This article is about J.R.R. Tolkien's son. For the Arthur Tolkien's father, see John Benjamin Tolkien.

John Francis Reuel Tolkien (November 16, 1917 - January 22, 2003) was J.R.R. and Edith Tolkien's first son and he was the first child of Tolkien. He took his second name after his father's guardian, Father Francis Xavier Morgan.^[1]

John often had difficulty falling asleep and his father would come on his bed and tell tales. These stories included the tale of Carrots, a boy with red hair who climbed into a cuckoo clock and went off on a series of strange adventures (this was the premise for the character of Tom Bombadil^[source?]), and also a tale called "The Orgog".^[2]

In 13 February 1944 John Tolkien was made Exorcist and Acolyte (the two highest of the Minor Orders of the Roman Catholic Church) in a ceremony at Stonyhurst. He was given his Orders as a priest on 10 February 1946.

Father John Tolkien wrote the script of a film about the Cardinal Newman's life, that was shown in June 1957 at the Oratory of Birmingham.^[3]

Between 1957 to 1987 Father John Tolkien lived in Stoke-on-Trent.

In September 1973, Father John Tolkien celebrated a Requiem Mass for his father at the Church of St. Anthony of Padua, in Oxford.

Father John Tolkien's grave is also in the same cemetery, not far from that of his parents.

In the brioghaphical drama film, named Tolkien, he appears briefly, and he was portrayed by actor Harry Webster.

Quotes[edit | edit source]

The Tolkien family is under perpetual abuse of one kind or another. It goes on all the time. I am anticipating endless bother when the film actually comes out.—To the Daily Telegraph in 2001.