Tolkien or Tolkien. English writer John Tolkien: biography, creativity, best books. Tolkien's Confession, The Lord of the Rings

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien(English) John Ronald Reuel Tolkien)- English writer, linguist and philologist. He is best known as the author of The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, the Lord of the Rings trilogy and their prequel, The Silmarillion.

Born in Bloemfontein, Orange Free State (now Free State, South Africa). His parents, Arthur Ruel Tolkien (1857-1896), an English bank manager, and Mabel Tolkien (Suffield) (1870-1904), arrived in South Africa shortly before their son's birth.
In early 1895, after the death of his father, the Tolkien family returned to England. The family settled in Sarehole, near Birmingham. Mabel Tolkien had a very modest income, which was just enough to live on.
Mabel taught her son the basics of Latin and instilled in him a love of botany. Tolkien s early years loved to draw landscapes and trees. He read a lot, and from the very beginning he disliked “Treasure Island” and “The Pied Piper of Hammel” by the Brothers Grimm, but he liked “Alice in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll, stories about Indians, fantasy works by George MacDonald and “The Fairy Book” by Andrew Lang .
Tolkien's mother died of diabetes in 1904, at the age of 34. Before her death, she entrusted the upbringing of her children to Father Francis Morgan, a priest of the Birmingham Church, a strong and extraordinary personality. It was Francis Morgan who developed Tolkien's interest in philology, for which he was later very grateful.
Before entering school, Tolkien and his brother spent a lot of time outdoors. The experience of these years was enough for Tolkien for all the descriptions of forests and fields in his works. In 1900, Tolkien entered King Edward's School, where he learned Old English and began to study others - Welsh, Old Norse, Finnish, Gothic. He showed early linguistic talent, and after studying Old Welsh and Finnish, he began to develop “Elvish” languages. He subsequently studied at St. Philip's School and Oxford Exeter College.
In 1908 he met Edith Marie Brett, who had a great influence on his work.
Falling in love prevented Tolkien from immediately entering college; besides, Edith was a Protestant and three years older than him. Father Francis took John's word of honor that he would not date Edith until he turned 21 - that is, until he came of age, when Father Francis ceased to be his guardian. Tolkien kept his promise by not writing a single line to Mary Edith until he reached this age. They didn't even meet or talk.
On the evening of the same day, when Tolkien turned 21, he wrote a letter to Edith, declaring his love and proposing his hand and heart. Edith replied that she had already agreed to marry another person because she decided that Tolkien had long forgotten her. Eventually, she returned the engagement ring to her groom and announced that she was marrying Tolkien. In addition, at his insistence, she converted to Catholicism.
The engagement took place in Birmingham in January 1913, and the wedding took place on March 22, 1916 in the English city of Warwick, in catholic church St. Mary's. Their union with Edith Brett turned out to be long and happy. The couple lived together for 56 years and raised 3 sons - John Francis Ruel (1917), Michael Hilary Ruel (1920), Christopher Ruel (1924), and daughter Priscilla Mary Ruel (1929).
In 1915, Tolkien graduated with honors from the university and went to serve; soon John was drafted to the front and participated in the First World War.
John survived the bloody Battle of the Somme, where two of his best friends died, and then came to hate war. Then he fell ill with typhus, and after long treatment was sent home with disability. He devoted the following years to his scientific career: first he taught at the University of Leeds, in 1922 he received the position of professor of Anglo-Saxon language and literature at the University of Oxford, where he became one of the youngest professors (at 30 years old) and soon earned a reputation as one of the best philologists in world.
At the same time, he began to write the great cycle of myths and legends of Middle Earth, which would later become The Silmarillion. There were four children in his family, for whom he first composed, narrated and then recorded The Hobbit, which was later published in 1937 by Sir Stanley Unwin.
The Hobbit was a success, and Anuin suggested that Tolkien write a sequel, but work on the trilogy took a long time and the book was completed only in 1954, when Tolkien was about to retire. The trilogy was published and was a huge success, which surprised both the author and the publisher. Anuin expected to lose significant money, but he personally loved the book and was eager to publish his friend's work. The book was divided into 3 parts, so that after the publication and sale of the first part it would become clear whether the rest were worth printing.
After his wife's death in 1971, Tolkien returned to Oxford. Soon he became seriously ill and soon, on September 2, 1973, he died.
All of his works published after 1973, including The Silmarillion, were published by his son Christopher.

