View source for J. R. R. Tolkien

{{Short description|English writer and philologist (1892–1973)}}
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{{Infobox writer
| name             = J. R. R. Tolkien
| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CBE|FRSL}}
| image            = J.R.R. Tolkien in the 1940s.jpg
| caption          = Tolkien in the 1920s
| birth_name       = John Ronald Reuel Tolkien
| birth_date       = {{Birth date|df=yes|1892|1|3}}
| birth_place      = [[Bloemfontein]], [[Orange Free State]] (now [[South Africa]])
| death_date       = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1973|9|2|1892|1|3}}
| death_place      = [[Bournemouth]] (then in Hampshire),<!-- Bournemouth was in Hampshire until 1974 --> England
| occupation       = {{hlist|Author|academic|[[philology|philologist]]|poet}}
| citizenship      = British <!--not South African as might be inferred from birth_place, per [[MOS:INFONAT-->
| genre            = {{cslist|Fantasy|[[high fantasy]]|[[mythopoeia]]|translation|[[literary criticism]]}}
| spouse           = {{marriage|[[Edith Tolkien|Edith Bratt]]|22 March 1916|29 November 1971|end=died}}
| children         = {{hlist
| [[John Tolkien (priest)|John]]
| [[Michael Tolkien|Michael]]
| [[Christopher Tolkien|Christopher]]
| [[Priscilla Reuel Tolkien|Priscilla]]
}}
| module           = {{Infobox military person
| embed         = yes
| allegiance    = [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|United Kingdom]]
| branch_label  = Branch
| branch        = [[British Army]]
| serviceyears_label = Years
| serviceyears  = 1915–1920
| rank          = [[Lieutenant (British Army and Royal Marines)|Lieutenant]]
| unit          = [[Lancashire Fusiliers]]
| battles_label = Battles
| battles       = {{tree list}}
* World War I
** [[Battle of the Somme]]
** [[Capture of Schwaben Redoubt]]
** [[Leipzig Salient|Capture of Leipzig Salient]]
** [[Capture of Regina Trench]]
{{tree list/end}}
}}
| signature        = JRR Tolkien signature - from Commons.svg
| relatives        = [[Tolkien family]]
| education        = [[King Edward's School, Birmingham]]<br />[[Exeter College, Oxford]]
}}

'''John Ronald Reuel Tolkien''' ({{IPAc-en|'|r|uː|l|_|ˈ|t|ɒ|l|k|iː|n}},{{efn|Tolkien pronounced his surname {{IPAc-en|ˈ|t|ɒ|l|k|iː|n}}.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Return of the Shadow: The History of The Lord of the Rings, Part One |year=1988 |isbn=0-04-440162-0 |editor-last=Tolkien |editor-first=Christopher |editor-link=Christopher Tolkien |series=The History of Middle-earth |volume=6}}</ref>{{page needed|date=March 2019}} In [[General American]], the surname is commonly pronounced {{IPAc-en|ˈ|t|oʊ|l|k|iː|n|audio=Pronunciation of J. R. R. Tolkien's name.wav}}.<ref>{{cite LPD|3}}</ref>}} 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and [[philologist]]. He was the author of the [[high fantasy]] works ''[[The Hobbit]]'' and ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]''.

From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the [[Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon]] and a [[Fellow (Oxbridge)|Fellow]] of [[Pembroke College, Oxford|Pembroke College]], both at the [[University of Oxford]]. He then moved within the same university to become the [[Merton Professors|Merton Professor of English Language and Literature]] and Fellow of [[Merton College, Oxford|Merton College]], and held these positions from 1945 until his retirement in 1959. Tolkien was a close friend of [[C. S. Lewis]], a co-member of the informal literary discussion group [[The Inklings]]. He was appointed a [[Commander of the Order of the British Empire]] by [[Queen Elizabeth II]] on 28 March 1972.

After Tolkien's death, his son [[Christopher Tolkien|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, [[Poetry in The Lord of the Rings|poems]], fictional histories, [[Languages constructed by J. R. R. Tolkien|invented languages]], and literary essays about a fantasy world called [[Arda (Middle-earth)|Arda]] and, within it, [[Middle-earth]]. Between 1951 and 1955, Tolkien applied the term ''[[Tolkien's legendarium|legendarium]]'' to the larger part of these writings.

While many other authors had published works of fantasy before Tolkien, the tremendous success of ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings'' ignited [[History of fantasy#Tolkien|a profound interest in the fantasy genre]] and ultimately precipitated an avalanche of new fantasy books and authors. As a result, he has been popularly identified as the "father" of [[Fantasy#Modern fantasy|modern fantasy literature]] and is widely regarded as one of the most influential authors of all time.

{{TOC limit|limit=3}}

== Biography ==

=== Ancestry ===
{{Main|Tolkien family}}

Tolkien was English, and thought of himself as such.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Brennan |first1=David |title=The Hobbit: How Tolkien Sunk a German Anti-Semitic Inquiry Into His Race |url=https://www.newsweek.com/hobbit-how-tolkien-sunk-german-anti-semitic-inquiry-his-race-1132744 |access-date=9 July 2023 |work=[[Newsweek]] |date=21 September 2018 |quote=My great-great-grandfather came to England in the eighteenth century from Germany: the main part of my descent is therefore purely English, and I am an English subject – which should be sufficient.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240426091705/https://www.newsweek.com/hobbit-how-tolkien-sunk-german-anti-semitic-inquiry-his-race-1132744|archive-date=26 April 2024|url-status=live}}</ref><ref group="T">{{harvnb|Carpenter|Tolkien|1981|loc=''Letters'' #190 to [[Rayner Unwin]], 3 July 1956: "After all the book is English, and by an Englishman"}}</ref>
His immediate paternal ancestors were middle-class craftsmen who made and sold clocks, watches and pianos in London and [[Birmingham]]. The Tolkien family originated in the [[East Prussia]]n town of [[Kreuzburg, East Prussia|Kreuzburg]] near [[Königsberg]], which had been founded during the medieval [[German eastward expansion]], where his earliest-known paternal ancestor, Michel Tolkien, was born around 1620.<ref name="Derdziński2" />

Michel's son Christianus Tolkien (1663–1746) was a wealthy miller in Kreuzburg.<ref name="Derdziński2" /> His son, Christian Tolkien (1706–1791), moved from Kreuzburg to nearby [[Gdańsk|Danzig]], and his two sons Daniel Gottlieb Tolkien (1747–1813) and Johann (later known as John) Benjamin Tolkien (1752–1819) emigrated to London in the 1770s and became the ancestors of the English family; the younger brother was J. R. R. Tolkien's second great-grandfather.<ref name="Derdziński2" />

In 1792, John Benjamin Tolkien and William Gravell took over the Erdley Norton manufacture in London, which from then on sold clocks and watches under the name Gravell & Tolkien. Daniel Gottlieb obtained British citizenship in 1794, but John Benjamin apparently never became a British citizen. Other German relatives joined the two brothers in London. Several people with the surname Tolkien or similar spelling, some of them members of the same family as J. R. R. Tolkien, live in northern Germany, but most of them are descendants of people who [[Evacuation of East Prussia|evacuated East Prussia]] in 1945, at the end of [[World War II]].<ref name="Derdziński1">{{cite web |last=Derdziński |first=Ryszard |title=Z Prus do Anglii. Saga rodziny J. R. R. Tolkiena (XIV–XIX wiek) |url=https://depot.ceon.pl/bitstream/handle/123456789/15041/Z%20Prus%20do%20Anglii.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190110133737/https://depot.ceon.pl/bitstream/handle/123456789/15041/Z%20Prus%20do%20Anglii.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |archive-date=10 January 2019}}</ref><ref name="Derdziński2">{{cite web |last=Derdziński |first=Ryszard |date=2017 |title=On J. R. R. Tolkien's Roots|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190110183343/http://www.elendilion.pl/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/TolkienAncestry.pdf |url=http://www.elendilion.pl/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/TolkienAncestry.pdf |archive-date=10 January 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Absolute Verteilung des Namens 'Tolkien' |url=http://www.verwandt.de/karten/absolut/tolkien.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130510202325/http://www.verwandt.de/karten/absolut/tolkien.html |archive-date=10 May 2013 |access-date=9 January 2012 |website=verwandt.de |publisher=MyHeritage UK |language=de}}</ref>

According to Ryszard Derdziński, the surname Tolkien is of [[Low Prussian dialect|Low Prussian]] origin and probably means "son/descendant of Tolk".<ref name="Derdziński1" /><ref name="Derdziński2" /> Tolkien mistakenly believed his surname derived from the German word {{lang|de|tollkühn}}, meaning "foolhardy",<ref>{{cite magazine |date=25 August 1969 |title=Ash nazg gimbatul |url=http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-45548112.html |url-status=live |magazine=[[Der Spiegel]] |language=de |issue=35/1969 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110427035821/http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-45548112.html |archive-date=27 April 2011 |quote=Professor Tolkien, der seinen Namen vom deutschen Wort 'tollkühn' ableitet,... .}}</ref> and jokingly inserted himself as a "cameo" into ''[[The Notion Club Papers]]'' under the literally translated name Rashbold.<ref>{{cite book |last=Geier |first=Fabian |title=J. R. R. Tolkien |publisher=[[Rowohlt Verlag|Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag]] |year=2009 |isbn=978-3-499-50664-2 |page=9 |language=de}}</ref> However, Derdziński has demonstrated this to be a [[false etymology]]. Another suspected origin is the East Prussian village of [[Tołkiny]].<ref>{{cite book|first1=Nigel|last1=Cawthorne |title=A Brief Guide to J. R. R. Tolkien: A Comprehensive Introduction to the Author of ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings'' |publisher=Robinson |place=London |date=2012 |ISBN=978-1-78033-860-6}}</ref> While J. R. R. Tolkien was aware of his family's German origin, his knowledge of the family's history was limited because he was "early isolated from the family of his prematurely deceased father".<ref name="Derdziński1" /><ref name="Derdziński2" />

=== Childhood ===
<!--blank line intentional for readability when editing-->

[[File:Mabel Suffield Christmas Card.jpg|thumb|left|1892 Christmas card with a coloured photo of the Tolkien family in Bloemfontein, sent to relatives in Birmingham, England]]

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born on 3 January 1892 in [[Bloemfontein]] in the [[Orange Free State]] (later [[Treaty of Vereeniging|annexed]] by the [[British Empire]]; now [[Free State Province]] in the Republic of South Africa), to [[Arthur Tolkien|Arthur Reuel Tolkien]] (1857–1896), an English bank manager, and his wife [[Mabel Suffield Tolkien|Mabel]], {{née|Suffield}} (1870–1904). The couple had left England when Arthur was promoted to head the Bloemfontein office of the British bank for which he worked. Tolkien had one sibling, his younger brother, [[Hilary Tolkien|Hilary Arthur Reuel Tolkien]], who was born on 17 February 1894.<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|p=14}}</ref>

As a child, Tolkien was bitten by a large [[Harpactirinae|baboon spider]] in the garden, an event some believe to have been later echoed in his stories, although he admitted no actual memory of the event as an adult. In an earlier incident from Tolkien's infancy, a young family servant took the baby to his homestead, returning him the next morning.<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|p=13}}. Both the spider incident and the visit to the homestead are covered here.</ref>

When he was three, he went to England with his mother and brother on what was intended to be a lengthy family visit. His father, however, died in South Africa of [[rheumatic fever]] before he could join them.<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|p=24}}</ref> This left the family without an income, so Tolkien's mother took him to live with her parents in [[Kings Heath]],<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|loc=Ch I, "Bloemfontein". At 9 Ashfield Road, King's Heath.}}</ref> Birmingham. Soon after, in 1896, they moved to [[Sarehole]] (now in [[Hall Green]]), then a [[Worcestershire]] village, later annexed to Birmingham.<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|p=27}}</ref> He enjoyed exploring [[Sarehole Mill]] and [[Moseley Bog]] and the [[Clent Hills|Clent]], [[Lickey Hills|Lickey]] and [[Malvern Hills]], which would later inspire scenes in his books, along with nearby towns and villages such as [[Bromsgrove]], [[Alcester]], and [[Alvechurch]] and places such as his aunt Jane's farm Bag End, the name of which he used in his fiction.<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|p=113}}</ref>

Mabel Tolkien taught her two children at home. Ronald, as he was known in the family, was a keen pupil.<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|p=29}}</ref> She taught him a great deal of [[botany]] and awakened in him the enjoyment of the look and feel of plants. Young Tolkien liked to draw landscapes and trees, but his favourite lessons were those concerning languages, and his mother taught him the rudiments of [[Latin]] very early.<ref name="DoughanBio">{{cite web |last=Doughan |first=David |year=2002 |title=JRR Tolkien Biography |url=http://www.tolkiensociety.org/tolkien/biography.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060303050751/http://www.tolkiensociety.org/tolkien/biography.html |archive-date=3 March 2006 |website=Life of Tolkien}}</ref>

Tolkien could read by the age of four and could write fluently soon afterwards. His mother allowed him to read many books. He disliked ''[[Treasure Island]]'' and "[[The Pied Piper]]" and thought ''[[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland]]'' by [[Lewis Carroll]] was "amusing". He liked stories about "Red Indians" (the term then used for Native Americans in [[adventure fiction|adventure stories]]<ref name="Butts 2004">{{cite book |last=Butts |first=Dennis |editor-last=Hunt |editor-first=Peter |title=International Companion Encyclopedia of Children's Literature |date=2004 |publisher=Routledge |location=Abingdon, Oxfordshire |volume=1 |isbn=0-203-32566-4 |pages=340–351 |edition=Second |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t1RsBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA340 |chapter=Shaping boyhood: British Empire builders and adventurers |quote=By the 1840s, of course, adults were already reading tales of adventure involving Red Indians}}</ref>) and works of fantasy by [[George MacDonald]].<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|p=22}}</ref> In addition, the "Fairy Books" of [[Andrew Lang]] were particularly important to him and their influence is apparent in some of his later writings.<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|p=30}}</ref>

[[File:BirminghamOratoryDome.jpg|thumb|right|[[Birmingham Oratory]], where Tolkien was a parishioner and altar boy (1902–1911)]]
Mabel Tolkien was received into the [[Roman Catholic Church]] in 1900 despite vehement protests by her [[Baptist]] family,<ref name="Biography31">{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|p=31}}</ref> which stopped all financial assistance to her. In 1904, when J. R. R. Tolkien was 12, his mother died of [[diabetic ketoacidosis|acute diabetes]] at Fern Cottage in [[Rednal]], which she was renting. She was then about 34 years of age, about as old as a person with [[diabetes mellitus type 1]] could survive without treatment—[[insulin]] would not be discovered until 1921, two decades later. Nine years after her death, Tolkien wrote, "My own dear mother was a martyr indeed, and it is not to everybody that God grants so easy a way to his great gifts as he did to Hilary and myself, giving us a mother who killed herself with labour and trouble to ensure us keeping the faith."<ref name="Biography31" />

Before her death, Mabel Tolkien had assigned the guardianship of her sons to her close friend, Father [[Francis Xavier Morgan]] of the [[Birmingham Oratory]], who was assigned to bring them up as good Catholics.<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|p=39<!--pp=34-57 passim.-->}}</ref> In a 1965 letter to his son Michael, Tolkien recalled the influence of the man whom he always called "Father Francis": "He was an upper-class Welsh-Spaniard Tory, and seemed to some just a pottering old gossip. He was—and he was {{em|not}}. I first learned charity and forgiveness from him; and in the light of it pierced even the 'liberal' darkness out of which I came, knowing more about '[[Mary I of England|Bloody Mary]]' than the [[Mother of Jesus]]—who was never mentioned except as an object of wicked worship by the Romanists."<ref group="T">{{harvnb|Carpenter|Tolkien|1981|loc=''Letters'' #267 to Michael Tolkien, 9–10 January 1965.}}</ref> After his mother's death, Tolkien grew up in the [[Edgbaston]] area of Birmingham and attended [[King Edward's School, Birmingham]], and later [[St Philip's School]]. In 1903, he won a Foundation Scholarship and returned to King Edward's.<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|pp=25–38}}</ref>

