JOHN RONALD REUEL TOLKIEN

Andreica Ariadna

WHAT IS FANTASY LITERATURE? Stories involving magic and terrible monsters

have existed in spoken forms before the advent of printed literature.

Fantasy literature, as a distinct type, emerged in Victorian times, with the works of writers such as William Morris and George MacDonald.

JOHN RONALD REUEL TOLKIEN

Tolkien in 1916

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.

GENERAL FACTS

o Tolkien was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II on 28 March 1972.

o Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein in South Africa

o At the age of 16, Tolkien met Edith Mary Bratt, who was three years older. They married in 1916,

WORK Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics The Silmarillion Children's books and other short works The Hobbit The Lord of the Rings

Posthumous publications The Silmarillion Unfinished Tales and The History of

Middle-earth The Children of Húrin The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún Mr. Bliss

Tolkien's monogram, and Estate trademark

20 Northmoor Road, the former home of J. R. R. Tolkien in North Oxford

BEOWULF: THE MONSTERS AND THE CRITICS

As well as his fiction, Tolkien was also a leading author of academic literary criticism. His seminal 1936 lecture revolutionized the treatment of the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf by literary critics. The essay remains highly influential in the study of Old English literature to this day. 

Beowulf is one of the most significant influences upon Tolkien's later fiction, with major details of both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings being adapted from the poem.

THE HOBBIT, OR THERE AND BACK AGAIN

Cover of the 1937 first edition, from a drawing made by Tolkien.

Tolkien never expected his stories to become popular, but by sheer accident  The Hobbit, which he had written some years before for his own children, came in 1936 to the attention of Susan Dagnall, an employee of the London publishing firm George Allen & Unwin, who persuaded Tolkien to submit it for publication.

 However, the book attracted adult readers as well as children, and it became popular enough for the publishers to ask Tolkien to produce a sequel.

The hobbit gained wide critical acclaim, being nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the New York Herald Tribune for best juvenile fiction.

THE SILMARILLION The Silmarillion is a collection of J. R. R. Tolkien's mythopoetic works, edited and published posthumously by his son Christopher Tolkien in 1977.

The Silmarillion comprises five parts. Ainulindalë, tells of the creation of Eä, the "world

that is".  Valaquenta, gives a description of

the Valar and Maiar, the supernatural powers in Eä.

Quenta Silmarillion,chronicles the history of the events before and during the First Age including the wars over the Silmarils which gave the book its title.

 Akallabêth, relates the history of the Downfall of Númenor and its people, which takes place in the Second Age.

 Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age, is a brief account of the circumstances which led to and were presented in The Lord of the Rings.

THE LORD OF THE RINGS  Tolkien spent more than ten years writing the primary narrative and appendices for The Lord of the Rings, during which time he received the constant support of his closest friend Lewis, the author of The Chronicles of Narnia. Both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are set against the background of The Silmarillion, but in a time long after it.

For publication, the book was divided into three volumes:

 The Fellowship of the Ring (Books I, The Ring Sets Out, and II, The Ring Goes South,) 

The Two Towers (Books III, The Treason of Isengard, and IV, The Ring Goes East,)

 The Return of the King (Books V, The War of the Ring, and VI, The End of the Third Age, plus six appendices)

The books were adapted 3 times

 The third adaptation was director Peter Jackson's produced by New Line Cinema and released in three parts.

Each film was nominated for and won multiple Academy Awards, including consecutive Best Picture nominations.

The final part of this trilogy was the second film to break the one-billion-dollar barrier and won a total of 11 Oscars.

MAIN CAST Aragorn Viggo Mortensen Frodo Baggins Elijah Wood Boromir Sean Bean Meriadoc Brandybuck Dominic

Monaghan Samwise Gamgee Sean Astin Gandalf Ian McKellen Gimli John Rhys-Davies Legolas Orlando Bloom Peregrin Took Billy Boyd