Editing J. R. R. Tolkien (section)

== Biography ==

=== Ancestry ===
{{Main|Tolkien family}}

Tolkien was English, and thought of himself as such.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Brennan |first1=David |title=The Hobbit: How Tolkien Sunk a German Anti-Semitic Inquiry Into His Race |url=https://www.newsweek.com/hobbit-how-tolkien-sunk-german-anti-semitic-inquiry-his-race-1132744 |access-date=9 July 2023 |work=[[Newsweek]] |date=21 September 2018 |quote=My great-great-grandfather came to England in the eighteenth century from Germany: the main part of my descent is therefore purely English, and I am an English subject – which should be sufficient.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240426091705/https://www.newsweek.com/hobbit-how-tolkien-sunk-german-anti-semitic-inquiry-his-race-1132744|archive-date=26 April 2024|url-status=live}}</ref><ref group="T">{{harvnb|Carpenter|Tolkien|1981|loc=''Letters'' #190 to [[Rayner Unwin]], 3 July 1956: "After all the book is English, and by an Englishman"}}</ref>
His immediate paternal ancestors were middle-class craftsmen who made and sold clocks, watches and pianos in London and [[Birmingham]]. The Tolkien family originated in the [[East Prussia]]n town of [[Kreuzburg, East Prussia|Kreuzburg]] near [[Königsberg]], which had been founded during the medieval [[German eastward expansion]], where his earliest-known paternal ancestor, Michel Tolkien, was born around 1620.<ref name="Derdziński2" />

Michel's son Christianus Tolkien (1663–1746) was a wealthy miller in Kreuzburg.<ref name="Derdziński2" /> His son, Christian Tolkien (1706–1791), moved from Kreuzburg to nearby [[Gdańsk|Danzig]], and his two sons Daniel Gottlieb Tolkien (1747–1813) and Johann (later known as John) Benjamin Tolkien (1752–1819) emigrated to London in the 1770s and became the ancestors of the English family; the younger brother was J. R. R. Tolkien's second great-grandfather.<ref name="Derdziński2" />

In 1792, John Benjamin Tolkien and William Gravell took over the Erdley Norton manufacture in London, which from then on sold clocks and watches under the name Gravell & Tolkien. Daniel Gottlieb obtained British citizenship in 1794, but John Benjamin apparently never became a British citizen. Other German relatives joined the two brothers in London. Several people with the surname Tolkien or similar spelling, some of them members of the same family as J. R. R. Tolkien, live in northern Germany, but most of them are descendants of people who [[Evacuation of East Prussia|were evacuated from East Prussia]] in 1945, at the end of [[World War II]].<ref name="Derdziński1">{{cite web |last=Derdziński |first=Ryszard |title=Z Prus do Anglii. Saga rodziny J. R. R. Tolkiena (XIV–XIX wiek) |url=https://depot.ceon.pl/bitstream/handle/123456789/15041/Z%20Prus%20do%20Anglii.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190110133737/https://depot.ceon.pl/bitstream/handle/123456789/15041/Z%20Prus%20do%20Anglii.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |archive-date=10 January 2019}}</ref><ref name="Derdziński2">{{cite web |last=Derdziński |first=Ryszard |date=2017 |title=On J. R. R. Tolkien's Roots|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190110183343/http://www.elendilion.pl/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/TolkienAncestry.pdf |url=http://www.elendilion.pl/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/TolkienAncestry.pdf |archive-date=10 January 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Absolute Verteilung des Namens 'Tolkien' |url=http://www.verwandt.de/karten/absolut/tolkien.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130510202325/http://www.verwandt.de/karten/absolut/tolkien.html |archive-date=10 May 2013 |access-date=9 January 2012 |website=verwandt.de |publisher=MyHeritage UK |language=de}}</ref>

According to Ryszard Derdziński, the surname Tolkien is of [[Low Prussian dialect|Low Prussian]] origin and probably means "son/descendant of Tolk".<ref name="Derdziński1" /><ref name="Derdziński2" /> Tolkien mistakenly believed his surname derived from the German word {{lang|de|tollkühn}}, meaning "foolhardy",<ref>{{cite magazine |date=25 August 1969 |title=Ash nazg gimbatul |url=http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-45548112.html |url-status=live |magazine=[[Der Spiegel]] |language=de |issue=35/1969 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110427035821/http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-45548112.html |archive-date=27 April 2011 |quote=Professor Tolkien, der seinen Namen vom deutschen Wort 'tollkühn' ableitet,... .}}</ref> and jokingly inserted himself as a "cameo" into ''[[The Notion Club Papers]]'' under the literally translated name Rashbold.<ref>{{cite book |last=Geier |first=Fabian |title=J. R. R. Tolkien |publisher=[[Rowohlt Verlag|Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag]] |year=2009 |isbn=978-3-499-50664-2 |page=9 |language=de}}</ref> However, Derdziński has demonstrated this to be a [[false etymology]]. Another suspected origin is the East Prussian village of [[Tołkiny]].<ref>{{cite book|first1=Nigel|last1=Cawthorne |title=A Brief Guide to J. R. R. Tolkien: A Comprehensive Introduction to the Author of ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings'' |publisher=Robinson |place=London |date=2012 |ISBN=978-1-78033-860-6}}</ref> While J. R. R. Tolkien was aware of his family's German origin, his knowledge of the family's history was limited because he was "early isolated from the family of his prematurely deceased father".<ref name="Derdziński1" /><ref name="Derdziński2" />

=== Childhood ===
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[[File:Mabel Suffield Christmas Card.jpg|thumb|left|1892 Christmas card with a coloured photo of the Tolkien family in Bloemfontein, sent to relatives in Birmingham, England]]

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born on 3 January 1892 in [[Bloemfontein]] in the [[Orange Free State]] (later [[Treaty of Vereeniging|annexed]] by the [[British Empire]]; now [[Free State Province]] in the Republic of South Africa), to [[Arthur Tolkien|Arthur Reuel Tolkien]] (1857–1896), an English bank manager, and his wife [[Mabel Suffield Tolkien|Mabel]], {{née|Suffield}} (1870–1904). The couple had left England when Arthur was promoted to head the Bloemfontein office of the British bank for which he worked. Tolkien had one sibling, his younger brother, [[Hilary Tolkien|Hilary Arthur Reuel Tolkien]], who was born on 17 February 1894.<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|p=14}}</ref>

