Tolkien Biography

            real taste for fairy stories was awakened by philology on the threshold of manhood, and quickened to full life by war." The preceding sentence was a quote spoken by J.R.R Tolkien. All writers have different forms of inspiration. J.R.R Tolkiens" inspiration came from his life experiences. Different events in J.R.R Tolkiens" life led him to be the one of the most imaginative writers of our century. With the imaginative stories Tolkien produced, he can lay to rest knowing that even still today, his pieces have been not been ignored.
             John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born on January 3 ,1892 is Bloemfontein, South Africa. Tolkiens" memories of South Africa were vivid and slightly influenced his writing because on Febuary 15, 1896 his father died, forcing him and his family to move to England. Tolkien was split between living in very rural Sarehole and going to school in the urban city of Birmingham (Decoster 1). This became extremely important in developing Tolkiens linguistic skills. The differences in the "city" language and "country" language struck up much interest in linguistics for Tolkien. Tolkiens" mother noticed her sons interest in language and began to teach him Latin and Greek. Tolkien also became interested in fairytales around this time. (Hammond 3).
             In 1900 Mabel Tolkien, Tolkiens mother, was received into the Catholic church. Her father was shocked, he was a Methodist, the rest of the family were Baptists and some were directly against Catholicism. They ended up being excluded from the family because of this. From then on, Tolkien was brought up in the faith of Plo Nono and remained to be devout Catholic. (Rogers 2).
             The Tolkien family was consumed in poverty. The situation turned worse when Mabel Tolkien, who was diagnose with diabetes, died on October 15. Because of Mabel's turn to Catholicism and the family's opinions on it, the boys were left orphaned. Father Francis, a family friend of the Tolkiens" and local priest, took care of the boys" welfare.