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (English John Ronald Reuel Tolkien; January 3, 1892, Bloemfontein, Orange Republic - September 2, 1973 Bournemouth, England) - English writer, poet, philologist, professor at Oxford University. He is best known as the author of classic high fantasy works: The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion.

Tolkien served as Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College. Oxford University (1925-1945), in English and literature of Merton at Merton College (English)Russian. Oxford University (1945-1959). Together with his close friend C.S. Lewis, he was a member of the informal literary society “Inklings”. On 28 March 1972 he received the title of Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) from Queen Elizabeth II.

After Tolkien's death, his son Christopher produced several works based on his father's extensive corpus of notes and unpublished manuscripts, including The Silmarillion. This book, along with The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, forms a single collection of tales, poems, histories, artificial languages ​​and literary essays about the fictional world called Arda and its part of Middle-earth. From 1951 to 1955, Tolkien used the word "legendarium" to refer to most of this collection. Many authors wrote fantasy works before Tolkien, but due to his great popularity and strong influence on the genre, many call Tolkien the "father" of modern fantasy literature, meaning mainly "high fantasy".

In 2008, the British newspaper The Times ranked him sixth on its list of the "50 greatest British writers since 1945". In 2009, the American magazine Forbes named him the fifth highest-earning deceased celebrity.

TOLKEIN, JOHN RONALD RUEL(Tolkien) (1892–1973), English writer, doctor of literature, artist, professor, linguist. One of the creators of the Oxford English Dictionary. Author of the tale Hobbit(1937), novel Lord of the Rings(1954), mythological epic The Silmarillion (1977).

Father - Arthur Ruel Tolkien, a bank employee from Birmingham, moved to South Africa in search of happiness. Mother: Mabel Suffield. In January 1892 they had a boy.

Tolkien created hobbits - "short ones" - charming, captivatingly reliable creatures, similar to children. Combining perseverance and frivolity, curiosity and childish laziness, incredible ingenuity with simplicity, cunning and gullibility, courage and courage with the ability to avoid trouble.

First of all, it is the hobbits who give such authenticity to Tolkien’s world.

On February 17, 1894, Mabel Suffield gave birth to her second son. The local heat had a bad effect on the children's health. Therefore, in November 1894, Mabel took her sons to England.

By the age of four, thanks to the efforts of his mother, baby John could already read and even write his first letters.

In February 1896, Tolkien's father began bleeding heavily and died suddenly. Mabel Suffield took care of all the children. She got a good education. She spoke French and German, knew Latin, was an excellent painter, and played the piano professionally. She passed on all her knowledge and skills to her children.

His grandfather John Suffield, who was proud of his lineage of skilled engravers, also had a great influence on the initial formation of John’s personality. John's mother and grandfather strongly supported John's early interest in Latin and Greek.

In 1896, Mabel and her children moved from Birmingham to the village of Sarehole. It was in the vicinity of Sarehole that Tolkien became interested in the world of trees, seeking to discern their secrets. It is no coincidence that unforgettable, most interesting trees appear in Tolkien’s works. And the mighty giants of Listven amaze readers in his trilogy - Lord of the Rings.

Tolkien is no less passionate about elves and dragons. Dragons and elves will be the main characters in the first fairy tale written by Ronald, at the age of seven.

In 1904, when John was barely twelve years old, his mother died of diabetes. Their distant relative, a priest, Father Francis, becomes the children's guardian. The brothers move back to Birmingham. Feeling longing for free hills, fields and beloved trees, John is looking for new affections and spiritual support. He becomes more and more interested in drawing, revealing extraordinary abilities. By the age of fifteen, he amazes school teachers with an obsession with philology. He's reading an Old English poem Beowulf, returns to medieval tales of knights Round table (cm. ARTHUR'S LEGENDS). Soon he independently begins to study the Old Icelandic language, then gets to German books on philology.

The joy of learning ancient languages ​​fascinates him so much that he even invents his own language, “Nevbosh,” that is, “new nonsense,” which he creates in collaboration with his cousin Mary. Writing funny limericks becomes an exciting pastime for young people and at the same time introduces them to such pioneers of English absurdism as Edward Lear, Hilaire Belok and Gilbert Keith Chesterton. Continuing to study Old English, Old Germanic, and a little later Old Finnish, Icelandic and Gothic, John “absorbs in immeasurable quantities” their tales and legends.

