Tolkien Facts

[Elanor]

Does anyone know anything about John Ronald Reuel Tolkien and his life? I know that he was injured in WWII, was a professor at Oxford University and a good friend of CS Lewis, and some other stuff. Strew your knowledge around in this thread.

[bmilder]

This comes from the bio on my website. I wrote it over two years ago (I was still eleven :)) so the writing style might not be the best. Anyway, here it is: John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892-1973) was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa. He moved to England when only a kid. Tolkien was a soldier in World War I and wrote the beginnings of what later became The Silmarillion in a war hospital. He became a professor at Oxford University, and worked there much of his life. He lectured about old Anglo-Saxon fantasy stories, such as Beowulf. One day, while grading papers, he found one blank. For some reason, he wrote a sentence: In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. He didn't know what a hobbit was, but he knew that if he kept writing, he'd soon find out. In 1932, The Hobbit was published. It was a children's book about the adventures of Bilbo Baggins, who went on a search for treasure with 13 dwarves. People liked the book so much, they wanted a sequel to The Hobbit. Tolkien started on The Lord of the Rings. He often became distracted, and it was a very long book (1500+ pages!). He finally finished the manuscript many years later. The publisher thought it was too long, so divided it into three books: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King. The last book (RotK) came out in 1956. It was a complicated book. It was about Frodo Baggins, Bilbo Baggins's nephew and adopted heir. Bilbo left on his 111th birthday and gave his nephew a golden ring he had found on his adventure. This strange ring made the wearer invisible. The Ring turned out to be Sauron the Dark Lord's, and Frodo and eight others embarked on a seemingly hopeless journey to destroy this Ring to defeat Sauron. LotR became extremely popular in the 1960's. People went around forming Tolkien societies and wearing buttons that said messages like "Frodo Lives!" Tolkien had another work, The Silmarillion. No one would publish it, but that was all right because it wasn't finished yet. He spent the rest of his life trying to finish it. After his death, his son Christopher Tolkien edited it, and made some changes. Four years later it was published. Christopher Tolkien also took some of his father's unfinished notes and compiled them into Unfinished Tales, published 1980. Christopher Tolkien gathered more notes and wrote twelve volumes called The History of Middle-earth. J.R.R. Tolkien wrote other books, such as Farmer Giles of Ham and The Adventures of Tom Bombadil. But LotR was his best book by far. People in England recently voted it best book of the century, and I agree!

[anduin]

Nice work Ben!!! I bet your teachers love having you in class......... ;) :P

[Luthienn]

Actually Elanor...he was a Lieutenant in WWI...he wasn't "injured" per say, but he did come down with a rather nasty case of Trench Fever (similar to Rocky Mtn Spotted Fever) so, got to go home, though he did still serve the military in a more office-work capacity. Luthien's Middle Earth (http://www.chisp.net/~luthien)

[Eruve]

There is an excellent biography on JRRT written by Humphrey Carpenter. Check your local bookstore or amazon.

[Elanor]

Oh, wow. Now I feel really stupid!

[ArwenUndomiel02]

Don't feel stupid. I didn't even know what J.R.R. stood for....

[Eruve]

I took me years to get around to reading the bio. I just read it maybe 3 years ago but I first read Tolkien over 20 years ago!

[Glaurung]

2bmilder: I didn´t know about these History of ME by Christopher you wrote about. Could you please give me more detailed information? Maybe they have not been published here in Germany, then I´d have to order them from overseas. Could you give me the title?

[Eruve]

The History of Middle Earth is a twelve volume set, which contains JRRT's notes and his son Christopher's commentary. The first volumes give the original stories that later became the Silmarillion. There are volumes about the writing of LOTR and the later writings from which Christopher derived the later Sil. For more info, see this site:
www.forodrim.org/daeron/md_hm.html (http://www.forodrim.org/daeron/md_hm.html)

[Finduilas]

Many of the books are rather heavy going though. (Like the Silm but worse). I enjoy them occasionally and find them to be very good sources of information.

