English science fiction writer and linguist John Ronald Ruel Tolkien was born on January 3, 1892 in the city of Bloemfontein, Orange Republic (now South Africa). His father was a manager of an English bank; his parents settled in South Africa shortly before John's birth due to his father's promotion.
In February 1896, the father died, the mother and children returned to England and settled in Sarehole near the city of Birmingham. In 1904, his mother died, and John and his younger brother remained under the care of the Catholic priest Francis Morgan.
Since 1920, Tolkien taught at the University of Leeds, in 1924 he was confirmed as a professor, and from 1925 to 1959 he taught at the University of Oxford.
In 1922, Tolkien's Dictionary of Medieval English was published. He researched the works of Geoffrey Chaucer and the medieval epic Beowulf, and prepared editions of three Middle English monuments: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, with Eric Gordon, and Ancrene. Wisse) and "Sir Orfeo" (Sir Orfeo). Tolkien even “finished” the lost verses of the famous “Elder Edda,” a collection of Old Icelandic myths from the 13th century.
Tolkien invented several of his own languages - for example, Quenya (the language of the High Elves), Sindarin (the language of the Gray Elves), Khuzdul (the secret language of the Dwarves). Their invention influenced his literary work.
In the 1920s, he began writing the cycle of myths and legends of Middle-earth that later became The Silmarillion (published after Tolkien's death in 1977).
In the early 1930s, an informal literary club "Inklings" (Inklings; inkling - "hint"; sometimes the name of the circle is considered as a derivative of the word ink - "ink") gathered around Tolkien's friend, the writer Clive Lewis, a number of whose members were fond of northern mythology. The club soon disbanded, but a new one was formed with the same name by Oxford graduate Tanji Lin, which also included Tolkien and Lewis. The Inklings met regularly for two decades, reading excerpts from their writings and discussing them. It is known that Tolkien read to the Inklings chapters from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, which he was writing at the time.
The Hobbit was published in 1937 and was illustrated with over one hundred drawings by Tolkien that explained the story. "The Hobbit" was an extraordinary success immediately after its publication, receiving the New York Herald Tribune Award as the best book of the year.
In 1954-1955, Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King) was published. The epic novel was translated into many languages of the world and first sold a million copies, and today it has surpassed the twenty million mark. The novel gave impetus to the development of the fantasy genre and the role-playing movement. The book has become a cult among young people in many countries. Detachments of Tolkienists, dressed in knightly armor, to this day in the USA, England, Canada, New Zealand. There is also a Tolkienist movement in Russia.
The film rights to the novel were sold by Tolkien in 1968, but the film epic appeared only in 2001. In 2012-2014, a film trilogy based on The Hobbit was released, which describes the story preceding the events of The Lord of the Rings.
During John Tolkien's lifetime, the story "Leaf by Niggle" (1945), the poem "The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun" (1945), and the fairy tale "Farmer Giles" were also published. of Ham, 1949), a collection of poems “The Adventures of Tom Bombadil” (The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, 1962), the story “The Blacksmith of Big Wootton” (Smith of Wootton Major, 1967), etc.
In the last years of his life, Tolkien was surrounded by universal recognition. In June 1972, he received the title of Doctor of Letters from Oxford University, and in 1973, at Buckingham Palace, Queen Elizabeth awarded the writer the Order of the British Empire, second class.
All of his works published after 1973 were published by his son Christopher. Among them are “The Father Christmas Letters” (1976), “The Silmarillion” (1977), “Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-earth” (1980), “Monsters and Critics” “(The Monsters And The Critics And Others Esseys, 1983), “The History of Middle-earth” in 12 volumes (The History of Middle-earth, 1983-1986), “Tales from the Perilous Realm” (1997) , “The History of The Hobbit” (2009), “The Fall of Arthur” (2013), etc.
John Tolkien's previously unpublished novella, The Tale of Beren and Luthien, is expected to be published in the UK in May 2017.
John Tolkien was married to Edith Brett in 1916; the couple lived together for 55 years and raised three sons and a daughter.
The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources
J. R. R. Tolkien(full name - John Ronald Reuel Tolkien) (1892-1973) - English writer. He became famous for his books The Hobbit or There and Back Again and The Lord of the Rings, although he published many other works. After his death, the book “The Silmarillion” was published based on the surviving records; Subsequently, his other texts were published, and they continue to be published to this day.
