Who is J.R.R. Tolkien

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE (See J. R. R. Tolkien's own phonetic transcription published on the illustration in The Return of the Shadow: The History of The Lord of the Rings, Part One. by Christopher Tolkien. London: Unwin Hyman, August 1988. (The History of Middle-earth; 6) ISBN 0-04-440162-0. The position of the stress is not entirely fixed: stress on the second syllable (tol rather than kien) has been used by some members of the Tolkien family.; in General American also Wells, John. 1990. Longman pronunciation dictionary. Harlow: Longman, ISBN 0582053838. This pronunciation no doubt arose because many General American speakers lack vowels of the ? and ?? types, thus this becomes the closest approximation to the RP pronunciation possible in their phonologies.) (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.

Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford from 1925 to 1945, and Merton Professor of English Language and Literature from 1945 to 1959.Biography, page 111, 200, 266. He was a close friend of C. S. Lewis?they were both members of the informal literary discussion group known as the Inklings. Tolkien was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II on 28 March 1972.

After his death, Tolkien's son, Christopher, published a series of works based on his father's extensive notes and unpublished manuscripts, including The Silmarillion. These, together with The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, form a connected body of tales, poems, fictional histories, invented languages, and literary essays about an imagined world called Arda, and Middle-earthMiddle-earth" is derived from an Anglicized form of Old Norse Miðgarðr, the land inhabited by humans in Norse mythology within it. Between 1951 and 1955 Tolkien applied the word legendarium to the larger part of these writings.Letters, nos. 131, 153, 154, 163.

While many other authors had published works of fantasy before Tolkien, The author emphasizes the impact of not only Tolkien but also of William Morris, George MacDonald, Robert E. Howard and E. R. Eddison. the great success of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings when they were published in paperback in the United States led directly to a popular resurgence of the genre. This has caused Tolkien to be popularly identified as the "father" of modern fantasy literature?or more precisely, high fantasy. Tolkien's writings have inspired many other works of fantasy and have had a lasting effect on the entire field. In 2008, The Times ranked him sixth on a list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".(5 January 2008). The 50 greatest British writers since 1945. The Times. Retrieved on 2008-04-17.

The Hobbit, or There and Back Again is a fantasy novel and children's book by J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in a time "Between the Dawn of Færie and the Dominion of Men", The Hobbit follows the quest of home-loving Bilbo Baggins to win a share of the treasure guarded by the dragon, Smaug. It was published on September 21, 1937 to wide critical acclaim, being nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the New York Herald Tribune for best juvenile fiction. The book remains popular and is recognized as a classic children's book.

Bilbo's journey takes him from light-hearted, rural surroundings into darker, deeper territory. The story is told in the form of an episodic quest, and most chapters introduce a specific creature, or type of creature, of Tolkien's Wilderland. By accepting the disreputable, romantic, fey and adventurous side of his nature (the "Tookish" side) and applying his wits and common sense, Bilbo develops a new level of maturity, competence and wisdom.

The final chapters deal with the climactic Battle of Five Armies, where many of the characters and creatures from earlier chapters re-emerge to engage in conflict. Critics have cited Tolkien's own experiences and the themes of other writers who fought in World War I, along with the author's professional knowledge of Anglo-Saxon literature and personal interest in fairy tales, as the chief influences.

Due to the book's critical and financial success, Tolkien's publishers requested a sequel. As work on the The Lord of the Rings progressed, Tolkien made retrospective accommodations for it in one chapter of The Hobbit. These few but significant changes were integrated into the second edition. Further editions followed with minor emendations, including those reflecting Tolkien's changing concept of the world into which Bilbo stumbled.

The work has never been out of print since the paper shortages of the Second World War. Its ongoing legacy encompasses many adaptations for stage, screen, radio, and gaming, both board and video games. Some of these adaptations have received critical recognition of their own, including a video game that won the Golden Joystick Award, a scenario of a war game that won an Origins Award, and an animated picture nominated for a Hugo Award.

Bilbo Baggins is the protagonist of The Hobbit and also makes a few appearances in The Lord of the Rings, two of the most well-known of J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy writings. The story of The Hobbit featuring Bilbo is also retold from a different perspective in the Chapter The Quest of Erebor in Unfinished Tales.

In Tolkien's narrative conceit, in which all the writings of Middle-earth are 'really' translations from the fictitious volume of The Red Book of Westmarch, Bilbo is the author of The Hobbit and translator of The Silmarillion.

Smaug is a fictional character in The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien. He is a dragon, and the main antagonist within the story.

The Lord of the Rings is an epic high fantasy novel written by philologist and Oxford University professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit (1937), but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in stages between 1937 and 1949, much of it during World War II. Although generally known to readers as a trilogy, the work was initially intended by Tolkien to be one volume of a two-volume set along with The Silmarillion; however, the publisher decided to omit the second volume and instead published The Lord of the Rings in 1954-55 as three books rather than one, for economic reasons. It has since been reprinted numerous times and translated into many languages, becoming one of the most popular and influential works in 20th-century literature.

