John Ronald Reuel Tolkien Research Paper

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born on January 3, 1892, in Bloemfontein, South Africa. When he was only 3 years of age his mother brought him and his younger brother, Hilary, to live in England, where she was originally from. Tolkien's father died soon after, whilst he was still in South Africa by himself, thus the family remained in England. During the summer of 1896 his mother found them a home in the hamlet of Sarehole, which is located just outside the city Birmingham (Curles).
Tolkien and his family lived in poverty, which required them to eventually move to Moseley, a suburb of Birmingham, due northwest of the village of Sarehole. At the age of 12, Tolkien experienced a devastating loss when his mother fell ill and died. He and his brother were made the wards for a Catholic priest, living with their aunts and in boarding houses from that point on (Carpenter). The contrast between his happier days living with his mother in Birmingham and the loneliness of being orphan can be noticed throughout many of his works. …show more content…
He helped to create a draft of the Oxford English Dictionary. While he was working for the New English Dictionary, he began to develop a language that he imagined had been spoken by elves. The language was loosely based of Finnish and Welsh. He began to write his “Lost Tales,” a mythic history of men, elves and other fantasy creatures that he produced which would provide a context for his new language, “Elvish.” Tolkien then became a professor of the English Language at the University of Leeds. While there he collaborated with some of his peers to create well-known and highly revered fantasy literature. Tolkien remained at the University of Leeds until the year 1925, when he took a teaching job for Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University (“John Ronald Reuel Tolkien"). Tolkien spent the rest of his teaching career at Oxford University, where he eventually retired in 1959