J.R.R. Tolkien/temp

J.R.R. Tolkien
Biographical information
Born	January 3, 1892
Died	September 2, 1973
Education	University of Oxford
Occupation	Professor of Old and Middle English
Location	Oxford, Leeds, England
Website	The Tolkien Estate

"I felt that Tolkien was like an iceberg, something to be reckoned with above water in both its brilliance and mass and yet so much more below the surface."

― Clyde Kilby

Professor Dr. John Ronald Reuel Tolkien CBE (1982 - 1973) is the subject of Tolkien Gateway. His life, his works, his family: everything about the man whom fans have named affectionately the Professor can be found here.

Besides creating Arda, the Little Kingdom, and many other wonderful worlds, Tolkien's reading of Beowulf was groundbreaking, and stands as the interpretation of the epic poem to this day.

Life

Youth

South Africa

Since the Tolkien family's move from Saxony several generations earlier, much had changed. The family's fortune and fame, gathered by the construction of piano's, was gone in the days of John Benjamin Tolkien.. His son Arthur worked at a Birmingham office of Lloyds Bank, but there was little chance of promotion. A golden opportunity came when gold and diamonds were discovered in South Africa; bank clerks were in high demand to battle the growing fraud and corruption. Arthur, who had been seeing Mabel Suffield for some time, moved to Bloemfontein. Mabel came several years later, in 1891.

Character

Names

John

The name John was a custom in the Tolkien family. It was usually given to the eldest son of the eldest son. Tolkien's father, Arthur, was the first son of John Benjamin's second marriage; the first son of his first marriage, John, died with only three daughters. As of that moment, the name John went to Arthur's descendants. It passed to Tolkien's first son, John, who became a priest and left no children, so the name John has effectively lost its hereditary signififance.

The name, though Romish in nature, had at first no religious connotations. However, because his birthday (January 3) was the Octave of John the Evangelist, Tolkien chose him as his patron.

Ronald

Arthur Tolkien's first choice for his eldest son's second child was Benjamin, after his father. Tolkien's mother, Mabel, who was confident she would receive a daughter, chose Rosalind. This would become Ronald when the child turned out to be a boy. Tolkien often used this name as his first name; most of his letters to Edith were signed Ronald, or simply R..

Reuel

Despite its obvious biblical connotations, the name Reuel does not come from any of the people mentioned in the Bible; instead, it was the surname of a friend of John Benjamin. He gave it to his son Arthur, and both his sons, John and Hilary had it. Even most their male children and grandchildren have it. Though this family friend was never identified, Tolkien recalled the name being of Norman origin. In this light, it might be an early anglification of the surname Rouel, which means "(maker of) small wheels/circular objects". The "biblical" Reuel means "Friend of God".

Portrayal in Adaptations

File:A question of god jrrt csl hd.JPG

Ian Bellman as Tolkien (left)

2004: The Question of God: Sigmund Freud & C.S. Lewis:

Ian Bellman plays Tolkien in this documentary about convinced atheist Sigmund Freud and influential Christian writer (though not so at first) C.S. Lewis. Tolkien is introduced in a segment recounting Lewis' first experience of faith, a walk at Addison Walk the two had with Hugo Dyson. Tolkien is further shown in group shots of the Inklings, though he does not have any lines.

2005: C.S. Lewis: Beyond Narnia:

In this film, also about Lewis, Ben Lambert and Robert Hickson play the younger and older Tolkien.