=== Youth ===
[[File:KES Free Grammar School Charles Barry.jpg|thumb|right|King Edward's School in Birmingham, where Tolkien was a pupil (1900–1902, 1903–1911)<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|pp=24–51}}</ref>]]
While in his early teens, Tolkien had his first encounter with a [[constructed language]], Animalic, an invention of his cousins, Mary and [[Marjorie Incledon]]. At that time, he was studying Latin and Anglo-Saxon. Their interest in Animalic soon died away, but Mary and others, including Tolkien himself, invented a new and more complex language called Nevbosh. The next constructed language he came to work with, Naffarin, would be his own creation.<ref>{{cite web |title=Tolkien's Not-So-Secret Vice |url=http://folk.uib.no/hnohf/vice.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121122010424/http://folk.uib.no/hnohf/vice.htm |archive-date=22 November 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Tolkien's Languages |url=http://lordfingulfin.webs.com/earlierlanguages.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131224110153/http://lordfingulfin.webs.com/earlierlanguages.htm |archive-date=24 December 2013}}</ref> Tolkien learned [[Esperanto]] some time before 1909. Around 10 June 1909 he composed "The Book of the Foxrook", a sixteen-page notebook, where the "earliest example of one of his invented alphabets" appears.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bramlett |first=Perry C. |url={{Google books|8ef3-s6fixIC |page=PA136 |keywords= |text= |plainurl=yes}} |title=I Am in Fact a Hobbit: An Introduction to the Life and Works of J. R. R. Tolkien |publisher=[[Mercer University Press]] |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-86554-894-7 |page=136 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170215191402/https://books.google.com/books?id=8ef3-s6fixIC&pg=PA136 |archive-date=15 February 2017 |url-status=live}} See also: [http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Book_of_the_Foxrook Book of the Foxrook] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202055817/http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Book_of_the_Foxrook |date=2 February 2017 }}.</ref> Short texts in this notebook are written in Esperanto.<ref>{{cite book |last=Smith |first=Arden R. |author-link=Arden R. Smith |title=[[The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment]] |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=2006 |editor-last=Drout |editor-first=Michael D. C. |editor-link=Michael D. C. Drout |page=172 |chapter=Esperanto |chapter-url={{Google books|B0loOBA3ejIC |page=PA172 |plainurl=yes}}|postscript=,}} and [http://parmadili.skf.org.pl/elendili/esperanto.jpg Book of the Foxrook] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202162102/http://parmadili.skf.org.pl/elendili/esperanto.jpg |date=2 February 2017 }}; transcription on [http://www.elendilion.pl/2007/06/18/tolkien-i-esperanto/ Tolkien i Esperanto] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161019054129/http://www.elendilion.pl/2007/06/18/tolkien-i-esperanto/ |date=19 October 2016 }}; the text begins with "PRIVATA KODO SKAŬTA" (Private Scout Code).</ref>

In 1911, while they were at King Edward's School, Tolkien and three friends, Rob Gilson, Geoffrey Bache Smith, and Christopher Wiseman, formed a semi-secret society they called the T.C.B.S. The initials stood for Tea Club and Barrovian Society, alluding to their fondness for drinking tea in [[Barrows (department store)|Barrow's Stores]] near the school and, secretly, in the school library.<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|pp=53–54}}</ref><ref>''[[Tolkien and the Great War]]'', p. 6.</ref> After leaving school, the members stayed in touch and, in December 1914, they held a council in London at Wiseman's home. For Tolkien, the result of this meeting was a strong dedication to [[Tolkien's poetry|writing poetry]].<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|p=82}}</ref>

In 1911, Tolkien went on a summer holiday in Switzerland, a trip that he recollected vividly in a 1968 letter,<ref name="Letters306" group="T">{{harvnb|Carpenter|Tolkien|1981|loc=''Letters'' #306 to Michael Tolkien, 1967 or 1968}}</ref> noting that [[Bilbo Baggins|Bilbo]]'s journey across the [[Misty Mountains]] ("including the glissade down the slithering stones into the pine woods") is directly based on his adventures as their party of 12 hiked from [[Interlaken]] to [[Lauterbrunnen]] and on to camp in the [[moraine]]s beyond [[Mürren]]. Fifty-seven years later, Tolkien remembered his regret at leaving the view of the eternal snows of [[Jungfrau]] and [[Silberhorn]], "the Silvertine ([[Celebdil]]) of my dreams". They went across the [[Kleine Scheidegg]] to [[Grindelwald]] and on across the [[Grosse Scheidegg]] to [[Meiringen]]. They continued across the [[Grimsel Pass]], through the upper [[Valais]] to [[Brig, Switzerland|Brig]] and on to the [[Aletsch glacier]] and [[Zermatt]].<ref>{{cite web |title=1911 – J. R. R. Tolkien besichtigt das Oberwallis |url=https://www.valais-wallis-digital.ch/de/a/#!/explore/cards/173 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305092953/https://www.valais-wallis-digital.ch/de/a/#!/explore/cards/173 |archive-date=5 March 2016 |website=Valais Wallis Digital |language=de|postscript=,}} citing {{harvnb|Carpenter|Tolkien|1981|loc=''Letters'' #306 to Michael Tolkien, autumn 1968.}}</ref>

In October of the same year, Tolkien began studying at [[Exeter College, Oxford]]. He initially read [[classics]] but changed his course in 1913 to English language and [[English literature|literature]], graduating in 1915 with [[first-class honours]].<ref name="RoyalMail">{{cite book |last1=Hammond |first1=Wayne G. |title=The Lord of the Rings JRR Tolkien Author and Illustrator |last2=Scull |first2=Christina |date=26 February 2004 |publisher=[[Royal Mail]] Group plc (commemorative postage stamp pack) |author-link=Wayne G. Hammond |author-link2=Christina Scull}}</ref> Among his tutors at Oxford was [[Joseph Wright (linguist)|Joseph Wright]], whose ''Primer of the Gothic Language'' had inspired Tolkien as a schoolboy.<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|pp=45, 63–64}}</ref>

=== Courtship and marriage ===

At the age of 16, Tolkien met [[Edith Tolkien|Edith Mary Bratt]], who was three years his senior, when he and his brother Hilary moved into the boarding house where she lived in Duchess Road, [[Edgbaston]]. According to Humphrey Carpenter, "Edith and Ronald took to frequenting Birmingham teashops, especially one which had a balcony overlooking the pavement. There they would sit and throw sugarlumps into the hats of passers-by, moving to the next table when the sugar bowl was empty. ... With two people of their personalities and in their position, romance was bound to flourish. Both were orphans in need of affection, and they found that they could give it to each other. During the summer of 1909, they decided that they were in love."<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|p=40}}</ref>

His guardian, Father Morgan, considered it "altogether unfortunate"<ref name="Letters, No. 43" group="T">{{harvnb|Carpenter|Tolkien|1981|loc=''Letters'' #43 to Michael Tolkien, 6–8 March 1941}}</ref> that his surrogate son was romantically involved with an older, [[Church of England|Protestant]] woman; Tolkien wrote that the combined tensions contributed to his having "muffed [his] exams".<ref name="Letters, No. 43" group="T" /> Morgan prohibited him from meeting, talking to, or even corresponding with Edith until he was 21. Tolkien obeyed this prohibition to the letter,<ref>{{cite web |last=Doughan |first=David |year=2002 |title=War, Lost Tales and Academia |url=http://www.tolkiensociety.org/tolkien/biography.html#2 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060303050751/http://www.tolkiensociety.org/tolkien/biography.html |archive-date=3 March 2006 |website=J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biographical Sketch}}</ref> with one notable early exception, over which Father Morgan threatened to cut short his university career if he did not stop.<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|p=43}}</ref>

On the evening of his 21st birthday, Tolkien wrote to Edith, who was living with family friend C. H. Jessop at [[Cheltenham]]. He declared that he had never ceased to love her, and asked her to marry him. Edith replied that she had already accepted the proposal of George Field, the brother of one of her closest school friends. But Edith said she had agreed to marry Field only because she felt "on the shelf" and had begun to doubt that Tolkien still cared for her. She explained that, because of Tolkien's letter, everything had changed.<ref name="Carpenter 1977 p67" />

On 8 January 1913, Tolkien travelled by train to Cheltenham and was met on the platform by Edith. The two took a walk into the countryside, sat under a railway viaduct, and talked. By the end of the day, Edith had agreed to accept Tolkien's proposal. She wrote to Field and returned her engagement ring. Field was "dreadfully upset at first", and the Field family was "insulted and angry".<ref name="Carpenter 1977 p67">{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|pp=67–69}}</ref> Upon learning of Edith's new plans, Jessop wrote to her guardian, "I have nothing to say against Tolkien, he is a cultured gentleman, but his prospects are poor in the extreme, and when he will be in a position to marry I cannot imagine. Had he adopted a profession it would have been different."<ref>{{harvnb|Tolkien|Tolkien|1992|p=34}}</ref>

Following their engagement, Edith reluctantly announced that she was converting to Catholicism at Tolkien's insistence. Jessop, "like many others of his age and class ... strongly [[Anti-Catholicism in the United Kingdom|anti-Catholic]]", was infuriated, and he ordered Edith to find other lodgings.<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|p=73}}</ref>

Edith Bratt and Ronald Tolkien were formally engaged at Birmingham in January 1913, and married at [[St Mary Immaculate Roman Catholic Church, Warwick|St Mary Immaculate Catholic Church]] at [[Warwick]], on 22 March 1916.<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|p=86}}</ref> In his 1941 letter to Michael, Tolkien expressed admiration for his wife's willingness to marry a man with no job, little money, and no prospects except the likelihood of being killed in the Great War.<ref name="Letters, No. 43" group="T" />

=== First World War ===

[[File:Tolkien-WWI-Uniform.jpg|thumb|upright|Tolkien in his military uniform]]

In August 1914, Britain entered the [[First World War]]. Tolkien's relatives were shocked when he elected not to volunteer immediately for the [[British Army]]. In a 1941 letter to his son Michael, Tolkien recalled: "In those days chaps joined up, or were scorned publicly. It was a nasty cleft to be in for a young man with too much imagination and little physical courage."<ref name="Letters, No. 43" group="T" /> Instead, Tolkien, "endured the [[wikt:obloquy|obloquy]]",<ref name="Letters, No. 43" group="T" /> and entered a programme by which he delayed enlistment until completing his degree. By the time he passed his finals in July 1915, Tolkien recalled that the hints were "becoming outspoken from relatives".<ref name="Letters, No. 43" group="T" /> He was commissioned as a temporary [[second lieutenant]] in the [[Lancashire Fusiliers]] on 15 July 1915.<ref name="Carpenter 1977 p77">{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|pp=77–85}}</ref><ref>{{London Gazette|issue=29232|page=6968|date=16 July 1915}}</ref> He trained with the 13th (Reserve) Battalion on [[Cannock Chase]], Rugeley Camp near to [[Rugeley]], Staffordshire, for 11 months. In a letter to Edith, Tolkien complained: "Gentlemen are rare among the superiors, and even human beings rare indeed."<ref>''[[Tolkien and the Great War]]'', p.&nbsp;94.</ref> Following their wedding, Lieutenant and Mrs. Tolkien took up lodgings near the training camp.<ref name="Carpenter 1977 p77" /> On 2 June 1916, Tolkien received a telegram summoning him to [[Folkestone]] for posting to France. The Tolkiens spent the night before his departure in a room at the Plough & Harrow Hotel in [[Edgbaston]], Birmingham.<ref name="Tolkien Society Memorials">{{cite web |date=29 October 2016 |title=Memorials |url=https://www.tolkiensociety.org/society/memorials/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308102744/https://www.tolkiensociety.org/society/memorials/ |archive-date=8 March 2021 |access-date=3 March 2021 |publisher=[[The Tolkien Society]]}}</ref> He later wrote: "Junior officers were being killed off, a dozen a minute. Parting from my wife then ... it was like a death."<ref>{{harvnb|Garth|2003|p=138}}</ref>

==== France ====
On 5 June 1916, Tolkien boarded a troop transport for an overnight voyage to [[Calais]]. Like other soldiers arriving for the first time, he was sent to the [[British Expeditionary Force (World War I)|British Expeditionary Force]]'s base depot at [[Étaples]]. On 7 June, he was informed that he had been assigned as a signals officer to the 11th (Service) Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers. The battalion was part of the [[74th Brigade (United Kingdom)|74th Brigade]], [[25th Division (United Kingdom)|25th Division]]. While waiting to be summoned to his unit, Tolkien sank into boredom. To pass the time, he composed a poem titled ''The Lonely Isle'', which was inspired by his feelings during the sea crossing to Calais. To evade the British Army's [[postal censorship]], he developed a code of dots by which Edith could track his movements.<ref name="Garth144">{{harvnb|Garth|2003|pp=144–145}}</ref> He left Étaples on 27 June 1916 and joined his battalion at [[Rubempré]], near [[Amiens]].<ref>{{harvnb|Garth|2003|pp=147–148}}</ref> He found himself commanding enlisted men who were drawn mainly from the mining, milling, and weaving towns of Lancashire.<ref>{{harvnb|Garth|2003|pp=148–149}}</ref> According to [[John Garth (author)|John Garth]], he "felt an affinity for these working class men", but military protocol prohibited friendships with "[[Other ranks (UK)|other ranks]]". Instead, he was required to "take charge of them, discipline them, train them, and probably censor their letters ... If possible, he was supposed to inspire their love and loyalty."<ref name="Garth149">{{harvnb|Garth|2003|p=149}}</ref> Tolkien later lamented, "The most improper job of any man ... is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity."<ref name="Garth149" />

==== Battle of the Somme ====
[[File:Schwaben Redoubt by William Orpen IWM Art.IWM ART 3000.jpg|thumb|right|'' The Schwaben Redoubt'', painting by William Orpen. [[Imperial War Museum]], London]]

Tolkien arrived at the [[Battle of the Somme|Somme]] in early July 1916. In between terms behind the lines at [[Bouzincourt]], he participated in the assaults on the [[Schwaben Redoubt]] and the [[Leipzig salient]]. Tolkien's time in combat was a terrible stress for Edith, who feared that every knock on the door might carry news of her husband's death. Edith could track her husband's movements on a map of the [[Western Front (World War I)|Western Front]]. The Reverend Mervyn S. Evers, [[Anglican]] chaplain to the Lancashire Fusiliers, recorded that Tolkien and his fellow officers were eaten by "hordes of lice" which found the Medical Officer's ointment merely "a kind of ''[[hors d'oeuvre]]'' and the little beggars went at their feast with renewed vigour."<ref>Quoted in {{harvnb|Garth|2003|p=200}}</ref> On 27 October 1916, as his battalion attacked [[Regina Trench]], Tolkien contracted [[trench fever]], a disease carried by [[lice]]. He was invalided to England on 8 November 1916.<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|p=93}}</ref>

According to his children [[John Tolkien (priest)|John]] and [[Priscilla Tolkien]], "In later years, he would occasionally talk of being at the front: of the horrors of the first German [[Chemical weapons in World War I|gas attack]], of the utter exhaustion and ominous quiet after a bombardment, of the whining scream of the shells, and the endless marching, always on foot, through a devastated landscape, sometimes carrying the men's equipment as well as his own to encourage them to keep going. ... Some remarkable relics survive from that time: a trench map he drew himself; pencil-written orders to carry bombs to the 'fighting line.{{'"}}<ref>{{harvnb|Tolkien|Tolkien|1992|p=40}}</ref>

Many of his dearest school friends were killed in the war. Among their number were Rob Gilson of the Tea Club and Barrovian Society, who was killed on the [[first day of the Somme]] while leading his men in the assault on [[Beaumont Hamel]]. Fellow T.C.B.S. member Geoffrey Smith was killed during the battle, when a German artillery shell landed on a first-aid post. Tolkien's battalion was almost completely wiped out following his return to England.<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|pp=93, 103, 105}}</ref>

[[File:Lancashire Fusiliers trench Beaumont Hamel 1916.jpg|thumb|right|Men of the 1st Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers in a communication trench near [[Beaumont Hamel]], 1916. Photo by [[Ernest Brooks (photographer)|Ernest Brooks]]]]

According to John Garth, [[Kitchener's Army]], in which Tolkien served, at once marked existing social boundaries and counteracted the class system by throwing everyone into a desperate situation together. Tolkien was grateful, writing that it had taught him "a deep sympathy and feeling for the [[Tommy Atkins|Tommy]]; especially the plain soldier from the agricultural counties".<ref>{{harvnb|Garth|2003|pp=94–95}}</ref>

