A Note from the Webmistress: This is a report that my friend did on J.R.R. Tolkien for school, and she has given me permission to use it. I hope you enjoy it!

The Life of J. R. R. Tolkien

Arthur Reuel Tolkien was born in 1857.  Mabel Suffield was born in 1870.  These were the parents of the famous author J. R. R. Tolkien.  The couple was married on April 16, 1891 in the Cape Town Cathedral.  John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born on January 3, 1892 in Bloemfontein, South Africa.   On February 17, 1894, Mabel gave birth to another son.  They named him Hilary Arthur Reuel Tolkien.

Mabel and the boys set sail from South Africa to England at the beginning of April 1895.  They stayed there through the spring and summer months.  Then came the bad news that Arthur had caught rheumatic fever in November of 1895.  When January arrived, Arthur was still in bad condition.  So Mabel decided to go back to take care of him until he was well again.  All the arrangements were made, but a few days before Mabel was going to leave, a telegram arrived saying that Arthur had suffered a severe hemorrhage and Mabel should expect the worst.  The next day, Arthur was dead.

Tolkien developed a love for languages at a young age.  His mother taught him Latin and he absolutely loved it.  She tried to teach him how to play the piano, but to no success.  He also liked drawing, especially landscapes and trees.

Tolkien entered King Edward’s School in September of 1900.  Mabel found the Birmingham Oratory, which she liked.  Not only was this a church, it also had a school.  It had lower fees than King Edward’s and she found a house next door.  So in early 1902, she moved the boys from King Edward’s to St. Philip’s.  St. Philip’s academic standards were lower than King Edward’s.  All too soon Tolkien had out paced his classmates.  So she removed him and a few months later he won a Foundation Scholarship to King Edward’s and returned there in the fall of 1903.  Not long after the move, they met Father Francis Xavier Morgan, who was not only sympathetic to them, but he also became a great friend.

By April of 1904, Mabel was in the hospital with diabetes.  Their home was closed and the boys were sent to live with relatives.  By the summer, she had healed enough to leave the hospital.  In late June of 1904, Mabel and the boys moved to the country and stayed there the rest of the summer.  Mabel’s condition had been slowly deteriorating all this time and at the beginning of November, she collapsed into a diabetic coma.  Six days later on November 14, 1904, she died with her sister and Father Francis by her side.  Mabel Suffield Tolkien was buried in a Catholic churchyard at Bromsgrove.  In her will, she had appointed Father Francis to be the guardian of the boys.

Tolkien started doing a lot with Latin and Greek; taking on philology and a study of classical linguistics.  He also got interested in Middle English, Old Norse, and Welsh.  His fascination with all of these languages brought him to eventually creating his own.

Father Francis moved the boys to a place right behind the Oratory where a nice lady, Mrs. Faulkner, agreed to take them in.  In early 1908, the boys moved in.  Tolkien was now 16 and Hilary 14.  The other resident staying at Mrs. Faulkner’s was 19 and spent most of her time on a sewing machine in her room.  Her name was Edith Bratt.

She was pretty, small, and slim with grey eyes and short dark hair.  She was born on January 21, 1889 in Gloucester.  Both her parents had died.  When Tolkien and Hilary arrived, she struck up a friendship with Tolkien.  They were both orphans who needed a friend and someone to love.  During the summer of 1909, they decided they were in love.

Tolkien, at the time, was supposed to be working for an Oxford scholarship, but he found it hard to concentrate when half his mind was on languages and the other half was on Edith.  The two would meet secretly, leaving the house at different times, meeting together for tea, and then come back separately.  These meetings eventually got back around to Father Francis.  He told Tolkien the love affair would have to stop.  So to help Tolkien get his mind back on the scholarship, he moved the boys to different lodgings.  In the middle of all this, Tolkien had to go take his scholarship exam for Oxford.  He did not receive the scholarship, which disappointed him greatly.

