J. R. R.

TOLKIEN

The Hobbit

TOLKIEN…John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

born Jan. 3, 1892 of British parents in Bloemfontein, South Africa

CONT…Moved with mother Mabel at 3 to England (dad died when young)

1908-1915 studied English and English lit. at Oxford

Cont…1916 married Edith Bratt

Served in WWIWhen returned began The Silmarillion (pub. 1977)

1925 became Prof. @ Oxford (retired 1959)

With C.S. Lewis and other friends, Tolkien formed an informal literary group called The Inklings, which took shape in the 1930s

Chris Tolkien

Drew the original maps for J.R.R.’s Lord of the Rings

April 2007 published The Children of Húrin, a compilation of notes dating back from 1918 (a 30 year project)

Tolkien continued developing mythology and languages

according to his own account, one day when he was grading examination papers, he discovered that one candidate had left a page of an answer-book blank. On this page, moved by who knows what, he wrote “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.”

Originally written as a children’s story it was published as The Hobbit in 1937

soon developed into something much more: the highly complex 16-year history of what became The Lord of the Rings

The Lord of the Rings published in three parts during 1954 and 1955

Movie version out in 2001

November 22 1971 Edith died

J.R.R. died September 2 1973