==== Home front ====
{{further|The Great War and Middle-earth}}

A weak and emaciated Tolkien spent the remainder of the war alternating between hospitals and garrison duties, being deemed medically unfit for general service.<ref>{{harvnb|Garth|2003|pp=207 ''et seq.''}}</ref><ref>Tolkien's [[Webley Revolver|Webley .455]] service revolver was put on display in 2006 as part of a [[Battle of the Somme]] exhibition in the [[Imperial War Museum]], London. (See {{cite web |title=Second Lieutenant J R R Tolkien |url=https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/second-lieutenant-j-r-r-tolkien |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181125162651/https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/second-lieutenant-j-r-r-tolkien |archive-date=25 November 2018 |website=Battle of the Somme |publisher=[[Imperial War Museum]]}} and {{cite web |url=https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30034679 |title=Webley.455 Mark 6 (VI Military) |work=Imperial War Museum Collection Search |publisher=[[Imperial War Museum]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181125162641/https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30034679 |archive-date=25 November 2018 |url-status=live}})</ref><ref>Several of his service records, mostly dealing with his health problems, can be seen at the National Archives. ({{cite web |title=Officer's service record: J R R Tolkien |url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/firstworldwar/people/tolkien.htm  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090308111409/http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/firstworldwar/people/tolkien.htm |archive-date=8 March 2009 |access-date=2 December 2007 |website=First World War |publisher=National Archives}})</ref> During his recovery in a cottage in [[Little Haywood]], [[Staffordshire, England|Staffordshire]], he began to work on what he called ''[[The Book of Lost Tales]]'', beginning with ''[[The Fall of Gondolin]]''. ''Lost Tales'' represented Tolkien's attempt to create a mythology for England, a project he would abandon without ever completing.<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|p=98}}</ref> Throughout 1917 and 1918 his illness kept recurring, but he had recovered enough to do home service at various camps. It was at this time that Edith bore their first child, John Francis Reuel Tolkien. In a 1941 letter, Tolkien described his son John as "(conceived and carried during the starvation-year of 1917 and the great [[U-boat Campaign (World War I)|U-boat campaign]]) round about the [[Battle of Cambrai (1917)|Battle of Cambrai]], when the end of the war seemed as far off as it does now".<ref name="Letters, No. 43" group="T" /> Tolkien was promoted to the temporary rank of lieutenant on 6 January 1918.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=30588 |supp=y|page=3561|date=19 March 1918}}</ref> When he was stationed at [[Kingston upon Hull]], he and Edith went walking in the woods at nearby [[Roos]], and Edith began to dance for him in a clearing among the flowering hemlock. After his wife's death in 1971, Tolkien remembered:<ref name="Letter 340" group="T" />

{{blockquote|I never called Edith ''Luthien''—but she was the source of the story that in time became the chief part of the ''Silmarillion''. It was first conceived in a small woodland glade filled with hemlocks<ref>Following rural English usage, Tolkien used the name "hemlock" for various plants with white flowers in umbels, resembling [[poison hemlock|hemlock]] (''Conium maculatum''); the flowers Edith danced among were more probably [[cow parsley]] (''Anthriscus sylvestris'') or [[wild carrot]] (''Daucus carota''). See [[John Garth (author)|John Garth]], ''[[Tolkien and the Great War]]'' (Harper Collins/Houghton Mifflin 2003, chapter 12), and Peter Gilliver, Jeremy Marshall, & Edmund Weiner, ''[[The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary]]'' (OUP 2006).</ref> at Roos in Yorkshire (where I was for a brief time in command of an outpost of the Humber Garrison in 1917, and she was able to live with me for a while). In those days her hair was raven, her skin clear, her eyes brighter than you have seen them, and she could sing—and {{em|dance}}. But the story has gone crooked, & I am left, and {{em|I}} cannot plead before the inexorable [[Mandos]].<ref name="Letter 340" group="T">{{harvnb|Carpenter|Tolkien|1981|loc=''Letters'' #340 to Christopher Tolkien, 11 July 1972.}}</ref>}}

On 16 July 1919, Tolkien was taken off active service, at Fovant, on Salisbury Plain, with a temporary disability pension.<ref name="Grotta p. 58">{{harvnb|Grotta|2002|p=58}}</ref> On 3 November 1920, Tolkien was demobilized and left the army, retaining his rank of lieutenant.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=32110 |supp=y|page=10711|date=2 November 1920}}</ref>

=== Academic and writing career ===

[[File:2 Darnley Road, the former home of J.R.R. Tolkien in West Park, Leeds.jpg|thumb|2 Darnley Road, the former home of Tolkien in West Park, [[Leeds]]]]

[[File:20 Northmoor Road, Oxford.JPG|thumb|20 [[Northmoor Road]], one of Tolkien's former homes in [[Oxford]]]]

After the end of World War I in 1918, Tolkien's first civilian job was at the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'', where he worked mainly on the history and etymology of words of Germanic origin beginning with the letter ''W''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gilliver |first1=Peter |title=The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary |title-link=The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary |last2=Marshall |first2=Jeremy |last3=Weiner |first3=Edmund |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2006}}</ref> In mid-1919, he began to tutor Oxford undergraduates privately, most importantly those of [[Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford|Lady Margaret Hall]] and [[St Hugh's College, Oxford|St Hugh's College]], given that the women's colleges were in great need of good teachers in their early years, and Tolkien as a married academic (then still not common) was considered suitable, as a bachelor don would not have been.<ref>{{cite book |last=Zettersten |first=A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6Q_GAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA134 |title=J. R. R. Tolkien's Double Worlds and Creative Process: Language and Life |date=25 April 2011 |publisher=[[Springer (publisher)|Springer]] |isbn=978-0-230-11840-9 |page=134 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181017123753/https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=6Q_GAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA134#v=onepage&q=lady%20margaret%20hall |archive-date=17 October 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1920, he took up a post as [[Reader (academic rank)|reader]] in English language at the [[University of Leeds]], becoming the youngest member of the [[academic staff]] there.<ref name="Grotta2001 page 64 ff">{{cite book |last=Grotta |first=Daniel |url={{Google books|9LHQvq6P5qIC |page=PA64 |keywords= |text= |plainurl=yes}} |title=J. R. R. Tolkien Architect of Middle Earth |date=28 March 2001 |publisher=Running Press |isbn=978-0-7624-0956-3 |pages=64– |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511071523/http://books.google.com/books?id=9LHQvq6P5qIC&pg=PA64 |archive-date=11 May 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref> While at Leeds, he produced ''A Middle English Vocabulary'' and a definitive edition of ''[[Sir Gawain and the Green Knight]]'' with [[E. V. Gordon]]; both became academic standard works for several decades. He also translated ''Sir Gawain'', ''[[Pearl (poem)|Pearl]]'', and ''[[Sir Orfeo]]'', but the translations would not be published until 1975. In 1924, he was promoted from a readership at Leeds to a [[professorship]].<ref name="ODNB">{{cite ODNB |first= T. A. |last= Shippey |title= Tolkien, John Ronald Reuel (1892–1973) |edition=revised |date=11 April 2024 |doi= 10.1093/ref:odnb/31766}}</ref> 

In October 1925, he returned to Oxford as [[Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon]], with a fellowship at [[Pembroke College, Oxford|Pembroke College]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Memorial to JRR Tolkien commissioned |url=https://www.pmb.ox.ac.uk/news/memorial-jrr-tolkien-commissioned |website=Pembroke College Oxford |publisher=University of Oxford |access-date=19 December 2023}}</ref> During his time at Pembroke College, Tolkien wrote ''[[The Hobbit]]'' and the first two volumes of ''The Lord of the Rings'', while living at 20 [[Northmoor Road]] in [[North Oxford]]. In 1932, he published a philological essay on the name "[[Nodens]]", following Sir [[Mortimer Wheeler]]'s unearthing of a [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] [[Asclepeion]] at [[Lydney Park]], Gloucestershire, in 1928.<ref>See ''The Name Nodens'' (1932) in the bibliographical listing. For the etymology, see [[Nodens#Etymology]].</ref>

==== ''Beowulf'' ====
{{further|Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary|On Translating Beowulf}}

In the 1920s, Tolkien undertook a translation of ''[[Beowulf]]'', which he finished in 1926, but did not publish. It was later edited by his son Christopher and published in 2014.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Acocella |first=Joan |date=2 June 2014 |title=Slaying Monsters: Tolkien's 'Beowulf' |url=https://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2014/06/02/140602crbo_books_acocella?currentPage=all |url-status=live |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140530222018/http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2014/06/02/140602crbo_books_acocella?currentPage=all |archive-date=30 May 2014}}</ref>

Ten years after finishing his translation, Tolkien gave a highly acclaimed lecture on the work, "[[Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics|''Beowulf'': The Monsters and the Critics]]", which had a lasting influence on ''Beowulf'' research.<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|p=143}}</ref> Lewis E. Nicholson said that the article is "widely recognized as a turning point in Beowulfian criticism", noting that Tolkien established the primacy of the poetic nature of the work as opposed to its purely linguistic elements.<ref>{{cite web |last=Ramey |first=Bill |date=30 March 1998 |title=The Unity of Beowulf: Tolkien and the Critics |url=http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/billramey/beowulf.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060421094854/http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/billramey/beowulf.htm |archive-date=21 April 2006 |website=Wisdom's Children}}</ref> At the time, the consensus of scholarship deprecated ''Beowulf'' for dealing with childish battles with monsters rather than realistic tribal warfare; Tolkien argued that the author of ''Beowulf'' was addressing human destiny in general, not as limited by particular tribal politics, and therefore the monsters were essential to the poem.<ref>Tolkien: ''[[Finn and Hengest]]''. Chiefly, p.4 in the Introduction by [[Alan Bliss]].</ref> Where ''Beowulf'' does deal with specific tribal struggles, as at [[Finnsburg]], Tolkien argued firmly against reading in fantastic elements.<ref>Tolkien: ''[[Finn and Hengest]]'', the discussion of ''Eotena'', ''passim''.</ref> In the essay, Tolkien revealed how highly he regarded ''Beowulf'': "''Beowulf'' is among my most valued sources"; [[Beowulf and Middle-earth|this influence may be seen]] throughout his [[Middle-earth]] [[Tolkien's legendarium|legendarium]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Kennedy |first=Michael |year=2001 |title=Tolkien and Beowulf&nbsp;– Warriors of Middle-earth |url=http://www.triode.net.au/~dragon/tilkal/issue1/beowulf.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060509110607/http://www.triode.net.au/~dragon/tilkal/issue1/beowulf.html |archive-date=9 May 2006 |website=Amon Hen}}</ref>

According to [[Humphrey Carpenter]], Tolkien began his series of lectures on ''Beowulf'' in a most striking way, entering the room silently, fixing the audience with a look, and suddenly declaiming in Old English the opening lines of the poem, starting "with a great cry of ''[[wikt:hwæt|Hwæt]]!''" It was a dramatic impersonation of an Anglo-Saxon bard in a mead hall, and it made the students realize that ''Beowulf'' was not just a set text but "a powerful piece of dramatic poetry".<ref name="Biog p133">{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|p=133}}</ref> Decades later, [[W. H. Auden]] wrote to his former professor, thanking him for the "unforgettable experience" of hearing him recite ''Beowulf'', and stating: "The voice was the voice of [[Gandalf]]".<ref name="Biog p133" />

==== Second World War ====
[[File:UK-2014-Oxford-Merton College 05.JPG|thumb|upright|[[Merton College]], where Tolkien was Professor of English Language and Literature (1945–1959)]]

In the run-up to the [[Second World War]], Tolkien was earmarked as a [[Cryptanalysis|codebreaker]]. In January 1939, he was asked to serve in the [[Cryptography|cryptographic]] department of the Foreign Office in the event of national emergency. Beginning on 27 March, he took an instructional course at the London HQ of the [[Government Code and Cypher School]]. He was informed in October that his services would not be required.<ref>{{cite book |last=Turing |first=Dermot |title=The Codebreakers of Bletchley Park |year=2020 |publisher=Arcturus Publishing |location=London |isbn=978-1-78950-621-1 |page=51}}</ref><ref name="spy1" group="T">{{harvnb|Carpenter|Tolkien|1981|loc=''Letters'' #35 to C. A. Furth, [[Allen & Unwin]], 2 February 1939 (see also editorial note).}}</ref><ref name="spy3">{{cite book |last1=Hammond |first1=Wayne G. |title=The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide |title-link=The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide |last2=Scull |first2=Christina |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-618-39113-4 |volume=2 |pages=224, 226, 232 |author-link=Wayne G. Hammond |author-link2=Christina Scull}}</ref>

In 1945, Tolkien moved to [[Merton College, Oxford]], becoming the [[Merton Professors|Merton Professor of English Language and Literature]],<ref name="Grotta2001 page 110 ff">{{cite book |last=Grotta |first=Daniel |url={{Google books|9LHQvq6P5qIC |page=PA110 |plainurl=yes}} |title=J. R. R. Tolkien Architect of Middle Earth |date=28 March 2001 |publisher=Running Press |isbn=978-0-7624-0956-3 |pages=110– |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140111194008/http://books.google.com/books?id=9LHQvq6P5qIC&pg=PA110 |archive-date=11 January 2014 |url-status=live}}</ref> in which post he remained until his retirement in 1959. He served as an external examiner for [[University College, Galway]] (now The University of Galway), for many years.<ref>{{cite news |last=McCoy |first=Felicity Hayes |date=11 June 2019 |title=When my father met Gandalf: Tolkien's time as an external examiner at UCG |newspaper=[[The Irish Times]] |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/when-my-father-met-gandalf-tolkien-s-time-as-an-external-examiner-at-ucg-1.3921043 |url-status=live |access-date=3 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210325113855/https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/when-my-father-met-gandalf-tolkien-s-time-as-an-external-examiner-at-ucg-1.3921043 |archive-date=25 March 2021}}</ref> In 1954 Tolkien received an honorary degree from the [[National University of Ireland]] (of which University College, Galway, was a constituent college).<ref>{{cite web |date=3 March 2021 |title=Honorary Degrees Awarded |url=http://www.nui.ie/college/Honorary_Degree_Recipients.asp |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210128030329/http://www.nui.ie/college/Honorary_Degree_Recipients.asp |archive-date=28 January 2021 |access-date=3 March 2021 |publisher=[[National University of Ireland]]}}</ref> Tolkien completed ''The Lord of the Rings'' in 1948, close to a decade after the first sketches.<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|pp=206–208}}</ref>

=== Family ===
{{Main|Tolkien family}}

The Tolkiens had four children: [[John Tolkien (priest)|John Francis Reuel Tolkien]] (17 November 1917 – 22 January 2003), Michael Hilary Reuel Tolkien (22 October 1920 – 27 February 1984), [[Christopher Tolkien|Christopher John Reuel Tolkien]] (21 November 1924 – 16 January 2020) and [[Priscilla Reuel Tolkien|Priscilla Mary Anne Reuel Tolkien]] (18 June 1929 – 28 February 2022).<ref>{{harvnb|Lee|2020|pp=12–15}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=In memory of Priscilla Tolkien |url=https://www.lmh.ox.ac.uk/news/memory-priscilla-tolkien |access-date=1 March 2022 |website=Lady Margaret Hall}}</ref> Tolkien was very devoted to his children and sent them illustrated [[The Father Christmas Letters|letters from Father Christmas]] when they were young.<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|p=167}}</ref>

=== Retirement ===

[[File:Oxford Tolkien.JPG|thumb|upright|Bust of Tolkien in the chapel of [[Exeter College, Oxford]]]]

During his life in retirement, from 1959 up to his death in 1973, Tolkien received steadily increasing public attention and literary fame. In 1961, his friend [[C. S. Lewis]] even nominated him for the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Nomination Database |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show.php?id=16784 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170421094448/http://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show.php?id=16784 |archive-date=21 April 2017 |publisher=Nobel Foundation}}</ref> The sales of his books were so profitable that he regretted that he had not chosen early retirement.<ref name="DoughanBio" /> In a 1972 letter, he deplored having become a [[Tolkien fandom|cult figure]], but admitted that "even the nose of a very modest idol ... cannot remain entirely untickled by the sweet smell of incense!"<ref group="T">{{harvnb|Carpenter|Tolkien|1981|loc=''Letters'' #336 to [[Patrick Browne (judge)|Sir Patrick Browne]], 23 May 1972}}</ref>

Fan attention became so intense that Tolkien had to take his phone number out of the public directory,<ref group="T">{{harvnb|Carpenter|Tolkien|1981|loc=''Letters'' #332 to Michael Tolkien, 24 January 1972}}</ref> and eventually he and Edith moved to [[Bournemouth]], which was then a seaside resort patronized by the British upper middle class. Tolkien's status as a best-selling author gave them easy entry into polite society, but Tolkien deeply missed the company of his fellow [[Inklings]]. Edith, however, was overjoyed to step into the role of a society hostess, which had been the reason that Tolkien selected Bournemouth in the first place. The genuine and deep affection between Ronald and Edith was demonstrated by their care about the other's health, in details like wrapping presents, in the generous way he gave up his life at Oxford so she could retire to Bournemouth, and in her pride in his becoming a famous author. They were tied together, too, by love for their children and grandchildren.<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|loc=Part 7, Chapter 2 "Bournemouth"}}</ref>

