"Very well," Said Bilbo, who was anxious to agree, until he found out more about the creature, whether he was quite alone, whether he was fierce or hungry, and whether he was a friend of the goblins (Helms 222). When Tolkien was a child his father and mother died causing him to move around. He enrolled in Oxford graduated, married his high school sweetheart, Edith Bratt, and then served his country. During the War he caught something known as trench fever, after he recovered he and his wife had several children. He again returned to Oxford, but this time as a Professor and lecturer. While as a professor he put the finishing touches on The Lord of The Rings Series. In later years Tolkien retired and then died, his son Christopher then finished all of his books. John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was a South African born, English, novelist, essayist, short story writer, poet, translator, and editor. .
When Tolkien was a child his father and mother died causing him to move around. Tolkien was born on January 3, 1892 in Bloemfontein, South Africa, where his father worked as a bank manager. When he was 3 to escape the heat and dust of southern Africa and to better protect the Ronald's delicate health he moved with his mother to Sarehole, a village outside Birmingham, England. "It was there that Ronald developed the deep love for English country life that is reflected in his stories (Helms 220)." Within a year after they moved their father died of a hemorrhage on February 15, 1896 in Bloemfontein. In the fall of 1899, Tolkien took the entrance exams for King Edward's School. Despite his skill he did not qualify and had to wait another year to take the exams. The second time he passed. The school was four miles from where they lived so another move was necessary. They moved into the city, and Tolkien hated to leave the countryside. On November 8, 1904 Tolkien's mother, Mabel Tolkien, sank into a diabetic coma.
