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Most people are familiar with 'The Hobbit' and 'The Lord of the Rings,' two of the most celebrated works of fantasy fiction ever published. And even if you were one of those who hadn't read the books, 'The Lord of the Rings' film series introduced Frodo, Aragorn, Gandalf, and a host of other characters to cinemagoers around the world. But how much do you know about the man responsible for bringing to life the fictional world of Middle-earth?
Click through this gallery and read up on the life and work of J.R.R. Tolkien, and discover what inspired him to write his epic masterpieces of literary magic.
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa, to Arthur Tolkien and his wife Mabel, née Suffield, on January 2, 1892.
Tolkien was the older of two sons: his younger brother Hilary Arthur Reuel Tolkien was born in 1894. In 1895, Mabel and the two boys moved to Birmingham, England. Arthur Tolkien died in South Africa before he could join them.
The Tolkien family ancestors originated in the East Prussian town of Kreuzburg, near Königsberg. In 1945, Kreuzburg became Slavskoye; the following year, Königsberg became Kaliningrad. Both lie in Russian territory.
In 1904, Mable Tolkien died. Her boys became wards of a Catholic priest. Mabel had ignited in Ronald, as he was known in the family, a lifelong passion for languages. Besides English, Tolkien would eventually master 35 other languages (both old and modern). He also had great fun inventing new languages to a high degree of sophistication. He attended King Edward's School in Birmingham from 1900 to 1911.
Curiously perhaps, Tolkien disliked having to study Shakespeare at school. He was particularly irked by the coming of the "Great Birnam Wood to High Dunsinane Hill" in 'Macbeth' as being purely rhetorical. In his fertile mind, Tolkien had already created a setting where trees actually marched to war—which he achieved several years later with Treebeard in 'The Lord of the Rings.'
Tolkien studied English language and literature at Exeter College, Oxford. He graduated in 1915 with first-class honors.
Tolkien met Edith Bratt when he was 16 and she 19. Also orphaned, Bratt would inspire the characters of Lúthien Tinúviel from 'The Silmarillion' and Arwen Undómiel from 'The Lord of the Rings.'
Tolkien waited until his 21st birthday to propose to Edith. He traveled to Cheltenham in Gloucester (pictured), where he asked for her hand in marriage.
The couple were formally engaged at Birmingham in January 1913, and married at St Mary Immaculate Catholic Church at Warwick on March 22, 1916. They remained devoted to each other until Edith's death in 1971.
Tolkien served in the British Army during the First World War. He participated in the assaults on the Schwaben Redoubt and the Leipzig salient during the First Battle of the Somme. The war took the lives of most of the friends he'd made at Oxford.
In the forward to 'The Lord of the Rings,' Tolkien compares the Dead Marshes, the reeking wetlands that lay north-west of the Dagorlad, to Northern France after the Battle of the Somme.
After the war, Tolkien's first job as a civilian was with the 'Oxford English Dictionary' (then called 'The New English Dictionary'), working on the origin and history of words beginning with W. He left in 1920 to pursue his academic career.
At the University of Leeds, Tolkien taught English literature and language, specializing in Old and Middle English. His grand ambition was to create a mythology for England, and this led to the inception of 'The Silmarillion,' a book consisting of a collection of myths and stories in varying styles that was published posthumously.
Tolkien returned to Oxford in 1925 as a Fellow and tutor of Magdalen College. Besides his own writings, he translated older works, including 'Beowulf' and 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,' to great acclaim.
In 1926, Tolkien met Irish-born academic, writer, and Christian apologist C.S. Lewis. Lewis would go on to write his own fantasy novels, 'The Chronicles of Narnia,' published between 1950 and 1956.
The two men became friends and began attending meetings of a student literary group called the Inklings at the Eagle and Child Pub in Oxford.
Tolkien and his wife were by now parents to four young children. It was while reading stories of Middle Earth to the youngsters as bedtime stories that he developed the inspiration for 'The Hobbit.' In 1937, 'The Hobbit' was published.
The book was so popular that Sir Stanley Unwin, Tolkien's publisher and chairman of the publishing house Allen and Unwin, asked for a sequel.
J.R.R. Tolkien's masterpiece, 'The Lord of the Rings,' was written in stages between 1937 and 1949. Intended as one novel, the epic fantasy was published in three volumes—'The Fellowship of the Ring,' 'The Two Towers,' and 'The Return of the King'—between 1954 and 1955. The first single-volume edition (pictured) appeared on bookshelves in 1968.
'The Lord of the Rings' is one of the best-selling books ever written, with over 150 million copies sold.
In 'J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography,' written by Humphrey Carpenter and published in 1977, Tolkien revealed that of all the fictional beings he'd created, he identified with hobbits the most.
Tolkien also revealed that while setting out to write a sequel to 'The Hobbit,' Bilbo's nephew was called Bingo, apparently after a toy koala one of his kids played with. However, as what later became 'The Lord of the Rings' attained a darker, more sinister tone, Bingo became Frodo.
'The Lord of the Rings' is effectively an extension of Tolkien's 'Silmarillion' tales, which gave the new book a "history" in which Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, and Men were already established.
J.R.R. Tolkien retired in 1959. By then, his name was known globally, and throughout the rest of his life he received steadily increasing public attention and literary fame.
Tolkien later quipped that had he known his books would become so profitable he would have retired earlier.
J.R.R. Tolkien died on September 2, 1973, aged 81. He was buried at Wolvercote Cemetery in Oxford, in the same grave as his wife Edith.
Tolkien's former homes in Leeds and Oxford (pictured) are landmarked with a Blue Plaque, a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom, and certain other countries and territories, to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person or event.
Every year on March 25, Tolkien Reading Day is celebrated. The date was chosen because on March 25 in 'The Lord of the Rings' Sauron is defeated.
Meanwhile, movie director Peter Jackson's original 'Lord of the Rings' film trilogy ranks among the highest-grossing film series of all time, having grossed over US$2.9 billion worldwide.
Sources: (Book Riot) (Deseret News) (The Tolkien Society) (Britannica)
See also: The 30 movies that made the most money
Interesting facts about J.R.R. Tolkien
Things you didn't know about the 'Lord of the Rings' author
LIFESTYLE Literature
Most people are familiar with 'The Hobbit' and 'The Lord of the Rings,' two of the most celebrated works of fantasy fiction ever published. And even if you were one of those who hadn't read the books, 'The Lord of the Rings' film series introduced Frodo, Aragorn, Gandalf, and a host of other characters to cinemagoers around the world. But how much do you know about the man responsible for bringing to life the fictional world of Middle-earth?
Click through this gallery and read up on the life and work of J.R.R. Tolkien, and discover what inspired him to write his epic masterpieces of literary magic.