John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892 - 1973), an English author and scholar, wrote a popular series
of novels about an imaginary people called hobbits. Tolkien introduced the short, hairy-footed hobbits in
"The Hobbit" (1937). He continued their story in three related novels called "The Lord of the Rings."
These novels are "The Fellowship of the Ring", (1954), "The Two Towers" (1954), and "The Return of
the King". (1955)
Hobbits are industrious and good-natured. They live in a world called Middle-earth, along with elves,
goblins, wizards, and human beings. In "The Hobbit", Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit, discovers a ring that
conveys the power of invisibility but also corrupts the user. The hero of "The Lord of the Rings" is Frodo
Baggins, Bilbo´s cousin. After many adventures, Frodo destroys the ring so that Sauron, the evil dark
Lord, cannot use it against the people of Middle-earth.
Many critics have interpreted "The Lord of the Rings" as a symbolic moral or religious story about
the battle between good and evil. But Tolkien insisted that he wrote the novels only as fantasies to
entertain readers.
In 1971, Tolkien began to write "The Silmarillion", a history of Middle-earth before the hobbits
appeared. He worked on the book occasionally for the rest of his life but died before completing it, and
his son Christopher finished the novel. It was published in 1977. A collection of previously unpublished
material about Middle-earth and the legendary island of Númenor appeared in 1980 as "Unfinished
Tales".
J.R.R.Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa, of English parents. From 1925 to 1959, he
taught at Oxford University in England. He specialized in medieval languages and literature and wrote
several scholarly works in this field. Tolkien´s hobbit stories show the influence of medieval English,
German, and Scandinavian languages and literature.