The Shaping of Middle-earth

Christopher John Reuel Tolkien, was born on November 21, 1924, to John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, and Edith Mary Tolkien (January 21, 1889-November 29, 1971), their third and youngest son. He has taught at Oxford University, where his father was a professor, and is sole literary executor of his fathers works, which he edits and provides commentary on. He drew the original maps for his father's The Lord of the Rings, which he signed C. J. R. T. The J. stands for John, a baptismal name that he doe...

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa in 1892 and raised in England after his mother brought him home at age three. Orphaned before he was thirteen — his mother died a devout Catholic convert — Tolkien went on to study Old and Middle English, Germanic languages, Welsh, and Finnish at Oxford. He graduated in 1915, married Edith Bratt before shipping out to the Western Front, and fought in the Battle of the Somme. Nearly all of his closest friends were killed. He contrac...