J.R.

R Tolkien

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein, South

Africa, on January 3, 1892, to British parents. In 1896 his father
died, and the family—J.R.R. and his brother Hilary, along with
mother Mabel—moved back to England.
Tolkien spent the rest of his childhood in the West Midlands of
England, spending time in the urban area of Birmingham as
well as quaint, rural Sarehole. These experiences allowed him
to see, firsthand, the effects of industrialization and to consider
the significant differences between big-city and small-town life.
This tension is reflected in The Lord of the Rings, which moves
from the peaceful Shire to cities both grand and forbidding.
In 1900 Tolkien's mother converted to Roman Catholicism,
causing her family to shun her. This created a dark childhood
memory for Tolkien, which he attributed to his mother's early
death. When she died of diabetes in 1904, their priest, Father
Francis Xavier Morgan, took an active role in making sure the
two boys were cared for. Tolkien remained a member of the
Catholic Church throughout his life, and its rituals, stories, and
doctrines provided inspiration for the spiritual backstory of
Middle-earth, as well as the underpinnings of its ethics.
As a teenager Tolkien lived for some time in a boarding house;
at age 16 he met and fell in love with a fellow lodger, Edith
Mary Bratt, who was 19. Father Francis told Tolkien to wait
until he turned 21 to initiate a romantic relationship with Edith;
with much reluctance Tolkien agreed. He gained his education
in the years until his 21st birthday, earning a degree in English
Language and Literature (Comparative Philology, the study of
changes in a language or language family over time, being his
strongest area) from Oxford University. It was then Tolkien
reignited his romance with Edith. They married in 1916, just
before Tolkien went off to war. The couple would go on to
have four children.
Tolkien's months in the trenches of World War I were dirty and
full of violence and grief. His company participated in the Battle
of the Somme in 1916, where, because of a general's tactical
error, some 19,000 British soldiers were killed in a single day.
Most of his close friends died, and Tolkien himself became so
sick with "trench fever," he spent weeks in the hospital before
being sent home. He suffered from the effects of trench fever
for a period of nearly 18 months. Close on the heels of these
wartime griefs, Tolkien translated his experiences into stories

set in Middle-earth—a translation of the Old English word

Middangeard, which he had encountered in his university
studies. Tolkien was aware that, unlike some countries of
Central and Northern Europe, England had no prominent
legends that formed a complete cosmology. Therefore, he set
out to create a "mythology for England."
After the war, Tolkien returned to the workforce as a
philologist for The New English Dictionary. He became a tutor
in 1919, and a year later, he became Reader in English
Language at the University of Leeds. He gained full
professorship in 1924 when he joined the Leeds English
Department. In 1925 he was appointed Professor of Anglo-
Saxon at Oxford University. Tolkien spent his time teaching
and writing stories and the occasional scholarly paper. He
wrote many of the stories for his own children's entertainment.
He helped to found the Inklings, a group of writers—including
C.S. Lewis—who would meet to share and discuss their work.
During this time, he first had the impulse to write about hobbits.
According to Tolkien, he was grading papers when suddenly,
on a blank page and for no real reason, he wrote the line: In a
hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Later he says, he had to
write more about hobbits so he could find out about them. He
wrote a hobbit story for his children, and it was published as
The Hobbit in 1937. The book became surprisingly successful,
and the publisher asked Tolkien for a second book about
hobbits.
Tolkien took on this challenge, but he now believed the hobbit
story line should become part of the larger history he had been
developing of Middle-earth, complete with its own languages,
epic heroes, and terrible villains. It took him more than 10 years
to incorporate these materials into The Lord of the Rings,
which was published in three parts between 1954 and 1955.
When it was published, some critics loved it, while others
thought it silly, but over time—and partly due to its paperback
release in the United States—it became a best seller. Today it
is considered a classic of the fantasy genre, with copies sold in
the hundreds of millions. During his lifetime Tolkien also
published many scholarly essays and labored over a translation
of the Old English classic Beowulf. Tolkien died on September
2, 1973, but his publishing career did not end then. Five years
later his son Christopher, Tolkien's literary executor, oversaw
publication of The Silmarillion, a history of the First Age of
Middle-earth, which Tolkien had continuously redrafted for
decades.

