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The name Tolkien is derived from the German word tollkuhn which means 'foolhardy'.
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J.R.R. Tolkien was kidnapped as an infant by a houseboy for a day. He wasn't harmed. The houseboy had just been fascinated by the baby.
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In 1900 J.R.R. Tolkien's mother converted her and the children to Catholicism and her Baptist family stopped supporting them.
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J.R.R. Tolkien invented several languages in his youth. Tolkien later said that the stories he later wrote were written around the languages as opposed to the languages being written around the worlds he created.
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After Tolkien's mother died he was under the guardianship of Father Francis Morgan.
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Tolkien met Edith Mary Bratt, his future wife, when he was only 16. His guardian Father Francis would not let them see each other until he was 21.
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Tolkien married Edith on March 22nd, 1916. They would have four children together including John Francis Reuel Tolkien, Michael Hilary Reuel Tolkien, Christopher John Reuel Tolkien, and Priscilla Mary Anne Reuel Tolkien.
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On June 5th, 1916 he went off to join his country's military in World War I.
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Tolkien developed a secret code to let Edith know where he was while he served in the war. It allowed her to track him on a map. Illness sent him home early, in October 1916.
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While recovering from the illness he began to write. He wrote The Book of Lost Tales during his recovery.
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After the war Tolkien worked at The Oxford English Dictionary, and then he became a professor at the University of Leeds.
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Tolkien took a fellowship at Pembroke College in 1925, during which time he wrote The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings' first two volumes.
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In World War II Tolkien was chosen as a potential codebreaker but his services were never required.
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J.R.R. Tolkien originally wrote The Hobbit for his own children.
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J.R.R. Tolkien's son Christopher published several of his books after his death, including The Silmarillion, The History of Middle Earth, and Unfinished Tales.
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J.R.R. Tolkien, who died on September 2nd, 1973 at the age of 81, is buried beside his wife Edith at Wolvercote Cemetery.
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J.R.R. Tolkien is best known for the books The Hobbit, The Long of the Rings, and The Silmarillion, but he also wrote several other books including Beowulf: The Monster and the Critics, Farmer Giles of Ham, Tree and Leaf, Smith of Wootton, The Father Christmas Letters, Poems and Stories, and Roverandom, among many others.
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