As a child, Tolkien was bitten by a large [[Harpactirinae|baboon spider]] in the garden, an event some believe to have been later echoed in his stories, although he admitted no actual memory of the event as an adult. In an earlier incident from Tolkien's infancy, a young family servant took the baby to his homestead, returning him the next morning.<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|p=13}}. Both the spider incident and the visit to the homestead are covered here.</ref>

When he was three, he went to England with his mother and brother on what was intended to be a lengthy family visit. His father, however, died in South Africa of [[rheumatic fever]] before he could join them.<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|p=24}}</ref> This left the family without an income, so Tolkien's mother took him to live with her parents in [[Kings Heath]],<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|loc=Ch I, "Bloemfontein". At 9 Ashfield Road, King's Heath.}}</ref> Birmingham. Soon after, in 1896, they moved to [[Sarehole]] (now in [[Hall Green]]), then a [[Worcestershire]] village, later annexed to Birmingham.<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|p=27}}</ref> He enjoyed exploring [[Sarehole Mill]] and [[Moseley Bog]] and the [[Clent Hills|Clent]], [[Lickey Hills|Lickey]] and [[Malvern Hills]], which would later inspire scenes in his books, along with nearby towns and villages such as [[Bromsgrove]], [[Alcester]], and [[Alvechurch]] and places such as his aunt Jane's farm Bag End, the name of which he used in his fiction.<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|p=113}}</ref>

Mabel Tolkien taught her two children at home. Ronald, as he was known in the family, was a keen pupil.<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|p=29}}</ref> She taught him a great deal of [[botany]] and awakened in him the enjoyment of the look and feel of plants. Young Tolkien liked to draw landscapes and trees, but his favourite lessons were those concerning languages, and his mother taught him the rudiments of [[Latin]] very early.<ref name="DoughanBio">{{cite web |last=Doughan |first=David |year=2002 |title=JRR Tolkien Biography |url=http://www.tolkiensociety.org/tolkien/biography.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060303050751/http://www.tolkiensociety.org/tolkien/biography.html |archive-date=3 March 2006 |website=Life of Tolkien}}</ref>

Tolkien could read by the age of four and could write fluently soon afterwards. His mother allowed him to read many books. He disliked ''[[Treasure Island]]'' and "[[The Pied Piper]]" and thought ''[[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland]]'' by [[Lewis Carroll]] was "amusing". He liked stories about "Red Indians" (the term then used for Native Americans in [[adventure fiction|adventure stories]]<ref name="Butts 2004">{{cite book |last=Butts |first=Dennis |editor-last=Hunt |editor-first=Peter |title=International Companion Encyclopedia of Children's Literature |date=2004 |publisher=Routledge |location=Abingdon, Oxfordshire |volume=1 |isbn=0-203-32566-4 |pages=340–351 |edition=Second |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t1RsBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA340 |chapter=Shaping boyhood: British Empire builders and adventurers |quote=By the 1840s, of course, adults were already reading tales of adventure involving Red Indians}}</ref>) and works of fantasy by [[George MacDonald]].<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|p=22}}</ref> In addition, the "Fairy Books" of [[Andrew Lang]] were particularly important to him and their influence is apparent in some of his later writings.<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|p=30}}</ref>

[[File:BirminghamOratoryDome.jpg|thumb|right|[[Birmingham Oratory]], where Tolkien was a parishioner and altar boy (1902–1911)]]
Mabel Tolkien was received into the [[Roman Catholic Church]] in 1900 despite vehement protests by her [[Baptist]] family,<ref name="Biography31">{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|p=31}}</ref> which stopped all financial assistance to her. In 1904, when J. R. R. Tolkien was 12, his mother died of [[diabetic ketoacidosis|acute diabetes]] at Fern Cottage in [[Rednal]], which she was renting. She was then about 34 years of age, about as old as a person with [[diabetes mellitus type 1]] could survive without treatment—[[insulin]] would not be discovered until 1921, two decades later. Nine years after her death, Tolkien wrote, "My own dear mother was a martyr indeed, and it is not to everybody that God grants so easy a way to his great gifts as he did to Hilary and myself, giving us a mother who killed herself with labour and trouble to ensure us keeping the faith."<ref name="Biography31" />

Before her death, Mabel Tolkien had assigned the guardianship of her sons to her close friend, Father [[Francis Xavier Morgan]] of the [[Birmingham Oratory]], who was assigned to bring them up as good Catholics.<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|p=39<!--pp=34-57 passim.-->}}</ref> In a 1965 letter to his son Michael, Tolkien recalled the influence of the man whom he always called "Father Francis": "He was an upper-class Welsh-Spaniard Tory, and seemed to some just a pottering old gossip. He was—and he was {{em|not}}. I first learned charity and forgiveness from him; and in the light of it pierced even the 'liberal' darkness out of which I came, knowing more about '[[Mary I of England|Bloody Mary]]' than the [[Mother of Jesus]]—who was never mentioned except as an object of wicked worship by the Romanists."<ref group="T">{{harvnb|Carpenter|Tolkien|1981|loc=''Letters'' #267 to Michael Tolkien, 9–10 January 1965.}}</ref> After his mother's death, Tolkien grew up in the [[Edgbaston]] area of Birmingham and attended [[King Edward's School, Birmingham]], and later [[St Philip's School]]. In 1903, he won a Foundation Scholarship and returned to King Edward's.<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|pp=25–38}}</ref>

