The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

I was reading in my reading homework book and this was one of the thing:

Quote:

John Ronald Reuel (J.R.R) Tolkien was born in South Africa on January 3, 1892, to British parents. After the death of his father in 1896, his mother moved Tolkien and his younger brother Hilary to England. They settled in Birmingham, not far from Wales. As Tolkien was learning to read,he was intrigued by how different the Welsh names were that he saw on coal trucks coming and going to Wales-names like "Penriwceiber", "Sengenydd", and "Nantyglo". Young Tolkien was falling in love with language.

When Tolkien was 12 years old, his mother died of diabetes. The local parish priest looked after the two brothers. He recognized their intelligence and made sure that they received the best education possible. In particular, Tolkien had a special aptitude for language. He learned Latin, Greek, Gothic, and Finish. He invented his own language for fun. He also started writing stories.

He met other boys who were interested in literature and writing. They met together after school for snacks and to share their writing. They called their club the Tea Club, Barrovian Society, or T.C.B.S., since they always met for tea (a traditional English afternoon snack) at the Barrow Stores. (:D*)

The close friendship continued as the boys became men. When World War I began, each of them enlisted in the army. Tolkien was a second lieutenant and went to the front lines in the trenches. After four months, Tolkien became very ill with an infection called trench fever. He was transferred back to England, where he spent the rest of the war. War had been portrayed as noble, but Tolkien found the reality of war to be ugly. All of the members of the T.C.B.S. were killed in the war except Tolkien and one other friend. This caused Tolkien to reflect deeply on the ideas of good and evil.

Eventually, Tolkien became a professor at Oxford University. One night as he was grading papers, he absentmindedly wrote on a blank sheet of paper, "In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit." He had no idea what a Hobbit was, but he decided to find out. He continued writing the story.

Out of these imaginings came The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings trilogy. In these books, Tolkien created a world filled with elves, wizards, mythical creatures, and people. This world, called Middle Earth, was the site for epic battles between good and evil.

Tolkien continued to write until his death in 1973. Since their publication in the 1950s, The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings books have sold more then 100 million copies and have been translated into more then 25 languages.

Okay, I'm going to stop here, just to save it TELL ME YOUR COMMENTS!

Well that took a while! Finally written up! Okay, tell me what you think. Is it truthful? Did his parents really died when he was young?

*My doing