Not long after, Edith decided to move to Cheltenham, where she would stay with some friends.  Once again though, they had been seen together and Father Francis absolutely forbid Tolkien to see Edith.  He could only see her one more time and that was to say good-bye when she left for Cheltenham.  After that he was not allowed to communicate with her until he was 21.  Tolkien and Edith arranged to meet when she would leave for Cheltenham.  Unfortunately, he was seen with her yet again.  When Father Francis heard about the incident he was furious and threatened to cut Tolkien’s Oxford career short if he did not stop seeing her.  In the end, he honored his guardian’s request.  At Easter, Tolkien was so depressed from not being able to communicate with Edith, that he asked his Guardian if he could write her.  Father Francis agreed, but grudgingly.  Edith wrote back and said she was enjoying herself and she was happy.

In December of 1910, he set off to take his scholarship exam.  This time around he was successful and on December 17, 1910, he learned he had been awarded an Open Classical Exhibition to Exeter College, one of the many colleges extended from Oxford.

He could now breath easier with that done, but he still had plenty of work to do for his final exams at King Edward’s.  The summer term of 1911 was his last at King Edward’s.  Tolkien said years later that he “felt like a young sparrow kicked out of a high nest.”[1]

In the summer that followed, Tolkien and Hilary took a vacation to Switzerland.  Most of which was spent hiking in the back country off the roads.  On his journey, he bought a postcard that had an old man sitting on a rock under a pine tree.  He had a white beard and a large hat.  He held his hand out so a fawn could nuzzle it.  His expression was humorous, but compassionate.  Tolkien kept this postcard and many years later he wrote on the paper he kept with it: “Origin of Gandalf.”[2]

When he returned to school in the fall of 1911, he decided he would start a club.  It was called the “Apolausticks.”  They wrote papers, had discussions and debates, and large extravagant dinners.  He was happiest when he was with his club.  With all this he did not really get a whole lot done, but there was one subject that did interest Tolkien: Comparative Philology.  This was taught by Joseph Wright.

Joseph Wright was a very accomplished professor.  He had studied Sanskrit, Gothic, Old Bulgarian, Lithuanian, Russian, Old Norse, Old Saxon, Old and Middle High German, and Old English.  He also spoke French and German.  He was appointed Deputy Professor of Comparative Philology at Oxford.  Tolkien came to Wright in 1912 as a pupil.

In the summer of 1912, Tolkien discovered Finnish.  He found a Finnish grammar book in the library.  He abandoned neo-Gothic and began creating a private language that was heavily influenced by Finnish.  This language would eventually emerge in his stories as “Quenya” or High-elven.

Tolkien would be turning 21 soon.  He would then be free to marry Edith.  He had now waited three years to see or communicate with Edith.  When the clock struck midnight on January 3, 1913, he wrote Edith and asked for her hand in marriage.  When Edith wrote back, she said she was engaged to George Field.  When Tolkien heard this he decided to go to Cheltenham and see Edith for himself.  Five days later, Tolkien traveled by train and was met on the platform by Edith.  They spent the whole day talking and by the end of the day, Edith had declared she would marry Tolkien.

She wrote George and gave him back his ring.  He was very upset, as well as his family.  Edith and Tolkien did not announce their engagement right away, because they were nervous of family reactions.  Tolkien returned to the next school term bursting with happiness.

One of the first things he did when he returned to Oxford was write Father Francis and let him know they intended to marry.  Tolkien was very nervous about it, but Father Francis’s reply was calm and resigned.  Although Father Francis was no longer Tolkien’s legal guardian, he still helped him financially.

Now that he had reunited with Edith, he had to put his full attention on Honor Moderations.  The classes awarded are from First to Fourth.[3]  This was one of two exams that would get Tolkien his degree in Classics.  In the end, he managed to achieve a Second Class.  He knew he could have done better.  He did achieve a “pure alpha,” in Comparative Philology.  Dr. Farnell, the Rector of Exeter College, suggested that Tolkien change to English.  He agreed and at the start of the summer term of 1913, he abandoned Classics and began English.

In the months following Tolkien and Edith’s engagement, the subject of religion came up.  If they wanted their marriage to be blessed by the Catholic Church, Edith would have to become Catholic.  There was only one small problem:  her family.  She was hesitant about telling them and wanted to wait until the time when they were closer to being married.  Tolkien would have none of it and wanted Edith to act quickly.  He absolutely despised the Church of England.  She gave in to what Tolkien wanted and everyone reacted as she had feared: enraged.  The family she was staying with ordered her out of the house as soon as she found somewhere else to live.  On January 8, 1914, Edith was received into the Roman Catholic Church.  Soon after Edith and Tolkien were officially betrothed in the church by Father Murphy.