=== Youth ===
[[File:KES Free Grammar School Charles Barry.jpg|thumb|right|King Edward's School in Birmingham, where Tolkien was a pupil (1900–1902, 1903–1911)<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|pp=24–51}}</ref>]]
[[File:J. R. R. Tolkien, 1911.jpg|thumb|Tolkien at age 19, 1911]]
While in his early teens, Tolkien had his first encounter with a [[constructed language]], Animalic, an invention of his cousins, Mary and [[Marjorie Incledon]]. At that time, he was studying Latin and Anglo-Saxon. Their interest in Animalic soon died away, but Mary and others, including Tolkien himself, invented a new and more complex language called Nevbosh. The next constructed language he came to work with, Naffarin, would be his own creation.<ref>{{cite web |title=Tolkien's Not-So-Secret Vice |url=http://folk.uib.no/hnohf/vice.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121122010424/http://folk.uib.no/hnohf/vice.htm |archive-date=22 November 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Tolkien's Languages |url=http://lordfingulfin.webs.com/earlierlanguages.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131224110153/http://lordfingulfin.webs.com/earlierlanguages.htm |archive-date=24 December 2013}}</ref> Tolkien learned [[Esperanto]] some time before 1909. Around 10 June 1909 he composed "The Book of the Foxrook", a sixteen-page notebook, where the "earliest example of one of his invented alphabets" appears.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bramlett |first=Perry C. |url={{Google books|8ef3-s6fixIC |page=PA136 |keywords= |text= |plainurl=yes}} |title=I Am in Fact a Hobbit: An Introduction to the Life and Works of J. R. R. Tolkien |publisher=[[Mercer University Press]] |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-86554-894-7 |page=136 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170215191402/https://books.google.com/books?id=8ef3-s6fixIC&pg=PA136 |archive-date=15 February 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> Short texts in this notebook are written in Esperanto.<ref>{{cite book |last=Smith |first=Arden R. |author-link=Arden R. Smith |title=[[The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment]] |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=2006 |editor-last=Drout |editor-first=Michael D. C. |editor-link=Michael D. C. Drout |page=172 |chapter=Esperanto |chapter-url={{Google books|B0loOBA3ejIC |page=PA172 |plainurl=yes}}|postscript=,}} and [http://parmadili.skf.org.pl/elendili/esperanto.jpg Book of the Foxrook] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202162102/http://parmadili.skf.org.pl/elendili/esperanto.jpg |date=2 February 2017 }}; transcription on [http://www.elendilion.pl/2007/06/18/tolkien-i-esperanto/ Tolkien i Esperanto] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161019054129/http://www.elendilion.pl/2007/06/18/tolkien-i-esperanto/ |date=19 October 2016 }}; the text begins with "PRIVATA KODO SKAŬTA" (Private Scout Code).</ref>

In 1911, while they were at King Edward's School, Tolkien and three friends, Rob Gilson, Geoffrey Bache Smith, and Christopher Wiseman, formed a semi-secret society they called the T.C.B.S. The initials stood for Tea Club and Barrovian Society, alluding to their fondness for drinking tea in [[Barrows (department store)|Barrow's Stores]] near the school and, secretly, in the school library.<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|pp=53–54}}</ref><ref>''[[Tolkien and the Great War]]'', p. 6.</ref> After leaving school, the members stayed in touch and, in December 1914, they held a council in London at Wiseman's home. For Tolkien, the result of this meeting was a strong dedication to [[Tolkien's poetry|writing poetry]].<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|p=82}}</ref>

In 1911, Tolkien went on a summer holiday in Switzerland, a trip that he recollected vividly in a 1968 letter,<ref name="Letters306" group="T">{{harvnb|Carpenter|Tolkien|1981|loc=''Letters'' #306 to Michael Tolkien, 1967 or 1968}}</ref> noting that [[Bilbo Baggins|Bilbo]]'s journey across the [[Misty Mountains]] ("including the glissade down the slithering stones into the pine woods") is directly based on his adventures as their party of 12 hiked from [[Interlaken]] to [[Lauterbrunnen]] and on to camp in the [[moraine]]s beyond [[Mürren]]. Fifty-seven years later, Tolkien remembered his regret at leaving the view of the eternal snows of [[Jungfrau]] and [[Silberhorn]], "the Silvertine ([[Celebdil]]) of my dreams". They went across the [[Kleine Scheidegg]] to [[Grindelwald]] and on across the [[Grosse Scheidegg]] to [[Meiringen]]. They continued across the [[Grimsel Pass]], through the upper [[Valais]] to [[Brig, Switzerland|Brig]] and on to the [[Aletsch glacier]] and [[Zermatt]].<ref>{{cite web |title=1911 – J. R. R. Tolkien besichtigt das Oberwallis |url=https://www.valais-wallis-digital.ch/de/a/#!/explore/cards/173 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305092953/https://www.valais-wallis-digital.ch/de/a/#!/explore/cards/173 |archive-date=5 March 2016 |website=Valais Wallis Digital |language=de|postscript=,}} citing {{harvnb|Carpenter|Tolkien|1981|loc=''Letters'' #306 to Michael Tolkien, autumn 1968.}}</ref>

In October of the same year, Tolkien began studying at [[Exeter College, Oxford]]. He initially read [[classics]] but changed his course in 1913 to English language and [[English literature|literature]], graduating in 1915 with [[first-class honours]].<ref name="RoyalMail">{{cite book |last1=Hammond |first1=Wayne G. |title=The Lord of the Rings JRR Tolkien Author and Illustrator |last2=Scull |first2=Christina |date=26 February 2004 |publisher=[[Royal Mail]] Group plc (commemorative postage stamp pack) |author-link=Wayne G. Hammond |author-link2=Christina Scull}}</ref> Among his tutors at Oxford was [[Joseph Wright (linguist)|Joseph Wright]], whose ''Primer of the Gothic Language'' had inspired Tolkien as a schoolboy.<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|pp=45, 63–64}}</ref>

=== Courtship and marriage ===

At the age of 16, Tolkien met [[Edith Tolkien|Edith Mary Bratt]], who was three years his senior, when he and his brother Hilary moved into the boarding house where she lived in Duchess Road, [[Edgbaston]]. According to Humphrey Carpenter, "Edith and Ronald took to frequenting Birmingham teashops, especially one which had a balcony overlooking the pavement. There they would sit and throw sugarlumps into the hats of passers-by, moving to the next table when the sugar bowl was empty. ... With two people of their personalities and in their position, romance was bound to flourish. Both were orphans in need of affection, and they found that they could give it to each other. During the summer of 1909, they decided that they were in love."<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|p=40}}</ref>

