JOHN RONALD REUEL TOLKIEN

Andreica Ariadna

WHAT IS FANTASY LITERATURE?

Stories involving magic and terrible monsters have existed in spoken forms before the advent of printed literature. Fantasy literature, as a distinct type, emerged in Victorian times, with the works of writers such as William Morris and George MacDonald.

JOHN RONALD REUEL TOLKIEN

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (3 January 1892 2 September 1973) was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.

Tolkien in 1916

GENERAL

FACTS

o Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein in South Africa

o At the age of 16, Tolkien met Edith Mary Bratt, who was three years older. They married in 1916, o Tolkien was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II on 28 March 1972.

WORK

Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics The Silmarillion Children's books and other short works The Hobbit The Lord of the Rings

Tolkien's monogram, and Estate trademark

Posthumous publications The Silmarillion Unfinished Tales and The History of Middle-earth The Children of Hrin The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrn Mr. Bliss

20 Northmoor Road, the former home of J. R. R. Tolkien in North Oxford

BEOWULF: THE MONSTERS AND THE CRITICS

As well as his fiction, Tolkien was also a leading author of academic literary criticism. His seminal 1936 lecture revolutionized the treatment of the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf by literary critics. The essay remains highly influential in the study of Old English literature to this day. Beowulf is one of the most significant influences upon Tolkien's later fiction, with major details of both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings being adapted from the poem.

THE HOBBIT, OR THERE AND BACK AGAIN

Tolkien never expected his stories to become popular, but by sheer accident The Hobbit, which he had written some years before for his own children, came in 1936 to the attention of Susan Dagnall, an employee of the London publishing firm George Allen & Unwin, who persuaded Tolkien to submit it for publication.
Cover of the 1937 first edition, from a drawing made by Tolkien.

However, the book attracted adult readers as well as children, and it became popular enough for the publishers to ask Tolkien to produce a sequel. The hobbit gained wide critical acclaim, being nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the New York Herald Tribune for best juvenile fiction.

THE SILMARILLION
The Silmarillion is a collection of J. R. R. Tolkien's mythopoetic works, edited and published posthumously by his son Christopher Tolkien in 1977.

The Silmarillion comprises five parts. Ainulindal, tells of the creation of E, the "world that is". Valaquenta, gives a description of the Valar and Maiar, the supernatural powers in E. Quenta Silmarillion,chronicles the history of the events before and during the First Age including the wars over the Silmarils which gave the book its title. Akallabth, relates the history of the Downfall of Nmenor and its people, which takes place in the Second Age. Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age, is a brief account of the circumstances which led to and were presented in The Lord of the Rings.

THE LORD OF THE RINGS

Tolkien spent more than ten years writing the primary narrative and appendices for The Lord of the Rings, during which time he received the constant support of his closest friend Lewis, the author of The Chronicles of Narnia. Both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are set against the background of The Silmarillion, but in a time long after it.

For publication, the book was divided into three volumes: The Fellowship of the Ring (Books I, The Ring Sets Out, and II, The Ring Goes South,) The Two Towers (Books III, The Treason of Isengard, and IV, The Ring Goes East,) The Return of the King (Books V, The War of the Ring, and VI, The End of the Third Age, plus six appendices)

The books were adapted 3 times The third adaptation was director Peter Jackson's produced by New Line Cinema and released in three parts. Each film was nominated for and won multiple Academy Awards, including consecutive Best Picture nominations. The final part of this trilogy was the second film to break the one-billion-dollar barrier and won a total of 11 Oscars.

MAIN

CAST Viggo Mortensen Elijah Wood Sean Bean Dominic Monaghan Sean Astin Ian McKellen John Rhys-Davies Orlando Bloom Billy Boyd

Aragorn Frodo Baggins Boromir Meriadoc Brandybuck Samwise Gamgee Gandalf Gimli Legolas Peregrin Took