After visiting Edith in the summer of 1914, Tolkien visited his Aunt Jane and brother Hilary for a few days.  While there, he wrote a poem.  The title was “Voyage of Earendel the Evening Star.”  This poem was the beginning of Tolkien’s mythology of Middle-Earth.

Right in the middle of his visit, World War I began.  Men in the thousands were answering the call of duty.  Although Tolkien wanted to help defend his country, he also wanted to finish school.  He decided to stay, finish up school, and then go to war.  In June 1915, he was awarded a First Class Honors Degree.  Also in June, a telegram had arrived telling him to go to Folkstone in preparation of sailing to France.  Tolkien and Edith were married on March 22, 1916 at the Catholic Church of St. Mary Immaculate in Warwick.  Two months later he got his orders and was shipped off to France.

Tolkien was commissioned as a second lieutenant.  The men were not permitted to make friends, but Tolkien did get to know a few of the batmen[4]. Tolkien became very fond of them and respected them.  They would later become the cornerstone of the character “Sam Gamgee” in the Lord of the Rings.

After three weeks, Tolkien’s battalion set out for the Somme.  The Battle of the Somme lasted from July 1 to November 13, 1916.  On the first day, 20,000 British troops were killed and 40,000 were wounded.  At the end of three and a half months, the Allied forces had barely gained five miles.  Men were coming back from the front lines mutilated; reserves were formed to dig graves.

On Friday October 27, “Trench Fever” struck Tolkien.  He was transported to a hospital a short distance away.  He was then sent to England.  As soon as he arrived, he was transported to a hospital in Birmingham.  He was then reunited with Edith.

By January, Edith was pregnant.  At the end of February, Tolkien had a relapse that lasted three weeks.  When he was well enough to travel again, he was posted to a camp in Yorkshire. The pattern of recovery and relapse continued throughout the spring and summer, which prevented him from being shipped back to France.  In the meantime, Edith was getting bigger.  On November 16, 1917, she gave birth to her first child, whom she and Tolkien named John Francis Reuel Tolkien.

Tolkien spent much of his time working on his mythology.  Edith and Tolkien would take walks in the woods.  Edith would sing and dance, which gave Tolkien the basis for his story, “Of Beren and Luthien.”  This story would later appear in The Silmarillion.

World War I ended on November 11,1918.  By this time, all the men that had been in Tolkien’s battalion were either killed or taken as prisoners of war.  The overall death rate of the British Forces was 10%.

Tolkien was able to find a job as an assistant lexicographer to help with the New English Dictionary.  In November of 1918, Tolkien moved the family only a short way from the dictionary offices.  By the end of 1919, Edith was pregnant again.  Tolkien applied for the post of Reader in English Language at the University of Leeds.  He got the job, so they had to move yet again.  Right after the start of Leeds term in October of 1920, Edith gave birth to another son, who was named Michael Hilary Reuel Tolkien.

At the beginning of 1924, Edith was pregnant again.  She had hoped it would be a girl, but in November of 1924, she gave birth to another son.  They named him Christopher Reuel Tolkien.

Early in 1925, word spread that the professorship of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford would soon be open.  Tolkien got the job and the family left Leeds and moved to Oxford at the beginning of 1926.  Also during the year of 1926, Tolkien formed a club for the professors at Oxford.  It became known as the “Inklings.”  It was during one of these meetings on May 11, 1926, that Tolkien met C. S. Lewis and they became great friends.  Their friendship lasted until 1963, when Lewis died.  Tolkien was deeply saddened by his friend’s death, because he greatly valued his friendship, opinions, and suggestions.  In 1929, the Tolkiens had the fourth and final child and to Edith’s delight, it was a girl.  They named her Priscilla Mary Reuel Tolkien.