The Fellowship of the Ring

The story takes place in Middle-earth, during the Third Age—a
mythical past in which Elves, Dwarves, humans, and other
creatures coexist. The Fellowship of the Ring begins in the
Shire as Bilbo Baggins prepares to celebrate his 111th birthday

with an elaborate celebration. Gandalf, a wizard, provides the

fireworks. After the party, Bilbo leaves for further adventuring,
gifting his magic ring to his nephew Frodo, who is also
celebrating a birthday: he is turning 33.
Around Frodo's 50th birthday, Gandalf unexpectedly returns
and reveals the dark history of the ring—which is the One Ring
the evil Sauron forged to conquer all of Middle-earth. Frodo
sets off to take the Ring to Rivendell, where he can consult
Elrond on what should be done. He is accompanied by the
faithful Sam, as well as two other young hobbits—Merry and
Pippin.
On the way to Rivendell, the small Company of hobbits is
pursued by the Black Riders, mysterious black-cloaked figures.
In the town of Bree, the hobbits meet a guide—the Ranger
Strider, also known as Aragorn. Aragorn leads them to
Weathertop, where the Black Riders catch up with them and
attack. The group must continue to Rivendell with Frodo
gravely ill from a knife wound.
Aragorn and the hobbits reach Rivendell safely. When Frodo
recovers, Elrond calls a council to decide what to do with the
One Ring, which confers great power to the wearer but also
corrupts that person with its evil influence. Men, hobbits, Elves,
and Dwarves attend the council, along with the wizard Gandalf.
After sharing information and debating, Frodo offers to take
the One Ring to Mount Doom in Mordor, where it can be
destroyed. Elrond appoints eight others to go along: Gandalf,
Gimli the Dwarf, Legolas the Elf, Boromir of Gondor, Aragorn,
Sam, Merry, and Pippin. They form the Fellowship.
The Company sets off and soon encounters difficulty crossing
the mountain Caradhras. They decide to travel underground
through the Dwarf city Moria. The Company is pursued through
Moria by Orcs, and Gandalf is lost down a great chasm during
a battle with a monstrous Balrog. Grieving, the Company exits
Moria and travels to Lothlórien, a peaceful land occupied by
Elves and ruled by the Lady Galadriel and her husband
Celeborn. There, the Company heals from their grief, but
eventually they must set off again on their quest.
Led now by Aragorn, the Company travels down the Anduin
River in boats. They stop at a point where they must decide
which way to go. Members of the Company are not in
agreement, and they take time to ponder the situation. Boromir
approaches Frodo and tries to get him to give him the One
Ring, first through persuasion, then through force. Frodo runs
off, deciding to go on alone to Mount Doom. But clever, loyal

Sam catches up to him just as he is leaving, and the two make

their way together toward Mordor.

Frodo
Frodo is the nephew of Bilbo Baggins and the heir of his
estate. Like Bilbo, Frodo is educated in lore, has been known to
talk with Elves, and is fairly well-to-do. Like Bilbo, he seems to
have a small, but real, desire for adventure, uncommon among
hobbits. In a letter to English publisher Rayner Unwin dated
December 15, 1965, Tolkien writes that The Hobbit and The
Lord of the Rings are about "the achievements of specially
graced and gifted individuals." When Bilbo gifts him the Ring,
Frodo inherits much more than the ability to become invisible.
Gandalf convinces him that keeping the Ring endangers the
Shire—not to mention the entire world. Although he is
conflicted about leaving the Shire, Frodo follows through
because he knows it is the right course of action. This
decision—to step foot on the Road that "goes ever on and
on"—will lead to many more choices, many more decisions.
Frodo meets them each with the same determination and
sense of inevitability. He can see he must take the Ring to
Mordor, and so he does. Even when it looks like he might not
return from his quest, he presses on. Even when the Ring
becomes heavier and heavier, and its influence stronger, he
presses on. The heroism of Frodo is the heroism of
determination and steadfast adherence to doing what is right.