The name John was traditionally given in the Tolkien family to the eldest son of the eldest son. His mother named him Ronald instead of Rosalind (she thought it would be a girl). His close relatives usually called him Ronald, and his friends and colleagues called him John or John Ronald. Ruel is the surname of a friend of Tolkien's grandfather. This name was borne by Tolkien's father, Tolkien's brother, Tolkien himself, as well as all his children and grandchildren. Tolkien himself noted that this name is found in the Old Testament (in the Russian tradition - Raguel). Tolkien was often referred to by his initials JRRT, especially in his later years. He liked to sign with a monogram of these four letters.
1891 March Mabel Suffield, Tolkien's future mother, sails from England to South Africa. On April 16, Mabel Suffield and Arthur Tolkien get married in Cape Town. They go to live in Bloemfontein, the capital of the Boer Orange Republic (now part of South Africa).
1894 17 February Hilary Arthur Reuel Tolkien, second son of Mabel and Arthur, is born in Bloemfontein.
1896 February 15 In Africa, Arthur Tolkien unexpectedly dies of illness. Mabel Tolkien and her children remain to live with their parents. In the summer, Mabel Tolkien and her children rent an apartment and live separately with the children.
1900 spring Mabel Tolkien converts to the Catholic faith (along with her children), as a result of which she quarrels with most of her relatives. In the fall, Tolkien goes to school.
1902 Father Francis Xavier Morgan, Tolkien's future guardian, becomes Mabel Tolkien's confessor.
1904 November 14 Mabel Tolkien dies of diabetes, father Francis, in her will, becomes the guardian of her children.
1908 Tolkien, sixteen, meets nineteen-year-old Edith Bratt, his future wife.
1909 Having learned about Tolkien's novel, Father Francis forbids him to communicate with Edith until he comes of age (twenty-one years old).
Tolkien achieves considerable success in the school rugby team.
1913 January 3 Tolkien comes of age and proposes to Edith Bratt. Edith breaks off her engagement to someone else and accepts Tolkien's proposal.
1914 January 8 Edith Bratt converts to the Catholic faith for Tolkien's sake. Soon the engagement takes place. On September 24, Tolkien writes the poem “The Voyage of Eärendel,” which is considered the beginning of the mythology, the development of which he subsequently devoted his whole life to.
1915 July Tolkien receives a bachelor's degree at Oxford and joins the army as a second lieutenant in the Lancashire Fusiliers.
1916 Tolkien studies to become a signalman. He is appointed battalion signalman. On March 22, Tolkien and Edith Bratt are married in Warwick.
On June 4, Tolkien leaves for London and from there to the war in France. On July 15, Tolkien (as a signalman) takes part in battle for the first time. On October 27, Tolkien falls ill with “trench fever” and is returned to England. He himself never fought again.
1917 January-February Tolkien, recovering, begins to write “The Book of Lost Tales” - the future “Silmarillion”. November 16 Tolkien's eldest son, John Francis Ruel, is born.
1920 autumn Tolkien receives a position as a lecturer in English at the University of Leeds and moves to Leeds. In October, Tolkien's second son, Michael Hilary Ruel, is born.
1924 Tolkien becomes Professor of English at Leeds. November 21 Tolkien's third and youngest son, Christopher John Ruel, is born.
1925 Tolkien is elected professor of Old English at Oxford and moves there with his family early next year.
1926 Tolkien meets and becomes friends with Clive Lewis (future famous writer).
1929 end of the year Tolkien's only daughter, Priscilla Mary Ruel, is born.
1930-33 Tolkien writes The Hobbit.
In the early 30s. An informal literary club, the Inklings, gathers around Lewis, which includes Tolkien and other people who later became famous writers.
1936 The Hobbit is accepted for publication.
1937 On September 21, The Hobbit is published by Allen & Unwin. The book is a success and publishers are asking for a sequel. Tolkien offers them The Silmarillion, but the publishers want a book about hobbits. By December 19, Tolkien is writing the first chapter of the sequel to The Hobbit - the future Lord of the Rings.
