j.r.r. tolkien
DESCRIPTION
Father of Modern Fantasy. J.R.R. Tolkien. 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 - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
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”