When author J.R.R. Tolkien died in 1973 at 81, he left behind a family, an academic career, plenty of friends, and esteemed peers. But what the world remembers of Tolkien to this day are his Lord of the Rings novels, along with The Hobbit and The Silmarillion.
While legions of fans keep discovering LotR, the author’s life before he became famous for introducing us to Middle Earth is the subject of this weekend’s Tolkien, which stars Nicholas Hoult as the author and Lily Collins as his lifelong muse and wife, Edith Bratt. Tolkien explores the author’s childhood through his years at Exeter College, Oxford, his service in World War I, and the beginnings of his literary career.
Tolkien marks the first time we’ve gotten a look at the man behind the novels, and his story is just as interesting as the one he wrote.
Tolkien’s Love of Literature Started Early
Tolkien showed an interest in literature and proficiency in languages beginning at the age of four. His mother homeschooled Tolkien and Hilary, teaching Tolkien the basics of Latin, encouraging his appetite for books and botany, and making sure her sons were as well-rounded as possible. In his teens, Tolkien would make up constructed languages with his cousins, Mary and Majorie Incledon. They taught him their own made-up language, Animalic, and together they created a language called “Nevbosh.”
Who Were The Inklings?
While studying at King Edward’s School in 1911, Tolkien met Rob Gilson, Geoffrey Bache Smith, and Christopher Wiseman. The young men formed the Tea Club and Barrovian Society (“T.C.B.S.” for short) because the young men enjoyed drinking tea in, among other places, the school library in secret.
Tolkien stayed in touch with Gilson, Bache Smith, and Wiseman throughout the years. But this friendship group and secret society was a predecessor to the most formative of literary groups in Tolkien’s life, The Inklings. Existing at Oxford during the 1930s and ‘40s, the informal literary group counted Tolkien and his friend, author C.S. Lewis, as members. Additional members including scholars, poets, critics, and authors like Owen Barfield; Adam Fox, the Dean of Divinity at Magdalen College, Oxford; New Zealand scholar J.A.W. Bennett; Lewis’ older brother Warren Lewis; and Tolkien’s son, Christopher Tolkien. Readings of members’ works-in-progress (Tolkien shared his earliest LotR drafts with the Inklings) and discussions were held in Lewis’ rooms at Magdalen.
WWI Left An Impact On Tolkien
Tolkien joined the British army shortly after WWI, when the war reached England in mid-1914. He delayed going into the army under a special rule that allowed him to finish his degree at Oxford first.
By 1915, with protest and pleas from his family to join getting more insistent by the day, Tolkien finally enlisted as a second lieutenant in the Lancashire Fusiliers. Tolkien and Bratt married during his 11 months of training at a Staffordshire camp. In 1916, he soon learned he would be heading to the front lines in France. Tolkien was present at the Somme and saw the greatest amount of action in his war career during this time. Tolkien’s harrowing experiences during this time are chronicled in Tolkien.
He also credited his wife, Edith Bratt, as the inspiration for several characters in his books, most notably Lúthien Tinúviel in The Silmarillion, and Arwen Evenstar in LotR.
(Credit: Fox Searchlight)
His Literary Legacy Is a Big Deal
Tolkien’s impact on the English literary canon cannot be overstated.
His contributions to the modern, collective imagination are invaluable. We know the names Frodo Baggins, Gandalf, Rivendell, Aragorn (and all the rest) because Tolkien sat down to bring them to life. High fantasy exists because of him. Tolkien survived so much that many of us cannot imagine surviving in order to get back to England, to his family, and to his passion for the written word. If we had to guess, his work will live on and continue to influence us for years to come.
Get your tickets for Tolkien here.