In his retirement Tolkien was a consultant and translator for ''[[The Jerusalem Bible]]'', published in 1966. He was initially assigned a larger portion to translate, but, due to other commitments, only managed to offer some criticisms of other contributors and a translation of the [[Book of Jonah]].<ref group="T">{{harvnb|Carpenter|Tolkien|1981|loc=''Letters'' #294 to Charlotte and Denis Plimmer, 8 February 1967}}</ref>

=== Final years ===

[[File:Tolkien's grave, Wolvercote Cemetery.jpg|thumb|The grave of J. R. R. and [[Edith Tolkien]], [[Wolvercote Cemetery]], [[Oxford]]]]

Edith died on 29 November 1971, at the age of 82. Ronald returned to Oxford, where [[Merton College]] gave him convenient rooms near the High Street. He missed Edith, but enjoyed being back in the city.<ref name="SimonTolkien">{{cite web |last=Tolkien |first=Simon |year=2003 |title=My Grandfather JRR Tolkien |url=http://www.simontolkien.com/mygrandfather.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927051931/http://www.simontolkien.com/mygrandfather.html |archive-date=27 September 2011}}</ref>

Tolkien was made a [[Commander of the Order of the British Empire]] in the [[1972 New Year Honours]]<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=45554 |date=1 January 1972 |page=9 |supp=y }}</ref> and received the insignia of the Order at [[Buckingham Palace]] on 28 March 1972.<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Carpenter|Tolkien|1981|loc=''Letters'' #334 to Rayner Unwin, 30 March 1972 (editorial note)<!--USAGE IS NOT PRIMARY HERE-->.}}</ref> In the same year Oxford University gave him an honorary [[Doctor of Letters|Doctorate of Letters]].<ref name="RoyalMail" /><ref>{{cite web |last=Shropshire County Council |year=2002 |title=J. R. R. Tolkien |url=http://www3.shropshire-cc.gov.uk/tolkien.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120728154119/http://www3.shropshire-cc.gov.uk/tolkien.htm |archive-date=28 July 2012 |website=Literary Heritage, West Midlands}}</ref>

He had the name [[Lúthien|Luthien]] {{sic}} engraved on Edith's tombstone at [[Wolvercote Cemetery]], [[Oxford]]. When Tolkien died 21 months later on 2 September 1973 from a bleeding ulcer and chest infection,<ref>{{cite book |last=Birzer |first=Bradley J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TyKDAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT35 |title=J. R. R. Tolkien's Sanctifying Myth: Understanding Middle-earth |date=13 May 2014 |publisher=Open Road Media |isbn=978-1-4976-4891-3 |author-link=Bradley J. Birzer |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200522094323/https://books.google.com/books?id=TyKDAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT35#v=onepage&q=jrr+tolkien+bleeding+ulcer |archive-date=22 May 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref> at the age of 81,<ref name="NYTimes obit">{{cite news |date=3 September 1973 |title=J. R. R. Tolkien Dead at 81; Wrote 'The Lord of the Rings' |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/01/02/11/specials/tolkien-obit.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090411062439/http://www.nytimes.com/books/01/02/11/specials/tolkien-obit.html |archive-date=11 April 2009}}</ref> he was buried in the same grave, with "[[Beren]]" added to his name. Tolkien's will was proven on 20 December 1973, with his estate valued at £190,577 (equivalent to £{{formatnum:{{Inflation|UK-GDP|190577|1973|r=-3}}}} in {{Inflation-year|UK-GDP}}).{{Inflation-fn| UK-GDP |df=y}}<ref name="probate">{{cite web |last=<!--Not stated--> |date=1973 |title=Tolkien, John Ronald Reul of Merton College Oxford |url=https://probatesearch.service.gov.uk/Calendar?surname=Tolkien&yearOfDeath=1973&page=1#calendar |url-status=deviated |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200522093721/https://probatesearch.service.gov.uk/Calendar?surname=Tolkien&yearOfDeath=1973&page=1#calendar |archive-date=22 May 2020 |website=probatesearchservice.gov |publisher=UK Government}}</ref>

== Views ==

[[File:Eagle and Child (interior).jpg|thumb|right|The Corner of [[the Eagle and Child]] Pub, Oxford, where the [[Inklings]] met (1930–1950)]]

=== Religion ===

{{redirect-distinguish|Tolkien's Christianity|Christianity in Middle-earth}}

Tolkien's [[Catholicism]] was a significant factor in [[C. S. Lewis]]'s conversion from [[atheism]] to Christianity.<ref name="CSL">{{cite book |last=Carpenter |first=Humphrey |title=The Inklings |publisher=Allen & Unwin |year=1978 |isbn=978-0-00-774869-3 |author-link=Humphrey Carpenter}} Lewis was brought up in the [[Church of Ireland]].</ref> He once wrote to [[Rayner Unwin]]'s daughter Camilla, who wished to know the purpose of life, that it was "to increase according to our capacity our knowledge of God by all the means we have, and to be moved by it to praise and thanks."<ref>{{cite book |last=Ware |first=Jim |url={{Google books|N_0VhzQKIIAC |page=PR22 |plainurl=yes}} |title=Finding God in The Hobbit |year=2006 |isbn=978-1-4143-0596-7 |page=xxii|publisher=Tyndale House Publishers }}</ref> He had a special devotion to the [[eucharist in the Catholic Church|blessed sacrament]], writing to his son Michael that in "the Blessed Sacrament ... you will find romance, glory, honour, fidelity, and the true way of all your loves upon earth, and more than that".<ref name="Letters, No. 43" group="T" /> He accordingly encouraged frequent reception of [[Holy Communion]], again writing to his son Michael that "the only cure for sagging of fainting faith is Communion." He believed the Catholic Church to be true most of all because of the pride of place and the honour in which it holds the Blessed Sacrament.<ref name="Letter 250" group="T">{{harvnb|Carpenter|Tolkien|1981|loc=''Letters'' #250 to Michael Tolkien, 1 November 1963}}</ref> In the last years of his life, Tolkien [[Traditionalist Catholicism|resisted certain liturgical changes]] implemented after the [[Second Vatican Council]], his primary objection being the use of English for the liturgy.<ref>{{harvnb|Ordway|2023|p=328}}</ref> Tolkien spoke Latin fluently, and he felt that the English translations were clumsy.<ref>{{harvnb|Ordway|2023|p=328}}</ref> In his old age he continued to make the Mass responses in Latin.<ref name="SimonTolkien" /><ref>{{harvnb|Ordway|2023|p=329}}</ref> Tolkien did not sign the [[Agatha Christie indult]], however, and he served as a [[Reader (liturgy)|lector]] at Corpus Christi, a parish church in [[Headington]], in accordance with the allowances of the Council.<ref>{{harvnb|Ordway|2023|pp=332-333}}</ref>

=== Race ===

{{main|Tolkien and race}}

Tolkien's fantasy writings have been said to embody a racist attitude.<ref name="Yatt">{{cite news |last=Yatt |first=John |date=2 December 2002 |title=Wraiths and Race |work=[[The Guardian]] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/dec/02/jrrtolkien.lordoftherings |url-status=live |access-date=25 May 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130826185122/http://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/dec/02/jrrtolkien.lordoftherings |archive-date=26 August 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Bhatia |first=Shyam |date=8 January 2003 |title=The Lord of the Rings rooted in racism |url=http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/jan/08lord.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101103144856/http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/jan/08lord.htm |archive-date=3 November 2010 |access-date=4 December 2010 |publisher=Rediff India Abroad}}</ref> Scholars have noted that he was influenced by Victorian attitudes to race and to a literary tradition of monsters, and that he was anti-racist in peacetime and during the World Wars. With the late 19th-century background of [[eugenics]] and a fear of moral decline, some critics saw the mention of [[race mixing]] in ''The Lord of the Rings'' as embodying [[scientific racism]].<ref name="Rogers 2000">{{cite book |last1=Rogers |first1=William N. II |chapter=Gagool and Gollum: Exemplars of Degeneration in ''King Solomon's Mines'' and ''The Hobbit'' |last2=Underwood |first2=Michael R. |title=J. R. R. Tolkien and His Literary Resonances: Views of Middle-earth |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-313-30845-1 |editor-last1=Clark |editor-first1=George |editor-first2=Daniel |editor-last2=Timmons |pages=121–132 |access-date=3 March 2021 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/jrrtolkienhislit0000unse/page/120/mode/2up?q=Gagool}}</ref> Other commentators saw in Tolkien's [[orc]]s a reflection of wartime propaganda caricatures of the Japanese.<ref name="Ibata Chicago Tribune 2003">{{cite news |last=Ibata |first=David |date=12 January 2003 |title='Lord' of racism? Critics view trilogy as discriminatory |work=[[The Chicago Tribune]] |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/chi-030112epringsrace-story.html |url-status=live |access-date=3 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308060753/https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/chi-030112epringsrace-story.html |archive-date=8 March 2021}}</ref> Critics have observed that the work embodies a [[Tolkien's moral geography|moral geography]], with good in the West, evil in the East.<ref name="Magoun 2006">{{cite encyclopedia |year=2006 |title=South, The |encyclopedia=[[J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia]] |publisher=[[Routledge]] |last=Magoun |first=John F. G. |editor-last=Drout |editor-first=Michael D. C. |editor-link=Michael D. C. Drout |pages=622–623 |isbn=1-135-88034-4}}</ref> Against this, scholars have noted that Tolkien was outraged in peacetime by [[Nazi racial theories|Nazi racial theory]], while during the [[Second World War]] he was equally disgusted by [[Anti-German sentiment|anti-German]] racial propaganda.<ref name="Rearick 2004">{{cite journal |last=Rearick |first=Anderson |date=2004 |title=Why is the Only Good Orc a Dead Orc? The Dark Face of Racism Examined in Tolkien's World |journal=[[Modern Fiction Studies]] |volume=50 |issue=4 |pages=866–867 |doi=10.1353/mfs.2005.0008 |jstor=26286382 |s2cid=162647975 |issn = 0026-7724 }}</ref><ref name="Power 2018">{{cite news |last=Power |first=Ed |date=27 November 2018 |title=JRR Tolkien's orcs are no more racist than George Lucas's Stormtroopers |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/news/jrr-tolkiens-orcs-no-racist-george-lucass-stormtroopers/ |url-status=live |access-date=20 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210127224728/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/news/jrr-tolkiens-orcs-no-racist-george-lucass-stormtroopers/ |archive-date=27 January 2021}}</ref> Other scholars have stated that Tolkien's Middle-earth is definitely polycultural and polylingual, and that attacks on Tolkien based on ''The Lord of the Rings'' often omit evidence from the text.<ref name="Straubhaar 2004">{{cite book |last=Straubhaar |first=Sandra Ballif |chapter=Myth, Late Roman History, and Multiculturalism in Tolkien's Middle-Earth |title=Tolkien and the Invention of Myth: a Reader |title-link=Tolkien and the Invention of Myth |publisher=[[University Press of Kentucky]] |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-8131-2301-1 |editor-last=Chance |editor-first=Jane |editor-link=Jane Chance |pages=101–117 |author-link=Sandra Ballif Straubhaar}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Lobdell |first=Jared |title=The World of the Rings |publisher=[[Open Court Publishing Company|Open Court]] |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-87548-303-0 |page=116 |author-link=Jared Lobdell}}</ref>

=== Nature ===

{{further|Environmentalism in The Lord of the Rings}}

During most of his own life, [[conservationism]] was not yet on the political agenda, and Tolkien himself did not directly express conservationist views—except in some private letters, in which he tells about his fondness for forests and sadness at tree-felling. In later years, a number of authors of biographies or literary analyses of Tolkien conclude that during his writing of ''The Lord of the Rings'', Tolkien gained increased interest in the value of wild and untamed nature, and in protecting what wild nature was left in the industrialized world.<ref>{{cite book |title=J. R. R. Tolkien and His Literary Resonances: Views of Middle-earth |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |year=2000 |editor-last=Clark |editor-first=George |editor-last2=Timmons |editor-first2=Daniel}}{{pages needed|date=September 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Saguaro |first1=Shelley |title=J. R. R. Tolkien: New Casebook |last2=Thacker |first2=Deborah Cogan |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-137-26399-5 |editor-last=Hunt |editor-first=Peter |chapter=Tolkien and Trees |chapter-url=http://eprints.glos.ac.uk/791/1/Tolkien%20and%20Trees%20PDF.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161003153917/http://eprints.glos.ac.uk/791/1/Tolkien%20and%20Trees%20PDF.pdf |archive-date=3 October 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Dickerson |first1=Matthew |title=Ents, Elves, and Eriador: The Environmental Vision of J. R. R. Tolkien |last2=Evans |first2=Jonathan |author2-link=Jonathan Evans (scholar) |publisher=University of Kentucky Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-8131-2418-6 |author-link=Matthew T. Dickerson}}</ref>

== Writing ==

=== Influences ===

{{Main|J. R. R. Tolkien's influences}}

Tolkien's fantasy books on Middle-earth, especially ''The Lord of the Rings'' and ''The Silmarillion'', drew on a wide array of influences, including his [[Philology|philological]] interest in language,<ref>{{harvnb|Shippey|2005|pp=48–49 and throughout}}</ref> Christianity,<ref>{{cite web |last=Bofetti |first=Jason |date=November 2001 |title=Tolkien's Catholic Imagination |url=http://www.crisismagazine.com/november2001/feature7.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060821111145/http://www.crisismagazine.com/november2001/feature7.htm |archive-date=21 August 2006 |website=Crisis Magazine}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Caldecott |first=Stratford |date=January–February 2002 |title=The Lord & Lady of the Rings |work=Touchstone Magazine |url=http://touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=15-01-051-f |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110426033720/http://touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=15-01-051-f |archive-date=26 April 2011}}</ref> [[medievalism]],<ref name="Yolen">{{cite book|last=Yolen|first=Jane|chapter=Introduction|title=After the King: Stories in Honor of J. R. R. Tolkien|date=1992 |editor-last=Greenberg|editor-first=Martin H.|pages=vii–viii|publisher=Macmillan |isbn=0-312-85175-8}}</ref> [[mythology]], [[archaeology]],<ref>{{harvnb|Shippey|2005|pp=40–41}}</ref> ancient and modern literature, and personal experience. His philological work centred on the study of [[Old English]] literature, especially ''[[Beowulf]]'', and he acknowledged its importance to his writings.<ref>{{harvnb|Shippey|2005|pp=104, 190–197, 217 and throughout}}</ref> He was a gifted linguist, influenced by Germanic,<ref>{{harvnb|Shippey|2005|pp=66–74 and throughout}}</ref> Celtic,<ref name="Fimi">{{cite journal |last=Fimi |first=Dimitra |author-link=Dimitra Fimi |year=2006 |title='Mad' Elves and 'elusive beauty': some Celtic strands of Tolkien's mythology |journal=[[Folklore (journal)|Folklore]] |volume=117 |issue=2 |pages=156–170 |doi=10.1080/00155870600707847 |issn=1547-3155 |jstor=30035484 |s2cid=162292626}}</ref> Finnish,<ref>{{cite web |last=Handwerk |first=Brian |date=1 March 2004 |title=Lord of the Rings Inspired by an Ancient Epic |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/12/1219_tolkienroots.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060316192124/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/12/1219_tolkienroots.html |archive-date=16 March 2006 |website=National Geographic News}}</ref> and Greek<ref name="Purtill 2003">{{cite book |last=Purtill |first=Richard L. |title=J. R. R. Tolkien: Myth, Morality, and Religion |publisher=[[Harper & Row]] |year=2003 |isbn=0-89870-948-2 |location=San Francisco |pages=52, 131 |author-link=Richard Purtill}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Flieger |first=Verlyn |chapter=Strange Powers of the Mind |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I33v5ny3NX0C&pg=PA77 |title=A Question of Time: J. R. R. Tolkien's Road to Faërie |title-link=A Question of Time (book) |publisher=[[Kent State University Press]] |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-87338-699-9 |pages=76–77 |author-link=Verlyn Flieger |access-date=3 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210526123500/https://books.google.com/books?id=I33v5ny3NX0C&pg=PA77 |archive-date=26 May 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref> language and mythology. Commentators have attempted to identify many literary and topological antecedents for characters, places and events in Tolkien's writings. Some writers were important to him, including the [[Arts and Crafts]] polymath [[William Morris]],<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|p=77}}</ref> and he undoubtedly made use of some real place-names, such as Bag End, the name of his aunt's home.<ref name="Morton 2009">{{cite book |last=Morton |first=Andrew |title=Tolkien's Bag End |publisher=Brewin Books |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-85858-455-3 |location=Studley, Warwickshire |oclc=551485018 |author-link=Andrew Morton (writer)}} Morton wrote [http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/1065-Bag-End-A-Very-English-Place.php an account of his findings]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201205154649/http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/1065-Bag-End-A-Very-English-Place.php |date=5 December 2020 }} for the Tolkien Library.</ref> He acknowledged, too, [[John Buchan]] and [[H. Rider Haggard]], authors of modern adventure stories that he enjoyed.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Resnick |first=Henry |year=1967 |title=An Interview with Tolkien |magazine=[[Niekas]] |pages=37–47}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Lobdell |first=Jared C. |url=https://archive.org/details/worldofringslang0000lobd/page/5 |title=The World of the Rings: Language, Religion, and Adventure in Tolkien |publisher=Open Court |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-8126-9569-4 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/worldofringslang0000lobd/page/5 5–6] |author-link=Jared Lobdell}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Rogers |first1=William N. II |title=J. R. R. Tolkien and His Literary Resonances: Views of Middle-earth |last2=Underwood |first2=Michael R. |publisher=Greenwood Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-313-30845-1 |editor-last=Clark |editor-first=George |pages=[https://archive.org/details/jrrtolkienhislit0000unse/page/121 121–132] |chapter=Gagool and Gollum: Exemplars of Degeneration in ''King Solomon's Mines'' and ''The Hobbit'' |editor-last2=Timmons |editor-first2=Daniel |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/jrrtolkienhislit0000unse/page/121}}</ref> The effects of some specific experiences have been identified. Tolkien's childhood in the English countryside, and its urbanization by the growth of [[Birmingham]], influenced his creation of [[the Shire]],<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|p=180}}</ref> while his personal experience of [[Trench warfare|fighting in the trenches]] of the [[First World War]] affected his depiction of [[Mordor]].<ref name="Ciabattari BBC 2014">{{cite news |last=Ciabattari |first=Jane |date=20 November 2014 |title=Hobbits and hippies: Tolkien and the counterculture |publisher=[[BBC]] |url=http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20141120-the-hobbits-and-the-hippies |url-status=live |access-date=3 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331091048/http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20141120-the-hobbits-and-the-hippies |archive-date=31 March 2019}}</ref>

