Thursday Thirteen #24
For this week’s Thursday Thirteen I decided to look at one of the best authors in the English language: J. R. R. Tolkien. Mind you, he’s also the best author in Elvish. Do you know any more fun Tolkien facts?
13 Facts About J. R. R. Tolkien
1. Tolkien’s full name is John Ronald Reuel Tolkien.
2. He was born January 3, 1892 in Bloemfontein, South Africa.
3. Three of the first languages that Tolkien worked on as a child were Animalic (he explored this one with friends, and did not actually invent it himself), Nevbosh (meaning “new nonsense,” Tolkien helped to construct it and enjoyed conversing with his friends in it), and Naffarin (the first language he worked on alone at age eight or nine.)
4. By 1904, Tolkien and his brother were orphans. His father (Arthur) died of rheumatic fever in February of 1896. Mabel, their mother, died of complications from diabetes on 14 November 1904.
5. Tolkien met Edith Bratt about four years after his mother died. They lived in the same lodging house. She was three years older than Tolkien, but they gradually fell in love. Actually, Tolkien adored her. Unfortunately, his guardian felt that she was distracting him from his studies, and that at eighteen he was too young to marry. Tolkien agreed to not see her for three years, and she moved away to stay with friends. At midnight on the day he turned twenty-one Tolkien wrote to Edith asking when he could see her again. When he learned that she had become engaged to marry another man he boarded a train and went to convince her to marry him instead. Needless to say, he was successful.
6. At one point during his first semester at Oxford, Tolkien stole a city bus as a prank, and took his friends on a joyride.
7. Tolkien fought in World War I and lost all but one of his childhood friends there.
8. In 1918, Tolkien was hired to work on what was to become the Oxford English Dictionary. Started in 1879, by the time Tolkien joined the team they had finally reached the “W”s.
9. Tolkien earned a professorship at Oxford in 1925. (Very few of the faculty actually had a “professorship” at that time. A high honor indeed.)
10. Tolkien’s four children were the ultimate inspiration for his fiction writing. Can you imagine the sorts of bedtime stories that they got to hear?
11. Tolkien was a big fan of clubs. Two of the clubs he was a member of at Oxford were the “Coalbiters” and “The Inklings.” C.S. Lewis was one of the members of The Inklings.
12. Rayner Unwin, age ten at the time, is the one who judged The Hobbit worthy of publishing. He was paid a shilling for his review. (For the record, his father, Sir Stanley Unwin, was the director of publisher George Allen & Unwin at that point.)
13. When Tolkien’s son Michael entered the army he listed his father’s profession on his paperwork as “Wizard.” It would seem that Michael really understood his father.
Sources:
Biography Resource Center Database
J. R. R. Tolkien: Creator of Languages and Legends by Doris Lynch
I’d always wondered about the double-R initials. I learned some things here today.
Good T-13!
Fact 7 certainly explains a lot about the darkness of his books. Fun facts!
I love the fact that he stole a bus, it is so at odds with the pipe smoking pictures on his book jackets =)
I am ignorant of Tolkein, but I must change that!
Great list. I learned something new! Thank you.
Happy TT!
Wow. I didn’t know any of those things except for his interest in creating new languages (something he and I have in common). Thanks for sharing.
Carol, glad to help spread the knowledge! Thanks for stopping by.
OSG, I know. He survived the war by getting too sick to remain.
Starrlight, I know! Isn’t that outrageous? He didn’t get punished either.
kay, come over to the Tolkien side…. *tries to hypnotise you*
Denise, there. You have your new thing for the day. 😀
Sarah, you create languages? Cool! I really need to get my act together and study the 6 gaelics.
Whoa. I never knew ANY of that; I’d always envisioned this rather dour old man — don’t ask me why. But certainly not a man who chased after his love and convinced her to marry him, instead. Although given the way everyone gets hyper about that ring, maybe it’s not a surprise after all…
Tolkien was certainly a man of passions, Susan. Have you seen his gravestone? – http://www.arwen-undomiel.com/tolkien/images/Grave_2.jpg
Luthien was a beautiful elf maiden and Beren was the mortal man who fell in love with her.
Wow..what a great list! I knew a few of these things, but not all. I love that his son listed him as “Wizard” , he was certainly right on with that 😛 Thank you so much for sharing
Thanks for stopping by, Stace. Glad you liked my little list.
I have read that his experiences in the war traumatized him and that this is reflected in some of his writing. I don’t know, though, because I am afraid I find him totally unreadable.
Thanks for this info. He made quite a life for himself. I didn’t know his OED connection!
very interesting information. i like backgrounds on my fave writers.
Nicholas, Tolkien always heatedly denied that to be the case, but one has to wonder…
Sandy, I think he did the word “Walrus” among otheres.
she, so do I.
Very interesting! Husband is a great fan of Tolkien, I’ve managed to read the Hobbit and have seen all the movies, but haven’t tackled the rest of the books yet. Thank you for a very enjoyable TT! I’m a little late making the rounds!
Hi Shaunesay! If you ever get as far as the Silmarillion take my advice and don’t try to listen to the audiobook in the car. The only version that I’ve found is a bit…monotone.
this got me a good idea for my project
thank you so much >_<
I got help for my homework
* does he have any funny interesting facts? *
[…] Library 9. 13 Old West Outlaws 10. 13 More Books Becoming Films 11. Reading Adventures 12. 13 Facts About J. R. R. Tolkien 13. Five Famous […]
thanks this will realy help me with my homework
WWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWW that is very interesting i did not no that i luv him haha by the way i am only 10 years old
Really enjoyed reading these. Tolkien certainly was a remarkable man.
Thanks!!! Helped me alot with my homework. I am in grade 7 now and the homework is making me so depressing!!!
Wow this is cool! I like goat cheese like Tolkien!!!!! I am only 8!!!
Is it true that tolkien loved smoking his pipe as much as his charectars did?
[…] you Know: Tolkien’s full name is John Ronald Reuel Tolkien. He was born January 3, 1892 in Bloemfontein, South […]
thank you im in 7th grade and this really helped for research
[…] Tolkien worked on three languages as a child. He explored Animalic with friends, but did not actually invent it himself. Tolkien helped to construct Nevbosh, meaning “new nonsense,” and enjoyed conversing with his friends in it. And at age eight or nine, he worked on his first language, Naffarin. (Source) […]
Awesome facts. I’ll probably get some good marks on my book report!
I never knew about No. 3, and I should have, because I’ve written reports and read books and visited every website with interesting facts possible…except for this one.
[…] The Tolkien Society, Tolkien Gateway, 13 Facts about J.R.R. Tolkien, 10 Things You Should Know about J.R.R. […]
[…] https://fremontlibraries.wordpress.com/2008/06/18/13-facts-about-j-r-r-tolkien/ […]
He lost his parents when he was a boy, and all his childhood friends save one when he was becoming an adult. Yet, he had a great world view and made his life one of the most interesting in the world and shared some of that with everyone in the world and inspired! He turned a sad story into an epic adventure. I highly respect and admire Professor ‘Wizard’ Tolkien. If not my favorite than certainly one of my favorite authors of all time! Had great taste in friends too (C. S. Lewis).
On his gravestone, that he shared with his wife, he had Luthien under her name Beren.