1949 autumn Tolkien finishes the main text of The Lord of the Rings. He does not want to give it to the Allen & Unwin publishing house, since they refused to print The Silmarillion, and in 1950-52 he tries to give The Lord of the Rings along with The Silmarillion to the Collins publishing house, which initially shows interest.
1952 Collins refuses to publish The Lord of the Rings and Tolkien agrees to give it to Allen & Unwin.
1954 July 29 The first volume of The Lord of the Rings is published in England. November 11 The second volume of The Lord of the Rings is published in England. Tolkien is urgently required to complete the appendices, which should be published in the third volume.
1955 October 20 In England, the third volume of The Lord of the Rings is published with appendices, but without an alphabetical index.
1959 summer Tolkien retires.
Years of life: from 01/03/1892 to 09/02/1973
English writer, philologist, professor at Oxford University, founder of “high fantasy”, author of a number of fairy tales and the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born in 1892 in what is now South Africa, then the Orange Free State, where his father was transferred to serve.
In 1895, Tolkien's father dies of tropical fever and the family is forced to return to England. Tolkien's mother Mabel, trying to find support in life, turns to religion, accepts Catholicism and passes on her deep religiosity to her children: John Tolkien remains a zealous Catholic until the end of his life.
In 1900, Tolkien entered King Edward’s School, where the writer’s brilliant linguistic abilities soon emerged. He studies Old English, Welsh, Old Norse, Finnish, and Gothic, on the basis of which he will later develop the “Elvish” language.
In October 1911, Tolkien entered Oxford, where he studied at Exeter College.
After graduating from university in 1915, Tolkien was sent to serve as a lieutenant in the Lancashire Fusiliers regiment and soon found himself at the front - the First World War was underway.
Having lost two friends in the war, Tolkien experiences a severe shock and, having suffered typhus, returns to his homeland.
From this moment the writer's scientific career begins. He first taught at the University of Leeds, and in 1922 received a position as professor of Anglo-Saxon language and literature at Oxford University, where he became one of the youngest professors (at 30 years old).
At this time he begins to write a cycle of myths and legends of Middle-earth, known to us as
For his children, he composes a fairy tale, which is published by the writer's friend Sir Stanley Anwin. The book is an unexpected success, and Anuin asks Tolkien to write a sequel. However, the work was delayed and was completed only in 1954.
In 1971, the writer's wife died, whose death was a severe shock for Tolkien. He himself survived her only by two years, dying from a short serious illness in 1973.
As a child, Tolkien was bitten by a tarantula, the poison of which made the boy sick. The patient was cared for by Dr. Thornton Quimby, who, as some researchers suggest, became one of the prototypes of Gandalf the Gray.
Tolkien met his wife Edith Marie Brett in 1908, but she was older than him and a Protestant. Tolkien's guardian was against this marriage, so he set a condition: young people should not meet or write to each other until Tolkien was 21 years old.
When this day came, Tolkien wrote a letter to his beloved, declaring his love for her and asking her to become his wife. She replied that she was engaged to someone else because she thought that he had forgotten her over the years. In the end, she returned the ring to her groom and announced that she was marrying Tolkien! In addition, at his insistence, she converted to Catholicism.
The engagement took place in Birmingham in January 1913, and the wedding took place on March 22, 1916 in the English city of Warwick, in St. Mary's Catholic Church. Their union with Edith Brett turned out to be long and happy. The couple lived together for 56 years and raised 3 sons: John Francis Ruel (1917), Michael Hilary Ruel (1920), Christopher Ruel (1924), and daughter Priscilla Mary Ruel (1929).
Named after Tolkien:
asteroid(2675) Tolkien;
sea crustacean Leucothoe tolkieni from the Nazca and Sala y Gomez submarine ridges (Pacific Ocean);
staphylinide Gabrius tolkieni Schillhammer, 1997 (Lives in Nepal (Khandbari, Induwa Khola Valley));
genus of fossil trilobites Tolkienia from the family Acastidae (Phacopida).
The names of geographical features of Middle-earth and the names of characters appearing in Tolkien's works are named after many real geographical features and animals.
Members of the rock group The Beatles, who liked The Lord of the Rings, wanted to make a musical film based on the book and star in it themselves. Paul McCartney was cast as Frodo, Ringo Starr as Sam, George Harrison as Gandalf, and John Lennon as Gollum. Tolkien was shocked by this idea.