At sixteen, John met Edith Bratt, his first and last love. Five years later they got married and lived a long life, giving birth to three sons and a daughter. But first, they faced five years of difficult trials: John’s unsuccessful attempt to enter Oxford University, Father Francis’s categorical rejection of Edith, the horrors of the First World War, typhus, which John Ronald suffered from twice.

In April 1910, Tolkien watched a play at the Birmingham Theater Peter Pan based on the play by James Barrie. “It’s indescribable, but I won’t forget it as long as I live,” John wrote.

Still, luck smiled on John. After his second attempt at the Oxford exams in 1910, Tolkien learned that he had been given a scholarship to Exeter College. And thanks to a severance scholarship from King Edward's School, and additional funds, allocated by Father Francis, Ronald could already afford to go to Oxford.

During his last summer vacation, John visited Switzerland. He will write in his diary. “Once we went on a long hike with guides to the Aletsch glacier, and there I almost died...” Before returning to England, Tolkien bought several postcards. One of them depicted an old man with a white beard, wearing a round wide-brimmed hat and a long cloak. The old man was talking to a white fawn. Many years later, when he discovered a postcard at the bottom of one of his drawers, desk, Tolkien wrote: "The prototype of Gandalf." This is how one of the most famous heroes first appeared in John’s imagination. Lord of the Rings.

Upon entering Oxford, Tolkien meets the famous self-taught professor Joe Wright. He strongly advises the aspiring linguist to “take up the Celtic language seriously.” Ronald's passion for theater intensifies. He plays in the play by R. Sheridan Rivals role of Mrs. Malaprop. By the time he came of age, he wrote a play himself - Detective, cook and suffragette for home theater. Tolkien's theatrical experiences turned out to be not only useful for him, but also necessary.

In 1914, when the First World War begins, Tolkien rushes to complete his degree at Oxford so he can volunteer for the army. At the same time he enrolls in courses for radio operators and communications operators. In July 1915, he passed the English language and literature exam for a bachelor's degree ahead of schedule and received first-class honors. After undergoing military training in Bedford, he was awarded the rank of sub-lieutenant and assigned to serve in the regiment of Lancashire Fusiliers. In March 1916, Tolkien got married, and already on July 14, 1916 he went into his first battle.

He was destined to find himself at the center of a meat grinder on the Somme River, where tens of thousands of his compatriots perished. Having known all the “horrors and abominations of the monstrous massacre,” John began to hate both the war and the “inspirers of the terrible massacres...”. At the same time, he retained admiration for his comrades in arms. Later he would write in his diary: “perhaps without the soldiers with whom I fought, the country of the Hobbitan would not have existed. And without Hobbits there would be no Hobbits Lord of the Rings" Death spared John, but he was overtaken by another terrible scourge - “trench fever” - typhus, which carried him to the First world war more lives than bullets and shells. Tolkien suffered from it twice. From the hospital in Le Touquet he was sent by ship to England.

In the rare hours when John’s terrible illness left him, he conceived and began to write the first drafts of his fantastic epic - The Silmarillion, a tale of three magical rings of omnipotent power.

In 1918 the war ends. John and his family move to Oxford. It is allowed to be compiled Universal Dictionary of the New English Language. Here is a review from a friend of the writer, linguist Clive Stiles Lewis: “he (Tolkien) visited the inside of language. For he had a unique ability to feel both the language of poetry and the poetry of language.”

In 1924 he was confirmed with the rank of professor, and in 1925 he was awarded the chair of Anglo-Saxon language at Oxford. At the same time, he continues to work on The Silmarillion, creating a new one incredible world. A peculiar other dimension with its own history and geography, phenomenal animals and plants, real and surreal creatures.

While working on the dictionary, Tolkien had the opportunity to think about the composition and appearance of tens of thousands of words that absorbed Celtic origins, Latin, Scandinavian, Old German and Old French influences. This work further stimulated his gift as an artist, helping to unite different categories of living beings and different times and spaces into his Tolkienesque world. At the same time, Tolkien did not lose his “literary soul”. His scientific works were imbued with the figurativeness of the writer's thinking.

