JRR Tolkien Middle Earth Essay Research Paper

J.R.R. Tolkien: Middle Earth Essay, Research Paper

J.R.R. Tolkien: Middle Earth

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien is remembered for his imaginative writings and the

lasting creation of Middle-earth world. However, he was also a great scholar and linguist,

holding the position of the Rawlingson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford

University. His writings owe much of its power to his ocean of knowledge about

European languages and a deep understanding and appreciation of the art of storytelling

and myths. His books have been translated into twenty-four languages and many millions

of copies have been sold worldwide.

Tolkien was born in the Orange Free State, in what is now South Africa, on

January 3, 1892. However, his mother brought him home to England when he was four,

and after his father’s death his family made their home in rural Sarehole, then on the edge

of the industrial city, Brimingham. When Tolkien was only twelve, his mother passed

away, leaving him and his brother in the care of Father Francis Xavier Morgan. Father

Morgan was a very strong moral influence on young Tolkien and provided him with loving

support though to his years in college. Tolkien received a very good high school education

at King Edward VI School, one of the finest schools in England at the time. From there

he went up to Oxford, where he studied English at Exeter College, gaining him first class

honors. At the age of twenty-one, Tolkien proposed to his childhood sweetheart, Edith

Bratt, although it was against the wishes of Father Morgan, who objected to him marrying

someone three years older than himself. However, the two were unable to wed for a few

years because Tolkien was drafted to fight in World War I. During the war he served in

the Lancashire Fusiliers as an officer, and survived the Somme, though many of his close

friends and colleagues died. His respect for the common soldier under the great stress of

war shows through in his later writings, where the Hobbits show strength in Mordor,

previously unseen by themselves or others.

After the war he got a job, working at the New English Dictionary, but in 1920 he

was appointed reader in English at Leeds University. Four years later he was promoted to

Professor, which is the highest academic rank in British universities. It was this time that

he started writing. At this stage he thought of his tales as being a new mythology for

England. These early works, which laid the basis for his later works, are now published as

“The Book of Lost Tales”. In 1925 he was elected to the Professorship at Oxford. There

he specialized in Philology, the study of words, and was among the most accomplished

scholars in his field. His love of words led him to work on a series of languages for the

Elves of Middle-earth. Though out his lifetime this obsession drove him to produce

fourteen languages and he also showed how these languages developed over the course of

history of Middle-earth. Tolkien said that the one of the first alphabets, called Tengwar,

became very popular because it was a very flexible writing system that was easily adapted

by the many different races of Middle-earth for use with their languages. The main flaw of

this language was that it was very difficult to inscribe onto metal, stone or wood. This led

to the creation of alphabet but with simpler characters made with strait lines. Tolkien

often signed his work with ” }$O@O@O8bael/u} “, which translates into his name. Over

the course of the next few years Tolkien wrote four books for each of his four children.

Of these, “The Hobbit” is the best known and was eventually published in 1937. Stanley

Unwin, the publisher asked for a sequel but Tolkien was skeptical of a sequel’s success.

He felt as if his work would only be enjoyed by a small minority and was surprised with his

previous success. Once he began though, he became very involved with the book.

Unfortunately World War II intervened, and slowed the process down

considerably, taking a total of twelve years to complete. The book blossomed into more

than a sequel, being not a book for children, but a great saga for adults, The Lord of the

Rings. At the time of its first publication the book received mixed reviews. It was not

until the late 60’s and early 70’s that Tolkien’s popularity increased dramatically with the

official release of the “Lord of the Rings” in the United States. During this time, there was

an international emergence of “Tolkien cults,” which unfortunately delayed Tolkien’s entry

into the canon of twentieth-century writers. Tolkien retired shortly after the publication of

this work, and left Oxford for the coastal resort of Bournemouth, but when his wife,

Edith, died he returned to Oxford to be with the rest of his family. He himself died two

years later on the 2nd of September 1973, at the age of eighty-one. He was buried

alongside his wife in an Oxford cemetery, under their

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