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien. Born 3 January 1892 in Bloemfontein, Orange Republic - died 2 September 1973 in Bournemouth, England. English writer, linguist, poet, philologist, professor at Oxford University. He is best known as the author of classic high fantasy works: The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion.
Tolkien held the positions of Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College, Oxford University (1925-1945), and Merton Professor of English Language and Literature at Merton College, Oxford University (1945-1959). Together with his close friend C.S. Lewis, he was a member of the informal literary society “Inklings”.
On 28 March 1972 he received the title of Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) from Queen Elizabeth II.
After Tolkien's death, his son Christopher produced several works based on his father's extensive corpus of notes and unpublished manuscripts, including The Silmarillion. This book, along with The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, forms a single collection of tales, poems, histories, artificial languages and literary essays about the fictional world called Arda and its part of Middle-earth.
From 1951 to 1955, Tolkien used the word "legendarium" to refer to much of this collection. Many authors wrote fantasy works before Tolkien, but due to his great popularity and strong influence on the genre, many call Tolkien the "father" of modern fantasy literature, meaning mainly "high fantasy".
In 2008, the British newspaper The Times ranked him sixth on its list of the "50 greatest British writers since 1945".
In 2009, the American magazine Forbes named him the fifth highest-earning deceased celebrity.
Most of Tolkien's paternal ancestors were craftsmen. The Tolkien family comes from Lower Saxony, but from the 18th century the writer’s ancestors settled in England, “quickly becoming native Englishmen,” as Tolkien himself put it. Tolkien derived his surname from the German word tollkühn, which means “recklessly brave.”
Several families with the surname Tolkien and its variants still live in northwestern Germany, primarily in Lower Saxony and Hamburg. One German writer suggested that the surname most likely came from the name of the village of Tolkynen near Rastenburg in East Prussia (now north-eastern Poland), although it is far from Lower Saxony. The name of this village, in turn, comes from the extinct Prussian language.
Tolkien's mother's parents, John and Emily Jane Suffield, lived in Birmingham, where they owned a building in the city center called Lamb House from the early 19th century.
From 1812, Tolkien's great-great-grandfather William Suffield kept a book and stationery store there, and from 1826 Tolkien's great-grandfather, also John Suffield, sold decorative fabrics and stockings there.
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born on January 3, 1892 in Bloemfontein, Orange Free State (now Free State, South Africa). His parents, Arthur Ruel Tolkien (1857-1895), an English bank manager, and Mabel Tolkien (née Suffield) (1870-1904), arrived in South Africa shortly before the birth of their son in connection with Arthur's promotion.
As a child, Tolkien was bitten by a tarantula. The sick boy was cared for by a doctor named Thornton Quimby, and is believed to have served as the inspiration for Gandalf the Grey.
In February 1896, after the death of the father of the family, the Tolkien family returned to England. Left alone with two children, Mabel asks her relatives for help. Returning home was difficult: Tolkien's mother's relatives did not approve of her marriage. After the death of his father from rheumatic fever, the family settled in Sarehole, near Birmingham.
Mabel Tolkien was left alone with two small children in her arms and a very modest income, which was just enough to live on.
Trying to find support in life, she immersed herself in religion, converted to Catholicism (this led to a final break with her Anglican relatives) and gave her children an appropriate education. As a result, Tolkien remained a deeply religious man throughout his life.
Tolkien's strong religious beliefs played a significant role in C.S. Lewis's conversion to Christianity, although, to Tolkien's disappointment, Lewis chose the Anglican faith over the Catholic faith.
Mabel also taught her son the basics of Latin, as well as a love of botany, and Tolkien loved to draw landscapes and trees from an early age. By the age of four, thanks to the efforts of his mother, baby John could already read and even write his first letters. He read a lot, and from the very beginning he disliked Stevenson's Treasure Island and the Pied Piper of Hammel by the Brothers Grimm, but he liked Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, stories about Indians, George MacDonald's fantasy works and Andrew's Fairy Book Lang. Tolkien's mother died of diabetes in 1904, at the age of 34. Before her death, she entrusted the upbringing of her children to Father Francis Morgan, a priest of the Birmingham church, a strong and extraordinary personality. It was Francis Morgan who developed little Ronald's interest in philology, for which he was later very grateful to him.