His guardian, Father Morgan, considered it "altogether unfortunate"<ref name="Letters, No. 43" group="T">{{harvnb|Carpenter|Tolkien|1981|loc=''Letters'' #43 to Michael Tolkien, 6–8 March 1941}}</ref> that his surrogate son was romantically involved with an older, [[Church of England|Protestant]] woman; Tolkien wrote that the combined tensions contributed to his having "muffed [his] exams".<ref name="Letters, No. 43" group="T" /> Morgan prohibited him from meeting, talking to, or even corresponding with Edith until he was 21. Tolkien obeyed this prohibition to the letter,<ref>{{cite web |last=Doughan |first=David |year=2002 |title=War, Lost Tales and Academia |url=http://www.tolkiensociety.org/tolkien/biography.html#2 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060303050751/http://www.tolkiensociety.org/tolkien/biography.html |archive-date=3 March 2006 |website=J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biographical Sketch}}</ref> with one notable early exception, over which Father Morgan threatened to cut short his university career if he did not stop.<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|p=43}}</ref>

On the evening of his 21st birthday, Tolkien wrote to Edith, who was living with family friend C. H. Jessop at [[Cheltenham]]. He declared that he had never ceased to love her, and asked her to marry him. Edith replied that she had already accepted the proposal of George Field, the brother of one of her closest school friends. But Edith said she had agreed to marry Field only because she felt "on the shelf" and had begun to doubt that Tolkien still cared for her. She explained that, because of Tolkien's letter, everything had changed.<ref name="Carpenter 1977 p67" />

On 8 January 1913, Tolkien travelled by train to Cheltenham and was met on the platform by Edith. The two took a walk into the countryside, sat under a railway viaduct, and talked. By the end of the day, Edith had agreed to accept Tolkien's proposal. She wrote to Field and returned her engagement ring. Field was "dreadfully upset at first", and the Field family was "insulted and angry".<ref name="Carpenter 1977 p67">{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|pp=67–69}}</ref> Upon learning of Edith's new plans, Jessop wrote to her guardian, "I have nothing to say against Tolkien, he is a cultured gentleman, but his prospects are poor in the extreme, and when he will be in a position to marry I cannot imagine. Had he adopted a profession it would have been different."<ref>{{harvnb|Tolkien|Tolkien|1992|p=34}}</ref>

Following their engagement, Edith reluctantly announced that she was converting to Catholicism at Tolkien's insistence. Jessop, "like many others of his age and class ... strongly [[Anti-Catholicism in the United Kingdom|anti-Catholic]]", was infuriated, and he ordered Edith to find other lodgings.<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|p=73}}</ref>

Edith Bratt and Ronald Tolkien were formally engaged at Birmingham in January 1913, and married at [[St Mary Immaculate Roman Catholic Church, Warwick|St Mary Immaculate Catholic Church]] at [[Warwick]], on 22 March 1916.<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|p=86}}</ref> In his 1941 letter to Michael, Tolkien expressed admiration for his wife's willingness to marry a man with no job, little money, and no prospects except the likelihood of being killed in the Great War.<ref name="Letters, No. 43" group="T" />

=== First World War ===

[[File:Tolkien-WWI-Uniform.jpg|thumb|upright|Tolkien in his military uniform]]

In August 1914, Britain entered the [[First World War]]. Tolkien's relatives were shocked when he elected not to volunteer immediately for the [[British Army]]. In a 1941 letter to his son Michael, Tolkien recalled: "In those days chaps joined up, or were scorned publicly. It was a nasty cleft to be in for a young man with too much imagination and little physical courage."<ref name="Letters, No. 43" group="T" /> Instead, Tolkien, "endured the [[wikt:obloquy|obloquy]]",<ref name="Letters, No. 43" group="T" /> and entered a programme by which he delayed enlistment until completing his degree. By the time he passed his finals in July 1915, Tolkien recalled that the hints were "becoming outspoken from relatives".<ref name="Letters, No. 43" group="T" /> He was commissioned as a temporary [[second lieutenant]] in the [[Lancashire Fusiliers]] on 15 July 1915.<ref name="Carpenter 1977 p77">{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|pp=77–85}}</ref><ref>{{London Gazette|issue=29232|page=6968|date=16 July 1915}}</ref> He trained with the 13th (Reserve) Battalion on [[Cannock Chase]], Rugeley Camp near to [[Rugeley]], Staffordshire, for 11 months. In a letter to Edith, Tolkien complained: "Gentlemen are rare among the superiors, and even human beings rare indeed."<ref>''[[Tolkien and the Great War]]'', p.&nbsp;94.</ref> Following their wedding, Lieutenant and Mrs. Tolkien took up lodgings near the training camp.<ref name="Carpenter 1977 p77" /> On 2 June 1916, Tolkien received a telegram summoning him to [[Folkestone]] for posting to France. The Tolkiens spent the night before his departure in a room at the Plough & Harrow Hotel in [[Edgbaston]], Birmingham.<ref name="Tolkien Society Memorials">{{cite web |date=29 October 2016 |title=Memorials |url=https://www.tolkiensociety.org/society/memorials/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308102744/https://www.tolkiensociety.org/society/memorials/ |archive-date=8 March 2021 |access-date=3 March 2021 |publisher=[[The Tolkien Society]]}}</ref> He later wrote: "Junior officers were being killed off, a dozen a minute. Parting from my wife then ... it was like a death."<ref>{{harvnb|Garth|2003|p=138}}</ref>

==== France ====
On 5 June 1916, Tolkien boarded a troop transport for an overnight voyage to [[Calais]]. Like other soldiers arriving for the first time, he was sent to the [[British Expeditionary Force (World War I)|British Expeditionary Force]]'s base depot at [[Étaples]]. On 7 June, he was informed that he had been assigned as a signals officer to the 11th (Service) Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers. The battalion was part of the [[74th Brigade (United Kingdom)|74th Brigade]], [[25th Division (United Kingdom)|25th Division]]. While waiting to be summoned to his unit, Tolkien sank into boredom. To pass the time, he composed a poem titled ''The Lonely Isle'', which was inspired by his feelings during the sea crossing to Calais. To evade the British Army's [[postal censorship]], he developed a code of dots by which Edith could track his movements.<ref name="Garth144">{{harvnb|Garth|2003|pp=144–145}}</ref> He left Étaples on 27 June 1916 and joined his battalion at [[Rubempré]], near [[Amiens]].<ref>{{harvnb|Garth|2003|pp=147–148}}</ref> He found himself commanding enlisted men who were drawn mainly from the mining, milling, and weaving towns of Lancashire.<ref>{{harvnb|Garth|2003|pp=148–149}}</ref> According to [[John Garth (author)|John Garth]], he "felt an affinity for these working class men", but military protocol prohibited friendships with "[[Other ranks (UK)|other ranks]]". Instead, he was required to "take charge of them, discipline them, train them, and probably censor their letters ... If possible, he was supposed to inspire their love and loyalty."<ref name="Garth149">{{harvnb|Garth|2003|p=149}}</ref> Tolkien later lamented, "The most improper job of any man ... is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity."<ref name="Garth149" />

