John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was the first son and first child of Arthur Reuel Tolkien and Mabel Suffield Tolkien. Arthur Tolkien was a banker by profession, first with Lloyds Bank, and then, when promotions and advancement came too slowly for a man who wanted to raise a family, with the Bank of Africa in Bloemfontein, South Africa. His family was German by descent and had been piano manufacturers in Bloemfontein until Arthur’s father went bankrupt. The Tolkiens had always been solid members of the middle class in earlier years, but by the time that young J. R. R. Tolkien was born they were well in debt.

J. R. R. Tolkien was born on January 3, 1892 and his brother, Hillary Arthur Reuel Tolkien, was born on February 17, 1894. All four of them, living as one happy family in South Africa, soon became separated. Mabel, not liking the heat and the lack of society, decided to take the children and move back to Birmingham where Arthur planned to join them later. In November of 1895, not a year after his family’s departure, Arthur Tolkien was stricken with rheumatic fever, a disease usually suffered by children and accompanied by a high fever, swelling of the joints, and inflammation of the heart.

When her husband had not recovered by January, Mabel decided that she and her sons must return to Africa to care for him. However, before they could get there news came that Arthur had suffered a severe hemorrhage, and by February 15, 1896, he was dead. After the death of her husband, Mabel Tolkien decided that her children would have to come first in her life. She would make sure they would have a roof over their heads and a good education. Though they did not have a lot of money, Mabel Tolkien moved them to Sarehole, a small village just outside Birmingham.

J. R. R. Tolkien loved Sarehole. It had everything a small energetic boy could want: fields, trees, a river and a mill, countryside to explore, and dells in which to picnic. As for education, Mabel Tolkien decided to help him get smart enough to pass the entrance examinations for the King Edward VI school in Birmingham, an excellent grammar school and, nearly as important, Arthur Tolkien’s old school. For the first few years after his father’s death, life was kind to Tolkien and to his brother. But in 1900 two important changes intruded into the lives of these two people.

First, in June of that year, Mabel Tolkien converted to Catholicism and began to instruct her sons in its beliefs and practices. Second, Tolkien passed the entrance examination and entered the King Edward VI School. There were two reasons that entering school were important for Tolkien: it was his father’s school, and it was the best school in Birmingham. Mabel Tolkien knew her son was bright but she also knew that he was lazy. She knew that his only chance for a university education was if he got a scholarship. Therefore, he had to have the best grammar school education available.

Because Birmingham was about four miles away, Tolkien had no way of getting there every morning. So, the family took a house in the town of Birmingham which meant that Tolkien would have to leave his beloved Sarehole. Even though he never returned, the memory of it is seen in the rural scenes of nearly all his works. In the fall of 1904, when Tolkien was twelve, his mother, who had suffered for several years with diabetes, died. At her death bed, she left her sons eight hundred pounds invested in securities and the guardianship of Father Francis Morgan, their parish priest and faithful friend.

While living in a home provided by Father Francis, Tolkien was introduced to a young girl by the name of Edith Bratt who was also staying in the same house. Because they were around each other so much they began to have feelings for one another. The Father picked up on this and realizing that Tolkien needed to concentrate on his studies and not girls, sent her away to keep distance between them. When Edith turned twenty-one, age of majority, she was reunited with Tolkien just as he was finishing up his undergraduate education and earning his First Class degree in English Languages and Literature.

Soon there after Edith Bratt and J. R. R. Tolkien were married on March 22, 1916. Tolkien was able to enter Oxford University because he won, on his second attempt, a scholarship. Although the award alone would not have provided enough for his university education, a school-leaving grant from the King Edward School and a little help from Father Francis Morgan made an Oxford education a real possibility. Now all he had to do was earn a decent degree. While at school Tolkien joined every possible club and group that he thought had any interest to him.

Soon he was attending meetings all day long and engaging himself in writing stories and poems for these groups. He had soon made a name for himself at the Oxford University, successfully gaining a First-class degree in June of 1915. Soon after his graduation, Tolkien joined the army and fought for his country. Upon returning home he returned to Oxford. In 1925 Tolkien was named Bosworth and Rawlinson Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford. To be named to a professorship at any British university is a great honor, for there is usually only one professor in each subject.

After only four years away, Tolkien returned to Oxford where he completed, over a long life, his best known works of fantasy and of scholarship, The Hobbit (1937) and The Lord of the Rings (1954). Tolkien died in 1973. Even though he was dead, his fans made him come alive in his books. J. R. R. Tolkien was ahead of his time with his writing. Although some did not understand his work, those who did admired him for it. His work at Oxford University will be admired forever. he truly was a maker of another world.

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien is remembered for his imaginative writings and the lasting creation of Middle-earth world. However, he was also a great scholar and linguist, holding the position of the Rawlingson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University. His writings owe much of its power to his ocean of knowledge about European languages and a deep understanding and appreciation of the art of storytelling and myths. His books have been translated into twenty-four languages and many millions of copies have been sold worldwide.