Children spend their preschool years outdoors. These two years were enough for Tolkien to write all the descriptions of forests and fields in his works.
In 1900, Tolkien entered King Edward's School, where he learned Old English and began to study others - Welsh, Old Norse, Finnish, Gothic.
He showed early linguistic talent, and after studying Old Welsh and Finnish, he began to develop “Elvish” languages. He subsequently studied at St. Philip's School and Oxford Exeter College.
In 1911, while studying at King Edward's School (Birmingham), Tolkien and three friends - Rob Gilson, Geoffrey Smith and Christopher Wiseman - organized a semi-secret circle , called ChKBO - "Tea Club and Barrovian Society" (eng. T.C.B.S., Tea Club and Barrovian Society). This name is due to the fact that friends loved tea, which was sold near the school in the Barrow supermarket, as well as in the school library, although this was prohibited. Even after graduation, members of the Cheka kept in touch, for example, they met in December 1914 at Wiseman's house in London.
In the summer of 1911, Tolkien visited Switzerland, which he later mentioned in a letter in 1968, noting that Bilbo Baggins's journey through the Misty Mountains was based on the route that Tolkien and twelve companions took from Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen. In October of the same year, he began his studies at Oxford University (Exeter College).
In 1914, Tolkien enlisted in the Military Training Corps in order to delay conscription in order to earn his bachelor's degree. In 1915, Tolkien graduated with honors from the university and went to serve as a lieutenant in the Lancashire Fusiliers. Soon John was drafted to the front and participated in the First World War.
John survived the bloody Battle of the Somme, where two of his best friends from the Cheka (“tea club”) were killed, after which he hated war, contracted typhus and, after long treatment, was sent home with disability. He devoted the following years to his scientific career: first he taught at the University of Leeds, in 1922 he received the position of professor of Anglo-Saxon language and literature at the University of Oxford, where he became one of the youngest professors (at 30 years old) and soon earned a reputation as one of the best philologists in world.
At the same time, he began writing the cycle of myths and legends of Middle-Earth, which would later become The Silmarillion. There were four children in his family, for whom he first composed, narrated and then recorded The Hobbit, which was later published in 1937 by Sir Stanley Unwin. "The Hobbit" was a success, and Anuin invited Tolkien to write a sequel, but work on the trilogy took a long time and the book was completed only in 1954, when Tolkien was already preparing to retire.
The trilogy was published and was a huge success, which surprised both the author and the publisher. Anuin expected to lose significant money, but he personally loved the book and was eager to publish his friend's work. For ease of publication, the book was divided into three parts, so that after the publication and sale of the first part it would become clear whether the rest were worth printing.
In 1914, Great Britain entered the First World War. Tolkien's relatives were shocked that he did not immediately volunteer for the British Army.
Instead, Tolkien began a course of study, delaying entry into the army until he received his degree in 1915. After this he was commissioned into the Lancashire Fusiliers with the rank of second lieutenant.
He spent 11 months training with the 13th Battalion in Staffordshire on the Cannock Chase. “Gentlemen are rare among bosses and, to be honest, neither are human beings.”, - Tolkien was indignant in a letter to Edith.
On 4 June 1916, Tolkien departed for France as part of the 11th Battalion of the British Expeditionary Forces, to which he had been transferred. His journey on military transport inspired him to write the poem The Lonely Isle ( "Lonely Island"). He later wrote: “The junior officers were in a state of shock for a long time. Separating from my wife then... was like death.".
Tolkien served as a signalman on the Somme River, where he took part in the Battle of Thiepval Ridge and the subsequent assault on the Swabian Redoubt.
The time of battle was the greatest stress for Tolkien’s wife Edith; she was frightened by every knock on the door, fearing that they would bring news of her husband’s death. Due to British Army postal censorship, Tolkien developed a secret code that he used to write letters home. Thanks to this code, Edith was able to track her husband's movements on a map of the Western Front.
On October 27, 1916, Tolkien fell ill with trench fever, spread by lice that lived in large numbers in the dugouts.
Tolkien was released from military service and sent to England on November 8, 1916. Many of his dear school friends, including Gilson and Smith, did not return from the war.
Weak and exhausted, Tolkien spent the rest of the war in hospitals and garrisons, considered unfit for basic service.