==== Battle of the Somme ====
[[File:Schwaben Redoubt by William Orpen IWM Art.IWM ART 3000.jpg|thumb|right|'' The Schwaben Redoubt'', painting by William Orpen. [[Imperial War Museum]], London]]

Tolkien arrived at the [[Battle of the Somme|Somme]] in early July 1916. In between terms behind the lines at [[Bouzincourt]], he participated in the assaults on the [[Schwaben Redoubt]] and the [[Leipzig salient]]. Tolkien's time in combat was a terrible stress for Edith, who feared that every knock on the door might carry news of her husband's death. Edith could track her husband's movements on a map of the [[Western Front (World War I)|Western Front]]. The Reverend Mervyn S. Evers, [[Anglican]] chaplain to the Lancashire Fusiliers, recorded that Tolkien and his fellow officers were eaten by "hordes of lice" which found the Medical Officer's ointment merely "a kind of ''[[hors d'oeuvre]]'' and the little beggars went at their feast with renewed vigour."<ref>Quoted in {{harvnb|Garth|2003|p=200}}</ref> On 27 October 1916, as his battalion attacked [[Regina Trench]], Tolkien contracted [[trench fever]], a disease carried by [[lice]]. He was invalided to England on 8 November 1916.<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|p=93}}</ref>

According to his children [[John Tolkien (priest)|John]] and [[Priscilla Tolkien]], "In later years, he would occasionally talk of being at the front: of the horrors of the first German [[Chemical weapons in World War I|gas attack]], of the utter exhaustion and ominous quiet after a bombardment, of the whining scream of the shells, and the endless marching, always on foot, through a devastated landscape, sometimes carrying the men's equipment as well as his own to encourage them to keep going. ... Some remarkable relics survive from that time: a trench map he drew himself; pencil-written orders to carry bombs to the 'fighting line.{{'"}}<ref>{{harvnb|Tolkien|Tolkien|1992|p=40}}</ref>

Many of his dearest school friends were killed in the war. Among their number were Rob Gilson of the Tea Club and Barrovian Society, who was killed on the [[first day of the Somme]] while leading his men in the assault on [[Beaumont Hamel]]. Fellow T.C.B.S. member Geoffrey Smith was killed during the battle, when a German artillery shell landed on a first-aid post. Tolkien's battalion was almost completely wiped out following his return to England.<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|pp=93, 103, 105}}</ref>

[[File:Lancashire Fusiliers trench Beaumont Hamel 1916.jpg|thumb|right|Men of the 1st Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers in a communication trench near [[Beaumont Hamel]], 1916. Photo by [[Ernest Brooks (photographer)|Ernest Brooks]]]]

According to John Garth, [[Kitchener's Army]], in which Tolkien served, at once marked existing social boundaries and counteracted the class system by throwing everyone into a desperate situation together. Tolkien was grateful, writing that it had taught him "a deep sympathy and feeling for the [[Tommy Atkins|Tommy]]; especially the plain soldier from the agricultural counties".<ref>{{harvnb|Garth|2003|pp=94–95}}</ref>

==== Home front ====
{{further|The Great War and Middle-earth}}

A weak and emaciated Tolkien spent the remainder of the war alternating between hospitals and garrison duties, being deemed medically unfit for general service.<ref>{{harvnb|Garth|2003|pp=207 ''et seq.''}}</ref><ref>Tolkien's [[Webley Revolver|Webley .455]] service revolver was put on display in 2006 as part of a [[Battle of the Somme]] exhibition in the [[Imperial War Museum]], London. (See {{cite web |title=Second Lieutenant J R R Tolkien |url=https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/second-lieutenant-j-r-r-tolkien |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181125162651/https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/second-lieutenant-j-r-r-tolkien |archive-date=25 November 2018 |website=Battle of the Somme |publisher=[[Imperial War Museum]]}} and {{cite web |url=https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30034679 |title=Webley.455 Mark 6 (VI Military) |work=Imperial War Museum Collection Search |publisher=[[Imperial War Museum]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181125162641/https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30034679 |archive-date=25 November 2018 |url-status=live}})</ref><ref>Several of his service records, mostly dealing with his health problems, can be seen at the National Archives. ({{cite web |title=Officer's service record: J R R Tolkien |url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/firstworldwar/people/tolkien.htm  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090308111409/http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/firstworldwar/people/tolkien.htm |archive-date=8 March 2009 |access-date=2 December 2007 |website=First World War |publisher=National Archives}})</ref> During his recovery in a cottage in [[Little Haywood]], [[Staffordshire, England|Staffordshire]], he began to work on what he called ''[[The Book of Lost Tales]]'', beginning with ''[[The Fall of Gondolin]]''. ''Lost Tales'' represented Tolkien's attempt to create a mythology for England, a project he would abandon without ever completing.<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|p=98}}</ref> Throughout 1917 and 1918 his illness kept recurring, but he had recovered enough to do home service at various camps. It was at this time that Edith bore their first child, John Francis Reuel Tolkien. In a 1941 letter, Tolkien described his son John as "(conceived and carried during the starvation-year of 1917 and the great [[U-boat Campaign (World War I)|U-boat campaign]]) round about the [[Battle of Cambrai (1917)|Battle of Cambrai]], when the end of the war seemed as far off as it does now".<ref name="Letters, No. 43" group="T" /> Tolkien was promoted to the temporary rank of lieutenant on 6 January 1918.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=30588 |supp=y|page=3561|date=19 March 1918}}</ref> When he was stationed at [[Kingston upon Hull]], he and Edith went walking in the woods at nearby [[Roos]], and Edith began to dance for him in a clearing among the flowering hemlock. After his wife's death in 1971, Tolkien remembered:<ref name="Letter 340" group="T" />