Sam
Like Frodo, Sam is a hobbit from the Shire, and also has a bit of
longing to become more than an ordinary hobbit—shown by his
desire to meet Elves—but his character arc is less steady.
While Sam's loyalty to Frodo is unchanging, he rises from
simple gardener to hero without the benefit of any of Frodo's
privilege. Yet his determination to see the quest through to the
very end eventually matches Frodo's. According to Tolkien,
Sam was, in some ways, more of a "main character" than
Frodo, because he experiences the most character growth. In
a letter to his son Christopher Tolkien dated December 24,
1944, Tolkien writes, "Sam is the most closely drawn character,
the successor to Bilbo of the first book, the genuine hobbit.
Frodo is not so interesting, because he has to be high-minded,
and has, as it were, a vocation." Sam plays an important role in
representing the ordinary world of simple peace and pleasures,

which make fighting the war worthwhile, especially considering

his marriage and family. In a letter to editor Milton Waldman,
Tolkien claimed the moral of the story "is that without the high
and noble the simple and vulgar is utterly mean; and without
the simple and ordinary the noble and heroic is meaningless."

Gandalf
Gandalf the Grey is one of five wizards (called Istari in some of
Tolkien's writings) sent to Middle-earth to help its inhabitants
fight Sauron. These wizards take on the look of old men but
are actually powerful beings who have insight and knowledge
far beyond that of humans. From Frodo's perspective, Gandalf
comes and goes randomly and without warning, but in reality
he is constantly working at his task. Without Gandalf,
resistance against Sauron would have been far too weak to
succeed. Certainly in The Lord of the Rings, Gandalf is both
familiar and kindly (creating fireworks for Bilbo's birthday) as
well as distant and powerful (as he interacts with the kings of
Rohan and Gondor, for example, or when he fights the Balrog).

Aragorn
When the hobbits first meet Aragorn, they know him by the
name others in Bree call him—Strider. Soon, though, it
becomes clear Strider is much more than a vagabond or
wanderer. He is Aragorn, son of Arathorn and the heir of Isildur,
who cut the One Ring from the hand of Sauron. This means
Aragorn is the heir to the throne of Gondor, of which Denethor
is Steward. In some ways, he seems destined to become king,
and many of his decisions are made because he feels the time
is right or a certain course is necessary. He fulfills prophecies
and ultimately does become king. However, Aragorn's fate is
far from certain from within the story—Sauron's forces are
overwhelming and the fight against him is always on the brink
of failure. One important aspect of Aragorn's character is his
role as a healer. He heals the wounds of his traveling
companions from the outset, and after the Battle of the
Pelennor fields, he heals those who have become ill with the
"Black Breath"—a malady that comes from fighting the
Ringwraiths. This proves to be essential to his eventual
coronation, since Gondorian lore says, "the hands of the king
are the hands of a healer."

Sauron
Sauron is the main villain of The Lord of the Rings and the
creator and owner of the One Ring. Yet he is not the original
evil in Tolkien's mythos—just one of its most powerful servants.
In the First Age, he was the main servant of Morgoth (Melkor).
In the Second Age, he taught the Elves how to make rings of
power, while secretly crafting the One Ring to be the master of
the other rings and so ensnare those who wear them; he also
influenced the Men of Númenor, leading to the fall of Númenor.
In the Third Age, he quietly built up his strength as the
Necromancer, only to emerge as ruler of Mordor and master of
the Nazgûl.

Gollum
Gollum is the character from The Hobbit from whom Bilbo
obtained the Ring. Part of a people similar to hobbits, he gained
the Ring by murder and lies, and so was more vulnerable to its
corrupting influence. In The Lord of the Rings, Gollum is the
case study of what could happen to a hobbit completely
overtaken by the evil of the Ring. He shows what could have
happened to Bilbo or Frodo if they had taken the Ring by force
or had used it with intent to further their own power.