=== Publications ===
{{further|J. R. R. Tolkien bibliography}}

==== "''Beowulf'': The Monsters and the Critics" ====
{{Main|Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics}}

In addition to writing fiction, Tolkien was an author of academic literary criticism. His seminal 1936 lecture, later published as an article, revolutionized the treatment of the Anglo-Saxon epic ''[[Beowulf]]'' by literary critics. The essay remains highly influential in the study of Old English literature to this day.<ref name="Niles">{{cite book |last=Niles |first=John D. |title=A ''Beowulf'' Handbook |date=1998 |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |isbn=0-8032-6150-0 |editor-last=Bjork |editor-first=Robert E. |editor-link=John D. Niles |location=Lincoln, Nebraska |page=5 |chapter=''Beowulf'', Truth, and Meaning |quote=Bypassing earlier scholarship, critics of the past fifty years have generally traced the current era of ''Beowulf'' studies back to 1936 [and Tolkien's essay]. |author-link=John Niles (scholar) |editor-last2=Niles |editor-first2=John D.}}</ref> ''Beowulf'' is one of the [[Beowulf in Middle-earth|most significant influences upon Tolkien's later fiction]], with major details of both ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings'' being adapted from the poem.<ref>{{harvnb|Shippey|2005|pp=66–74}}</ref>

==== "On Fairy-Stories" ====
{{Main|On Fairy-Stories}}
This essay discusses the fairy-story as a literary form. It was initially written as the 1939 Andrew Lang Lecture at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. Tolkien focuses on [[Andrew Lang]]'s work as a folklorist and collector of fairy tales. He disagreed with Lang's broad inclusion, in his [[Lang's Fairy Books|Fairy Book]] collections, of traveller's tales, beast fables, and other types of stories. Tolkien held a narrower perspective, viewing fairy stories as those that took place in [[Fairyland|Faerie]], an enchanted realm, with or without fairies as characters. He viewed them as the natural development of the interaction of human imagination and human language.<ref>{{harvnb|Shippey|2005|pp=56–57}}</ref>

==== Children's books and other short works ====
In addition to his [[mythopoeia|mythopoeic]] compositions, Tolkien enjoyed inventing fantasy stories to entertain his children.<ref>{{cite news |last=Phillip |first=Norman |year=2005 |title=The Prevalence of Hobbits |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/01/02/11/specials/tolkien-mag67.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090411062440/http://www.nytimes.com/books/01/02/11/specials/tolkien-mag67.html |archive-date=11 April 2009}}</ref> He wrote annual Christmas letters from [[Father Christmas]] for them, building up a series of short stories (later compiled and published as ''[[The Father Christmas Letters]]'').<ref name="travels">{{cite news |date=22 December 2002 |title=Grand Tours: Who Travels the World in a Single Night? |work=[[The Independent on Sunday]] |url=https://www.questia.com/read/1P2-1716622/travel-etc-grand-tours-who-travels-the-world-in |url-status=live |access-date=22 November 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921073323/http://www.questia.com/read/1P2-1716622/travel-etc-grand-tours-who-travels-the-world-in |archive-date=21 September 2013}}</ref> Other works included ''[[Mr. Bliss]]'' and ''[[Roverandom]]'' (for children), and ''[[Leaf by Niggle]]'' (part of ''[[Tree and Leaf]]''), ''[[The Adventures of Tom Bombadil]]'', ''[[Smith of Wootton Major]]'' and ''[[Farmer Giles of Ham]]''. ''Roverandom'' and ''Smith of Wootton Major'', like ''The Hobbit'', borrowed ideas from his legendarium.<ref name="A Companion to J. R. R. Tolkien ch13">{{cite book |last=Artamonova |first=Maria |title=A Companion to J. R. R. Tolkien |date=15 April 2014 |publisher=Wiley |isbn=978-0-470-65982-3 |editor-last=Lee |editor-first=Stuart D. |at=Chapter 13 |chapter='Minor' Works |doi=10.1002/9781118517468 |s2cid=160570361}}</ref>

==== ''The Hobbit'' ====
{{Main|The Hobbit}}

Tolkien never expected his stories to become popular, but by sheer accident a book called ''[[The Hobbit]]'', which he had written some years before for his own children, came in 1936 to the attention of Susan Dagnall, an employee of the London publishing firm [[George Allen & Unwin]], who persuaded Tolkien to submit it for publication.<ref name="NYTimes obit" /> When it was published a year later, the book attracted adult readers as well as children, and it became popular enough for the publishers to ask Tolkien to produce a sequel.<ref>{{ME-ref|DB|pp=8–23}}</ref>

==== ''The Lord of the Rings'' ====

{{main|The Lord of the Rings}}

The request for a sequel prompted Tolkien to begin what became his most famous work: the epic novel ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' (originally published in three volumes in 1954–1955). Tolkien spent more than ten years writing the primary narrative and appendices for ''The Lord of the Rings'', during which time he received the constant support of the [[Inklings]], in particular his closest friend [[C.&nbsp;S.&nbsp;Lewis]], the author of ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia]]''. Both ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings'' are set against the background of ''The Silmarillion'', but in a time long after it.<ref name="The New Hobbit">{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|pp=187–208}}</ref>

Tolkien at first intended ''The Lord of the Rings'' to be a children's tale in the style of ''The Hobbit'', but it quickly grew darker and more serious in the writing.<ref>{{cite news |date=5 June 1955 |title=Oxford Calling |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/01/02/11/specials/tolkien-oxford.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090411062443/http://www.nytimes.com/books/01/02/11/specials/tolkien-oxford.html |archive-date=11 April 2009}}</ref> Though a direct sequel to ''The Hobbit'', it addressed an older audience, drawing on the immense [[backstory]] of [[Beleriand]] that Tolkien had constructed in previous years, and which eventually saw posthumous publication in ''The Silmarillion'' and other volumes.<ref name="The New Hobbit" /> Tolkien strongly influenced the [[fantasy fiction|fantasy]] genre that grew up after the book's success.<ref>{{cite book |last=Fimi |first=Dimitra |title=A Companion to J. R. R. Tolkien |date=2020 |publisher=[[Wiley Blackwell]] |isbn=978-1-119-65602-9 |editor-last=Lee |editor-first=Stuart D. |editor-link=Stuart D. Lee |pages=335–349 |chapter=Later Fantasy Fiction: Tolkien's Legacy |author-link=Dimitra Fimi |orig-date=2014}}</ref>

''The Lord of the Rings'' became immensely popular in the 1960s and has remained so ever since, ranking as one of the most popular works of fiction of the 20th century, judged by both sales and reader surveys.<ref>{{cite news |last=Seiler |first=Andy |date=16 December 2003 |title='Rings' comes full circle |work=[[USA Today]] |url=http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2003-12-12-lotr-main_x.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121019074732/http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2003-12-12-lotr-main_x.htm |archive-date=19 October 2012}}</ref> In the 2003 "[[Big Read]]" survey conducted by the BBC, ''The Lord of the Rings'' was found to be the UK's "Best-loved Novel".<ref>{{cite web |date=April 2003 |title=BBC – The Big Read |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread/top100.shtml |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121031065136/http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread/top100.shtml |archive-date=31 October 2012 |access-date=2 November 2012 |website=BBC}}</ref> Australians voted ''The Lord of the Rings'' "My Favourite Book" in a 2004 survey conducted by the [[Australian Broadcasting Corporation|Australian ABC]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Cooper |first=Callista |date=5 December 2005 |title=Epic trilogy tops favorite film poll |url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200512/s1523327.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060116213130/http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200512/s1523327.htm |archive-date=16 January 2006 |website=ABC News}}</ref> In a 1999 poll of [[Amazon (company)|Amazon.com]] customers, ''The Lord of the Rings'' was judged to be their favourite "book of the millennium".<ref>{{cite web |last=O'Hehir |first=Andrew |date=4 June 2001 |title=The book of the century |url=http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2001/06/04/tolkien/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060213000712/http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2001/06/04/tolkien/ |archive-date=13 February 2006 |website=Salon}}</ref> In 2002 Tolkien was voted the 92nd "[[100 Greatest Britons|greatest Briton]]" in a poll conducted by the BBC, and in 2004 he was voted 35th in the [[SABC3's Great South Africans]], the only person to appear in both lists. His popularity is not limited to the English-speaking world: in a 2004 poll inspired by the UK's "Big Read" survey, about 250,000 Germans found ''The Lord of the Rings'' to be their favourite work of literature.<ref>{{cite news |last=Diver |first=Krysia |date=5 October 2004 |title=A lord for Germany |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |url=https://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/10/04/1096871805007.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070817074109/http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/10/04/1096871805007.html |archive-date=17 August 2007}}</ref>

==== ''The Silmarillion'' ====

{{Main|The Silmarillion}}

Tolkien wrote a brief "Sketch of the Mythology", which included the tales of Beren and Lúthien and of Túrin; and that sketch eventually evolved into the ''[[Quenta Silmarillion]]'', an epic history that Tolkien started three times but never published. Tolkien desperately hoped to publish it along with ''The Lord of the Rings'', but publishers (both [[Allen & Unwin]] and [[HarperCollins|Collins]]) declined. Moreover, printing costs were very high in 1950s Britain, requiring ''The Lord of the Rings'' to be published in three volumes.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hammond |first=Wayne G. |title=J.R.R. Tolkien: a descriptive bibliography |date=1993 |others=Douglas A. Anderson |publisher=Oak Knoll Books |isbn=1-873040-11-3 |location=Winchester |oclc=27013976}}</ref> The story of this continuous redrafting is told in the posthumous series ''[[The History of Middle-earth]]'', edited by Tolkien's son, Christopher Tolkien. From around 1936, Tolkien began to extend this framework to include the tale of ''[[The Fall of Númenor]]'', which was inspired by the legend of [[Atlantis]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Nagy |first=Gergely |title=A Companion to J. R. R. Tolkien |date=2020 |publisher=[[Wiley Blackwell]] |isbn=978-1-119-65602-9 |editor-last=Lee |editor-first=Stuart D. |editor-link=Stuart D. Lee |pages=107–118 |chapter='The Silmarillion': Tolkien's Theory of Myth, Text, and Culture |author-link=Gergely Nagy (scholar) |orig-date=2014}}</ref>

Tolkien appointed his son Christopher to be his [[literary executor]], and he (with assistance from [[Guy Gavriel Kay]], later a well-known fantasy author in his own right) organized some of this material into a single coherent volume, published as ''[[The Silmarillion]]'' in 1977. It received the Locus Award for Best Fantasy novel in 1978.<ref name="WWE-1978">{{cite web |title=1978 Award Winners & Nominees |url=http://www.worldswithoutend.com/books_year_index.asp?year=1978 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090709212409/http://www.worldswithoutend.com/books_year_index.asp?year=1978 |archive-date=9 July 2009 |website=Worlds Without End}}</ref>

==== ''Unfinished Tales'' and ''The History of Middle-earth'' ====
In 1980, Christopher Tolkien published a collection of more fragmentary material, under the title ''[[Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth]]''. In subsequent years (1983–1996), he published a large amount of the remaining unpublished materials, together with notes and extensive commentary, in a series of twelve volumes called ''[[The History of Middle-earth]]''. They contain unfinished, abandoned, alternative, and outright contradictory accounts, since they were always a work in progress for Tolkien and he only rarely settled on a definitive version for any of the stories. There is not complete consistency between ''The Lord of the Rings'' and ''The Hobbit'', the two most closely related works, because Tolkien never fully integrated all their traditions into each other. He commented in 1965, while editing ''The Hobbit'' for a third edition, that he would have preferred to rewrite the book completely because of the style of its prose.<ref>{{cite web |last=Martinez |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Martinez (Tolkien scholar) |date=27 July 2002 |title=Middle-earth Revised, Again |url=http://www.merp.com/essays/MichaelMartinez/michaelmartinezsuite101essay122 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080617122627/http://www.merp.com/essays/MichaelMartinez/michaelmartinezsuite101essay122 |archive-date=17 June 2008 |website=Michael Martinez Tolkien Essays}}</ref>