{{blockquote|I never called Edith ''Luthien''—but she was the source of the story that in time became the chief part of the ''Silmarillion''. It was first conceived in a small woodland glade filled with hemlocks<ref>Following rural English usage, Tolkien used the name "hemlock" for various plants with white flowers in umbels, resembling [[poison hemlock|hemlock]] (''Conium maculatum''); the flowers Edith danced among were more probably [[cow parsley]] (''Anthriscus sylvestris'') or [[wild carrot]] (''Daucus carota''). See [[John Garth (author)|John Garth]], ''[[Tolkien and the Great War]]'' (Harper Collins/Houghton Mifflin 2003, chapter 12), and Peter Gilliver, Jeremy Marshall, & Edmund Weiner, ''[[The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary]]'' (OUP 2006).</ref> at Roos in Yorkshire (where I was for a brief time in command of an outpost of the Humber Garrison in 1917, and she was able to live with me for a while). In those days her hair was raven, her skin clear, her eyes brighter than you have seen them, and she could sing—and {{em|dance}}. But the story has gone crooked, & I am left, and {{em|I}} cannot plead before the inexorable [[Mandos]].<ref name="Letter 340" group="T">{{harvnb|Carpenter|Tolkien|1981|loc=''Letters'' #340 to Christopher Tolkien, 11 July 1972.}}</ref>}}

On 16 July 1919, Tolkien was taken off active service, at Fovant, on Salisbury Plain, with a temporary disability pension.<ref name="Grotta p. 58">{{harvnb|Grotta|2002|p=58}}</ref> On 3 November 1920, Tolkien was demobilized and left the army, retaining his rank of lieutenant.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=32110 |supp=y|page=10711|date=2 November 1920}}</ref>

=== Academic and writing career ===

[[File:2 Darnley Road, the former home of J.R.R. Tolkien in West Park, Leeds.jpg|thumb|2 Darnley Road, the former home of Tolkien in West Park, [[Leeds]]]]

[[File:20 Northmoor Road, Oxford.JPG|thumb|20 [[Northmoor Road]], one of Tolkien's former homes in [[Oxford]]]]

After the end of World War I in 1918, Tolkien's first civilian job was at the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'', where he worked mainly on the history and etymology of words of Germanic origin beginning with the letter ''W''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gilliver |first1=Peter |title=The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary |title-link=The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary |last2=Marshall |first2=Jeremy |last3=Weiner |first3=Edmund |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2006}}</ref> In mid-1919, he began to tutor Oxford undergraduates privately, most importantly those of [[Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford|Lady Margaret Hall]] and [[St Hugh's College, Oxford|St Hugh's College]], given that the women's colleges were in great need of good teachers in their early years, and Tolkien as a married academic (then still not common) was considered suitable, as a bachelor don would not have been.<ref>{{cite book |last=Zettersten |first=A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6Q_GAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA134 |title=J. R. R. Tolkien's Double Worlds and Creative Process: Language and Life |date=25 April 2011 |publisher=[[Springer (publisher)|Springer]] |isbn=978-0-230-11840-9 |page=134 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181017123753/https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=6Q_GAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA134#v=onepage&q=lady%20margaret%20hall |archive-date=17 October 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1920, he took up a post as [[Reader (academic rank)|reader]] in English language at the [[University of Leeds]], becoming the youngest member of the [[academic staff]] there.<ref name="Grotta2001 page 64 ff">{{cite book |last=Grotta |first=Daniel |url={{Google books|9LHQvq6P5qIC |page=PA64 |keywords= |text= |plainurl=yes}} |title=J. R. R. Tolkien Architect of Middle Earth |date=28 March 2001 |publisher=Running Press |isbn=978-0-7624-0956-3 |pages=64– |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511071523/http://books.google.com/books?id=9LHQvq6P5qIC&pg=PA64 |archive-date=11 May 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref> While at Leeds, he produced ''A Middle English Vocabulary'' and a definitive edition of ''[[Sir Gawain and the Green Knight]]'' with [[E. V. Gordon]]; both became academic standard works for several decades. He also translated ''Sir Gawain'', ''[[Pearl (poem)|Pearl]]'', and ''[[Sir Orfeo]]'', but the translations would not be published until 1975. In 1924, he was promoted from a readership at Leeds to a [[professorship]].<ref name="ODNB">{{cite ODNB |first= T. A. |last= Shippey |title= Tolkien, John Ronald Reuel (1892–1973) |edition=revised |date=11 April 2024 |doi= 10.1093/ref:odnb/31766}}</ref> 

In October 1925, he returned to Oxford as [[Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon]], with a fellowship at [[Pembroke College, Oxford|Pembroke College]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Memorial to JRR Tolkien commissioned |url=https://www.pmb.ox.ac.uk/news/memorial-jrr-tolkien-commissioned |website=Pembroke College Oxford |publisher=University of Oxford |access-date=19 December 2023}}</ref> During his time at Pembroke College, Tolkien wrote ''[[The Hobbit]]'' and the first two volumes of ''The Lord of the Rings'', while living at 20 [[Northmoor Road]] in [[North Oxford]]. In 1932, he published a philological essay on the name "[[Nodens]]", following Sir [[Mortimer Wheeler]]'s unearthing of a [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] [[Asclepeion]] at [[Lydney Park]], Gloucestershire, in 1928.<ref>See ''The Name Nodens'' (1932) in the bibliographical listing. For the etymology, see [[Nodens#Etymology]].</ref>

==== ''Beowulf'' ====
{{further|Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary|On Translating Beowulf}}

In the 1920s, Tolkien undertook a translation of ''[[Beowulf]]'', which he finished in 1926, but did not publish. It was later edited by his son Christopher and published in 2014.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Acocella |first=Joan |date=2 June 2014 |title=Slaying Monsters: Tolkien's 'Beowulf' |url=https://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2014/06/02/140602crbo_books_acocella?currentPage=all |url-status=live |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140530222018/http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2014/06/02/140602crbo_books_acocella?currentPage=all |archive-date=30 May 2014}}</ref>

