John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born on January 3, 1892 in Bloemfontein, South Africa. There he lived with his mother and father until 1895, when he and his mother moved to England. His Father, a banker stayed in South Africa where he died a year later in 1896 (Bloom 165-166).
The most probable cause for his mother leaving was because around the time Tolkien was born, Cecil Rhodes, the cape Premier and a tycoon, had a power base in the very influential, De Beers Diamond Company, he was discredited by his plot for a second coup against Paul Kruger, the leader of British Parliament in South Africa. This eventually led to the British Declaration of War in October of 1899 (Davenport). .
In 1904 Tolkien's mother passed away, so he and his younger brother, Hilary, took up residency at their Aunts. Here Tolkien spent countless hours playing with his cousins. They often made up languages. This lead Tolkien to be proficient in Welsh, Greek, Gothic, Old Norse, and Anglo-Saxon (Smith 136-138). It is not surprising that Tolkien was able to create dialect for species of creatures that do not even exist. It is easily seen that since childhood he had an amazing imagination and was born to write about mythology and fantasy.
In 1911, Tolkien won a scholarship to study classics at Oxford University. In 1915, however Tolkien changed his major to English. After graduation from Oxford, in .
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1916, Tolkien married Edith Bratt. Together they had four children. Also in 1916 Tolkien joined the British Army. Being in the army, Tolkien was called off to fight in World War One (Bloom 165). .
I believe that Tolkien modeled "The Hobbit" and the epic series, "The Lord of the Rings" after the world events over the next several years of his life. .
"The Hobbit's trolls, goblins (orcs), spiders and dragon know nothing of one another and are all acting on their own. They are certainly not shown to be servants of the nameless and nebulous Necromancer.