==== Works compiled by Christopher Tolkien ====
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Date !! Title !! Description
|-
| 2007 || ''[[The Children of Húrin]]'' || tells the story of [[Túrin Turambar]] and his sister [[Nienor]], children of [[Húrin Thalion]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Grovier |first=Kelly |date=27 April 2007 |title=In the name of the father |url=http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/generalfiction/0,,2067804,00.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070824151048/http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/generalfiction/0,,2067804,00.html |archive-date=24 August 2007 |access-date=22 September 2007 |publisher=[[The Observer]]}}</ref>
|-
| 2009 || ''[[The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún]]'' || retells the legend of [[Sigurd]] and the fall of the [[Niflungs]] from Germanic mythology as a [[narrative poem]] in [[alliterative verse]], modelled after the [[Old Norse]] poetry of the [[Elder Edda]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Allen |first=Katie |date=6 January 2009 |title=New Tolkien for HarperCollins |url=http://www.thebookseller.com/news/73781-new-tolkien-for-harpercollins.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090430090505/http://www.thebookseller.com/news/73781-new-tolkien-for-harpercollins.html |archive-date=30 April 2009 |access-date=6 January 2009 |publisher=The Bookseller}}</ref>
|-
| 2013 || ''[[The Fall of Arthur]]'' || a narrative poem that Tolkien composed in the early 1930s, inspired by high medieval Arthurian fiction but set in the Post-Roman [[Migration Period]], showing Arthur as a [[Sub-Roman Britain|British]] [[warlord]] fighting the [[Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain|Saxon invasion]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Flood |first=Alison |date=9 October 2012 |title=New JRR Tolkien epic due out next year |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/oct/09/jrr-tolkien-new-poem-king-arthur |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161202023157/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/oct/09/jrr-tolkien-new-poem-king-arthur |archive-date=2 December 2016 |website=guardian.co.uk}}</ref>
|-
| 2014 || ''[[Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary]]'' || a prose translation of ''[[Beowulf]]'' that Tolkien made in the 1920s, with commentary from Tolkien's lecture notes.<ref>{{cite news |date=20 March 2014 |title=JRR Tolkien's Beowulf translation to be published |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-26662761 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140415081413/http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-26662761 |archive-date=15 April 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=26 May 2014 |title=Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary |url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-544-44278-8 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140905170548/http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-544-44278-8 |archive-date=5 September 2014 |website=[[Publishers Weekly]]}}</ref>
|-
| 2015 || ''[[The Story of Kullervo]]'' || a retelling of a 19th-century Finnish poem that Tolkien wrote in 1915 while studying at Oxford.<ref>{{cite news |last=Flood |first=Alison |date=12 August 2015 |title=JRR Tolkien's first fantasy story to be published this month |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/aug/12/jrr-tolkiens-first-fantasy-story-to-be-published-this-month |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161202024432/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/aug/12/jrr-tolkiens-first-fantasy-story-to-be-published-this-month |archive-date=2 December 2016}}</ref>
|-
| 2017 || ''[[Beren and Lúthien]]'' || one of the oldest and most often revised in Tolkien's legendarium; a version appeared in ''The Silmarillion''.<ref name="edition2017">{{cite news |last=Flood |first=Alison |date=19 October 2016 |title=JRR Tolkien's Middle-earth love story to be published next year |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/oct/19/jrr-tolkiens-middle-earth-love-story-published-beren-and-luthien |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161209023052/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/oct/19/jrr-tolkiens-middle-earth-love-story-published-beren-and-luthien |archive-date=9 December 2016}}</ref>
|-
| 2018 || ''[[The Fall of Gondolin]]'' || tells of a beautiful, mysterious city destroyed by dark forces; Tolkien called it "the first real story" of [[Middle-earth]].<ref name="TolkienSociety2">{{cite news |last=Helen |first=Daniel |date=30 August 2018 |title=The Fall of Gondolin published |publisher=Tolkien Society |url=https://www.tolkiensociety.org/2018/08/the-fall-of-gondolin-published/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191204145208/https://www.tolkiensociety.org/2018/08/the-fall-of-gondolin-published/ |archive-date=4 December 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Flood |first=Alison |date=10 April 2018 |title=The Fall of Gondolin, 'new' JRR Tolkien book, to be published in 2018 |work=[[The Guardian]] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/apr/10/the-fall-of-gondolin-new-jrr-tolkien-book-to-be-published-in-2018 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180413110856/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/apr/10/the-fall-of-gondolin-new-jrr-tolkien-book-to-be-published-in-2018 |archive-date=13 April 2018}}</ref>
|}

=== Manuscript locations ===
Before his death, Tolkien negotiated the sale of the manuscripts, drafts, proofs and other materials related to his then-published works—including ''The Lord of the Rings'', ''The Hobbit'' and ''Farmer Giles of Ham''—to the Department of Special Collections and University Archives at [[Marquette University]]'s John P. Raynor, S.J., Library in [[Milwaukee, Wisconsin|Milwaukee]], Wisconsin.<ref>{{cite web |date=4 March 2003 |title=J. R. R. Tolkien Collection |url=http://www.marquette.edu/library/collections/archives/tolkien.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19980112073406/http://www.marquette.edu/library/collections/archives/tolkien.html |archive-date=12 January 1998 |website=Department of Special Collections and University Archives, Marquette University}}</ref> After his death his estate donated the papers containing Tolkien's ''Silmarillion'' mythology and his academic work to the [[Bodleian Library]] at [[Oxford University]].<ref>{{cite news |last=McDowell |first=Edwin |date=4 September 1983 |title=Middle-earth Revisited |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/01/02/11/specials/tolkien-revisited.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090411062452/http://www.nytimes.com/books/01/02/11/specials/tolkien-revisited.html |archive-date=11 April 2009}}</ref> The Bodleian Library held an exhibition of his work in 2018, including more than 60 items which had never been seen in public before.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Turley |first=Katherine |date=2 June 2018 |title=Inside a Very Great Story... |magazine=The Tablet |pages=20–21}}</ref>

In 2009, a partial draft of ''[[Language and Human Nature]]'', which Tolkien had begun co-writing with [[C.&nbsp;S.&nbsp;Lewis]] but had never completed, was discovered at the Bodleian Library.<ref>{{cite web |date=8 July 2009 |title=Beebe discovers unpublished C.&nbsp;S.&nbsp;Lewis manuscript |url=http://www.txstate.edu/news/news_releases/news_archive/2009/07/CSLewis070809.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100602064824/http://www.txstate.edu/news/news_releases/news_archive/2009/07/CSLewis070809.html |archive-date=2 June 2010 |website=txstate.edu, University News Service}}</ref>

== Languages and philology ==
=== Linguistic career ===

{{further|Philology and Middle-earth}}

Both Tolkien's academic career and his literary production are inseparable from his love of language and [[philology]]. He specialized in English philology at university and in 1915 graduated with [[Old Norse]] as his special subject. He worked on the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' from 1918 and is credited with having worked on a number of words starting with the letter W, including ''[[walrus]]'', over which he struggled mightily.<ref>{{cite book |last=Winchester |first=Simon |title=The meaning of everything: the story of the Oxford English dictionary |date=2003 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-860702-4 |location=Oxford |oclc=52830480}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Gilliver |first=Peter |title=The ring of words: Tolkien and the Oxford English dictionary |date=2006 |publisher=Oxford University Press |others=Jeremy Marshall, E. S. C. Weiner |isbn=978-0-19-861069-4 |location=Oxford |oclc=65197968}}</ref> In 1920, he became Reader in English Language at the [[University of Leeds]], where he claimed credit for raising the number of students of [[linguistics]] from five to twenty. He gave courses in Old English [[heroic verse]], [[history of English]], various [[Old English]] and [[Middle English]] texts, Old and Middle English philology, introductory [[Germanic languages|Germanic]] philology, [[Gothic language|Gothic]], [[Old Icelandic]], and [[Middle Welsh language|Medieval Welsh]]. When in 1925, aged thirty-three, Tolkien applied for the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship of Anglo-Saxon at [[Pembroke College, Oxford]], he boasted that his students of Germanic philology in Leeds had even formed a "[[Viking revival|Viking Club]]".<ref group="T">{{harvnb|Carpenter|Tolkien|1981|loc=''Letters'' #7, to the Electors of the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship of Anglo-Saxon, University of Oxford, 27 June 1925}}</ref> He had a certain, if imperfect, knowledge of [[Finnish language|Finnish]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Grotta |first=Daniel |title=J.R.R. Tolkien: architect of Middle Earth |date=1976 |others=Frank Wilson |isbn=0-914294-29-6 |publisher=Running Press |location=Philadelphia |oclc=1991974}}</ref>

Privately, Tolkien was attracted to "things of [[Race (classification of human beings)|racial]] and linguistic significance", and in his 1955 lecture ''[[English and Welsh]]'', which is crucial to his understanding of race and language, he entertained notions of "inherent linguistic predilections", which he termed the "native language" as opposed to the "cradle-tongue" which a person first learns to speak.<ref>{{cite book |last=Scull |first=Christina |title=The J.R.R. Tolkien companion & guide |date=2006 |publisher=HarperCollins Publishers |others=Wayne G. Hammond |isbn=0-261-10381-4 |location=Hammersmith, London |page=249 |oclc=82367707}}</ref> He considered the [[West Midlands (region)|West Midlands]] dialect of Middle English to be his own "native language", and, as he wrote to [[W. H. Auden]] in 1955, "I am a West-midlander by blood (and took to early west-midland Middle English as a known tongue as soon as I set eyes on it)."<ref group="T">{{harvnb|Carpenter|Tolkien|1981|loc=''Letters'' #163 to [[W. H. Auden]], 7 June 1955.}}</ref>

=== Language construction ===

{{See also|Languages constructed by J. R. R. Tolkien}}

Parallel to Tolkien's professional work as a philologist, and sometimes overshadowing this work, to the effect that his academic output remained rather thin, was his affection for [[constructed languages|constructing languages]]. The most developed of these are [[Quenya]] and [[Sindarin]], the etymological connection between which formed the core of much of Tolkien's ''legendarium''. Language and grammar for Tolkien was a matter of [[aesthetics]] and [[euphony]], and Quenya in particular was designed from "phonaesthetic" considerations; it was intended as an "Elven-latin", and was phonologically based on Latin, with ingredients from Finnish, Welsh, English, and Greek.<ref name="letter144" group="T">{{harvnb|Carpenter|Tolkien|1981|loc=''Letters'' #144 to Naomi Mitchison, 25 April 1954.}}</ref>

Tolkien considered languages inseparable from the mythology associated with them, and he consequently took a dim view of [[International auxiliary language|auxiliary languages]]: in 1930 a congress of Esperantists were told as much by him, in his lecture ''[[A Secret Vice]]'',<ref>{{cite web |last=Corsetti |first=Renato |date=31 January 2018 |title=Tolkien's 'Secret Vice' |url=http://blogs.bl.uk/european/2018/01/tolkiens-secret-vice.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180204082940/http://blogs.bl.uk/european/2018/01/tolkiens-secret-vice.html |archive-date=4 February 2018 |website=British Library}}</ref> "Your language construction will breed a mythology", but by 1956 he had concluded that "[[Volapük]], [[Esperanto]], [[Ido (language)|Ido]], [[Novial]], &c, &c, are dead, far deader than ancient unused languages, because their authors never invented any Esperanto legends".<ref name="letter180" group="T">{{harvnb|Carpenter|Tolkien|1981|loc=''Letters'' #180 to 'Mr Thompson' (draft), 14 January 1956.}}</ref>

The popularity of Tolkien's books has had a small but lasting effect on the use of language in fantasy literature in particular, and even on mainstream dictionaries, which today commonly accept Tolkien's idiosyncratic spellings ''dwarves'' and ''dwarvish'' (alongside ''dwarfs'' and ''dwarfish''), which had been little used since the mid-19th century and earlier. (In fact, according to Tolkien, had the [[Old English]] plural survived, it would have been ''dwarrows'' or ''dwerrows''.) He coined the term ''[[eucatastrophe]]'', used mainly in connection with his own work.<ref>{{cite news |last=Fisher |first=Richard |title=Eucatastrophe: Tolkien's word for the "anti-doomsday" |url=https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20221005-eucatastrophe-tolkiens-word-for-the-anti-doomsday |year=2022 |access-date=9 February 2023 |work=[[BBC]]}}</ref>

== Artwork ==

{{Main|Tolkien's artwork}}

Tolkien learnt to paint and draw as a child and continued to do so all his adult life. From early in his writing career, the development of his stories was accompanied by drawings and paintings, especially of landscapes, and by maps of the lands in which the tales were set. He produced pictures to accompany the stories told to his own children, including those later published in ''Mr Bliss'' and ''Roverandom'', and sent them elaborately illustrated letters purporting to come from Father Christmas. Although he regarded himself as an amateur, the publisher used the author's own cover art, [[Tolkien's maps|his maps]], and full-page illustrations for the early editions of ''The Hobbit''. He prepared maps and illustrations for ''The Lord of the Rings'', but the first edition contained only the maps, his [[calligraphy]] for the inscription on the One Ring, and his ink drawing of the [[Doors of Durin]]. Much of [[Tolkien's artwork|his artwork]] was collected and published in 1995 as a book: ''[[J. R. R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator]]''. The book discusses Tolkien's paintings, drawings, and sketches, and reproduces approximately 200 examples of his work.<ref name="Hammond Scull 1995">{{cite book |last1=Hammond |first1=Wayne G. |title=J. R. R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator |title-link=J. R. R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator |last2=Scull |first2=Christina |date=1995 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |isbn=978-0-395-74816-9 |location=Boston |pages=7, 9, and whole book |oclc=33450124 |author-link=Wayne G. Hammond |author-link2=Christina Scull}}</ref> [[Catherine McIlwaine]] curated a major exhibition of Tolkien's artwork at the [[Bodleian Library]], ''[[Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth]]'', accompanied by a book of the same name that analyses Tolkien's achievement and illustrates the full range of the types of artwork that he created.<ref>{{cite book |last=McIlwaine |first=Catherine |author-link=Catherine McIlwaine |title=[[Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth]] |publisher=[[Bodleian Library]] |year=2018 |isbn=978-1-85124-485-0 |location=Oxford}}</ref>

== Legacy ==

=== Influence ===

{{further|Tolkien's impact on fantasy|Works inspired by J. R. R. Tolkien}}

While many other authors had published works of fantasy before Tolkien, the great success of ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings'' led directly to [[Tolkien's impact on fantasy|a popular resurgence]] and the shaping of the modern fantasy genre. This has caused Tolkien to be popularly identified as the "father" of modern fantasy literature<ref>{{cite web |last=Mitchell |first=Christopher |title=J. R. R. Tolkien: Father of Modern Fantasy Literature |url=http://www.veritas.org/media/talks/585  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090620040316/http://www.veritas.org/media/talks/585 |archive-date=20 June 2009 |publisher=Veritas Forum}}</ref><ref name="Oxford Companion">{{cite book |title=Oxford companion to English Literature |year=2000 |editor-last=Drabble |editor-first=Margaret |edition=6 |page=352}}</ref>—or, more precisely, of high fantasy,<ref name="encyc">{{cite book |title=The Encyclopedia of Fantasy |title-link=The Encyclopedia of Fantasy |publisher=St. Martin's Press |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-312-19869-5 |editor-last=Clute |editor-first=John |editor-last2=Grant |editor-first2=John}}</ref> as in the work of authors such as [[Ursula Le Guin]] and her ''[[Earthsea]]'' series.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bernardo |first=Susan M. |title=Ursula K. Le Guin: a critical companion |date=2006 |publisher=Greenwood Press |others=Graham J. Murphy |isbn=978-0-313-02730-7 |location=Westport, Conn. |pages=92–93 |oclc=230345464}}</ref> In 2008, ''[[The Times]]'' ranked him sixth on a list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".<ref name="The Times April 2008">{{cite news |date=5 January 2008 |title=The 50 greatest British writers since 1945 |work=[[The Times]] |url=https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-50-greatest-british-writers-since-1945-ws3g69xrf90 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110425050801/http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article3127837.ece |archive-date=25 April 2011}}</ref> His influence has extended to [[Music of Middle-earth|music]], including the Danish group [[the Tolkien Ensemble]]'s setting of all the [[Poetry in The Lord of the Rings|poetry in ''The Lord of the Rings'']] to their vocal music;<ref>{{cite web |last=Weichmann |first=Christian |title=The Lord of the Rings: Complete Songs and Poems (4-CD-Box) |url=http://www.tolkien-ensemble.net/rezensionen/rezensionen.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161027034047/http://www.tolkien-ensemble.net/rezensionen/rezensionen.html |archive-date=27 October 2016 |access-date=13 January 2020 |publisher=[[The Tolkien Ensemble]] |language=en}}</ref> and to a broad range of [[Middle-earth in video games|games set in Middle-earth]].<ref name="Maier-Zucchino 2019">{{cite web |last=Maier-Zucchino |first=Evan |date=23 May 2019 |title=After Nearly 40 Years, Video Games Still Don't Do Lord Of The Rings Justice |url=https://www.kotaku.com.au/2019/05/after-nearly-40-years-video-games-still-dont-do-lord-of-the-rings-justice/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190524080708/https://www.kotaku.com.au/2019/05/after-nearly-40-years-video-games-still-dont-do-lord-of-the-rings-justice/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=24 May 2019 |access-date=13 June 2020 |publisher=Kotaku}}</ref>
Among literary allusions to Tolkien, he appears as the elderly "Professor J. B. Timbermill" in all five novels in [[J. I. M. Stewart]]'s series ''[[A Staircase in Surrey]]''.<ref name="Gray 2014">{{cite news |last1=Gray |first1=Christopher |title=Affectionate memories of life at Christ Church |url=https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/10909799.affectionate-memories-life-christ-church/ |access-date=24 November 2023 |work=Oxford Mail |date=2 January 2014 |quote=Lemprière then turns to the fictional output of his colleague J.B. Timbermill and observes: 'I suppose that rum book of his might be called a novel of sorts.' The 'rum book' is ''Lord of the Rings'' ...}}</ref><ref name="Yates 1994">{{cite journal |last=Yates |first=Jessica |title=J.I.M. Stewart, J.B. Timbermill and J.R.R. Tolkien |journal=[[Mallorn (journal)|Mallorn]] |issue=31 |year=1994 |pages=54–56 |jstor=45320385 |url=https://journals.tolkiensociety.org/mallorn/article/view/185/173}}</ref> The scholar [[Tom Shippey]] describes Tolkien as the "author of the [20th] century",<ref>{{cite book |last=Shippey |first=Tom |url=https://archive.org/details/jrrtolkienauthor0000ship_d6u9 |title=J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century |publisher=HarperCollins |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-618-12764-1 |pages=vii–xxxv |author-link=Tom Shippey}}</ref> and states that "I do not think any modern writer of epic fantasy has managed to escape the mark of Tolkien, no matter how hard many of them have tried".<ref>{{cite book |last=Shippey |first=Tom |url=https://archive.org/details/jrrtolkienauthor0000ship_d6u9 |title=J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century |publisher=HarperCollins |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-618-12764-1 |pages=326 |language=en |author-link=Tom Shippey}}</ref> [[John Clute]], writing in ''[[The Encyclopedia of Fantasy]]'', similarly credits Tolkien with being "the twentieth-century's single most important author of fantasy".<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |year=1997 |title=Tolkien, J R R |encyclopedia=[[The Encyclopedia of Fantasy]] |url=https://sf-encyclopedia.com/fe/tolkien_j_r_r |access-date=2024-07-11 |last=Clute |first=John |author-link=John Clute |editor-last=Clute |editor-first=John |editor-link=John Clute |language=en |editor2-last=Grant |editor2-first=John |editor2-link=John Grant (author)}}</ref> His work has had a massive impact on western pop culture, and remains extremely influential.<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Hall |first=Michael A. |date=2005 |title=The Influence of J.R.R. Tolkien on Popular Culture |url=https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/uhp_theses/287/ |access-date=26 December 2023 |publisher=Southern Illinois University Carbondale}}</ref>