During his restoration at the farmhouse at Little Haywood in Staffordshire, Tolkien began working on "The Book of Lost Tales"(eng. The Book of Lost Tales), starting with "The Falls of Gondolin"(eng. The Fall of Gondolin).
Throughout 1917 and 1918, he experienced several exacerbations of the disease, but recovered enough to serve in various military camps, and was promoted to lieutenant. During this time, Edith gave birth to their first child, John Francis Reuel Tolkien.
When Tolkien served in Kingston upon Hull, he and Edith went for a walk in the forest, near the village of Roos, and Edith danced for him in a clearing between hemlock flowers.
Tolkien's first civilian job after the First World War was as an assistant lexicographer in 1919, when he, discharged from the army, joined the work on the Oxford English Dictionary, where he worked mainly on the history and etymology of words of Germanic origin beginning with the letter "W".
In 1920 he took up the post of reader (similar in many ways to a lecturer position) in English at the University of Leeds, and (of those hired) became the youngest professor there.
During the University he released "A Dictionary of Middle English" and published the final edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (with philologist Eric Valentine Gordon) - a publication that included the original text and commentaries, which are often confused with the translation of this work into modern English, created later by Tolkien along with the translations "Pearls"("Perle" - in Middle English) and "Sir Orfeo".
In 1925, Tolkien returned to Oxford, where he took up (until 1945) the position of Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College.
During the time of Pembroke College he writes "The Hobbit" and the first two volumes "Lord of the Rings", living at 20 Northmoor Road, North Oxford, where his Blue Plaque was erected in 2002.
In 1932 he also published a philological essay on "Nudens" (also "Nudens" - the Celtic god of healing, the sea, the hunt and dogs), following up Sir Mortimer Wheeler when he went to excavate a Roman asklepion in Gloucestershire, at Lydney Park.
In the 1920s, Tolkien began translating "Beowulf", which he completed in 1926 but did not publish. The poem was eventually edited by Tolkien's son and published by him in 2014, more than forty years after Tolkien's death and almost 90 years after its completion.
Ten years after completing the translation, Tolkien gave a very famous lecture on this work, entitled "Beowulf: Monsters and Critics", which had a decisive influence on research on Beowulf.
At the beginning of World War II, Tolkien was considered for the post of codebreaker. In January 1939 he was inquired about the possibility of serving in the cryptographic department of the Foreign Office in the event of a state of emergency. He agreed and completed a training course at the London headquarters of the Government Communications Centre. Be that as it may, although Tolkien was quite astute to become a codebreaker, in October he was informed that the government did not need his services at the moment. As a result, he never served again.
In 2009, the Daily Telegraph claimed that Tolkien had, for some unknown reason, turned down an offer to become a full-time recruit at £500 a year.
Although Tolkien hated Adolf Hitler and Nazism, he was appalled by the Allied bombing of Germany. In 1945, Tolkien wrote to his son Christopher: “It is assumed that we have reached that stage of civilization at which it may still be necessary to execute a criminal, but there is no need to gloat or hang up his wife and child nearby, while the Orc crowd cackles. The destruction of Germany, be it a hundred times deserved, is one of the world's worst catastrophes. Well, you and I are powerless to do anything about it. This is the measure of guilt that is rightly attributed to any citizen of a country who is not a member of its government. Well, the first Machine War, seems to be approaching its final, unfinished stage - despite the fact that as a result, alas, everyone became poor, many were orphaned or crippled, and millions died, but one thing won: the Machines.".
In 1945, Tolkien became Professor of English Language and Literature at Merton College, Oxford, and remained in this post until his retirement in 1959. For many years he worked as an external examiner at University College Dublin.
In 1954, Tolkien received an honorary degree from the National University of Ireland (University College Dublin was part of it).
In 1948, Tolkien completed work on the novel "Lord of the Rings"- almost a decade after the first draft. He offered the book to Allen & Unwin. According to Tolkien, The Silmarillion should have been published simultaneously with The Lord of the Rings, but the publishing house did not agree to this.
Then, in 1950, Tolkien offered his work to Collins, but publisher Milton Waldman said that the novel was “in dire need of trimming.” In 1952, Tolkien wrote again to Allen & Unwin: "I will gladly consider publishing any part of the text." The publisher agreed to publish the novel in its entirety, without cuts.