He also illustrated many of his fairy tales, and especially loved to depict humanized trees. A special place is occupied by Santa Claus's letters to children, illustrated by him. The letter was specially written in the “shaky” handwriting of Santa Claus, “who had just escaped from a terrible snowstorm.”

Tolkien's most famous books are inextricably linked. Hobbit And Lord of the Rings were written, in total, from 1925 to 1949. The main character of the first story Hobbit Bilbo Baggins has the same opportunities for self-expression in a vast and complex world as a child explorer. Bilbo constantly takes risks to get out of threatening adventures, he must be resourceful and brave all the time. And one more circumstance. Hobbits are a free people, there are no leaders in the Hobbits, and Hobbits get along just fine without them.

But Hobbit was just a prelude to Tolkien's great other world. Key to looking into other dimensions and warning. Serious cause for thought. The action-packed tale repeatedly hints at a world of far more significant improbabilities lurking behind it. Two of the most mysterious characters are bridges to the immeasurable future Hobbit- the magician Gandalf and a creature named Gollum. Hobbit was published on September 21, 1937. The first edition was sold out by Christmas.

The tale receives the New York Herald Tribune award for best book of the year. Hobbit becomes a bestseller. Then came Lord of the Rings.

This epic novel has become an elixir of love for life for tens of millions of people, a road into the unknowable, paradoxical proof that it is the thirst for knowledge of miracles that moves the worlds.

Nothing in Tolkien's novel is accidental. Be it the snarled faces that once flashed on the canvases of Bosch and Salvador Dali or in the works of Hoffmann and Gogol. So the names of the elves came from the language of the former Celtic population of the Welsh peninsula. Dwarves and magicians are named, as the Scandinavian sagas suggested, people are called by names from the Irish heroic epic. Tolkien's own ideas of fantastic creatures have the basis of “folk poetic imagination”.

Time to work on Lord of the Rings coincided with the Second World War. Undoubtedly, all the experiences and hopes, doubts and aspirations of the author at that time could not help but be reflected in the life of even his other existence.

One of the main advantages of his novel is the prophetic warning about mortal danger hidden in boundless Power. Only the unity of the most courageous and wise champions of goodness and reason, capable of stopping the gravediggers of the joy of being, can resist this.

First two volumes Lord of the Rings published in 1954. The third volume was published in 1955. “This book is like a bolt from the blue,” exclaimed the famous writer C.S. Lewis. “For the very history of the novel-history, dating back to the times of Odysseus, this is not a return, but progress, moreover, a revolution, the conquest of a new territory.” The novel was translated into many languages ​​of the world and first sold a million copies, and today has surpassed the twenty million mark. The book has become a cult among young people in many countries.

Troops of Tolkienists, dressed in knightly armor, still organize games, tournaments and “walks of honor and valor” in the USA, England, Canada, and New Zealand to this day.

Tolkien's works first began to appear in Russia in the mid-1970s. Today, the number of Russian fans of his work is not inferior to the number of adherents of the Tolkien world in other countries.

Came to world screens The Fellowship of the Ring And Two Strongholds directed by Peter Jackson (filmed in New Zealand), and a new wave of interest in the novel arose among young and very young people Lord of the Rings.

The last tale Tolkien wrote in 1965 is called Blacksmith of Greater Wootton.

In their last years Tolkien is surrounded by universal recognition. In June 1972, he received the title of Doctor of Literature from Oxford University, and in 1973, at Buckingham Palace, Queen Elizabeth awarded the writer the Order of the British Empire, second class.

Aleksandr Kuznetsov

TOLKIEN JOHN RONALD RUEL

Dates of life: January 3, 1892 – September 2, 1973
Place of Birth : Bloemfontein city
English writer, linguist, philologist
Famous works : "The Lord of the Rings", "The Hobbit"

Objects named after Tolkien
* asteroid (2675) Tolkien;
* sea crustacean Leucothoetolkieni from the system of underwater ridges Nazca and Sala y Gomez ( Pacific Ocean);
* rove beetle GabriustolkieniSchillhammer, 1997 (Lives in Nepal (Khandbari, InduwaKholaValley)).

