John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born at Bloemfontein, South Africa on January 3rd, 1892. In 1896 he and his mother moved back to England due to the death of Ronald's father Arthur. He went to school at King Edward's School, St. Philip's Grammar School and at Oxford University. When he graduated in 1915, he married his childhood love, Edith Bratt and joined the british army and fought in the World War where, at the Battle of the Somme, he lost two of his three best friends in battle.

By profession, Tolkien was a sholar. His academic positions were: staff member of the New English Dictionary (1918-20); Reader, later Professor of English Language at Leeds, (1920-25); Rawlingson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford (1925-45); and Merton Professor of English Language and Literature (1945-45).

Even from early age, Tolkien had been interested in language, espesially languages of Northern Europe, both ancient and modern. From that came not even his profession, but also his private hobby, inventing languages. He was also very intrested in old mythology and read alot about it´s myths and epics.

Tolkien had already been writing alot about the myths and legends concerning Middle Earth, and it was these notes that later became "The Silmarillion".

Ronald and Edith had four children and they were the first to hear the tale about "The Hobbit", that later became published in 1937 by Sir Stanley Unwin. The book proved to be very successful and so Unwin asked for a sequel, but it was not until 1954, when Tolkien was reaching his retirement, that the first volume of the great book "The Lord Of The Rings" was published, and it became a terrific success which had suprised Tolkien very much.

After his retirement, Ronald and Edith moved to Bournemouth but when Edith died in 1971, Ronald retuned to Oxford where he also died after a breif period of illness on Semptember 2 1973, leaving his greatest mythological work, "The Silmarillion" for editing by his son Christopher.