Ten years after finishing his translation, Tolkien gave a highly acclaimed lecture on the work, "[[Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics|''Beowulf'': The Monsters and the Critics]]", which had a lasting influence on ''Beowulf'' research.<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|p=143}}</ref> Lewis E. Nicholson said that the article is "widely recognized as a turning point in Beowulfian criticism", noting that Tolkien established the primacy of the poetic nature of the work as opposed to its purely linguistic elements.<ref>{{cite web |last=Ramey |first=Bill |date=30 March 1998 |title=The Unity of Beowulf: Tolkien and the Critics |url=http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/billramey/beowulf.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060421094854/http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/billramey/beowulf.htm |archive-date=21 April 2006 |website=Wisdom's Children}}</ref> At the time, the consensus of scholarship deprecated ''Beowulf'' for dealing with childish battles with monsters rather than realistic tribal warfare; Tolkien argued that the author of ''Beowulf'' was addressing human destiny in general, not as limited by particular tribal politics, and therefore the monsters were essential to the poem.<ref>Tolkien: ''[[Finn and Hengest]]''. Chiefly, p.4 in the Introduction by [[Alan Bliss]].</ref> Where ''Beowulf'' does deal with specific tribal struggles, as at [[Finnsburg]], Tolkien argued firmly against reading in fantastic elements.<ref>Tolkien: ''[[Finn and Hengest]]'', the discussion of ''Eotena'', ''passim''.</ref> In the essay, Tolkien revealed how highly he regarded ''Beowulf'': "''Beowulf'' is among my most valued sources"; [[Beowulf and Middle-earth|this influence may be seen]] throughout his [[Middle-earth]] [[Tolkien's legendarium|legendarium]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Kennedy |first=Michael |year=2001 |title=Tolkien and Beowulf&nbsp;– Warriors of Middle-earth |url=http://www.triode.net.au/~dragon/tilkal/issue1/beowulf.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060509110607/http://www.triode.net.au/~dragon/tilkal/issue1/beowulf.html |archive-date=9 May 2006 |website=Amon Hen}}</ref>

According to [[Humphrey Carpenter]], Tolkien began his series of lectures on ''Beowulf'' in a most striking way, entering the room silently, fixing the audience with a look, and suddenly declaiming in Old English the opening lines of the poem, starting "with a great cry of ''[[wikt:hwæt|Hwæt]]!''" It was a dramatic impersonation of an Anglo-Saxon bard in a mead hall, and it made the students realize that ''Beowulf'' was not just a set text but "a powerful piece of dramatic poetry".<ref name="Biog p133">{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|p=133}}</ref> Decades later, [[W. H. Auden]] wrote to his former professor, thanking him for the "unforgettable experience" of hearing him recite ''Beowulf'', and stating: "The voice was the voice of [[Gandalf]]".<ref name="Biog p133" />

==== Second World War ====
[[File:UK-2014-Oxford-Merton College 05.JPG|thumb|upright|[[Merton College]], where Tolkien was Professor of English Language and Literature (1945–1959)]]

In the run-up to the [[Second World War]], Tolkien was earmarked as a [[Cryptanalysis|codebreaker]]. In January 1939, he was asked to serve in the [[Cryptography|cryptographic]] department of the Foreign Office in the event of national emergency. Beginning on 27 March, he took an instructional course at the London HQ of the [[Government Code and Cypher School]]. He was informed in October that his services would not be required.<ref>{{cite book |last=Turing |first=Dermot |title=The Codebreakers of Bletchley Park |year=2020 |publisher=Arcturus Publishing |location=London |isbn=978-1-78950-621-1 |page=51}}</ref><ref name="spy1" group="T">{{harvnb|Carpenter|Tolkien|1981|loc=''Letters'' #35 to C. A. Furth, [[Allen & Unwin]], 2 February 1939 (see also editorial note).}}</ref><ref name="spy3">{{cite book |last1=Hammond |first1=Wayne G. |title=The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide |title-link=The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide |last2=Scull |first2=Christina |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-618-39113-4 |volume=2 |pages=224, 226, 232 |author-link=Wayne G. Hammond |author-link2=Christina Scull}}</ref>

In 1945, Tolkien moved to [[Merton College, Oxford]], becoming the [[Merton Professors|Merton Professor of English Language and Literature]],<ref name="Grotta2001 page 110 ff">{{cite book |last=Grotta |first=Daniel |url={{Google books|9LHQvq6P5qIC |page=PA110 |plainurl=yes}} |title=J. R. R. Tolkien Architect of Middle Earth |date=28 March 2001 |publisher=Running Press |isbn=978-0-7624-0956-3 |pages=110– |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140111194008/http://books.google.com/books?id=9LHQvq6P5qIC&pg=PA110 |archive-date=11 January 2014 |url-status=live}}</ref> in which post he remained until his retirement in 1959. He served as an external examiner for [[University College, Galway]] (now The University of Galway), for many years.<ref>{{cite news |last=McCoy |first=Felicity Hayes |date=11 June 2019 |title=When my father met Gandalf: Tolkien's time as an external examiner at UCG |newspaper=[[The Irish Times]] |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/when-my-father-met-gandalf-tolkien-s-time-as-an-external-examiner-at-ucg-1.3921043 |url-status=live |access-date=3 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210325113855/https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/when-my-father-met-gandalf-tolkien-s-time-as-an-external-examiner-at-ucg-1.3921043 |archive-date=25 March 2021}}</ref> In 1954 Tolkien received an honorary degree from the [[National University of Ireland]] (of which University College, Galway, was a constituent college).<ref>{{cite web |date=3 March 2021 |title=Honorary Degrees Awarded |url=http://www.nui.ie/college/Honorary_Degree_Recipients.asp |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210128030329/http://www.nui.ie/college/Honorary_Degree_Recipients.asp |archive-date=28 January 2021 |access-date=3 March 2021 |publisher=[[National University of Ireland]]}}</ref> Tolkien completed ''The Lord of the Rings'' in 1948, close to a decade after the first sketches.<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|pp=206–208}}</ref>

=== Family ===
{{Main|Tolkien family}}

The Tolkiens had four children: [[John Tolkien (priest)|John Francis Reuel Tolkien]] (17 November 1917 – 22 January 2003), Michael Hilary Reuel Tolkien (22 October 1920 – 27 February 1984), [[Christopher Tolkien|Christopher John Reuel Tolkien]] (21 November 1924 – 16 January 2020) and [[Priscilla Reuel Tolkien|Priscilla Mary Anne Reuel Tolkien]] (18 June 1929 – 28 February 2022).<ref>{{harvnb|Lee|2020|pp=12–15}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=In memory of Priscilla Tolkien |url=https://www.lmh.ox.ac.uk/news/memory-priscilla-tolkien |access-date=1 March 2022 |website=Lady Margaret Hall}}</ref> Tolkien was very devoted to his children and sent them illustrated [[The Father Christmas Letters|letters from Father Christmas]] when they were young.<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|p=167}}</ref>

