Now, I'm guessing most of you know him from his most famous works, Lord of the Rings or There and Back Again (the Hobbit), and many even just from the movies. But here is a little background story about him;
His family is originally from Germany, but moved to England in the 18th century. He was born in South Africa, January 3rd 1892, and he moved back to England with his mom as a 4-year old. His mom died when he was 12, and as a result he was raised by a priest. When he was 19, he went to Exeter College, Oxford. He married a girl named Edith Bratt in 1916.
Tolkien signed up for the British Army durring world war two, after graduating from Exeter with top grades in english language and literature. He ended up in a hospital before the war was over though, and that's where he started to write the first book, "the book of lost tales", on which he worked until the day he died, 55 years later.
He got a job in the Oxford english dictionary, one of the best dictionary's in the world, before he became a professor in old-english (angelo-saxian). He later became a professor in the English Language, and kept the job till he retired in 1959.
Aaaand (here comes the interesting part), March 28th 1972, he was made a commander of the Order of the Brtitish Empire. On his (and his wifes) grave, it says "Beren and Lúthien", these names picked from one of the biggest lovestories he ever wrote, Lúthien actually being based on his wife.
Really boring to read about someone's life like that? kind of boring writing it, but I learned something about him at least ;-P
Now to his books and other works. just a short list;
1. There and back again, 1937 (read)
2. Farmer's Giles of Ham, 1949
3. The Lord of the Rings, 1954-55 (read)
4. The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, 1962
5. Tree and Leaf, 1964
6. Smith of Wooton Major, 1967
7. The Road goes ever On and On, 1967
8. Bilbo's last Song, 1974
9. The Father's Christmas letters, 1976
10. The Silmarillion, 1977 (the one I'm reading now)
11. Unfinished Tales, 1980 (next on my list)
12. The letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, 1981
13. Mr. Bliss, 1982
14. The Monsters and the Critics, 1983
15. The Book of Lost Tales 1, 1983
16. The Book of Lost Tales 2, 1984
17. The Lays of Beleriand, 1985
18. The Shaping of Middle Earth, 1986
19. The Lost road and Othe Writings, 1987
20. The Return of the Shadow, 1988
21. The Treason of Isengard, 1989
22. The War of the Ring, 1990
23. Sauron Defeated, 1992
24. Morgoth's Ring, 1993
25. The war of the Jewels, 1994
26. The People's of Middle Earth, 1996
27. Roverandon, 1998
28. The Children of Húrin, 2007
Oh well, just a few there. So now onto why I chose to write about him today; I was sitting in the library reading Silmarillion earlier today, really slow, thinking about every single detail, trying to match the names up with who had been mention before, and so on. And I ended up with a head ace. So I took a little walk around the library, and found another book, "Every Soul a Star" by Wendy Mass. Really easy read, probably gonna get a review within a few days. And of course I'm also gonna keep on reading Silmarillion.
Now this phenomena of me starting a new book while in the middle of another, is something quite normal that I'm probably gonna bring up later, now back to Tolkien's books. The way he writes, it's something special. You can't find it in any other books that I've heard of. Thinking about how The Inheritance Cycle has some similarities, because mr. Paolini is picking some tricks from all his favorite authors and putting into it (Tolkien being one of them) is one thing. It's still really different from all else. And the fact that they are mostly notes he never got to put into books, doesn't change the fact that this is the way he wrote in his finished books, like the Lord of the Rings and There and Back Again. So my question;
Have you ever read anything like his books, by a different author?
"Alice"
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