Tolkien was born John Ronald Reuel Tolkien in South Africa in 1892.
Tolkien moved to England after his father died in 1896 and lived the
remainder of his life in England (Doughan). In 1937 he published The
Hobbit, a book that was originally aimed at a child audience. His
publisher then requested a sequel, with this attempt to produce a sequel
turning into his epic work The Lord of the Rings. This work was created
and published in three parts, the first as The Fellowship of the Ring, the
second as The Two Towers, and the third as The Return of the King. It is
this epic work that he is best known for, though he did also contribute a
significant amount as a literary scholar.
Tolkien's educational background appears to be one of the most
significant impacts on his writing. This impact is seen from his study of
languages and his study of classic literature.
Tolkien's overall educational achievements have been described saying
that Tolkien "was a major scholar of the English language, specialising in
Old and Middle English" and that he was "twice Professor of Anglo-Saxon
(Old English) at the University of Oxford" (Doughan). His flair for
languages has been described as follows:
"Ronald was already showing remarkable linguistic gifts. He had
mastered the Latin and Greek which was the staple fare of an arts
education at that time, and was becoming more than competent in a
number of other languages, both modern and ancient, notably Gothic,
and later Finnish. He was already busy making up his own languages,
Tolkien's interest and education in languages became part of his works.
This is seen especially in The Lord of the Rings, where Tolkien created
languages for each of the races in the book. This is often considered one
of the reasons that Tolkien's works are so effective and one of the reason
his works manage to engage the reader so...