Tolkien’s Life and Work
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien
Basic facts to know
• Place and date of birth
• Family basics and major events
• Religion
• Love life
• Education
• War experience
• Profession
Tolkien’s Life and Work
• Philology: love of words
– The languages come first!
– Especially interested in pleasure of sounds
– Learned and invented languages
– Historical reconstruction of language
• Creates history for his languages: Quenya and Sindarin
Tolkien’s Life and Work
• A parallel process: Historical reconstruction of folklore and national collections
– Grimm’s Fairy Tales
– Elder (Poetic) Edda and Prose Edda
– Kalevala
• Invented “history”: “The Man in the Moon” song
Creating a history to go with the languages (“a mythology for England”):
Eala earendel engla beorhtast
ofer middangeard monnum sended
• The Voyage of Earendel (first version 1914)
• The Fall of Gondolin
• Turin Turambar
• Beren and Luthien (all by 1917)
Tolkien’s “co-curricular activities”
• T.C.B.S (Tea Club and Barrovian Society)—unofficial group of friends in school
• School plays (sometimes in drag!)
• Rugby team (school and university)
• Essay Club, Dialectical Society, Stapledon(debate)
• Started some: Apolausticks (shared writing, had discussions and meals)
After university:
• Kolbitar (“The Coalbiters”)—group that read Old Norse/Icelandic literature together
• The Inklings—group that shared their own writing (and discussed a variety of topics): included C. S. Lewis and Charles Williams. First audience for The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, parts of the Silmarillion, among others.
Missed something?
• These online biographies may be of use:– http://www.tolkiensociety.org/author/biography/– http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/abouttolkien.htm– http://www.leaderu.com/humanities/wood-
biography.html (This one is the most detailed)
• The authorized biography by Humphrey Carpenter is on reserve in the library.
• If you are interested in learning more about how philology and folklore studies shaped Middle-earth, you might want to read The Road to Middle-earth, by T. A. Shippey. The library has a copy, call #PR6039.O32 Z824 1983