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J.R.R. Tolkien

Born

in Bloemfontein, Mangaung, Free State, South Africa

January 03, 1892

Died

September 02, 1973

Website

https://www.tolkienestate.com/

Genre

Fantasy, Fiction, Children's

Influences

Traditional Catholicism, Scholasticism, Thomas Aquinas, Norse Mytholog ...more

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John Ronald Reuel Tolkien: writer, artist, scholar, linguist. Known to millions around the world as the author of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien spent most of his life teaching at the University of Oxford where he was a distinguished academic in the fields of Old and Middle English and Old Norse. His creativity, confined to his spare time, found its outlet in fantasy works, stories for children, poetry, illustration and invented languages and alphabets.

Tolkien’s most popular works, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are set in Middle-earth, an imagined world with strangely familiar settings inhabited by ancient and extraordinary peoples. Through this secondary world Tolkien writes perceptively of universal human concerns – love and loss, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien: writer, artist, scholar, linguist. Known to millions around the world as the author of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien spent most of his life teaching at the University of Oxford where he was a distinguished academic in the fields of Old and Middle English and Old Norse. His creativity, confined to his spare time, found its outlet in fantasy works, stories for children, poetry, illustration and invented languages and alphabets.

Tolkien’s most popular works, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are set in Middle-earth, an imagined world with strangely familiar settings inhabited by ancient and extraordinary peoples. Through this secondary world Tolkien writes perceptively of universal human concerns – love and loss, courage and betrayal, humility and pride – giving his books a wide and enduring appeal.

Tolkien was an accomplished amateur artist who painted for pleasure and relaxation. He excelled at landscapes and often drew inspiration from his own stories. He illustrated many scenes from The Silmarillion, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, sometimes drawing or painting as he was writing in order to visualize the imagined scene more clearly.

Tolkien was a professor at the Universities of Leeds and Oxford for almost forty years, teaching Old and Middle English, as well as Old Norse and Gothic. His illuminating lectures on works such as the Old English epic poem, Beowulf, illustrate his deep knowledge of ancient languages and at the same time provide new insights into peoples and legends from a remote past.

Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa, in 1892 to English parents. He came to England aged three and was brought up in and around Birmingham. He graduated from the University of Oxford in 1915 and saw active service in France during the First World War before being invalided home. After the war he pursued an academic career teaching Old and Middle English. Alongside his professional work, he invented his own languages and began to create what he called a mythology for England; it was this ‘legendarium’ that he would work on throughout his life. But his literary work did not start and end with Middle-earth, he also wrote poetry, children’s stories and fairy tales for adults. He died in 1973 and is buried in Oxford where he spent most of his adult life. ...more

Combine Editions
J.R.R. Tolkien’s books

Average rating: 4.37 · 11,822,127 ratings · 236,273 reviews · 641 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Hobbit, or There and Back Again (The Lord of the Rings, #0) 4.29 avg rating — 4,251,990 ratings — published 1937 — 47 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, #1) 4.40 avg rating — 2,965,720 ratings — published 1954 — 32 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Two Towers (The Lord of the Rings, #2) 4.49 avg rating — 1,048,560 ratings — published 1954 — 88 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Return of the King (The Lord of the Rings, #3) 4.57 avg rating — 973,543 ratings — published 1955 — 30 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Lord of the Rings 4.53 avg rating — 703,953 ratings — published 1955 — 921 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Hobbit, Part One by J.R.R. Tolkien, David Wyatt (Illustrator) 4.31 avg rating — 379,274 ratings — published 1937 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (Editor), Ted Nasmith (Illustrator) 4.02 avg rating — 315,834 ratings — published 1977 — 199 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	J.R.R. Tolkien 4-Book Boxed Set: The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings 4.61 avg rating — 139,277 ratings — published 1954 — 213 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (The Lord of the Rings, #2) by J.R.R. Tolkien, Brian Sibley (Adapter), Michael Bakewell (Adapter) 4.67 avg rating — 97,158 ratings — 18 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Children of Húrin 4.05 avg rating — 88,756 ratings — published 2007 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by J.R.R. Tolkien…

Series by J.R.R. Tolkien

Middle Earth (3 books)
by

J.R.R. Tolkien

4.39 avg rating — 10,095,072 ratings

The Hobbit (2 books)
by

J.R.R. Tolkien,

Rob Inglis (Narrator)

4.31 avg rating — 380,637 ratings

Tales of Middle Earth (3 books)
by

J.R.R. Tolkien,

Christopher Tolkien (Editor)

4.05 avg rating — 126,417 ratings

The History of Middle-Earth (13 books)
by

J.R.R. Tolkien,

Christopher Tolkien (editor)

4.01 avg rating — 60,849 ratings

Unfinished Tales (1 book)
by

J.R.R. Tolkien,

Christopher Tolkien (Editor)

4.01 avg rating — 43,302 ratings

More series by J.R.R. Tolkien…

With the advent of streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and Apple TV+ we’re currently experiencing a kind of Golden Age...

Polls

2014 Third Quarter Long Read Elimination Poll

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

20 votes, 12.3%

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

17 votes, 10.4%

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

15 votes, 9.2%

The Iliad by Homer

13 votes, 8.0%

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

12 votes, 7.4%

Middlemarch by George Eliot

11 votes, 6.7%

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

10 votes, 6.1%

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

9 votes, 5.5%

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

9 votes, 5.5%

The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

5 votes, 3.1%

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

5 votes, 3.1%

The Once and Future King by T.H. White

5 votes, 3.1%

The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne

5 votes, 3.1%

The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing

4 votes, 2.5%

Bleak House by Charles Dickens

4 votes, 2.5%

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

4 votes, 2.5%

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

3 votes, 1.8%

The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo

3 votes, 1.8%

A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth

2 votes, 1.2%

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

2 votes, 1.2%

Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman

2 votes, 1.2%

U.S.A. by John Dos Passos

1 vote, 0.6%

Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset

1 vote, 0.6%

Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy

1 vote, 0.6%

A House for Mr Biswas by V.S. Naipaul

0 votes, 0.0%

Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell

0 votes, 0.0%

The Glass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse

0 votes, 0.0%

The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding

0 votes, 0.0%

The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope

0 votes, 0.0%

The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy

0 votes, 0.0%

163 total votes

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J.R.R. Tolkien’s Followers (74,467)

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J.R.R. Tolkien

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Combine Editions
J.R.R. Tolkien’s books