  Tolkien finished his first book and called it The Hobbit.  It was published on September 21, 1937.  He won a major literary prize for it in 1938 and was paid fifty pounds for it as an award.  The first edition of The Hobbit was sold out by Christmas.  With the book being such a big hit, people wanted more.  So he sent some more stories for children: Farmer Giles of Ham, Miss Bliss, and The Silmarillion[5].  The publishers did not want these stories, because the public wanted stories about hobbits.  Tolkien decided he would write about a relative of Bilbo and called him Bingo.  Tolkien got tired of the name and changed it to Frodo. The Hobbit was reprinted and Farmer Giles of Ham was finally accepted for publication.  By now, Tolkien had thought of a title for his book.  He would call it The Lord of the Rings.

The Lord of the Rings was finished.  It had taken him twelve years to write.  In September of 1952, Tolkien met his publisher at the Oxford University so he could read Tolkien’s work.  He liked it, and they set a date for The Fellowship of the Ring to be published in the summer of 1954.  The Two Towers and The Return of the King were to follow soon afterwards.

In 1963, Tolkien was made an Honorary Fellow of Exeter College, and Merton College made him an Emeritus Fellow.  In 1966, Tolkien and Edith celebrated their 50^th wedding anniversary.  Tolkien was still working on The Silmarillion, which he was determined to get published.

By now, Edith had developed painful arthritis.  She was also sick much of the time.  The Tolkiens decided to move to Bournemouth.  Edith’s health was slowly deteriorating.  It was the middle of November when Edith had an inflamed gallbladder.  Not long after, she was in the hospital.  She fought hard, but she was weak.  Edith Tolkien died, November 29, 1971.

In early March of 1972, Tolkien moved back to Oxford.  Also in 1972, he celebrated his 80^th birthday.  At this time, he realized he would never be able to finish The Silmarillion, so he turned the project over to his son, Christopher.  Tolkien received the Commander of Order of the British Empire from the Queen at Buckingham Palace.

He took a trip back to Bournemouth to visit some old friends.  During the night, he complained of increasing pain.  The next morning he was taken to a private hospital, where the doctors diagnosed a bleeding gastric ulcer.  Michael and Christopher were out of the country, but John and Priscilla rushed down to see their father for the last time. On Sunday morning, September 2, 1973, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien died at the age of 81.

In conclusion of this report, I hope the reader enjoyed learning a little bit about this great author as much as I did.  Not only was this man an excellent writer, he was an extraordinary person whose life and achievements will not soon be forgotten.  His memory will live on in history, as the man who changed people perspective on writing for generations to come.

Books Authored By J. R. R. Tolkien

I have included some of his works he wrote as well as others that were published after his death.  I did not include the poems or essays he wrote, as they are too numerous to list here.

1937    The Hobbit: Or, There and Back Again.

1949    Farmer Giles of Ham.

1954    The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of the Lord of the Rings.

1954    The Two Towers: Being the Second Part of the Lord of the Rings.

1955    The Return of the King: Being the Third Part of the Lord of the Rings.

1964    Tree and Leaf.

1966    The Tolkien Reader.

1967    Smith of Wooton Major.

1976    The Father Christmas Letters.  Edited by Baillie Tolkien

1977    The Silmarillion.  Edited by Christopher Tolkien

1980   Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-earth.  Edited by Christopher Tolkien

1983    The Book of Lost Tales, Part I.  Edited by Christopher Tolkien

1984   The Book of Lost Tales, Part II.  Edited by Christopher Tolkien

1985    The Lays of Beleriand.  Edited by Christopher Tolkien

1986    The Shaping of Middle-earth.  Edited by Christopher Tolkien

1987    The Lost Road and Other Writings.  Edited by Christopher Tolkien

1988   The Return of the Shadow.  Edited by Christopher Tolkien

1989    The Treason of Isengard.  Edited by Christopher Tolken

1990   The War of the Ring.  Edited by Christopher Tolkien

1992    Sauron Defeated.  Edited by Christopher Tolkien

1993    Morgoth’s Ring.  Edited by Christopher Tolkien

1994    The War of the Jewels.  Edited by Christopher Tolkien

1996    The Peoples of Middle-earth.  Edited by Christopher Tolkien

1998              Roverandom.  Edited by Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond