JRR Tolkien

Blog Layout

JRR Tolkien

Dec 27, 2021

Happy Birthday, Mr Tolkien

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein, Orange Free State (now South Africa) on 3rd January, 1892. He had a younger brother called Hilary. Whilst his mother Mabel and her sons were visiting family in England in 1896, news reached them that his father, Arthur Tolkien, had died. Consequently, Mabel decided to stay in England and initially stayed with relatives before moving to Sarehill, then a Worcestershire village, that later inspired the landscapes of the Shire and Hobbiton in his books. Mabel home educated both her sons, with a focus on botany and the rudiments of Latin. Sadly, she died of diabetes in 1904. After that, Tolkien lived with relatives in Edgbaston, Birmingham and attended King Edward's School.

After leaving school he went to Oxford University where he initially studied Classics but later changed to English Language and Literature. He earned a first class honours degree in 1915. On finishing his degree, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant with the Lancashire Fusiliers and fought in World War I.

Tolkien married Edith Bratt in March 1916 after a three year engagement. They went on to have four children together and were married for 55 years.

After the war, he began working for the Oxford English Dictionary mainly working on words of Germanic origin that begin with the letter W. In 1920, he became the youngest professor at Leeds University where he became a reader of English Language. In 1925, He returned to Oxford University as a Professor of Anglo-Saxon. It was there that he joined the Inklings, a group of writers that included CS Lewis, amongst others.

JRR Tolkien is best known for The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings trilogy, all of which have been made into films. He originally write The Hobbit as a story for his own children. It took him almost 10 years to complete The Lord of the Rings. Both these works became global best-sellers.

Tolkien retired in 1959. He and his wife moved to Bournemouth, but he returned to Oxford when his wife died in 1971. He himself died on 2nd September, 1973 at the age of 81.

You can read a much more detailed biography at the Tolkien Society website. They also have some resources for studying The Hobbit with essay title suggestions, a guide to runes, an introduction to Anglo-Saxon and suggestions for a dramatic walk-through of the book, which sounds fun 👩

Why not follow the Tolkien Trail and journey through Middle Earth with Gandalf as your guide? The site contains games, fan fiction, artwork, music and a discussion board.
*Parents, please check suitability before letting your children on this site. Supervision is recommended.

Of course, you could celebrate Tolkien's birthday by watching all the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings films, but I don't think there's enough hours in the day. Hmmm, could lead nicely into a maths activity there. IMDb the films to get the running time and challenge your children to work out how long it would take to watch them all, back-to-back ;)