Tolkien was born in the Orange Free State, in what is now South Africa, on January 3, 1892. However, his mother brought him home to England when he was four, and after his father’s death his family made their home in rural Sarehole, then on the edge of the industrial city, Brimingham. When Tolkien was only twelve, his mother passed away, leaving him and his brother in the care of Father Francis Xavier Morgan. Father Morgan was a very strong moral influence on young Tolkien and provided him with loving support though to his years in college. Tolkien received a very good high school education at King Edward VI School, one of the finest schools in England at the time.

From there e went up to Oxford, where he studied English at Exeter College, gaining him first class honors. At the age of twenty-one, Tolkien proposed to his childhood sweetheart, Edith Bratt, although it was against the wishes of Father Morgan, who objected to him marrying someone three years older than himself. However, the two were unable to wed for a few years because Tolkien was drafted to fight in World War I. During the war he served in the Lancashire Fusiliers as an officer, and survived the Somme, though many of his close friends and colleagues died.

His respect for the common soldier under the great stress of ar shows through in his later writings, where the Hobbits show strength in Mordor, previously unseen by themselves or others. After the war he got a job, working at the New English Dictionary, but in 1920 he was appointed reader in English at Leeds University. Four years later he was promoted to Professor, which is the highest academic rank in British universities. It was this time that he started writing. At this stage he thought of his tales as being a new mythology for England.

These early works, which laid the basis for his later works, are now published as “The Book of Lost Tales”. In 1925 he was elected to the Professorship at Oxford. There he specialized in Philology, the study of words, and was among the most accomplished scholars in his field. His love of words led him to work on a series of languages for the Elves of Middle-earth. Though out his lifetime this obsession drove him to produce fourteen languages and he also showed how these languages developed over the course of history of Middle-earth.

Tolkien said that the one of the first alphabets, called Tengwar, became very popular because it was a very flexible writing system that was easily adapted by the many different races of Middle-earth for use with their languages. The main flaw of his language was that it was very difficult to inscribe onto metal, stone or wood. This led to the creation of alphabet but with simpler characters made with strait lines. Tolkien often signed his work with ” }$O@O@O8bael/u} “, which translates into his name.

Over the course of the next few years Tolkien wrote four books for each of his four children. Of these, “The Hobbit” is the best known and was eventually published in 1937. Stanley Unwin, the publisher asked for a sequel but Tolkien was skeptical of a sequel’s success. He felt as if his work would only be enjoyed by a small minority and was surprised with his revious success. Once he began though, he became very involved with the book. Unfortunately World War II intervened, and slowed the process down considerably, taking a total of twelve years to complete.

The book blossomed into more than a sequel, being not a book for children, but a great saga for adults, The Lord of the Rings. At the time of its first publication the book received mixed reviews. It was not until the late 60’s and early 70’s that Tolkien’s popularity increased dramatically with the official release of the “Lord of the Rings” in the United States. During this time, there was n international emergence of “Tolkien cults,” which unfortunately delayed Tolkien’s entry into the canon of twentieth-century writers.

Tolkien retired shortly after the publication of this work, and left Oxford for the coastal resort of Bournemouth, but when his wife, Edith, died he returned to Oxford to be with the rest of his family. He himself died two years later on the 2nd of September 1973, at the age of eighty-one. He was buried alongside his wife in an Oxford cemetery, under their real names and the names of two lovers he had created, Beren and Luthien. Although Tolkien’s vision was mainly channeled into his writings, he also drew any pictures and sketches, both in ink and water colors, and produced many wonderfully detailed maps of Middle-earth.

The pictures appear as covers to some editions of his works, and have been gathered into a book of their own. Tolkien used a great deal of symbolism in his books, most noticeable is the race of small manlike creatures know as Hobbits, which he uses to symbolize the people of England. Tolkien perceived his fellow Englishmen (and Hobbits) as a simple, comfort-loving people that were surprisingly strong and resilient in times of trouble. In many of his books, Hobbits played key roles as an nlikely hero who ends up making a big difference in the world.

Many people also believe that many of the events in “The Lord of the Rings,” symbolize people and places in World Wars I and II, but Tolkien denies ever intentional doing so. When approached with similar questions about Middle-earth, Tolkien does not answer as the author, but as a historian trying to recall events of a pass long forgotten. After his death, his son Christopher, aided by the Canadian writer Guy Gavriel Kay, set out to edit many of Tolkien’s earlier mythological works. The majority of Tolkien’s works were not published until long after his death.

The first to be published was the “Simarillion,” a very detailed work containing many of the myths and the rich history of Middle-earth. In the early 80’s, Christopher compiled many of Tolkien’s miscellaneous stories into a set of books called the “Book of Lost Tales. ” The most recent addition to the Tolkien library is the “History of Middle- earth” series. This set of books is almost like a textbook of just the history of Middle-earth and includes many of Tolkien’s notes, maps, sketches, and time lines on everything that occurred in Middle-earth, from the creation of the planet to its destruction.

