Father of Modern Fantasy

Bio / Childhood 1892-1973 John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (His surname

means, “oxymoron” / came from an East Prussia village)

Born in South Africa, but raised in England Dad died when he was 1 / Mom died when he

was 12 As a child he was bitten by a large, baboon

spider Kidnapped as a child, because he was a

“beautiful baby” In school, he was good at drawing and writing

Marriage

Wanted to court Edith Mary Bratt, but could not because of religious differences

At the age of 21, when he could convert religions, he did so, and decided to contact EMB

EMB was already engaged to be married, but decided to meet Tolkien anyway

That night, when they met under the bridge, they decided to get married

What a Good Dad

With EMB, he had four children, two of which are still alive

When they were kids, every Christmas, Tolkien would write letters from Father Christmas, and each year, would get more detailed and introduce new characters

Love of Language In college, he studied languages: Greek,

Anglo-Saxon, Oxford, Finnish He worked for the Oxford English

dictionary He translated Beowulf from its original

text, and could even read it aloud. When he died, they found at least 2,000 pages of research on Beowulf

It is thought that Tolkien used his knowledge of the Finnish language to invent, Quenya, the Elvish language used in the LOTR books

WWI / WWII Did not want to enlist,

but due to the draft was forced to go to war (WWI)

He sent letters to his wife, and very romantically, had a secret code for tracking his whereabouts

While in WWI, he contracted “trench fever”, and was released to go home

In WWII, he was enlisted, but this time as a codebreaker

The Inklings Met with several authors,

including C.S. Lewis, the author of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe

The authors usually met at a pub, and drank heavily as they discussed different ideas for their stories

At the pub pictured to the right, called by its patrons as “The Bird”, has a reserved sign in honor of The Inklings’ meeting ground

Death Died 21 months

after his wife, due to old age

#6 on the highest paid writers list

#5 on the highest paid dead writers list

On his wife’s tombstone is “Luthien”, on his tombstone is “Beren”