John Ronald Reuel Tolkien
(born Jan. 3, 1892, Bloemfontein, S.Af. ~ died Sept. 2, 1973,
Bournemouth, Hampshire, Eng.)
South African-born English novelist and
scholar. A professor of Anglo-Saxon and of English language and
literature at Oxford (1925-59), Tolkien achieved fame for his heroic epic
The Lord of the Rings (1954-55), consisting of The Fellowship of the Ring (film, 2001), The Two Towers (film, 2002), and The Return of the King (film, 2003). The Hobbit (1937-film 2013) serves as an introduction to the series, The Silmarillion (1977) and The Children of Hrin
(2007) as prequels. Set in the mythical past, the richly inventive tale
chronicles the struggle between good and evil kingdoms to possess a
magic ring that controls the balance of power in the world. In the 1960s
its popularity with young people made it a sociocultural phenomenon,
and the release of a series of critically acclaimed films commencing in 2001
renewed interest in the epic.
1892 Christmas card with a coloured photo of the Tolkien family in Bloemfontein, sent to relatives in Birmingham, England (Right)
Religion
Tolkien's devout Catholic faith was a significant factor in the conversion of C. S. Lewis from atheism to Christianity, although Tolkien was dismayed that Lewis chose to join the Church of England. In the last years of his life, Tolkien became greatly disappointed by
some of the liturgical reforms and changes implemented after the Second Vatican Council, as his grandson Simon Tolkien recalls:
I vividly remember going to church with him in Bournemouth. He was a devout Roman Catholic and it was soon after the Church had changed the liturgy
from Latin to English. My grandfather obviously didn't agree with this
and made all the responses very loudly in Latin while the rest of the
congregation answered in English. I found the whole experience quite
excruciating, but my grandfather was oblivious. He simply had to do what
he believed to be right.
Opposition to National Socialism
Tolkien vocally opposed Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party prior to the Second World War, and was known to especially despise Nazi racist and anti-Semitic ideology. In 1938, the publishing house Rütten & Loening Verlag was preparing to release The Hobbit in Nazi Germany. To Tolkien's outrage, he was asked beforehand whether he was of Aryan origin. In a letter to his British publisher Stanley Unwin, he condemned Nazi "race-doctrine" as "wholly pernicious and unscientific". He added that he had many Jewish friends and was considering "letting a German translation go hang".
He provided two letters to Rütten & Loening and instructed Unwin to
send whichever he preferred. The more tactful letter was sent and was
lost during the later bombing of Germany. In the unsent letter, Tolkien
makes the point that "Aryan" is a linguistic term, denoting speakers of Indo-Iranian languages. He continued,
But if I am to understand that you are enquiring whether I am of Jewish origin, I can only reply that I regret that I appear to have no
ancestors of that gifted people. My great-great-grandfather came to
England in the 18th century from Germany: the main part of my descent is
therefore purely English, and I am an English subject—which should be
sufficient. I have been accustomed, nonetheless, to regard my German
name with pride, and continued to do so throughout the period of the
late regrettable war, in which I served in the English army. I cannot,
however, forbear to comment that if impertinent and irrelevant inquiries
of this sort are to become the rule in matters of literature, then the
time is not far distant when a German name will no longer be a source of
pride.
In a 1941 letter to his son Michael, he expressed his resentment at the distortion of Germanic history in "Nordicism":
You have to understand the good in things, to detect the real evil.
But no one ever calls on me to 'broadcast' or do a postscript. Yet I
suppose I know better than most what is the truth about this 'Nordic'
nonsense. Anyway, I have in this war a burning private grudge... against
that ruddy little ignoramus Adolf Hitler ... Ruining, perverting,
misapplying, and making for ever accursed, that noble northern spirit, a
supreme contribution to Europe, which I have ever loved, and tried to
present in its true light. Nowhere, incidentally, was it nobler than in
England, nor more early sanctified and Christianized.
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (1937)
The Lord Of The Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (1954-55)
Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien (1977)
Unfinished Tales: The Lost Lore of Middle-earth by J.R.R. Tolkien (Aug 12, 1988)
The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien by J. R. R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien and Humphrey Carpenter (Jun 2000)
Letters From Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien (Nov 15, 2004)
The Children of Húrin (Pre-Lord Of The Rings) by J. R. R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien and Alan Lee (May 25, 2010)
Bilbo's Last Song: At the Grey Havens by J.R.R. Tolkien and Pauline Baynes (Oct 23, 2012)
The Fall of Arthur by J.R.R. Tolkien and Christopher Tolkien (May 23, 2013)
Movies: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The Hunt for Gollum, The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, The Hobbit: There and Back Again, The Return of the King, Rings, Kings and Things: The Standard Deviants
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| Tolkien's monogram and the Tolkien Estate Trademark | |
Awards: Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel, Prometheus Hall of Fame Award, Nebula Award for Best Script, Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form, Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, Gandalf Grand Master Award, International Fantasy Award for Fiction, Gandalf Award for Book-Length Fantasy
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Runes and the English letter values assigned to them by Tolkien, used in several of his original illustrations and designs for The Hobbit. |
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