| John Ronald Reuel Tolkien obtained a post on the New English Dictionary,
and began to write the mythological and legendary cycle which he originally
called "The Book of Lost Tales" but which eventually became known as The
Silmarillion.
In 1920 Tolkien was appointed as Reader in the English Language at
the University of Leeds, a post that was converted to a Professorship four
years later. He distuinguished himself by his lively and imaginative teaching,
and in 1925 was elected Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon
at Oxford, where he worked with great skill and enthusiasm for many years.
Indeed he was one of the most accomplished philologists that has ever been
known. Meanwhile, his family, now numbering four children, encouraged Tolkien
to use his mythological imagination to deal with more homely topics. For
them he wrote and illustrated The Father Christmas Letters, and to them
he told the story of The Hobbit published some years later in 1937 by Stanley
Unwin, who then asked for a 'sequel'. At first, Tolkien applied himself
only unwillingly to this task, but soon he was inspired, and what meant
to be another book for children grew into The Lord of the Rings, truly
a sequel to the Silmarillion than to the Hobbit. This huge story took twelve
years to complete, and it was not published until Tolkien was approaching
retirement. When it did reach print, its extraordinary popularity took
him by surprise.
Tolkien died after a very brief illness on 2nd September 1973, leaving
his great mythological van legendary cycle The Silmarillion to be edited
for publication by his son, Christopher. |
Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-Lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne,
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in darkness bind them,
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
|