=== Adaptations ===

{{further|Middle-earth in film}}

In a 1951 letter to publisher Milton Waldman (1895–1976), Tolkien wrote about his intentions to create a "body of more or less connected legend", of which "[t]he cycles should be linked to a majestic whole, and yet leave scope for other minds and hands, wielding paint and music and drama".<ref group="T">{{harvnb|Carpenter|Tolkien|1981|loc=''Letters'' #131 to Milton Walden, late 1951}}</ref> The hands and minds of many artists have indeed been inspired by Tolkien's legends. Personally known to him were [[Pauline Baynes]] (Tolkien's favourite illustrator of ''[[The Adventures of Tom Bombadil]]'' and ''[[Farmer Giles of Ham]]'') and [[Donald Swann]] (who set the music to ''[[The Road Goes Ever On]]''). Queen [[Margrethe II of Denmark]] created illustrations to ''The Lord of the Rings'' in the early 1970s. She sent them to Tolkien, who was struck by the similarity they bore in style to his own drawings.<ref>{{cite news |last=Thygesen |first=Peter |date=Autumn 1999 |title=Queen Margrethe II: Denmark's monarch for a modern age |work=Scandinavian Review |url=https://www.questia.com/read/1P3-46949881 |url-status=live |access-date=12 March 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210526123505/https://www.gale.com/databases/questia |archive-date=26 May 2021}}</ref> Tolkien was not implacably opposed to the idea of a dramatic adaptation, however, and sold the film, stage and merchandise rights of ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings'' to [[United Artists]] in 1968. United Artists never made a film, although director [[John Boorman]] was planning a live-action film in the early 1970s. In 1976, the rights were sold to [[Tolkien Enterprises]], a division of the [[Saul Zaentz]] Company, and the first film adaptation of ''[[The Lord of the Rings (1978 film)|The Lord of the Rings]]'' was released in 1978 as an animated [[rotoscoping]] film directed by [[Ralph Bakshi]] with screenplay by the fantasy writer [[Peter S. Beagle]]. It covered only the first half of the story of ''The Lord of the Rings''.<ref>{{cite news |last=Canby |first=Vincent |date=15 November 1978 |title=Film: 'The Lord of the Rings' From Ralph Bakshi |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/01/02/11/specials/tolkien-lordfilm.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090411062438/http://www.nytimes.com/books/01/02/11/specials/tolkien-lordfilm.html |archive-date=11 April 2009}}</ref>

In 1977, an animated [[musical film|musical]] television film of ''[[The Hobbit (1977 film)|The Hobbit]]'' was made by [[Rankin-Bass]], and in 1980, they produced the animated musical television film ''[[The Return of the King (1980 film)|The Return of the King]]'', which covered some of the portions of ''The Lord of the Rings'' that Bakshi was unable to complete. From 2001 to 2003, [[New Line Cinema]] released ''[[The Lord of the Rings (film series)|The Lord of the Rings]]'' as a trilogy of live-action films that were filmed in New Zealand and directed by [[Peter Jackson]]. The series was successful, performing extremely well commercially and winning numerous [[Academy Awards|Oscars]].<ref>{{cite news |date=1 March 2004 |title=Rings scores Oscars clean sweep |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/3495748.stm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170831160410/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/3495748.stm |archive-date=31 August 2017}}</ref>
From 2012 to 2014, [[Warner Bros.]] and New Line Cinema released ''[[The Hobbit (film series)|The Hobbit]]'', a series of three films based on ''The Hobbit'', with [[Peter Jackson]] serving as executive producer, director, and co-writer.<ref name="february">{{cite news |last=McNary |first=Dave |date=15 October 2010 |title='The Hobbit' Pics to Shoot in February |work=Variety |url=https://variety.com/2010/film/news/the-hobbit-pics-to-shoot-in-february-1118025794/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131106100437/http://variety.com/2010/film/news/the-hobbit-pics-to-shoot-in-february-1118025794/ |archive-date=6 November 2013}}</ref> The first instalment, ''[[The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey]]'', was released in December 2012;<ref>{{cite web |title=The Hobbit Worldwide Release Dates |url=http://www.thehobbit.com/releasedates/release-dates.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121215171953/http://www.thehobbit.com/releasedates/release-dates.html |archive-date=15 December 2012 |publisher=TheHobbit.com}}</ref> the second, ''[[The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug]]'', in December 2013;<ref>{{cite web |title=The Hobbit Worldwide Release Dates |url=http://www.thehobbit.com/releasedates/index.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141109153155/http://www.thehobbit.com/releasedates/index.html |archive-date=9 November 2014 |publisher=TheHobbit.com}}</ref> and the last instalment, ''[[The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies]]'', in December 2014.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies Movie 2014 – Worldwide Release Dates |url=http://appcloud.warnerbros.com/thehobbit/releasedates/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141227165759/http://appcloud.warnerbros.com/thehobbit/releasedates/ |archive-date=27 December 2014 |publisher=warnerbros.com}}</ref> In 2017, [[Amazon (company)|Amazon]] acquired the global television rights to ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', for a series of new stories set before ''The Fellowship of the Ring''.<ref>{{cite web |date=13 November 2017 |title=Amazon will run a multi-season Lord of the Rings prequel TV series |url=https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/11/amazon-will-run-a-multi-season-lord-of-the-rings-prequel-tv-series/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171114012646/https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/11/amazon-will-run-a-multi-season-lord-of-the-rings-prequel-tv-series/ |archive-date=14 November 2017 |website=Ars Technica}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Koblin |first=John |date=13 November 2017 |title='Lord of the Rings' Series Coming to Amazon |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/13/arts/television/lord-of-the-rings-series-amazon.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180217165109/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/13/arts/television/lord-of-the-rings-series-amazon.html |archive-date=17 February 2018}}</ref>

=== Possible sainthood ===

On 2 September 2017, the [[Oxford Oratory]], Tolkien's parish church during his time in Oxford, offered its first Mass for the intention of Tolkien's cause for [[beatification]] to be opened.<ref name="epicpew1">{{cite news |title="Saint Tolkien": Why This English Don Is on the Path to Sainthood |url=https://epicpew.com/tolkien-canonization-cause/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190430175214/https://epicpew.com/tolkien-canonization-cause/ |archive-date=30 April 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Will Tolkien and Chesterton be declared saints? |url=https://aleteia.org/2018/07/14/will-tolkien-and-chesterton-be-declared-saints/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190430175206/https://aleteia.org/2018/07/14/will-tolkien-and-chesterton-be-declared-saints/ |archive-date=30 April 2019}}</ref> A prayer was written for his cause.<ref name="epicpew1" />

== Memorials ==
{{Main|List of things named after J. R. R. Tolkien and his works}}
Tolkien and the characters and places from his works have become eponyms of many real-world objects. These include [[Planetary nomenclature#Titan|geographical features on Titan]] (Saturn's largest moon),<ref>{{cite web |title=Categories for Naming Features on Planets and Satellites |url=http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Page/Categories |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140708063522/http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Page/Categories |archive-date=8 July 2014 |website=Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature |publisher=International Astronomical Union (IAU) Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN)}}</ref>
street names such as There and Back Again Lane, inspired by ''The Hobbit'',<ref>{{cite web |date=5 December 2019 |title='Ladies of the night' street name deeds to be sold |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-50502073?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/localnews/2633984-wick/0&link_location=live-reporting-story |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210526123517/https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-50502073 |archive-date=26 May 2021 |access-date=3 March 2021 |publisher=BBC}}</ref>
mountains such as [[Mount Shadowfax]], [[Mount Gandalf]], and [[Mount Aragorn]] in Canada,<ref>{{cite web |title=Mount Gandalf |url=http://apps.gov.bc.ca/pub/bcgnws/names/58340.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141213020600/http://apps.gov.bc.ca/pub/bcgnws/names/58340.html |archive-date=13 December 2014 |website=[[BC Geographical Names]] |publisher=[[British Columbia|The Province of British Columbia]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Mount Shadowfax |url=http://apps.gov.bc.ca/pub/bcgnws/names/58360.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141213020557/http://apps.gov.bc.ca/pub/bcgnws/names/58360.html |archive-date=13 December 2014 |website=[[BC Geographical Names]] |publisher=[[British Columbia|The Province of British Columbia]]}}</ref>
companies such as [[Palantir Technologies]],<ref name="historypalantir">{{cite web |date=April 2014 |title=A (Pretty) Complete History of Palantir |url=http://www.mausstrategicconsulting.com/1/post/2014/04/a-pretty-complete-history-of-palantir.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140516035733/http://www.mausstrategicconsulting.com/1/post/2014/04/a-pretty-complete-history-of-palantir.html |archive-date=16 May 2014 |publisher=Maus Strategic Consulting}}</ref>
and species including the wasp ''[[Shireplitis tolkieni]]'',<ref name="Larsen">{{cite journal |last=Larsen |first=Kristine |date=2007 |title=SAURON, Mount Doom, and Elvish Moths: The Influence of Tolkien on Modern Science |journal=[[Tolkien Studies]] |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=223–234 |doi=10.1353/tks.2007.0024 |s2cid=170563966}}</ref> 37 new species of ''[[Elachista]]'' moths,<ref name="Larsen" /><ref name="Kaila 1999">{{cite journal |last=Kaila |first=Lauri |year=1999 |title=A revision of the Nearctic species of the genus ''Elachista'' ''s.l.'' III. The ''bifasciella'', ''praelineata'', ''saccharella'' and ''freyerella'' groups (Lepidoptera, Elachistidae) |journal=Acta Zoologica Fennica |volume=211 |pages=1–235}}</ref> and many fossils.<ref name="Gee p55">{{cite book |last=Gee |first=Henry |url=https://archive.org/details/scienceofmiddlee00geeh |title=The Science of Middle-earth |date=2004 |publisher=Cold Spring Press |isbn=978-1-59360-023-5 |edition=1st |location=Cold Spring Harbor, NY |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref name="Van Valen1978">{{cite journal |last=Van Valen |first=L. M. |year=1978 |title=The beginning of the Age of Mammals |journal=[[Evolutionary Theory (journal)|Evolutionary Theory]] |volume=4 |pages=45–80}} [https://paleobiodb.org/classic/displayRefResults?reference_no=3485 Taxonomic summary] .</ref><ref name="Beck">{{cite magazine |last=Beck |first=Julie |date=3 May 2015 |title=Science's Love Affair with The Lord of the Rings |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/05/sciences-love-affair-with-the-lord-of-the-rings/392216/ |url-status=live |magazine=[[The Atlantic]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160309142712/http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/05/sciences-love-affair-with-the-lord-of-the-rings/392216/ |archive-date=9 March 2016}}</ref><!--this is not a list: please don't add anything here, add it to the [[List of things named after J. R. R. Tolkien and his works]] and cite it there-->

Since 2003, [[The Tolkien Society]] has organized [[Tolkien Reading Day]], which takes place on 25 March in schools around the world.<ref>{{cite web |title=Tolkien Reading Day |url=http://www.tolkiensociety.org/society/events/reading-day/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151026162933/http://www.tolkiensociety.org/society/events/reading-day/ |archive-date=26 October 2015 |website=The Tolkien Society |access-date=14 May 2014}}</ref> In 2013, [[Pembroke College, Oxford University]], established an [[The J.R.R. Tolkien Lecture on Fantasy Literature|annual lecture on fantasy literature]] in Tolkien's honour.<ref>{{cite web |title=Tolkien Lecture Series |url=http://www.pmb.ox.ac.uk/content/tolkien-lecture-series |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190413125610/http://www.pmb.ox.ac.uk/content/tolkien-lecture-series |archive-date=13 April 2019 |access-date=26 February 2019 |website=Pembroke College, Oxford}}</ref> In 2012, Tolkien was among the [[Culture of the United Kingdom|British cultural icons]] selected by artist Sir [[Peter Blake (artist)|Peter Blake]] to appear in a new version of his most famous artwork—the Beatles' ''[[Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band]]'' album cover—to celebrate the British cultural figures of his life that he most admired.<ref>{{cite news |date=11 November 2016 |title=New faces on Sgt Pepper album cover for artist Peter Blake's 80th birthday |newspaper=The Guardian |first=Caroline |last=Davies |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/apr/02/peter-blake-sgt-pepper-cover-revisited |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161105095109/https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/apr/02/peter-blake-sgt-pepper-cover-revisited |archive-date=5 November 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=11 November 2016 |title=Sir Peter Blake's new Beatles' Sgt Pepper's album cover |publisher=BBC |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17583026 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170103234105/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17583026 |archive-date=3 January 2017}}</ref> A 2019 biographical film, ''[[Tolkien (film)|Tolkien]]'', focused on Tolkien's early life and war experiences.<ref>{{cite news |last=Welk |first=Brian |date=17 January 2019 |title=J. R. R. Tolkien Biopic With Nicholas Hoult Gets Summer 2019 Release Date |url=https://www.thewrap.com/j-r-r-tolkien-biopic-nicholas-hoult-summer-2019-release-date/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190118012630/https://www.thewrap.com/j-r-r-tolkien-biopic-nicholas-hoult-summer-2019-release-date/ |archive-date=18 January 2019}}</ref> The Tolkien family and estate stated that they did not "approve of, authorise or participate in the making of" the film.<ref>{{cite news |last=Flood |first=Alison |date=23 April 2019 |title=Tolkien estate disavows forthcoming film starring Nicholas Hoult |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/apr/23/tolkien-estate-disavows-forthcoming-film-starring-nicholas-hoult |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190423163312/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/apr/23/tolkien-estate-disavows-forthcoming-film-starring-nicholas-hoult |archive-date=23 April 2019}}</ref>

[[File:Tolkien's Sarehole Mill blue plaque-persp.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Sarehole Mill]]'s blue plaque]]