Apart from the Middle-earth cannon of works, Tolkien has written many children’s books as well as an impressive collection of poetry. Tolkien has also used his linguistic skills to translate many books into English. Other published works are mainly composed of letters he sent to people explaining things about Middle-earth and several scholarly essays. Tolkien never expected his works to achieve the popularity that they have, thinking that they would only be of interest to a select group of readers.

Yet his vision of Middle-earth, rooted in his love of language and lore, touched the spirt of people the world over. His work has proved the inspiration for many other writers and artists, and set the foundation for the modern “heroic fantasy” Tolkien’s famous book, “The Lord of the Rings”, has been repudiated as one of the written. Tolkien creates a very deep intimacy between the book and the reader, he captures the reader’s attention and lures him into the story. One of the ways how this cathartic relationship is created is through the use of reality of the situation in the story.

Tolkien has conjured up a fantasy language, to show the actuality this novel may present. Some quotations of this language are: eleventy-first birthday” “The invitation were limited to twelve-dozen (a number also called a Gross by the hobbits)” “Many young hobbits were included and present by parental permission for hobbits were easy going with their children in the matter of sitting up late. ” “What may you be wanting? ” “It was a cheerless land” “The hobbits were merrymaking happily. ” Not only does the language create a land but it may also add a bit of humor.

This humor can also express the merriness of the people that have been written about. The language, in English is not exactly incorrect but it is odd, strange, and different, hich matches the theme and plot. Tolkien, like mostly every other author has one main, specific goal during the exposition of the story, which is to capture the reader’s attention. In the beginning of “The Lord of the Rings,” Tolkien presents events of happiness, mystery, tales of power, chase, by evil riders, battles, and strange encounters.

Through this process, Tolkien has created a grasp upon the reader’s attention, although, in the beginning, there is not much of a sort or understanding of the condition and the state of the tale. Later on in the story, in the “Council of Ehond,” Tolkien regains control of the story and resents the understanding. At that time, the reader understands the story, and is also eager to read on. Tolkien thought of it better to catch the attention and then promote the comprehension of the tale. The Lord of the Rings is indeed a fantastic book with times of happiness, war, mystery, conflict, and passion.

In order to create the full cathartic effect of presenting and expressing the magnitude of the potential of each feeling, emphasis must be exercised. If emphasis was not used, the essence of “The Lord of the Rings” could not be how it is; it would be a monotonous tale without any events of objects with reat importance. There are two ways of how Tolkien expressed the dynamics.

One way was the use of capitalizing common nouns, making the level of the word’s recognition increased. Some of the quotations of such words are: “… nd was drawing near to the astonishing Disappearance. ” “There is lie until the End. ” “The ring itself might tell if it were the One. ” “A new Power is rising. ” The other way of emphasis is personification: a figure of speech in which a lifeless thing or quality is spoken of as if alive, or to play the role of another thing. This can imply more importance into a less-important thing. The use of this emphasis is shown in these quotations.

“My news is evil. ” “We shall need your help, and the help of all things that will give it. “The Elder Days are gone. The Middle Days are passing. The Younger Days are beginning. The time of elves is over, but our time is at hand. ” “The Ring grows in Power and deserves destruction. ” This figurative language promotes increase of importance of things that must be emphasized. The story presents a very easy to believe story that can be witnessed in the setting. The setting is a fantastic world of beauty threatened by an evil overlord and a wizard. The world ontains man odd creatures to create the fill effect of fantasy.

Something in which Tolkien added to this tale to create not only more emotion but also supporting edition to the tale’s reality. He’s added rhymes and ‘songs’ in which some of the characters chant in the time of boredom. A quote from such a song is: “Gil-galad was an Elven-king. Of him the harpers sadly sing: the last whose realm was fair and free between the Mountains and the Sea. ” “His sword was long, his lance was keen, his shining helm afar was seen! ” This use of rhymes transmits a feeling that is sent by the character singing the song to he reader. This is an effective use of catharsis.

In a story like “The Lord of the Rings”, catharsis is very important and essential. Throughout the whole book, there is one minor weakness. Due to the many names of all the different characters in the story, each of them can be easily confused with, causing the reader to be perplexed, and thereforelosing his or interest in the novel. Many of the names sound the same. Oncea name is introduced, many others follow. And then it builds up into a very long list of jumbled names. Some of the confusing ones are: Aragorn, Arathorn, Arwen, Athdas, Bolger, Bomladil,

Bombur, Boromir, Eldar, Elendil, Elessar, Eomer, Eru, Galadrid, Galadrim, Gildor, Gil-galad, Gimli, Glorfindel, Minas Morgul, and Minas Firith. Overall, “The Lord of the Rings” is an incredible, fantastic book. It was fairly difficult to read at some parts of the book which had “Boring” written all over the page, but it was definitely worth all that time. There is absolutely no doubt about the potential of excellence this book can generate. Tolkien has written an outstanding book and has proven many things and has shown many aspects. When Tolkien set out writing this book, he aimed for a best- seller.