In the early 1960s, The Lord of the Rings was released in the United States with Tolkien's permission by Ballantine Books and was a stunning commercial success. The novel fell on fertile ground: the youth of the 1960s, captivated by the hippie movement and the ideas of peace and freedom, saw in the book the embodiment of many of their dreams.
In the mid-1960s, The Lord of the Rings experienced a real boom. The author himself admitted that success flatters him, but over time he got tired of popularity. He even had to change his phone number because fans were bothering him with calls.
In 1961, Clive S. Lewis lobbied for Tolkien to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. However, Swedish academics rejected the nomination with the wording that Tolkien’s books “can in no way be called prose of the highest class.” The Yugoslav writer Ivo Andric received the prize that year.
Tolkien also translated the book of the prophet Jonah for publication "Jerusalem Bible", which was published in 1966.
After the death of his wife in 1971, Tolkien returned to Oxford.
At the end of 1972 he suffered greatly from indigestion and an X-ray showed dyspepsia. Doctors prescribed him a diet and demanded that he completely avoid drinking wine.
On August 28, 1973, Tolkien went to Bournemouth to visit an old friend, Denis Tolhurst. On Thursday 30 August he attended Mrs Tolhurst's birthday party. I didn’t feel very well, I ate little, but I drank a little champagne. It got worse at night and in the morning Tolkien was taken to a private clinic, where they discovered a bleeding stomach ulcer. Despite optimistic predictions at first, pleurisy developed by Saturday, and on the night of Sunday, September 2, 1973, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien died at the age of eighty-one.
The couple were buried in the same grave.
Tolkien family:
In 1908 he met Edith Mary Brett, who had a great influence on his work.
Falling in love prevented Tolkien from immediately entering college; besides, Edith was a Protestant and three years older than him. Father Francis took John's word of honor that he would not date Edith until he turned 21 - that is, until he came of age, when Father Francis ceased to be his guardian. Tolkien kept his promise by not writing a line to Mary Edith until this age. They didn't even meet or talk.
On the evening of the same day, when Tolkien turned 21, he wrote a letter to Edith, declaring his love and proposing his hand and heart. Edith replied that she had already agreed to marry another person because she decided that Tolkien had long forgotten her. Eventually, she returned the engagement ring to her groom and announced that she was marrying Tolkien. In addition, at his insistence, she converted to Catholicism.
The engagement took place in Birmingham in January 1913, and the wedding took place on March 22, 1916 in the English city of Warwick, in St. Mary's Catholic Church. His union with Edith Brett turned out to be long and happy. The couple lived together for 56 years and raised three sons: John Francis Ruel (1917), Michael Hilary Ruel (1920), Christopher Ruel (1924), and daughter Priscilla Mary Ruel (1929).
Bibliography of Tolkien:
1925 - Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (co-authored with E.B. Gordon) 1937 - The Hobbit or There and Back Again
1945 - “Leaf by Niggle” / Leaf by Niggle
1945 - “The Ballad of Aotrou and Itroun” / The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun
1949 - Farmer Giles of Ham
1953 - “The Return of Beorhtnoth, son of Beorhthelm” / The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm’s Son (play)
1954-1955 - “The Lord of the Rings” / The Lord of the Rings
1954 - “The Two Towers”
1955 - “The Return of the King” / The Return of the King
1962 - “The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Other Verses from the Red Book” (cycle of poems)
1967 - “The Road Goes Ever On” / The Road Goes Ever On (with Donald Swann)
1967 - “Blacksmith from Big Wootton” / Smith of Wootton Major
1976 - “Letters from Father Christmas” / The Father Christmas Letters
1977 - “The Silmarillion” / The Silmarillion
1980 - “Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth” / Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth
1983 - “The Monsters And The Critics And Others Esseys”
1983-1996 - “The History of Middle-earth” / The History of Middle-earth in 12 volumes
1997 - Tales from the Perilous Realm
1998 - “Roverandom” / The Roverandom
2007 - “The Children of Hurin” / The Children of Húrin
2009 - “The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun” / The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun
2009 - “The History of The Hobbit” / The History of The Hobbit
2013 - “The Fall of Arthur” / The Fall of Arthur
2014 - “Beowulf”: translation and commentary / Beowulf - A Translation And Commentary.