The books are (in order)
Unfinished Tales (not really part of the series but usually counted as such)
Book of Lost Tales One (the early tales such as the Cottage of Lost Play)
Book of Lost Tales Two (Fall of Gondolin, early version of Beren and Luthien etc)
Lays of Beleriand (Two long poems including "The Gest of Beren and Luthien)
The Shaping of Middle-Earth (Early maps and other info)(I have yet to read this one)
The Lost Road (Early Numenor tales and one "time travel" story ending with Numenor and also the Etymologies of the elvish tongues)
The Return of the Shadow (The first part of the History of the Lord of the Rings. I think it goes to Moria)
The Treason of Isengard (The Second part of the History of the Lord of the Rings)
The War of the Ring (The Third part part of the History of the Lord of the Rings)
Sauron Defeated (Completes the History of the Lord of the Rings. Includes an unpublished ending for the tale and also includes the Notion Club Papers and some more stuff on Numenor)
Morgoth's Ring (Includes a lot of information on topics such as the Gift of Man (also called the Doom of Men) several narratives and quite a bit of philosophical discussion)
The War of the Jewels (More of the same stuff in Morgoth's Ring, but some new tales including a new version of the tale of Hurin)
The Peoples of Middle-Earth (The Appendices to the Lord of the Rings, a couple of new stories and more information on almost everything including the Dwarves, the Line of Elros etc)

[bmilder]

Yeah, it's thick stuff. I had no trouble getting through the Sil at age 11 or so but I'm still unable to get through the Book of Lost Tales without falling asleep :p . Unfinished Tales is basically an anthology of different stories, so that was easy getting through.

[Darth Tater]

I lvoe BOLT!

REgarding the grading papers thing. There are two versions of the story, one is as Ben said. The other is that he got board at this job he did for extra pay, and one day in the library he found a Finish dictionary. He read it, and this sparked his interrest in the Finish language, and prompted his creating of his own languages and eventually the writting of his wonderfull works.

[Michael Martinez]

Unfinished Tales (not really part of the series but usually counted as such)
It would be a mistake to count this as part of the HISTORY series. UNFINISHED TALES seeks to close out the Middle-earth corpus, whereas the HISTORY series attempts to explain where it came from.

Book of Lost Tales One (the early tales such as the Cottage of Lost Play)
Book of Lost Tales Two (Fall of Gondolin, early version of Beren and Luthien etc)

Although published in two parts, the BOOK OF LOST TALES was intended to be a single volume relating a history for England. It was never completed, but was the most completed of Tolkien's unpublished book-length works.

Lays of Beleriand (Two long poems including "The Gest of Beren and Luthien)

The two main works are "Lay of the Children of Hurin" and "Lay of Leithian" (the story of Beren and Luthien). There are a few other pieces in here.

The Shaping of Middle-Earth (Early maps and other info)(I have yet to read this one)

SHAPING OF MIDDLE-EARTH introduces the original "Silmarillion" text, which Tolkien created when he abandoned BOOK OF LOST TALES. This book also contains his earliest attempts to create annals for Aman and Beleriand.

The Lost Road (Early Numenor tales and one "time travel" story ending with Numenor and also the etymologies of the elvish tongues)

Actually, this book is most important for containing the latest version of "Quenta Silmarillion", but it also contains more annals and the first "Ainulindale". Linguists use "The Etymologies" and "The Lhammas" to a considerable extent, but these are dangerous materials for the rest of us to dabble with.

The Return of the Shadow (The first part of the History of the Lord of the Rings. I think it goes to Moria)

Technically it gets no farther than Rivendell. It includes some of Tolkien's projections for further development of the story.

The Treason of Isengard (The Second part of the History of the Lord of the Rings)

Goes back to the beginning and then brings the story forward to Gandalf's reappearance in Fangorn Forest. Also includes more projections for further development.

The War of the Ring (The Third part part of the History of the Lord of the Rings)

Basically takes the history up to "Kirith Ungol" and "The Black Gate Opens".

Sauron Defeated (Completes the History of the Lord of the Rings. Includes an unpublished ending for the tale and also includes the Notion Club Papers and some more stuff on Numenor)

The "unpublished ending" is an epilogue (which SHOULD HAVE BEEN INCLUDED, but Tolkien was persuaded to levae it out). There are two versions of the Epillogue, which contains a letter written in Elvish. The Numenor material is titled "The Drowning of Anadune" . These texts predate the development of "Akallabeth".

