J. R. R. TOLKIEN The Hobbit

TOLKIEN…  John Ronald Reuel Tolkien  born Jan. 3, 1892 of British parents in Bloemfontein, South Africa

CONT…  Moved with mother Mabel at 3 to England (dad died when young)  studied English and English lit. at Oxford

Cont…  1916 married Edith Bratt  Served in WWI  When returned began The Silmarillion (pub. 1977)

 1925 became Oxford (retired 1959)  With C.S. Lewis and other friends, Tolkien formed an informal literary group called The Inklings, which took shape in the 1930s

Chris Tolkien  Drew the original maps for J.R.R.’s Lord of the Rings  April 2007 published The Children of Húrin, a compilation of notes dating back from 1918 (a 30 year project)The Children of Húrin

 Tolkien continued developing mythology and languages  according to his own account, one day when he was grading examination papers, he discovered that one candidate had left a page of an answer- book blank. On this page, moved by who knows what, he wrote “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.”

 Originally written as a children’s story it was published as The Hobbit in 1937  soon developed into something much more: the highly complex 16-year history of what became The Lord of the Rings

 The Lord of the Rings published in three parts during 1954 and 1955  Movie version out in 2001

 November Edith died  J.R.R. died September