JOHN RONALD RUEL TOLKEIN
1892 - 1973

J. R. R. Tolkien was born into the family of an ordinary bank employee, but in an extraordinary place - in Bloemfontein, a small town in southern Africa. But his real homeland was England, where his parents soon returned.
His father died when the boy (everyone called him by his middle name, Ronald) was only 4 years old. His mother had a tremendous influence on his character. She was a courageous and persistent woman. Having converted to Catholicism, she managed to raise her sons, Ronald and his younger brother, in the spirit of faith. It was not easy: indignant relatives, adherents of the Anglican Church, left the young widow’s family without support.
Dreaming of giving her children a good education, she herself taught Ronald French, German, Latin, Greek... The boy entered an excellent school and became a scholarship recipient.
But Ronald's mother dies very early, in 1904. And Ronald and his brother remain in the care of their spiritual father, priest Francis Morgan. He encouraged Ronald in his zeal for learning...
However, the young man was unable to enter Oxford the first time. This is due to the appearance of Edith Bratt in his life. The engagement to the girl was concluded a few days after he came of age. The marriage turned out to be very happy: the couple raised 4 children and lived together for more than 50 years, until their death.
Already at school, Ronald's enormous interest in ancient languages ​​and literature became noticeable: he studied Old English, Welsh, Old Norse, Finnish... He did the same at Oxford, where he finally entered in 1911. Having completed his studies, he became one of the youngest professors at the university. The war forces him to go to the front, but upon returning, he resumes scientific and creative activities.
It was at this time that the world that Tolkien would describe throughout his life took shape in his imagination. The world expanded, it had its own history and its own characters, its own language, unlike any other, appeared and those who spoke it appeared - elves, immortals and sad ones... Tolkien wrote without counting on publication.
But the publication still took place. And thanks to his fairy tale “The Hobbit, or There and Back Again” (1937), Tolkien entered literature.
And the story of writing the fairy tale was very unusual.
One day Tolkien wrote the phrase “In a hole underground lived a hobbit” on a blank sheet of paper and thought about it: “Who are hobbits”...? He set about finding out. Hobbits turned out to be similar to people, but, however, rather short. Plump, respectable, they were usually not eager for adventure and loved to eat well. But one of them, the hobbit Bilbo Baggins, found himself embroiled in a story full of various adventures. It's good that there is a happy ending... One episode of the story, in which the hero found a magic ring in the caves of the vile creature Gollum, as it turned out, connected the fairy tale with Tolkien's next work, the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Tolkien thought about the continuation of “The Hobbit...” on the advice of his publisher - and took on it with his usual meticulousness and scrupulousness. The number of pages kept increasing. Only towards the end of the 40s. the work was completed, and in 1954 the first volume of the epic was published. Against a fairy-tale backdrop, a truly “adult” romance unfolded. And not just a novel, but a philosophical parable about good and evil, about the corrupting influence of power, about how sometimes a weak person is able to do what the strong are not capable of; this is an epic chronicle, a sermon of mercy, and much more. The end of the novel also differs from the traditional fairy tale. After everything that has happened, the world cannot return to its previous state, and main character, the hobbit Frodo, will never be as carefree as before. The wounds that the ominous ring inflicted on his heart will never heal. Together with the elven ships, he goes beyond the endless sea, to the West, in search of oblivion...
Tolkien's constant desire for perfection, which forced him to redo what he had written many times in his literary works, did not allow him to publish anything more than a few children's fairy tales. Such as "Farmer Giles of Ham", the hero of which, a cowardly peasant, defeats an equally cowardly dragon. Or the allegory tale “The Blacksmith of Great Wootton” (1967), a tale about how the magical world opens up to a person if he is wise enough to accept it, and about the need to gratefully accept and part with the gifts of fate , if needed.
After Tolkien’s death, his son, based on drafts, published many more of his father’s works, among them “Letters from Santa Claus”, “Mr. Bliss”, etc.
Tolkien became famous as a children's writer, but his work goes beyond the scope of purely children's literature.
M. S. Rachinskaya
Children about writers. Foreign writers.- M.: Strelets, 2007.- P.48-49., ill.

Who is Tolkien John Ronald Ruel? Even children, and first of all they, know that this is the creator of the famous “Hobbit”. In Russia, his name became very popular with the release of the cult film. In the writer’s homeland, his works became famous back in the mid-60s, when the circulation of a million copies of The Lord of the Rings was not enough for the student audience. For thousands of young English-speaking readers, the story of the hobbit Frodo has become a favorite. The work that John Tolkien created sold out faster than Lord of the Flies and The Catcher in the Rye.