Morgoth's Ring (Includes a lot of information on topics such as the Gift of Man (also called the Doom of Men) several narratives and quite a bit of philosophical discussion)

MORGOTH'S RING presents the first part of the material actually used for THE SILMARILLION. The sections are "Ainulindale", "Annals of Aman", and "The Later Quenta Silmarillion". Parts four and five are "Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth" (a short narrative about a philosophical debate between Finrod and the wise woman Andreth of the House of Beor) and a collection of essays and notes which Christopher called "Myths Transformed". Some of the "Myths Transformed" material attempts to explain matters given earlier, but much of it addresses profound questions which arose from Tolkien's development of Middle-earth for publication, and eventually led him to draw conclusions which were extremely inconsistent with the material which has been pubished in THE HOBBIT, THE LORD OF THE RINGS, and THE SILMARILLION. The "Later Quenta Silmarillion" material covers the sources for the published SILMARILLION's texts up through the thieves' quarrrel.

The War of the Jewels (More of the same stuff in Morgoth's Ring, but some new tales including a new version of the tale of Hurin)

No, this is incorrect. THE WAR OF THE JEWELS picks up the source material for the published SILMARILLION where MORGOTH'S RING leaves off (with the return of the Noldor to Middle-earth). Christopher explains (sometimes only in summary or passing reference) how he constructed the final chapters of the book, often conceding serious editorial deletions, constructions, or substitutions. THE WAR OF THE JEWELS provides a solid basis for refuting THE SILMARILLION as a canonical work. It does contain more annals for Beleriand and a "Tale of Years" which provides the only chronology for the last century of the First Age of the Sun, as well as "The Wanderings of Hurin", which grew out of the chronological tables.

THE WAR OF THE JEWELS is perhaps most important to linguists for "Quendi and Eldar", an extensive discussion of etymological development which reveals much historical and cultural information (some of which is inconsistent with the published world), and the only known tale concerning pre-Great Journey Elves (in fact being a nursery story about the very first Elves when they awakened).

The Peoples of Middle-Earth (The Appendices to the Lord of the Rings, a couple of new stories and more information on almost everything including the Dwarves, the Line of Elros etc)

"The Line of Elros" is strictly an UNFINISHED TALES work. THE PEOPLES OF MIDDLE-EARTH publishes the full material Tolkien intended for the appendices, includes the development of "Akallabeth", some additional essays developed at the same time as LOTR and many years later, a story called "Tal Elmar" which many people feel is a legitimate "Numenorean" story (although it really deals with the Gwathuirim or a similar people living along the coast of what later became Gondor), and the full text of THE NEW SHADOW, the sequel to THE LORD OF THE RINGS which Tolkien had started but soon abandoned.

Perhaps the most important sections in PEOPLES OF MIDDLE-EARTH are the linguistic material (which eventually became -- in much condensed form -- Appendix F), "The Heirs of Elendil" (from which the genealogical narrative for the kings and stewards was derived), and the essays "Of Dwarves and Men" and "The Shibboleth of Feanor".

[Finduilas]

Thanks for correcting me here. War of the Jewels is another one that I have yet to read through, so I was a little uncertain there. It's been over a year since I read most of the books (and when I did, it was with an eye to finishing an essay for English class, looking for specific information) and it was late at night when writing the message.

[Spock1]

...ahhh, discovery! The road goes ever onward.

[Arathorn]

That's it. After pondering for 2 years now on whether to buy the H.O.M.E. set or not, I think I will. My curiosity has won over my frugality; considering the shipping costs to get it to Manila. The first 3 or 4 books are available here but it's always the same ones. Oh well..

[Findegil]

@Glaurung: You are right The History of Middle-Earth had not been published in full here in Geramny. Only the two first volumes were translated and published as Das Buch der Verschollenen Geschichten Band 1 & 2. The tarnslation of volume 3 The Lays of Beleriand was forbidden by Chritopher Tolkien. And the german publisher Klett-Cotta lost the interst in it because they expected no finacial benefit.

Regards
Findegil