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J.R.R. Tolkien

June 1, 1997
We've chosen to feature J.R.R. Tolkien this month. The father of contemporary fantasy, his work introduced many of us to the wonders and exciting worlds offered by the fantasy genre. The least we can do to thank him is honor him as our first featured author ever at the SFFH DB.

The Man
J. R. R. Tolkien was born on January 3rd, 1892, to Arthur and Mabel Tolkien in Bloemfontein, the capital of the Orange Free State in South Africa. He lived there with his parents and his brother, Hilary, for only three years before returning home to Birmingham, England with his mother. Shortly after their return to England, they received word of Arthur's death; this prompted their second move to Sarehole, outside of Birmingham.

J.R.R. Tolkien Not long after the move to Sarehole, Mabel began to teach her sons handwriting, painting, drawing, Latin, French, and German. Four years later, in 1900, Mabel became Catholic, also converting her sons. They then began a series of moves, all within the Birmingham area, and Ronald enrolled in King Edward VI School, then in St. Phillip's Grammar School two years later, before returning in 1903 to King Edward's. There his study of ancient languages continued, and after studying numerous other "dead" languages, he began to create his own grammatical structures and histories. Shortly afterward, he received a modest scholarship to Exeter College, Oxford, which he attended, focusing on various topics, but eventually settling on English, with an emphasis in philology.

During that period, Mabel died, and Ronald and Hilary were orphaned. First staying with an aunt, they were later moved to a boarding house, where Ronald met his future wife, Edith Bratt. They were married on March 22nd, 1916. Only a month later, he left to fight in France during World War I, but was sent home with "trench fever" later in the year. In 1917, his first son, John, was born; in 1920, Michael was born; in 1924, Christopher was born; and then, in 1929, Priscilla, his only daughter, was born.

J.R.R. Tolkien written in Quenyan Throughout that period, Tolkien had been writing - including work on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight with E.V.Gordon, various poems, and stories of Middle Earth. He completed the first full draft of The Silmarillion in 1930, though it was not printed until 1977. However, The Hobbit was a critical and popular success immediately after its publication in 1937. He continued to write throughout the rest of his life, working at various times on the vast amount of Middle Earth material he invented - including grammatical treatises on the languages of Middle Earth, poetry, prose, histories, and illustrations. Then, in 1954, the first two volumes of The Lord of the Rings were published by Allen and Unwin, followed by the third volume in 1955.

In 1973, while visiting friends in Bornemought, England, Ronald became ill and died a few days later, on September 2nd. He was eighty-one years of age. His son Christopher, as literary executor, was left to organize The Silmarillion, which he did. Eventually, all twelve volumes of The History of Middle Earth were also completed, compiled and published by Christopher.


Publications Listing
A Middle English Vocabulary. The Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1922. (This is presently bound in with Fourteenth Century Verse & Prose, ed. Kenneth Sisam, from Oxford University Press.)

Sir Gawain & The Green Knight. Ed. J.R.R. Tolkien and E.V. Gordon. The Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1925. (Now available in a second edition edited by Norman Davis.)

The Hobbit: or There and Back Again. George Allen and Unwin, London, 1937. (There was a second edition in 1951, and a third in 1966. Reprinted many times.) The Annotated Hobbit, Introduction and Notes by Douglas A. Anderson, Houghton Mifflin, Boston and HarperCollins, London, 1988.

Farmer Giles of Ham. George Allen and Unwin, London, 1949.

The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings. George Allen and Unwin, London, 1954.

The Two Towers: Being the Second Part of The Lord of the Rings. George Allen and Unwin, London, 1954.

The Return of the King: Being the Third Part of The Lord of the Rings. George Allen and Unwin, London, 1955. (The Lord of the Rings saw a second edition in 1966. The work has been reprinted many times in both hardcover and paperback.)

The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Other Verses from the Red Book. George Allen and Unwin, London, 1962.

Tree and Leaf. George Allen and Unwin, London, 1964. (Reprints Tolkien's lecture "On Fairy-Stories" and his short story "Leaf by Niggle".) New edition, incorporating "Mythopoeia", Unwin Hyman, London, 1988.

The Tolkien Reader. Ballantine, New York, 1966. (Contains "The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorthelm's Son", Tree and Leaf, Farmer Giles of Ham and The Adventures of Tom Bombadil.)

Smith of Wootton Major. George Allen and Unwin, London, 1967.

The Road Goes Ever On: A Song Cycle. Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1967; George Allen and Unwin, London, 1968. (There was a second edition in 1978.)

Bilbo's Last Song. Allen and Unwin, London, 1974. [As a poster; in book-form, Unwin Hyman, London, 1990.]

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl and Sir Orfeo. Ed. Christopher Tolkien. George Allen and Unwin, London, 1975. (Contains Tolkien's translations of the poems given in the title.)

The Father Christmas Letters. Ed. Baillie Tolkien. George Allen and Unwin, London, 1976.

The Silmarillion. Ed. Christopher Tolkien. George Allen and Unwin, London, 1977.

Pictures by J.R.R. Tolkien. Ed. Christopher Tolkien. George Allen and Unwin, London, 1979. (Contains reproductions of all the pictures in previous Allen and Unwin "Tolkien Calendars".) Revised edition, HarperCollins, London, 1992.

