

Tolkien was born on January 3, 1892, in Bloemfontein in the Orange Free State The surname Rashbold of two characters in The Notion Club Papers is a pun on this. German tollkühn, "foolhardy", literally "insane(ly)-brave", the etymological English translation would be dull-keen, a literal translation of oxymoron). The surname Tolkien is anglicized from Tollkiehn (i.e. The Tolkien family had its roots in Saxony (Germany) but had been living in England since the eighteenth century, becoming "quickly and intensely English (not British)". The significance of his literary oeuvre has generated decades of "Tolkien scholarship" and research across the Western world, and a considerable resulting output of secondary literature by many scholars and enthusiasts.Īs far as is known, most of Tolkien's paternal ancestors were craftsmen.

Tolkien's other published fiction includes stories for children, not connected to his legendarium. The enduring popularity and influence of Tolkien's works have established him as the "father of the modern fantasy genre". Most of these works were compiled from Tolkien's notes by his son Christopher Tolkien. In addition to The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, within his lifetime, Tolkien's published fiction includes The Silmarillion and other posthumously published books about what he called a legendarium, a fictional mythology of the remote past of Earth, called Arda, and Middle-earth (from middangeard, the lands inhabitable by Men) in particular. Lewis, with whom he shared membership in the literary discussion group The Inklings. He was a strongly committed Roman Catholic. Among many academic positions, he was professor of Anglo-Saxon language at the University of Oxford from 1925 to 1945, and of English studies (English language and literature), also at Oxford, from 1945 to 1959. Januin South Africa – died Septemin England) is best known as the author of The Hobbit and its sequel The Lord of the Rings. John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (called Ronald for short b.