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien- English writer, linguist and philologist. Best known as the author of the story “The Hobbit, or There and Back Again”, the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy and their prehistory - the novel “The Silmarillion”.
Born in Bloemfontein, Orange Free State (now Free State, South Africa). His parents, Arthur Ruel Tolkien (1857-1896), an English bank manager, and Mabel Tolkien (Suffield) (1870-1904), arrived in South Africa shortly before their son's birth.
In early 1895, after the death of his father, the Tolkien family returned to England. The family settled in Sarehole, near Birmingham. Mabel Tolkien had a very modest income, which was just enough to live on.
Mabel taught her son the basics of Latin and instilled in him a love of botany. Tolkien loved to draw landscapes and trees from an early age. He read a lot, and from the very beginning he disliked “Treasure Island” and “The Pied Piper of Hammel” by the Brothers Grimm, but he liked “Alice in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll, stories about Indians, fantasy works by George MacDonald and “The Fairy Book” by Andrew Lang .
Tolkien's mother died of diabetes in 1904, at the age of 34. Before her death, she entrusted the upbringing of her children to Father Francis Morgan, a priest of the Birmingham Church, a strong and extraordinary personality. It was Francis Morgan who developed Tolkien's interest in philology, for which he was later very grateful.
Before entering school, Tolkien and his brother spent a lot of time outdoors. The experience of these years was enough for Tolkien for all the descriptions of forests and fields in his works. In 1900, Tolkien entered King Edward's School, where he learned Old English and began to study others - Welsh, Old Norse, Finnish, Gothic. He showed early linguistic talent, and after studying Old Welsh and Finnish, he began to develop “Elvish” languages. He subsequently studied at St. Philip's School and Oxford Exeter College.
In 1908 he met Edith Marie Brett, who had a great influence on his work.
Falling in love prevented Tolkien from immediately entering college; besides, Edith was a Protestant and three years older than him. Father Francis took John's word of honor that he would not date Edith until he turned 21 - that is, until he came of age, when Father Francis ceased to be his guardian. Tolkien kept his promise by not writing a single line to Mary Edith until he reached this age. They didn't even meet or talk.
On the evening of the same day, when Tolkien turned 21, he wrote a letter to Edith, declaring his love and proposing his hand and heart. Edith replied that she had already agreed to marry another person because she decided that Tolkien had long forgotten her. Eventually, she returned the engagement ring to her groom and announced that she was marrying Tolkien. In addition, at his insistence, she converted to Catholicism.
The engagement took place in Birmingham in January 1913, and the wedding took place on March 22, 1916 in the English city of Warwick, in St. Mary's Catholic Church. Their union with Edith Brett turned out to be long and happy. The couple lived together for 56 years and raised 3 sons - John Francis Ruel (1917), Michael Hilary Ruel (1920), Christopher Ruel (1924), and daughter Priscilla Mary Ruel (1929).
In 1915, Tolkien graduated with honors from the university and went to serve; soon John was drafted to the front and participated in the First World War.
John survived the bloody Battle of the Somme, where two of his best friends died, and then came to hate war. Then he fell ill with typhus, and after long treatment was sent home with disability. He devoted the following years to his scientific career: first he taught at the University of Leeds, in 1922 he received the position of professor of Anglo-Saxon language and literature at the University of Oxford, where he became one of the youngest professors (at 30 years old) and soon earned a reputation as one of the best philologists in world.
At the same time, he began to write the great cycle of myths and legends of Middle Earth, which would later become The Silmarillion. There were four children in his family, for whom he first composed, narrated and then recorded The Hobbit, which was later published in 1937 by Sir Stanley Unwin.
The Hobbit was a success, and Anuin suggested that Tolkien write a sequel, but work on the trilogy took a long time and the book was completed only in 1954, when Tolkien was about to retire. The trilogy was published and was a huge success, which surprised both the author and the publisher. Anuin expected to lose significant money, but he personally loved the book and was eager to publish his friend's work. The book was divided into 3 parts, so that after the publication and sale of the first part it would become clear whether the rest were worth printing.
After his wife's death in 1971, Tolkien returned to Oxford. Soon he became seriously ill and soon, on September 2, 1973, he died.
All of his works published after 1973, including The Silmarillion, were published by his son Christopher.
