in. She and Tolkien bonded over friendship and a passion for music.

When sent to school, J. R. R. Tolkien befriended a group of four students, who helped him find inspiration and courage. Their emotional relationship grew over the years as they experienced life together. Meanwhile, Tolkien continued his relationship with Edith, whom he loved. When the priest who had supported Tolkien discovered their romance, he reminded Tolkien that she was not a Roman Catholic. He further stated that, as Tolkien’s legal guardian after his mother’s death, he forbade him from continuing with Edith until he was 21 years old. This caused Tolkien immense pain.

When World War I broke out, four friends all had to enlist in military service. The war ravaged them. Two of the friends died, and one was mentally disabled. Tolkien himself was seriously injured, though he was evacuated to a hospital in England, and he was unconscious for several weeks. When he woke up, he saw that Edith had visited him daily while he was in the hospital and never left his side. Deeply moved by her sincerity, Tolkien proposed to her as his true, one and only love. The two lived happily into old age, with Tolkien becoming a teacher at his old school, instructing young students who enrolled in his classes.