Who was JRR Tolkien?

JRR Tolkien, whose fantastic stories made him a cult figure in the ‘”hippie generation” of the late 1960’s, was born in the South African town of Bloemfontein but moved to England in 1896. After studying at Oxford and taking part in the First World War, he taught at various British universities. 

From 1920 to 1925, he taught English in Leeds and from 1925 to 1959, he was professor of Germanic philology and literature at Oxford.   Inspired by his study of Old and Middle English and Celtic and Germanic myths, he wrote novels as well as scholarly works. “The Hobbit” (1937), originally conceived as a children’s book, an introduction to the world of the Anglo-Saxon and Nordic sages, he created a realm of fantasy inhabited by human-like creatures with a language of their own. In the trilogy “The Lord of the Rings “(1954 to 1955), which brought him an international reputation, he developed the story of the Hobbits still further. The three books describe, in the style of old legendary stories, the fantasy world of the Middle Earth with its struggle between good and evil. Although Tolkien claimed that his trilogy was a “historical report”, it was frequently seen as a utopian of allegorical work. It became a cult book among young people and inspired the fantasy literature, which proliferated in the seventies and eighties. 

Tolkien died in Bournemouth (Hampshire) on 2 September 1973. Five years after his death “The Lord of the Rings” reached wide cinema audiences as an animated cartoon film.