Those words, initially penned for the eyes of children, introduced the literary world of all ages to a genre of writing, cast a captivating spell over its readers and set the standard of fantasy that still seen today. J.R.R. Tolkien was the spell caster.

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born January 3, 1892 in Bloemfontein, South Africa to Arthur and Mabel (Suffield) Tolkien. The name Tolkien is believed to be of a German origin deriving from Tollkuhn, which means foolishly brave, or stupidly clever. Arthur was a bank clerk and relocated to South Africa for better promotion opportunities.

John's stay in South Africa was brief as his mother took him and his younger brother Hilary, to England. Arthur remained in South Africa with plans to join his family when the opportunity would permit. He never made the trip to see his family, however. Arthur lost his battle with rheumatic fever and passed away on February 15, 1896.

After Arthur's death, Mabel moved the family from Birmingham to the rural hamlet of Sarehole, where John's developing linguistic imagination was fed by much of the environment. He was sent to attend King Edward's School where he shined the languages.

The family moved to a more pleasant suburb called Edgbaston. During that time, in 1900, Mabel and her sister May were received into the Roman Catholic Church. This estranged them from both sides of the family, but from that point on, John and his brother Hilary were brought up and remained devout Catholics throughout their lives. Father Francis Morgan visited the family on a regular basis.

Living on the borderline of poverty, the Tolkien family situation became worse when Mabel was diagnosed with diabetes in 1904. It was an incurable disease in that time and finally took its toll. Mabel died on 15 October of that year, leaving John and Hilary orphaned. The boys were board a short time at a Mrs. Faulkner's boarding house but Father Francis stepped to oversee their welfare.

By this time John was showing tremendous linguistic skills, mastering Latin, Greek, Gothic and Finnish. He went on to attend Exeter College, Oxford in 1911 where he immersed himself in the study of the Classics languages. He rekindled a romance with a boarding school acquaintance by the name of Edith Bratt and eventually changed his focus onto English Literature and Language.

In the course of his English studies, John ran across a poem named "Crist of Cynewulf." He was specifically amazed by one of the poem's couplets: "Hail Earendel brightest of angels, over Middle Earth sent to men". Middle Earth was an ancient expression describing the everyday world between Heaven and Hell. This inspired some of John's early attempts at realizing a world of ancient beauty. Tolkien earned a First in English Language and Literature at Oxford and married Edith in 1916.

War had broken out in 1914 and John eventually enlisted as a second lieutenant in the Lancashire Fusiliers and was sent to battle on the Western Front. After four months in and out of action, Tolkien developed "trench fever" and was sent back to Birmingham. During the last few months, John lost all but one of his close friends from college in battle. Partly in their memory and also stirred by his reaction to his war experience, he had begun to put his storied into shape. His thoughts too form and developed into the Book of Lost Tales. The book was not published in his lifetime but held most of the major stories of the Silimarillion: tales of the Elves and the Gnomes with their languages. Here are found the first versions of the wars against Morgoth and the tales of Turin and of Beren and Luthien. Tolkien was able to spend more time recovering with his wife and in turn, their first son, John Francis Reuel, was born on November 16, 1917.

The Armistice was signed on 11 November 1918 ending the war and Tolkien landed a job as Assistant Lexicographer on the New English Dictionary. He did not stay at this job long, however. In the summer of 1920, he was appointed Reader in English Language at the University of Leeds.

In his time at Leeds, John collaborated E. V. Gordon on the famous edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and continued to refine his works in the Book of Lost Tales and his "Elvish" language. Leeds also saw the birth of two more sons: Michael Hilary Reuel in 1920 and Christopher Reuel in 1924. Then in 1925, Tolkien obtained the position of Rowlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford, and, in a sense, returned home.

His family life was straightforward. In 1929, Priscilla, their last child and only daughter was born. Tolkien made habit of writing the children annual letters as if from Santa Clause, and a selection of these writings were published in 1976 as The Father of Christmas Letters.

Carrying on in traditional Tolkien fashion, JRR devised a story called The Hobbit. Unfinished and originally meant only for his children, the work fell into the hands of Susan Dagnall, an employee with the publishing firm of George Allen and Unwin. She asked Tolkien to finish the book and recommended it for publishing. Stanley Unwin, chairman of the firm tried out the story on his 10-year-old son who approved and The Hobbit was published in 1937. Unwin later asked Tolkien if he was willing to write a sequel.

Tolkien set out to write what developed into much more than a children's story. The Lord of the Rings took 12 years to write and was not published until Tolkien approached retirement. Unwin's firm published it in three parts during 1954 and 1955 but neither author nor the publisher realized the work's public appeal.

The Lord of the Rings rapidly came to the public eye gaining mixed reviews from the ecstatic to the damning and everything in between. The BBC hosted a condensed radio adaptation in 12 episodes on The Third Programme, Britain's "intellectual" channel. But the most amazing moment was when the work went into a pirate paperback version in 1965, sending the book into an impulse-buying category.

In 1957, Tolkien was to travel to the United States to accept honorary degrees from Marquette, Harvard and several other universities, and to deliver a series of addresses. The trip was cancelled, however, due to the ill health of his wife. Tolkien would never make the trip to the US before his death.

After his retirement in 1969, Edith and John moved to Bournemouth. But the "cult" as followers of not just Tolkien, but of the fantasy literature he inspired, really took off. A bit too much, however, forcing John to change addresses and phone numbers due to the increasing calls and visiting fans.

On November 29, 1971, John lost his wife to a short, but severe illness. He returned to Oxford shortly after where he received the CBE from the Queen. Tolkien resided in rooms at Oxford provided by Merton College until his own death in 1973, at age 81.

Several of Tolkien's writings were published after his death including the long-awaited Silmarillion, and the 12 volumes of the History of Middle-earth, both edited by Tolkien's son Christopher. But it was JRR's trilogy that was most impacting, alerting millions of American readers to the existence of something outside their previous experience. For The Lord of the Rings had almost become the Bible of the "Alternative Society."

SOURCES:

**Who Was Tolkien - by David Doughan
**The Tolkien Timeline - by Darryl Friesen
**J.R.R. Tolkien - by Jessica Yates