The title of the book refers to the story's main antagonist, the Dark Lord Sauron, who had in an earlier age created the One Ring to rule the other Rings of Power, as the ultimate weapon in his campaign to conquer and rule all of Middle-earth. From quiet beginnings in the Shire, a hobbit land not unlike the English countryside, the story ranges across Middle-earth following the course of the War of the Ring through the eyes of its characters, most notably the hobbits, Frodo Baggins, Samwise Gamgee (Sam), Meriadoc Brandybuck (Merry) and Peregrin Took (Pippin).

Along with some of Tolkien's other works, The Lord of the Rings has been subjected to extensive analysis of its themes and origins. Although a major work in itself, the story was only the last movement of a larger work Tolkien had worked on since 1917, in a process he described as mythopoeia. Influences on this earlier work, and on the story of The Lord of the Rings, include philology, mythology, religion and the author's distaste for the effects of industrialization, as well as earlier fantasy works and Tolkien's experiences in World War I. The Lord of the Rings in its turn is considered to have had a great effect on modern fantasy; the impact of Tolkien's works is such that the use of the words "Tolkienian" and "Tolkienesque" has been recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary.

The enduring popularity of The Lord of the Rings has led to numerous references in popular culture, the founding of many societies by fans of Tolkien's works, and the publication of many books about Tolkien and his works. The Lord of the Rings has inspired, and continues to inspire, artwork, music, films and television, video games, and subsequent literature. Award-winning adaptations of The Lord of the Rings have been made for radio, theatre, and film.

Gandalf is a fictional character with major roles in J. R. R. Tolkien's novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. In these stories, Gandalf appears as a wizard, member and later the head (after Saruman's betrayal and fall) of the order known as the Istari, as well as leader of the Fellowship of the Ring and the army of the West. In The Lord of the Rings, he is initially known as Gandalf the Grey, but after assuming leadership of the Istari, he becomes known as Gandalf the White.

Middle-earth is a fictional place which is the setting for most of the stories of author J. R. R. Tolkien. These stories include The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien's stories chronicle the struggle to control the world (called Arda) and the continent of Middle-earth, between the angelic Valar, the Elves and their allies among Men; and the demonic Melkor or Morgoth (a Vala fallen into evil) and his minions, mostly Orcs, Dragons and enslaved men. In later ages, after Morgoth's defeat and expulsion from Arda, his role is continued by his acolyte Sauron. The Valar withdrew from direct involvement in the affairs of Middle-earth after the defeat of Morgoth, but in later years they sent the wizards or Istari to help in the struggle against Sauron. The most important of these were Gandalf the Grey and Saruman the White. Gandalf remained true to his mission and proved crucial in the fight for Sauron's destruction. Saruman however, became corrupted, and sought to establish himself as a rival to Sauron for absolute power in Middle-earth. Other races involved in the struggle against evil are Dwarves, Ents and most famously Hobbits. The early stages of the conflict are chronicled in Tolkien's work The Silmarillion, while the final stages of the struggle to defeat Sauron are dealt with in his works The Hobbit and the main text of The Lord of the Rings.

A recurring theme in the stories is that the focus of conflict is on the possession and control of precious or magical objects. The First Age of Middle-earth is dominated by the doomed quest of the Elf Fëanor and most of his Noldor clan to recover the three precious jewels called the Silmarils (hence the name Silmarillion), stolen from them by Morgoth. The Second and Third Age are both dominated by the forging of the Rings of Power, and in particular by the fate of the One Ring forged by Sauron, which grants its wearer the power to control or influence all those wearing the other Rings of Power (hence the name The Lord of the Rings).

Tolkien prepared several maps of Middle-earth and the regions of Middle-earth in which his stories took place. Some were published in his lifetime, though some of the earliest maps were not published until after his death. The main maps were those published in The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion. Most of the events of the First Age took place in the subcontinent Beleriand (left), which was later subsumed by the ocean at the end of the First Age; the Blue Mountains at the right edge of the map of Beleriand, are the same Blue Mountains that appear on the extreme left of the map of Middle-earth described in the Second and Third Ages (right). Tolkien's map of Middle-earth however only shows a small part of the world; most of the vast lands of Rhûn and Harad are not shown on the map, and there are also other continents altogether.

Tolkien said that his Middle-earth is located on our Earth, but in a fictional period in the past, estimating the end of the Third Age to about 6,000 years before his own time.(Letters, no. 211, footnote) He was later to reject this notion, and state that Middle-earth was not at a physically distant time, but rather "at a different stage of imagination".Gerrolt, Dennis Now Read On... interview''BBC, 1971 [http://www.geocities.com/misctolkien/tolkienradiointerview1971.ra]