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Who Was Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892-1973) was a major scholar of the English language, specialising in Old and Middle English. Twice Professor of Anglo-Saxon (Old English) at the University of Oxford, he also wrote a number of stories, including most famously The Hobbit (1937) and The Lord of the Rings (1954-1955), which are set in a pre-historic era in an invented version of the world which he called by the Middle English name of Middle-earth.
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Tollers & Jack
"No harm in him: only needs a smack or two." So wrote C. S. Lewis ("Jack" to his friends) in his diary the night he first met J. R. R. Tolkien ("Tollers"). The comment hints at the undercurrent of tension that would run beneath the pair's stream of mutual admiration.
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Hope in face of evil
In 1916, Tolkien was a young, newly married Catholic, when he and three friends enlisted in the British Army. He wound up at the First Battle of the Somme, watching 20,000 French and British troops slaughtered in a single day.
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Tolkien as a writer for young adults
The Lord of the Rings has become one of the key books which teachers and librarians recommend to young adults to lead them towards adult literature; but it was not always so.
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The Tolkien Timeline
Because so much of the focus has been on his two most famous literary works, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien appears to the casual reader as nothing more than an author of fantasy literature. He was, however, a very distinguished linguist and scholar.
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Ardalambion: Of the Tongues of Arda, the invented world of J.R.R. Tolkien
In 1931, Tolkien wrote an essay about the somewhat peculiar hobby of devising private languages. He called it A Secret Vice. But in Tolkien's case, the "vice" can hardly be called secret anymore.
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A Chronological Bibliography of the Writings of J.R.R. Tolkien
Although J.R.R. Tolkien is known primarily for "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Ring," he produced a vast library of work during his lifetime.
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J.R.R. Tolkien's Oxford
Take a virtual tour of some of the city of Oxford, where Tolkien lived and worked for 50 years.
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