Robbie Myers

The Lord of the Rings is an impressive literary achievement. It has been an incredibly popular series of novels and spawned the development of impressive movie productions based on the books. Let’s discuss some details related to the books and how they developed.

The Lord of the Rings was written by J.R.R. Tolkien. He was born as John Ronald Reuel Tolkien in Bloemfontein, South Africa on January 3, 1892. A few years following his birth, his father died. Shortly thereafter, his mother and brother moved with him to England.

On October 15, 1904, Tolkien’s mother died from complications from diabetes. Tolkien received his primary schooling in England where he remained following his mother’s death. A few years later J.R.R. attended Exeter College in Oxford. He married Edith Bratt on March 22, 1916 after having enlisted in the military. In the summer of 1916, he was involved in the Somme offensive. He returned to England after succumbing to trench fever.

In 1920 Tolkien was appointed to the position of Reader of English Literature at the University of Leeds. Then in 1925 he filled the vacant Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford. During this time he founded a group called the Inklings which included like minded members such as Owen Barfield Charles Williams, and C.S. Lewis.

Tolkien had started a story he created for his children. His unfinished manuscript found its way to an employee of the publishing firm of George Allen and Unwin in 1936. Tolkien was asked to complete this story. The completed manuscript was given to Stanley Unwin who had his ten year old son read it. Following this favorable report, Unwin published the book in 1937. It was titled The Hobbit and met with great success.

Tolkien then wrote the Silmarillion but it was not considered commercially publishable. He was then asked to write a sequel the Hobbit. This spawned the creation of the Lord of the Rings.

The Lord of the Rings was published in three parts during 1955 and 1956. The series of books was popular but it gained in tremendous popularity when it was published in pirated paperback editions beginning in 1965. The books were widely read by high school and college age students.

Meanwhile Tolkien retired from Oxford in 1969. At that time he and his wife moved to Bournemouth. On November 22, 1971 Tolkien’s wife Edith passed away. He then moved back to Oxford and stayed in rooms provided by Merton College. Then on September 2, 1973 Tolkien passed away.

As said earlier, the books were wildly popular and many fans pushed for a film adaptation. This took many years but a series of large scale major motion pictures were planned and finally launched. The films were shot largely in New Zealand and their grandeur and scope did an outstanding job of bringing the stories which J.R.R. Tolkien created so many years ago to life.

These films remain very popular and are a tribute to the man who envisioned and created the lives of people and creatures from Middle Earth and beyond.