Hobbit Passion

Meanwhile, in New York, youths were running around with homemade badges that read: “Long live Frodo!”, and stuff like that. Among young people there is a fashion for organizing hobbit-style parties. Tolkien societies were created.

But not only students read the books that John Tolkien wrote. Among his fans were housewives, rocket scientists, and pop stars. Respectable fathers of families discussed the trilogy in London pubs.

Talk about who you were in real life fantasy author John Tolkien, not easy. The author of the cult books himself was convinced that the true life of the writer is contained in his works, and not in the facts of his biography.

Childhood

Tolkien John Ronald Ruel was born in 1892 in South Africa. The father of the future writer was there due to his occupation. In 1895, his mother went with him to England. A year later, news arrived announcing the death of his father.

Ronald's childhood (that's what the writer's relatives and friends called him) passed in the suburbs of Birmingham. At the age of four he began to read. And just a few years later he experienced an inexpressible desire to study ancient languages. Latin was like music for Ronald. And the pleasure of studying it could only be compared with reading myths and heroic legends. But, as John Tolkien later admitted, these books existed in the world in insufficient quantities. There was too little such literature to satisfy his reading needs.

Hobbies

At school, in addition to Latin and French, Ronald also studied German and Greek. Quite early on, he became interested in the history of languages ​​and comparative philology, attended literary circles, studied Gothic, and even tried to create new ones. Such hobbies, unusual for teenagers, predetermined his fate.

In 1904, his mother died. Thanks to the care of his spiritual guardian, Ronald was able to continue his studies at Oxford University. His specialty was

Army

When the war began, Ronald was in his last year. And after a brilliant pass final exams he volunteered for the army. The junior lieutenant suffered several months of the bloody Battle of the Somme, and then two years of hospitalization with a diagnosis of trench typhus.

Teaching

After the war, he worked on compiling a dictionary, then received the title of professor of English. In 1925, his account of one of the ancient German legends was published, and in the summer of the same year, John Tolkien was invited to Oxford. He was too young by the standards of the famous university: only 34 years old. However, behind him John Tolkien, whose biography is no less interesting than his books, had rich life experience and brilliant works on philology.

Mysterious book

By this time, the writer was not only married, but also had three sons. At night, when family chores were over, he continued the mysterious work he began as a student - the history of a magical land. Over time, the legend grew more and more big amount details, and John Tolkien felt that he had an obligation to tell this story to others.

In 1937, the fairy tale “The Hobbit” was published, bringing the author unprecedented fame. The popularity of the book was so great that the publishers asked the writer to create a sequel. Then Tolkien began work on his epic. But the three-part saga came out only eighteen years later. Tolkien spent his entire life developing the Elvish dialect and is still working on it today.

Tolkien characters

Hobbits are incredibly charming creatures that resemble children. They combine frivolity and perseverance, ingenuity and simplicity, sincerity and cunning. And oddly enough, these characters give the world created by Tolkien authenticity.

The main character of the first story constantly takes risks to get out of the whirlpool of all sorts of misadventures. He has to be brave and inventive. With this image, Tolkien seems to be telling his young readers about the limitless possibilities they have. And another feature of Tolkien’s characters is their love of freedom. Hobbits get along well without leaders.

"Lord of the Rings"

Why did the Oxford professor so captivate the minds of modern readers? What are his books about?

Tolkien's works are dedicated to the eternal. And the components of this seemingly abstract concept are good and evil, duty and honor, great and small. In the center of the plot is a ring, which is nothing more than a symbol and instrument of unlimited power, that is, what almost every person secretly dreams of.

This topic is always very relevant. Everyone wants power and is confident that they know exactly how to use it correctly. Tyrants and other terrible figures in history, as contemporaries believe, are stupid and unjust. But the one who today wants to acquire power will supposedly be wiser, more humane and more humane. And perhaps it will make the whole world happier.

Only Tolkien's heroes refuse the ring. In the work of the English writer, there are kings and brave warriors, mysterious magicians and all-knowing sages, beautiful princesses and gentle elves, but in the end they all bow to a simple hobbit who was able to fulfill his duty and was not tempted by power.

In recent years, the writer has been surrounded by universal recognition and received the title of Doctor of Literature. Tolkien died in 1973, and four years later the final version of The Silmarillion was published. The work was completed by the writer's son.