The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum - My Tolkien Research Paper

Hey, I thought some of you might want to read my report I had to write on a classical author (guess who I chose [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] ). And I got a 98% on it! YAY! I got 2 points off for tiny grammar stuff.

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born on January 3, 1892 in Bloemfontein, South Africa. His father's name was Arthur Reuel Tolkien, who had moved there to start a branch of banking, and his mother was Mabel Tolkien. One memorable childhood experience was that Tolkien was bitten by a large tarantula, which later influenced his writing. Soon, on February 15, 1896, his father died from a rheumatic fever. His mother, younger brother Hilary, and himself then moved to the rural town of Sarehole, England, near the city of Birmingham. This small town also influenced his writing and some of his artwork. Then in 1904, Tolkien's mother died of diabetes, which at the time had no cure. Ronald (as he was called) and Hilary were then taken care of by Father Francis Morgan, the priest at the Birmingham Oratory.
Ronald was accepted into King Edward's School, where he mastered Classics, Anglo-Saxon, and Middle English. He also learned Welsh and Finnish. Tolkien began creating his own languages that he called "Elvish". He and some close friends began a club called the T.C.B.S. (or Tea Club, Barrovian Society), named after the barrow store where they held their meetings. At Exeter College, Tolkien majored in Literature and English Language. During World War 1, Tolkien became second lieutenant. Before going to battle, Tolkien married Edith Bratt on March 22, 1916. Ronald survived the Battle of Somme, where two of his three friends were killed. Later he had trench fever and was sent back to England from France.
Three years later, Tolkien became a professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University, and became known as one of the greatest philologists in the world. By this time, he had already began writing The Silmarillion, a collection of legends of Middle-Earth (an imaginary world that he had created) until his death. In 1918 their first son John was born, in 1920 their second son Michael, in 1924 their third son Christopher, and finally in 1929, Tolkien's daughter Priscilla is born.
In 1933, Professor Tolkien was correcting students' answer booklets, he found that one student had left a page blank in their booklet. Without thinking,
Tolkien wrote on the page: In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Realizing what he had written, the professor immediately wondered what a hobbit was, what sort of hole they dwelled in, and why they lived there. He found out that hobytla was an Old English word meaning "hole-builder". Soon, Tolkien was telling stories to his children about a silly little hobbit named Bilbo Baggins, who was only three and a half feet tall, had curly hair on his head and furry feet, and loved to eat mushrooms and smoke his pipe. The tale he told his children
turned into a book called The Hobbit, or There and Back Again. It was published in 1937.
Tolkien once wrote that he himself was very much like a hobbit, which suggests that he himself inspired their creation.

Quote:

I am in fact a hobbit in all but size. I like gardens, trees and unmechanised farmlands; I smoke a pipe, and like good plain food (unrefridgerated), but detest French cooking; I like, and even dare to wear in these dull days, ornamental waistcoats. I am fond of mushrooms (out of a field); have a very simple sense of humour (which even my appreciative critics find tiresome); I go to bed late and get up late (when possible). I do not travel much.

The publisher was so thrilled with The Hobbit that he wanted a sequel. It took Tolkien twelve years to write, but in 1954 the first two parts of Lord of the Rings were published. They were called The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers. Then in 1955 the final part, Return of the King, was published and available to the public. The books were a huge success, and Tolkien felt burdened with his fame, fortune, and job as a professor. Therefore, he retired in 1959. Edith Tolkien died in 1971, and John Ronald Reuel Tolkien soon died on September 2, 1973 of pneumonia. He left his first work, The Silmarillion, to be published by his son Christopher Tolkien, who published it in 1977.
Many critics praise Tolkien's works, calling them one of the greatest (if not the greatest) works of fantasy of all time. They admire his descriptive writing
style and ability to create moods that perfectly fit the situation being told of. At first, however, some said that "it is essentially a children's book - a children's book which has somehow got out of hand" (Edmund Wilson). Tolkien's books
were one of the first to be considered contemporary fantasy. Soon people realized that the book was fit to be read by teenagers and adults alike.
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien wrote with a lot of detail and some metaphors and personification. He was very good at expressing the mood and atmosphere of any situation without really saying anything cliche, such as, "It was a dark and stormy night." He also has a tendency to write in long sentences. Sometimes he may add a little humor to lighten the mood of the chapter, especially in The Hobbit.

But he remembered that there was bread, surpassing the savour of a fair white loaf to one who is starving; and fruits sweet as wildberries and richer than the tended fruits of gardens; he drained a cup that was filled with a fragrant draught, cool as a clear fountain, golden as a summer afternoon.
~Fellowship of the Ring, Book 1, Chapter 3, Three is Company

If you have ever seen a dragon in a pinch, you will realize that this was only poetical exaggeration applied to any hobbit, even to Old Took's great-grand-uncle Bullroarer, who was so huge (for a hobbit) that he could ride a horse. He charged the ranks of the goblins of Mount Gram in the Battle of the Green Fields, and knock their king Golfimbul's head clean off with a wooden club. It sailed a hundred yards through the air and went down a rabbit-hole, and in this way the battle was won and the game of Golf invented at the same moment.
~ The Hobbit, Chapter 1, An Unexpected Party

Tolkien's most famous works are The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, and the three parts of Lord of the Rings, which are The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and Return of the King. Tolkien never won any awards for his works, but he didn't need an award to know that millions of people around the world love his classic tales. It has been translated into over 40 languages since its publication, including languages like Icelandic and Swedish.
There have been many classics in the world of literature, but no other is
anything like The Hobbit or Lord of the Rings. It took J.R.R. Tolkien thirteen years in total to write these books, but it was time well spent.

Bibliography www.tolkiensociety.org/tolkien/biography.html
gollum.usask.ca/tolkien/

NOTE: Maybe he did win some awards, but none that I could find... [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] If you want you can post any reports you did in school about Tolkien or LOTR. I had another one I wrote about Samwise, but I lost it [img]smilies/frown.gif[/img] We had to write about a character that made an important decision and what the results of that decision were, and I wrote about how Sam chose to go with Frodo to Mordor even though it meant certain doom. So, erm, yeah. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]