Several [[blue plaque]]s in England commemorate places associated with Tolkien, including for his childhood, his workplaces, and places he visited.<!--as documented in the TABLE below--><ref name="Tolkien Society Memorials" /><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |year=2006 |title=World War I |encyclopedia=[[The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment]] |publisher=Routledge |location=Oxon |url=http://www.routledge-ny.com/ref/tolkien/wwi.html |last=Garth |first=John |editor-last=Drout |editor-first=Michael D. C. |editor-link=Michael D. C. Drout |page=713 |isbn=978-0-415-96942-0 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070517091020/http://www.routledge-ny.com/ref/tolkien/wwi.html |archive-date=17 May 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Jenkins |first=Stephanie |title=Inscriptions: J. R. R. Tolkien |url=http://www.oxfordhistory.org.uk/streets/inscriptions/headington/tolkien.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140301063512/http://www.oxfordhistory.org.uk/streets/inscriptions/headington/tolkien.html |archive-date=1 March 2014 |publisher=Headington.org}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
|-
! Address !! Commemoration !! Date unveiled !! Issued by
|-
| [[Sarehole Mill]], [[Hall Green]], Birmingham
| "Inspired" 1896–1900 (i.e. lived nearby)
| 15 August 2002
| [[Birmingham Civic Society]] and [[The Tolkien Society]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Sarehole Mill |url=http://www.birminghamnet.co.uk/galleries/features/blueplaque/sarehole.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070524114518/http://www.birminghamnet.co.uk/galleries/features/blueplaque/sarehole.html |archive-date=24 May 2007 |website=Blue Plaques Photograph Gallery}}</ref>
|-
| 1 Duchess Place, [[Ladywood]], Birmingham
| Lived near here 1902–1910
| Unknown
| Birmingham Civic Society<ref>{{cite web |title=Duchess Place |url=http://www.birminghamnet.co.uk/galleries/features/blueplaque/tolkien2.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070524114159/http://www.birminghamnet.co.uk/galleries/features/blueplaque/tolkien2.html |archive-date=24 May 2007 |website=Blue Plaques Photograph Gallery}}</ref>
|-
| 4 Highfield Road, [[Edgbaston]], Birmingham
| Lived here 1910–1911
| Unknown
| C|Birmingham Civic Society and The Tolkien Society<ref>{{cite web |title=4 Highfield Road |url=http://www.birminghamnet.co.uk/galleries/features/blueplaque/tolkien3.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070524113934/http://www.birminghamnet.co.uk/galleries/features/blueplaque/tolkien3.html |archive-date=24 May 2007 |website=Blue Plaques Photograph Gallery}}</ref>
|-
| Plough and Harrow, [[Hagley Road]], Birmingham
| Stayed here June 1916
| June 1997
| The Tolkien Society<ref>{{cite web |title=Plough and Harrow |url=http://www.birminghamnet.co.uk/galleries/features/blueplaque/tolkien.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070524113840/http://www.birminghamnet.co.uk/galleries/features/blueplaque/tolkien.html |archive-date=24 May 2007 |website=Blue Plaques Photograph Gallery}}</ref>
|-
| 2 Darnley Road, [[West Park, Leeds]]
| First academic appointment, Leeds
| 1 October 2012
| The Tolkien Society and [[Leeds Civic Trust]]<ref>{{cite web |title=J. R. R. Tolkien |url=https://openplaques.org/plaques/11793 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210118111902/http://openplaques.org/plaques/11793 |archive-date=18 January 2021 |access-date=6 April 2021 |publisher=Open Plaques}}</ref>
|-
| 20 [[Northmoor Road]], [[North Oxford]]
| Lived here 1930–1947
| 3 December 2002
| [[Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Board]]<ref>{{cite web |title=J. R. R. Tolkien Philologist and Author |url=http://oxonblueplaques.org.uk/plaques/tolkien.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210526123515/http://oxonblueplaques.org.uk/plaques/tolkien.html |archive-date=26 May 2021 |access-date=9 September 2010 |website=Plaques Awarded |publisher=Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Board}}</ref>
|-
| Hotel Miramar, East Overcliff Drive, [[Bournemouth]]
| Stayed here regularly from the 1950s until 1972
| 10 June 1992 by [[Priscilla Tolkien]]
| Borough of Bournemouth<ref>{{cite web |title=Bournemouth's Blue Plaques |url=http://www.bournemouth.gov.uk/PlanningBuildings/ConservationDesignTrees/cdtfiles/BluePlaquebookletandmap.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141210173239/http://www.bournemouth.gov.uk/PlanningBuildings/ConservationDesignTrees/cdtfiles/BluePlaquebookletandmap.pdf |archive-date=10 December 2014 |publisher=Bournemouth Borough Council |page=15}}</ref>
|-
| [[St Mary Immaculate Roman Catholic Church, Warwick|St Mary Immaculate]], 45 West Street, [[Warwick]]
| Married here 22 March 1916
| 6 July 2018
| Warwick Town Council<ref>{{cite web |title=Tolkien plaque unveiled in Warwick |url=https://www.warwickshireworld.com/news/tolkien-plaque-unveiled-in-warwick-830607 |website=Warwickshire World |date=11 July 2018 |access-date=3 March 2023}}</ref>
|}

The [[Royal Mint]] produced a [[Commemorative coin|commemorative]] £2 coin in 2023 to mark the 50th anniversary of Tolkien's death.<ref>{{cite web |title=Celebrating the Life and Work of JRR Tolkien |url=https://www.royalmint.com/annual-sets/2023/celebrating-the-life-and-work-of-jrr-tolkien |publisher=The Royal Mint |access-date=4 January 2023}}</ref>

== Notes ==

{{reflist|group=lower-alpha}}

== References ==

=== Primary ===

{{reflist|group=T}}

=== Secondary ===

{{reflist}}

== Sources ==

{{refbegin|30em|indent=yes}}
<!--
           Only CITED sources here, other books are Further reading, below
-->
* {{cite book |last=Carpenter |first=Humphrey |title=Tolkien: A Biography |title-link=J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography |publisher=Ballantine Books |year=1977 |isbn=978-0-04-928037-3 |location=New York |author-link=Humphrey Carpenter}}
* {{cite book |title=The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien |title-link=The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien |publisher=[[George Allen & Unwin]] |year=1981 |isbn=978-0-04-826005-5 |editor-last=Carpenter |editor-first=Humphrey |editor-mask=3 |editor-link=Humphrey Carpenter |location=London |editor-last2=Tolkien |editor-first2=Christopher}}
* {{cite book |last=Garth |first=John |title=[[Tolkien and the Great War]] |publisher=Harper-Collins |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-00-711953-0 |author-link=John Garth (author)}}
* {{cite book |last=Grotta |first=Daniel |title=J. R. R. Tolkien: Architect of Middle Earth: A Biography |publisher=[[Running Press]] |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-7624-1337-9}}
* {{cite book |last=Ordway |first=Holly |title=Tolkien's Faith: A Spiritual Biography |publisher=Word on Fire Academic |year=2023 |isbn=978-1-68578-991-6 |location=Elk Grove Village, IL|author-link=Holly Ordway}}
* {{cite book |title=A Companion to J. R. R. Tolkien |date=2020 |publisher=[[Wiley Blackwell]] |isbn=978-1-119-65602-9 |editor-last=Lee |editor-first=Stuart D. |editor-link=Stuart D. Lee |orig-date=2014}}
* {{cite book |last=Shippey |first=Tom |title=[[The Road to Middle-earth]] |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-618-25760-7 |edition=Third |author-link=Tom Shippey |orig-date=1982}}
* {{cite book |last1=Tolkien |first1=John |author1-link=John Tolkien (priest) |last2=Tolkien |first2=Priscilla |author2-link=Priscilla Tolkien |title=The Tolkien Family Album |publisher=HarperCollins |year=1992 |isbn=978-0-261-10239-2 |location=London}}
<!--
           Only CITED sources here, other books are Further reading, below
-->
{{refend}}

== Further reading ==
<!-- These books are NOT cited. If you want to cite a general source, please put it in 'General references' above. -->
<!-- When adding to this list, please follow the citation style indicated, and keep the list in alphabetical order. -->

A small selection of books about Tolkien and his works:
{{refbegin|30em|indent=yes}}
* {{cite book |title=Tolkien Studies, An Annual Scholarly Review |title-link=Tolkien Studies |publisher=West Virginia University Press |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-937058-87-9 |editor-last=Anderson |editor-first1=Douglas A. |editor-link1=Douglas A. Anderson |editor-last2=Drout |editor-first2=Michael D. C. |editor-link2=Michael Drout |editor-last3=Flieger |editor-first3=Verlyn |editor-link3=Verlyn Flieger |volume=I |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Carpenter |first=Humphrey |author-link=Humphrey Carpenter |url=https://archive.org/details/inklingscslewisj00carp |title=The Inklings: C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Williams and Their Friends |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |year=1979 |isbn=978-0-395-27628-0 |location=Boston |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |title=Tolkien the Medievalist |publisher=Routledge |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-415-28944-3 |editor-last=Chance |editor-first=Jane |editor-link=Jane Chance |location=London, New York |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |title=Tolkien and the Invention of Myth, a Reader |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-8131-2301-1 |editor-last=Chance |editor-first=Jane |editor-mask=3 |location=Louisville |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last1=Cilli |first1=Oronzo |last2=Shippey |first2=Tom |author-link2=Tom Shippey |title=Tolkien's Library: An Annotated Checklist |publisher=Luna Press |year=2019 |isbn=978-1-911143-67-3 |location=[[Edinburgh]] |oclc=1099568978 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last1=Cilli |first1=Oronzo |last2=Smith |first2=Arden R. |author2-link=Arden R. Smith |last3=Wynne |first3=Patrick H. |last4=Garth |first4=John |author4-link=John Garth (author) |title=J. R. R. Tolkien the Esperantist: Before the Arrival of Bilbo Baggins |publisher=Cafagna |year=2017 |isbn=978-88-96906-33-0 |location=Barletta |oclc=1020852373 |ref=none}}
* {{cite journal |last=Costabile |first=Giovanni Carmine |title=Bilbo Baggins and the Forty Thieves The Reworking of Folktale Motifs in The Hobbit (and The Lord of the Rings) |journal=[[Mythlore]] |date=2018 |volume=36 |issue=2 (132) |pages=89–104 |oclc=8513422873 |url=https://dc.swosu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1916&context=mythlore |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Croft |first=Janet Brennan |author-link=Janet Brennan Croft |title=War and the Works of J. R. R. Tolkien |publisher=Praegar Publishers |year=2004 |isbn=0-313-32592-8 |location=Westport |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Curry |first=Patrick |author-link=Patrick Curry |title=Defending Middle-earth: Tolkien, Myth and Modernity |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-618-47885-9 |location=Boston |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |editor-last=Drout |editor-first=Michael D. C. |editor-link=Michael D. C. Drout |title=The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment |title-link=The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-415-96942-0 |location=New York City |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Duriez |first=Colin |author-link=Colin Duriez |title=Tolkien and C. S. Lewis: The Gift of Friendship |publisher=HiddenSpring |year=2003 |isbn=978-1-58768-026-7 |location=Mahwah, New Jersey |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last1=Duriez |first1=Colin |author-link=Colin Duriez |title=The Inklings Handbook: The Lives, Thought and Writings of C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, Owen Barfield, and Their Friends |last2=Porter |first2=David |publisher=Azure |year=2001 |isbn=978-1-902694-13-9 |location=London |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Flieger |first=Verlyn |author-link=Verlyn Flieger |title=Splintered Light: Logos and Language in Tolkien's World |title-link=Splintered Light |publisher=[[Kent State University Press]] |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-87338-744-6 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |title=[[Tolkien's Legendarium: Essays on The History of Middle-earth]] |publisher=Greenwood Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-313-30530-6 |editor1-last=Flieger |editor1-first=Verlyn |editor1-link=Verlyn Flieger |editor2-last=Hostetter |editor2-first=Carl F. |editor2-link=Carl F. Hostetter |location=Westport, [[Connecticut|CT]] |id=DDC 823.912 LC PR6039 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Fonstad |first=Karen Wynn |author-link=Karen Wynn Fonstad |title=The Atlas of Middle-earth |publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|Houghton Mifflin]] |year=1991 |isbn=978-0-618-12699-6 |location=Boston |url=https://archive.org/details/atlasofmiddleear0000fons |url-access=registration |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Foster |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Foster (author) |title=[[The Complete Guide to Middle-earth]] |publisher=Del Rey |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-345-44976-4 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last1=Fredrick |first1=Candice |title=Woman among the Inklings: Gender, C.S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Charles Williams |last2=McBride |first2=Sam |publisher=Greenwood Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-313-31245-8 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last1=Gilliver |first1=Peter |author-link=Peter Gilliver |author-link3=Edmund Weiner |title=The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary |title-link=The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary |last2=Marshall |first2=Jeremy |last3=Weiner |first3=Edmund |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-19-861069-4 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Glyer |first=Diana Pavlac |title=The Company They Keep: C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien as Writers in Community |publisher=Kent State University Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-87338-890-0 |location=Kent, Ohio |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Grant |first=Patrick |title=Six Modern Authors and Problems of Belief |publisher=MacMillan |year=1979 |isbn=978-0-333-26340-2 |chapter=Belief in Fantasy: J. R. R. Tolkien's ''Lord of the Rings'' |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Haber |first=Karen |url=https://archive.org/details/meditationsonmid00habe |title=Meditations on Middle-earth: New Writing on the Worlds of J. R. R. Tolkien |publisher=St. Martin's Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-312-27536-5 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |title=Tolkien and Politics |publisher=Third Way Publications |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-9544788-2-7 |editor-last=Harrington |editor-first=Patrick |location=London, England |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last1=Lee |first1=Stuart D. |author1-link=Stuart D. Lee |last2=Solopova |first2=Elizabeth |author-link2=Elizabeth Solopova |title=The Keys of Middle-earth: Discovering Medieval Literature through the Fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien |title-link=The Keys of Middle-earth |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-4039-4671-3 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Pearce |first=Joseph |author-link=Joseph Pearce |title=Tolkien: Man and Myth |publisher=HarperCollins |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-00-274018-0 |location=London |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Perry |first=Michael |title=Untangling Tolkien: A Chronology and Commentary for The Lord of the Rings |publisher=Inkling Books |year=2006 |isbn=978-1-58742-019-1 |location=Seattle |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Ready |first=William |title=Understanding Tolkien and the Lord of the Rings |publisher=Paperback Library |year=1968 |location=New York |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Rorabeck |first=Robert |title=Tolkien's Heroic Quest |publisher=Crescent Moon |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-86171-239-4 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last1=Scull |first1=Christina |title=The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide |title-link=The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide |last2=Hammond |first2=Wayne G. |author-link=Christina Scull |author-link2=Wayne G. Hammond |publisher=HarperCollins |year=2017 |isbn=978-0-00-821454-8 |edition=Revised and expanded |location=London |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Shippey |first=Tom |author-link=Tom Shippey |title=[[J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century]] |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-618-12764-1 |location=Boston, New York |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Strachey |first=Barbara |title=Journeys of Frodo: an Atlas of The Lord of the Rings |title-link=Journeys of Frodo |publisher=Allen & Unwin |year=1981 |isbn=978-0-04-912016-7 |location=London, Boston |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Tyler |first=J. E. A. |author-link=Tony Tyler |url=https://archive.org/details/tolkiencompanion00jeat |title=The Tolkien Companion |publisher=Gramercy |year=1976 |isbn=978-0-517-14648-4 |location=New York |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=White |first=Michael |title=Tolkien: A Biography |publisher=New American Library |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-451-21242-9 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last1=Zaleski |first1=Philip |title=The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings: J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams |last2=Zaleski |first2=Carol |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |year=2016 |isbn=978-0-374-53625-1 |ref=none}}
{{refend|30em|indent=yes}}

== External links ==

{{Sister project links
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{{Spoken Wikipedia|date=26 January 2022|En-J. R. R. Tolkien-article.ogg}}

* [http://www.tolkien.co.uk/ HarperCollins Tolkien Website]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20140714122905/http://www.wheaton.edu/wadecenter/Authors/JRR-Tolkien/JRRT-Resources Additional Resources for J. R. R. Tolkien] compiled by the [[Marion E. Wade Center]]
* {{cite ODNB |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/31766 |title=Tolkien, John Ronald Reuel}}
* {{IMDb name|id=0866058}}
* {{ISFDB name|302}}
* [https://library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/376715 Archival material at Leeds University Library]
* [http://sounds.bl.uk/Arts-literature-and-performance/Early-spoken-word-recordings/024M-1CS0011556XX-0200V0 Audio recording of Tolkien] from 1929 on a language learning gramophone disc
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/writers/12237.shtml BBC film (1968) featuring Tolkien]
* [http://www.tolkiensociety.org/author/biography/ Biography at the Tolkien Society]
* [https://sf-encyclopedia.com/fe/tolkien_j_r_r J. R. R. Tolkien] at ''[[The Encyclopedia of Fantasy]]''
* {{IBList |type=author|id=54|name=J. R. R. Tolkien}}
* [https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/tolkien_j_r_r J. R. R. Tolkien] at ''[[The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction]]''
* [https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/J.R.R._Tolkien J. R. R. Tolkien] at ''[https://tolkiengateway.net The Tolkien Gateway]''
* [http://inklings-studies.org/ ''Journal of Inklings Studies'']—Peer-reviewed journal on Tolkien's literary circle, based at Oxford
* [https://www.tolkienestate.com/ The Tolkien Estate Website]
* [https://tolkien.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/ Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth] exhibition at the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
* {{Librivox author |id=1536}}
* {{Gutenberg author | id=42379}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=J. R. R. Tolkien}}

{{J. R. R. Tolkien}}
{{Navboxes
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|list1=
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Tolkien, J. R. R.}}
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