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Short Stories Non-Fiction Master of Middle-Earth
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Master of Middle-Earth |
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| Written by Emily | |
| Tuesday, 22 April 2008 | |
J.R.R. Tolkien was an amazing writer and artist who wrote numerous books. Some of his works are: Unfinished Tales of Numerior and Middle-earth, Silmarillion, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and Farmer Giles of Ham. He liked to base his characters after himself and other people he knew. For instance, he once wrote, “ I am, in fact, a hobbit, in all but size. I like gardens, trees, and unmechanicized farmlands; I smoke a pipe, and like good, plain food…. I do not travel much” (Neimark 63).
J.R.R. Tolkien was born on January 3, 1892 in Bloemfontain, South Africa. His parents’ names were Arthur and Mabel Tolkien. His full name ended up being John Ronald Reul Tolkien. He was named John after his grandfather. Ronald came about simply because both of his parents liked it. Reul was simply his father’s name (Collins 10).
On February 17, 1894, Hilary Reul Tolkien was born. He was John’s only sibling. Shortly after the birth of Hilary, Arthur Tolkien suffered a severe hemorage and died on February 15, 1896 (Collins 15). Even with the death of his father at an early age, John proceeded to be a very imaginative child. For example, by the age of seven, he was writing stories of his own (Collins 18).
On November 14, 1904, Mabel Tolkien died (Collins 25). Suddenly, John and Hilary were orphans. After Mabel Tolkien died, Father Francis, a Catholic priest, took care of Ronald and Hilary (Collins 27).
Soon, J.R.R. Tolkien started attending King Edward’s School (Collins 19).
After John graduated from King Edward’s School, he was accepted into Oxford University (Collins 40). He was enrolled in Exeter College, one of the many sections of Oxford (Collins 45).
Previously, John had met a girl named Edith Bratt. They fell in love and got married on March 22, 1916, right before John was going to war.
While he was fighting in the army, Tolkien contracted “trench fever.” As a result, he went back to England. It took him a long time to get better (Collins 61).
On November 11, 1918, World War I ended. So, Tolkien took a job working on The New English Dictionary (Collins 68).
On November 17, 1917, John Francis Reul Tolkien was born (Collins 67). Then, in October of 1920, Michael Hilary Reul Tolkien was born (Collins 72). In addition, Tolkien’s third son, Christopher Reul Tolkien, was born in November of 1924 (Collins 74).
In the winter of 1925, Tolkien got a job at Oxford as a professor of Anglo-Saxon. C.S. Lewis was also a professor at Oxford. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis became close friends very quickly (Collins 74-75).
In 1929, Priscilla Mary Reul Tolkien was born. She was J.R.R. Tolkien’s fourth child and only daughter (Collins 76).
While grading papers one afternoon, Tolkien flipped the page to find it empty. As he saw the empty paper, a thought popped into his head. Then, he wrote on the empty sheet of paper: “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.” He didn’t know what this was, but he knew that he liked it (Collins 76-77).
Tolkien began trying to discover this new character that he created. Soon, he started writing a book about the hobbit. By October 1936, Tolkien was finished writing The Hobbit. He sent it to a publishing company called George Allen and Unwin Publishers. They accepted the copy of The Hobbit, also called There and Back Again, and it appeared on September 21, 1937 (Collins 79).
Tolkien loved what he had created. He once told an interviewer: “The Hobbits are just rustic English people, made small in size because it reflects the generally small reach of their imagination - not the small reach of their courage or latent power” (Carpenter 180).
The public also loved what Tolkien created. Books were flying off the shelves in England. So, in 1938, The Hobbit was published in America by Houghton Mifflin Company. At the end of the year, it had won the New York Herald Tribune’s prize for the Best Children’s Book of 1938 (Neimark 65).
Readers begged for a sequel to The Hobbit. So, Tolkien proceeded to write The Lord of the Rings (Collins 83-85). After 12 years in February 1950, Tolkien finished The Lord of the Rings (Collins 85). The Lord of the Rings was initially one book, but the published company persuaded Tolkien to split the book up into three books (Neimark 82).
In August 1954, The Fellowship of the Ring (the first of The Lord of the Rings trilogy) appeared. The Two Towers (the second of The Lord of the Rings trilogy) was also published in 1954. Finally, The Return of the King (the third and last of The Lord of the Rings trilogy) was published in 1955.
The Lord of the Rings was extremely popular, too. It was translated into twenty-six languages. However, The Hobbit was translated into over thirty languages.
After many years of writing The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien retired from being a professor at Oxford in 1959. Not only was he at the required retiring age, but he was getting older, and he could feel it.
Not only was aging difficult, but his good friend, C.S. Lewis, died in 1963. This was a shattering blow to Tolkien (Neimark 87). It seemed to him that everything was coming to an end.
Edith, his wife, was not doing well either. She went into the hospital for an inflamed gallbladder and never came back out. She died on Monday, November 29, 1971 (Collins 95). This death was the worst for Tolkien. Edith had meant everything to him.
Tolkien was also going through some other things of his own. Stomach ulcers were causing him extreme pain and made him collapse several times (Neimark 95). J.R.R. Tolkien died on Sunday morning, September 2, 1973 in Bournemouth, England. Christopher and Michael were out of the country when their father died. However, Priscilla and John were there with him (Neimark 95).
The Silmarillion, first called “The Book of Lost Tales,” was not finished when Tolkien died. He passed on the manuscript to Christopher Tolkien to finish and hopefully publish (Neimark 96). The Simarillion was finally published in September 1977 (Neimark 96).
J.R.R. Tolkien was an inspiring writer. The magic and mythology of Middle-earth was founded on his love of language and used his knowledge of Germanic, Old Norse, and Icelandic myths (Neimark viii).
Tolkien did not get many awards while he was alive. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by Oxford University (Neimark 93). His best award was for his achievements in philology, which is the love of learning and literature. The award was called the Commander, Order of the British Empire medal (C.B.E.). This award was one rank below knighthood (Neimark 93).
Many people appreciate Tolkein’s work and have for numerous years. As Paul Ritz, officer of the American Tolkien Society, plainly puts it, Tolkien’s work has “something for everyone. He didn’t just write a book. He wrote a world” (Neimark 98).
Comments (3) |
 04-22-2008 03:44, I love tolkien and have read LOTR many, many times but... um... Why? Did you research this or copy and paste or something? sorry I don't get it » Reply to this comment...  04-22-2008 11:05, Non-fiction and good. Almost looks like a bit of school work, no? » Reply to this comment...  04-22-2008 15:13, This was good reading Emily! Much of Tolkien's influence came from his faith as well I believe? Maybe not as much as C.S. Lewis though. I was wondering if you had come across anyting in regard to that influence in your research? Excellant job. Non-fiction can be overbearing, but you kept this simple and entertaining. » Reply to this comment... » See all 1 replie(s) |
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