J.R.R. Tolkien

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As you know, J.R.R. Tolkien is a great man who wrote many great books. But most people don’t know the story behind the man who wrote these fantasies. He was (if you know enough about him) a hero.

He was born on January 3rd, 1892 in Bloemfontein, South Africa. He lived there for about two years, and then was forced to leave because of a sickness (nobody knows what). When he finally settled in to Birmingham he received a menacing letter stated that Mr. Tolkien (his dad) had died. After that letter, life for the Tolkien’s would never be the same. He then moved again, to Sarehole and, Mabel (Ronald’s mother) had become Catholic. Her relatives were in disgust, and stopped all funding for the Tolkien family. (This is because they were Protestant and hated Catholic.) Soon after that Ronald discovered his love of languages, and started to abandon his school work to learn them.

When he was eight or nine years old, he made a complete language that later in life would save soldiers. Soon after that Ronald’s mom was diagnosed with diabetes mellitus. A few months later she collapsed and went into a coma. On November 14th, 1904 her heart rate dropped down to zero and she died. After that period of time he felt a strong bond to Catholicism and to his languages. After the age of fourteen Ronald fluently knew ten languages and two (languages) he was still working on. He then earned a scholarship to King Edward’s School and then into Oxford. Ronald graduated with a doctorates’ degree in literature, English and his specialty Icelandic. Shortly after, he married his love of his life Edith. But there was no time for a honeymoon, because Ronald had decided to serve his country by joining the military, in World War I. Shortly after, Tolkien used his love of languages to become a language teacher and a tutor. Later he was so interested in fantasy and nature that he became an author.

As you can see, although Ronald had a hard early life he made the best out of it. (Ronald also had four children, John Francis Reuel Tolkien (17 November 1917 – 22 January 2003), Michael Hilary Reuel Tolkien (22 October 1920 – 27 February 1984), Christopher John Reuel Tolkien (born 21 November 1924) and Priscilla Mary Anne Reuel Tolkien (born 18 June 1929).)

So do you want to know more hardships that this man needed to overcome? Well that’s what this paragraph is about, J.R.R. Tolkien’s hardships. To begin with, when Ronald was three years old, his beloved father died in Africa. And then, when he was twelve and was almost over his father's death his mom became very sick and then died. Next Ronald and his younger brother moved to his aunt’s house. This was a bad experience because his aunt had actually burned many of Ronald’s items, including old letters from his mother. After he found this out, Ronald and his brother were moved into an orphanage. There he met a girl named Edith that he was forbidden to see. He had a crush on her, but it was no use. (Later Tolkien would marry Edith, right before going to war.)

Next Ronald flew to France to serve his country in World War I. Luckily he became ill with trench fever. I know that doesn’t sound good but if he didn’t become sick then he wouldn’t have been in the hospital, and if he wasn’t there he would be fighting in the war with his troop. And the day after he went into the hospital everyone in his troop were blown up. So I would rather be in a hospital than getting blown up, right? Another sad thing that happened is all of his school friends but one had been killed in the war. In conclusion, Ronald had to endure many hardships but in the end Ronald worked hard and finally had a pretty nice life.

I bet you are wondering what this J.R.R. Tolkien did anyway. Well if you take my word for it, he was the author of the book, “The Lord of the Rings, The Trilogy”. However, it wasn’t always that way. He actually started by writing books for college students, such as, “A Middle English Vocabulary”. Later, when he was more interested in fantasy he wrote the books, “The Book of Lost Tales”, The Hobbit”, and the, “Simmarion”, (that was never finished, though still published.) After he wrote these books he acquired many awards and recognition. These awards include the CBE (Commander of the Best Order in Britain) presented by the Queen of England, the New English Dictionary asked him to define a Hobbit, Oxford offered him an apartment and to be a professor for two different things (which in England was an honor). And Merton University offered him two servants that spoke fluent Welsh. In the end Ronald’s books were, and still are a success. And even though he had some problems along the way, that didn’t stop him from sharing his writing talent.

The last thing I want to talk about is Ronald’s traits. Since toddlerhood Ronald was an ecologist at heart. When he was small and lived in Africa he would run through the fields and swing on the trees. And Ronald just couldn’t get over how things lived in such harmony. Later when Ronald was writing, ”The Lord of the Rings”, the setting was in deep vegetation. This was because at the time his beautiful Sarehole (where he grew up) was getting cut down and made in to cities. Last is when Ronald died. His family and friends knew he loved nature so much, that in his grave and at Oxford they planted a tree in his honor.

Another trait that Ronald exhibits is a perfectionist. An example of this would be when Ronald’s publisher would just finish checking the book and then Ronald would say, “I want to make some changes”, he would change it, and change it, and then give it back to the publisher. It got so out of hand that the publishers started to charge him for every change he made. Another way that Ronald is a perfectionist is because of the book the Simmarrion. This book, he tried fifty years to finish and perfect it but he died before he could finish it. His son and many others tried to finish the book but it was no use it was too complicated for them. Third is when Ronald was remodeling the dictionary. The people before him took a year to get to E, but for Ronald he finished from E to Z in one year.

Ronald’s last trait is a loving father (husband). Every since his childhood he lacked the importance of father. So when he had the honor of becoming a dad, he knew that he needed to be what he dreamed his father would have been. An example is rather than eating lunch at Oxford, like he was supposed to, he ate at home instead. Another example of this is when Ronald tutored his students. He welcomed his students and said if you need any help I will tutor, but you will get tutored out of this building. He did this so he could spend more time with his family. The last reason why he is a great husband/ father is because his wife was ill and nearing death. She always wanted to live by the beach so he bought a house near the beach, and lived there until she died November 2nd, 1971. As you can see Ronald has many compassionate traits that made him a wonderful man.

“Through his writing, teaching, parenting, research, and language invention, Tolkien brought much grace into the world, a hobbitty kind of grace that only he could have provided,” as said by, Doris Lynch.