=== Retirement ===

[[File:Oxford Tolkien.JPG|thumb|upright|Bust of Tolkien in the chapel of [[Exeter College, Oxford]]]]

During his life in retirement, from 1959 up to his death in 1973, Tolkien received steadily increasing public attention and literary fame. In 1961, his friend [[C. S. Lewis]] even nominated him for the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Nomination Database |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show.php?id=16784 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170421094448/http://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show.php?id=16784 |archive-date=21 April 2017 |publisher=Nobel Foundation}}</ref> The sales of his books were so profitable that he regretted that he had not chosen early retirement.<ref name="DoughanBio" /> In a 1972 letter, he deplored having become a [[Tolkien fandom|cult figure]], but admitted that "even the nose of a very modest idol ... cannot remain entirely untickled by the sweet smell of incense!"<ref group="T">{{harvnb|Carpenter|Tolkien|1981|loc=''Letters'' #336 to [[Patrick Browne (judge)|Sir Patrick Browne]], 23 May 1972}}</ref>

Fan attention became so intense that Tolkien had to take his phone number out of the public directory;<ref group="T">{{harvnb|Carpenter|Tolkien|1981|loc=''Letters'' #332 to Michael Tolkien, 24 January 1972}}</ref> eventually he and Edith moved to [[Bournemouth]], which was then a seaside resort patronized by the British upper middle class. Tolkien's status as a best-selling author gave them easy entry into polite society, but Tolkien deeply missed the company of his fellow [[Inklings]]. Edith, however, was overjoyed to step into the role of a society hostess, which had been the reason that Tolkien selected Bournemouth in the first place. The genuine and deep affection between Ronald and Edith was demonstrated by their care about the other's health, in details like wrapping presents, in the generous way he gave up his life at Oxford so she could retire to Bournemouth, and in her pride in his becoming a famous author. They were tied together, too, by love for their children and grandchildren.<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|loc=Part 7, Chapter 2 "Bournemouth"}}</ref>

In his retirement Tolkien was a consultant and translator for ''[[The Jerusalem Bible]]'', published in 1966. He was initially assigned a larger portion to translate, but, due to other commitments, only managed to offer some criticisms of other contributors and a translation of the [[Book of Jonah]].<ref group="T">{{harvnb|Carpenter|Tolkien|1981|loc=''Letters'' #294 to Charlotte and Denis Plimmer, 8 February 1967}}</ref>

=== Final years ===

[[File:Tolkien's grave, Wolvercote Cemetery.jpg|thumb|The grave of J. R. R. and [[Edith Tolkien]], [[Wolvercote Cemetery]], [[Oxford]]]]

Edith died on 29 November 1971, at the age of 82. Ronald returned to Oxford, where [[Merton College]] gave him convenient rooms near the High Street. He missed Edith, but enjoyed being back in the city.<ref name="SimonTolkien">{{cite web |last=Tolkien |first=Simon |year=2003 |title=My Grandfather JRR Tolkien |url=http://www.simontolkien.com/mygrandfather.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927051931/http://www.simontolkien.com/mygrandfather.html |archive-date=27 September 2011}}</ref>

Tolkien was made a [[Commander of the Order of the British Empire]] in the [[1972 New Year Honours]]<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=45554 |date=1 January 1972 |page=9 |supp=y }}</ref> and received the insignia of the Order at [[Buckingham Palace]] on 28 March 1972.<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Carpenter|Tolkien|1981|loc=''Letters'' #334 to Rayner Unwin, 30 March 1972 (editorial note)<!--USAGE IS NOT PRIMARY HERE-->.}}</ref> In the same year Oxford University gave him an honorary [[Doctor of Letters|Doctorate of Letters]].<ref name="RoyalMail" /><ref>{{cite web |last=Shropshire County Council |year=2002 |title=J. R. R. Tolkien |url=http://www3.shropshire-cc.gov.uk/tolkien.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120728154119/http://www3.shropshire-cc.gov.uk/tolkien.htm |archive-date=28 July 2012 |website=Literary Heritage, West Midlands}}</ref>

He had the name [[Lúthien|Luthien]]{{sic}} engraved on Edith's tombstone at [[Wolvercote Cemetery]], [[Oxford]]. When Tolkien died 21 months later on 2 September 1973 from a bleeding ulcer and chest infection,<ref>{{cite book |last=Birzer |first=Bradley J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TyKDAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT35 |title=J. R. R. Tolkien's Sanctifying Myth: Understanding Middle-earth |date=13 May 2014 |publisher=Open Road Media |isbn=978-1-4976-4891-3 |author-link=Bradley J. Birzer |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200522094323/https://books.google.com/books?id=TyKDAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT35#v=onepage&q=jrr+tolkien+bleeding+ulcer |archive-date=22 May 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref> at the age of 81,<ref name="NYTimes obit">{{cite news |date=3 September 1973 |title=J. R. R. Tolkien Dead at 81; Wrote 'The Lord of the Rings' |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/01/02/11/specials/tolkien-obit.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090411062439/http://www.nytimes.com/books/01/02/11/specials/tolkien-obit.html |archive-date=11 April 2009}}</ref> he was buried in the same grave, with "[[Beren]]" added to his name. Tolkien's will was proven on 20 December 1973, with his estate valued at £190,577 (equivalent to £{{formatnum:{{Inflation|UK-GDP|190577|1973|r=-3}}}} in {{Inflation-year|UK-GDP}}).{{Inflation-fn| UK-GDP |df=y}}<ref name="probate">{{cite web |last=<!--Not stated--> |date=1973 |title=Tolkien, John Ronald Reul of Merton College Oxford |url=https://probatesearch.service.gov.uk/Calendar?surname=Tolkien&yearOfDeath=1973&page=1#calendar |url-status=deviated |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200522093721/https://probatesearch.service.gov.uk/Calendar?surname=Tolkien&yearOfDeath=1973&page=1#calendar |archive-date=22 May 2020 |website=probatesearchservice.gov |publisher=UK Government}}</ref>