Poems and Stories. George Allen and Unwin, London, 1980. (A deluxe edition containing The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, "The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son", "On Fairy-Stories", "Leaf by Niggle", Farmer Giles of Ham and Smith of Wootton Major.) Reprinted (Non-deluxe edition), HarperCollins, London, 1992.

Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-earth. Ed. Christopher Tolkien. George Allen and Unwin, London, 1980.

Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien. Ed. Humphrey Carpenter with Christopher Tolkien. George Allen and Unwin, London, 1981.

Mr. Bliss. George Allen & Unwin, London, 1982.

The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays. Ed. Christopher Tolkien. George Allen and Unwin, London, 1983.

The History of Middle Earth
The Book of Lost Tales, Part I. Ed. Christopher Tolkien. George Allen and Unwin, London, 1983.

The Book of Lost Tales, Part II. Ed. Christopher Tolkien. George Allen and Unwin, London, 1984.

The Lays of Beleriand. Ed. Christopher Tolkien. George Allen and Unwin, London, 1985.

The Shaping of Middle-earth. Ed. Christopher Tolkien. George Allen and Unwin, London, 1986.

The Lost Road and Other Writings. Ed. Christopher Tolkien. Unwin Hyman, London, 1987.

The Return of the Shadow. Christopher Tolkien. Unwin Hyman, London, 1988.

The Treason of Isengard. Christopher Tolkien. Unwin Hyman, London, 1989.

The War of the Ring. Christopher Tolkien. Unwin Hyman, London, 1990.

Sauron Defeated. Ed. Christopher Tolkien. HarperCollins, London, 1992.

Morgoth's Ring. Ed. Christopher Tolkien. HarperCollins, London, 1993.

The War of the Jewels. Ed. Christopher Tolkien. HarperCollins, London, 1994.

The Peoples of Middle-earth. Ed. Christopher Tolkien. HarperCollins, London, 1996.


The Hobbit
Bilbo Baggins at Bag End The Hobbit is the essential prelude to Tolkien's epic masterwork, The Lord of the Rings. It is the story of how Bilbo Baggins of Bag End, normally a most unadventurous sort, is drawn from his quaint hobbit-hole in the Shire to wondrous adventures involving elves, dwarves, goblins and dragons in the far-off magic lands beyond the Misty Mountains. Originally created as a fairy tale for his own children, Tolkien's first venture into Middle Earth has become the classic against which all other fantasies must be measured. -- And most found wanting.

Bilbo was a very typical hobbit in the beginning - stout and good-natured, always ready to enjoy his pipe or a tasty meal. Living in the country-side, they would dig holes in the hills, then fill them with their many precious belongings. Hobbits were extremely conservative and frequently unconcerned with anything beyond the Shire. They seemed to prefer dressing in strong colours, particularly bright yellows and greens. Hospitable almost to a fault, they delighted in parties and guests, especially when those guests brought presents! But don't think them greedy - they gave as eagerly as they received. With a personality like that, how could the average reader resist sweet Bilbo? We never stood a chance!


The Lord of the Rings
Front Cover Jacket of the Centenary Edition of The Lord of the Rings The Lord of the Rings is J. R. R. Tolkien's great three-volume epic set in the imaginary world of the Third Age of Middle Earth - a world inhabited by many strange beings, including hobbits, an ancient people smaller than dwarves, cheerful, peace-loving and shy. Since its original publication, the work has caught the imagination of readers of all ages and walks of life. It is an adventure story, an adult fairy tale, a classic myth, which has been called one of the "very few works of genius in recent literature." Among other even more complimentary things.

  • The Fellowship of the Ring
  • The Two Towers
  • Return of the King


The Silmarillion
The Two Trees of Valinor The Silmarillion, first published four years after the death of its author, is an account of the Elder Days of Middle Earth, or the First Age of Tolkien's World. The tales contained in it are legends deriving from a much deeper past than that represented by the Third Age in The Lord of the Rings. A time when Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, dwelt in Middle Earth, and the High Elves made war upon him for the recovery of the Silmarils.

Not only, however, does the book relate the events of a far earlier time than LOTR, it is also, in all the essentials of its conception, far the earlier work. Although it was not then called The Silmarillion, it was already in being half a century before being published. At the time, it existed only in the author's battered notebooks; the earliest versions of the central mythology in the book, dating back as far as 1917, can still be read in that format. Most printings of the work also contain Christopher Tolkien's extensive appendices and indexes with information on the pronunciation of names, the grammatical structure of the languages of Middle Earth, various genealogical charts, and maps. The Silmarillion book cover

  • Ainulindale: The Music of the Ainur
  • Valaquenta: Account of the Valar
  • Quenta Silmarillion: The History of the Silmarils
  • Akallabeth: The Downfall of Numenor
  • Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age

Other Works
JRR Tolkien's signature image In addition to his numerous works listed above, Tolkien contributed to and accomplished much more in his life than merely what is on this page. For example, he spent large amounts of time making illustrations to accompany his visions of Middle Earth. Many of them can be found in Tolkien's World: Paintings of Middle Earth, as well as other publications.

In addition to that, there have been countless people inspired by his works - they have gone on to detail and explain his work in essays, write prose and poetry based on his original vision, compose and perform music, and illustrate his richly detailed works. These resources are far too numerous to list here, but in the Resources List below, we will attempt to list a few that will get you started on a further investigation of these topics.


Resources