J.R.R. Tolkien’s process for Creating Middle-Earth and

Personal Fantasy World Setting Creation

By

John Merhar

Professor John Ronald Reuel Tolkienor

J.R.R.T.Table of Contents:

A The LadB The SoldierC The ProfessorD The AuthorE Middle-EarthF Personal Fantasy World Setting CreationG Q&A and commentaryH The EndI Sources of Information

AThe Young Lad

• Young Tolkien was born to Arthur and Mabel Tolkien in 1892.

• Tolkien’s middle name “Reuel” translates in Hebrew to “friend of God” or “God is his friend”.

• As a young reader Tolkien enjoyed reading books with such titles as: Alice in Wonderland, Treasure Island, and The Pipe Piper

B The Soldier

• While being a student at Oxford University he began drilling in the University Parks with the Officers’ Training Corps

• He enjoyed the combination of his drilling regimine and academics

• In 1915 graduated from Oxford with First Class Honors and afterwards he gained a commission as a second lieutenant in the Lancashire Fusiliers,13th Battalion of the British Army

• On Friday October 27, 1916 Tolkien became infected with “pyrexia of unknown origin”, which was commonly known amongst the soldiers as trench fever.

CThe Professor

• J.R.R. Tolkien became a professor of Anglo-Saxon in 1925 and attained the Bosworth and Rawlinson Professor in the autumn of that year

• In the Autumn of 1937 Professor Tolkien publishes The Hobbit, and then begins working on its sequal, “The Lord of the Rings”

The Author

• 1937 Publication of The Hobbit• 1949 Publication of Farmer Giles of Ham• 1954 Publication of first two volumes of Lord of the

Rings which are titled: The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers

• 1955 Publication of the third volume of the trilogy Lord of the Rings which is titled: The Return of the King

• 1967 Publication of Smith of Wootton Major

Middle-Earth• In my opinion, I think J.R.R.T. really had no

idea how vast and expansive his creation of Middle-Earth become after his publication of The Hobbit and his Trilogy of Lord of the Rings.

• Games: These publications have stimilated the generation of multitudes of games (RPGs, Live Action, M.M.O.s, PBMs, Board Games, Video Play Station, and many others).

• Writings: These publications have stimulated the generation of Setting Creations, Writings (of all varieties), the publication of multitudes of books.

Personal Fantasy World Setting Creation

• I read The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings when I was in 5th grade. Reading these books has helped me to have the ability to create over twenty Phantasy World Settings from scratch for Table Top Role-Playing Games that I have ran proceeding after 5th grade. Now, I am currently at work on a new Phantastical World Setting which I have named “The Idea Metaphorical.” Since beginning this Phantasy World Setting Creation, I have already published one short story which is set in the setting under creation which is titled, “The Demise of Harsh Harlan.”

Question, Answer, and Commentary

The End

Sources of Information

• The Hobbit and Lord of The Rings Trilogy By J.R.R. Tolkien

• J.R.R. Tolkien, Architect of Middle-Earth A Biography by Daniel Grotta-Kurska

• J.R.R. Tolkien, a biography by Humphrey Carpenter

• Personal reading, research, and endeaver