J.R.R. Tolkien photo

J.R.R. Tolkien

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien: writer, artist, scholar, linguist. Known to millions around the world as the author of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien spent most of his life teaching at the University of Oxford where he was a distinguished academic in the fields of Old and Middle English and Old Norse. His creativity, confined to his spare time, found its outlet in fantasy works, stories for children, poetry, illustration and invented languages and alphabets.

Tolkien’s most popular works, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are set in Middle-earth, an imagined world with strangely familiar settings inhabited by ancient and extraordinary peoples. Through this secondary world Tolkien writes perceptively of universal human concerns – love and loss, courage and betrayal, humility and pride – giving his books a wide and enduring appeal.

Tolkien was an accomplished amateur artist who painted for pleasure and relaxation. He excelled at landscapes and often drew inspiration from his own stories. He illustrated many scenes from The Silmarillion, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, sometimes drawing or painting as he was writing in order to visualize the imagined scene more clearly.

Tolkien was a professor at the Universities of Leeds and Oxford for almost forty years, teaching Old and Middle English, as well as Old Norse and Gothic. His illuminating lectures on works such as the Old English epic poem, Beowulf, illustrate his deep knowledge of ancient languages and at the same time provide new insights into peoples and legends from a remote past.

Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa, in 1892 to English parents. He came to England aged three and was brought up in and around Birmingham. He graduated from the University of Oxford in 1915 and saw active service in France during the First World War before being invalided home. After the war he pursued an academic career teaching Old and Middle English. Alongside his professional work, he invented his own languages and began to create what he called a mythology for England; it was this ‘legendarium’ that he would work on throughout his life. But his literary work did not start and end with Middle-earth, he also wrote poetry, children’s stories and fairy tales for adults. He died in 1973 and is buried in Oxford where he spent most of his adult life.


“I shall have to go. But-" and here Frodo looked hard at Sam- "if you really care about me, you will have to keep that DEAD secret. See? If you don't, if you even breathe a word of what you've heard here, then I hope Gandalf will turn you into a spotted toad and fill the garden full of grass snakes." Sam fell on his knees, trembling. "Get up, Sam!" Said Gandalf. "I have thought of something better than that. Something to keep you quiet, and punish you properly for listening. You shall go away with Mr. Frodo!" "Me, sir!" cried Sam, springing up like a dog invited for a walk. "Me go and see Elves and all! Hooray!" he shouted, and then burst into tears.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more
“Tu destino está en ti mismo, no en tu nombre.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more
“Es ist eine gefährliche Sache, aus deiner Tür hinaus zu gehen. Du betrittst die Straße und wenn du nicht auf deine Füße aufpasst, kann man nicht wissen, wohin sie dich tragen.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more
“Every writer making a secondary world wishes in some measure to be a real maker, or hopes that he is drawing on reality: hopes that the peculiar quality of this secondary world (if not all the details) are derived from Reality, or are flowing into it.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more
“I know I don't look old, but I'm beginning to feel it in my heart... I need a holiday. A very long holiday. And I don't expect I shall return.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more
“Already he was a very different hobbit from the one that had run out without a pocket-handkerchief from Bag-End long ago. He had not had a pocket-handkerchief for ages.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more
“These hobbits will sit on the edge of ruin and discuss the pleasures of the table.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more
“Era a primeira vez que Sam via uma passagem de um combate de Homens contra Homens, e não lhe tinha agradado muito. Sentiu-se grato por não poder ver o rosto do morto. Perguntou a si mesmo como se chamaria o homem e donde teria vindo, se era realmente mau por natureza ou que mentiras e ameaças o tinham levado a percorrer o longo caminho da sua casa até ali, e se não teria, na realidade, preferido continuar lá em paz.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more
“The best rooms were all on the left-hand side (going in), for these were the only ones to have windows, deep-set round windows looking over his garden and meadows beyond, sloping down to the river.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more
“The eagles are coming!”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more
“There is still hope.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more
“And I would not have it said of me in song only that I was always left behind!”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more
“These folk are hewers of trees and hunters of beasts; therefore we are their unfriends, and if they will not depart we shall afflict them in all ways that we can.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more
“Rally to me! To me!”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more
“Někteří z těch, kteří knihu přečetli, nebo ji aspoň recenzovali, ji shledali nudnou, nesmyslnou nebo opovrženíhodnou; a já nemám proč si stěžovat, jelikož mám podobný názor na jejich díla nebo ten druh psaní, kterému očividně dávají přednost.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more
“Co to mělo v kapšiškách? Nechtělo to říct, ne, milášku. Podvodníšek mrňavá. Nefér otázka. Podvádělo to první. Poruššilo to pravidla. Měli šme to žmáčknout, viď, milášku. A žmáčknem, milášku!”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more
“Don't you let go. Don't let go. Reach!”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more
“Torment in the dark was the danger that I feared, and it did not hold me back. But I would not have come, had I known the danger of light and joy. Now I have taken my worst wound in this parting, even if I were to go this night straight to the Dark Lord. Alas for Gimli son of Glóin!”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more
“As you go down the water,’ he said, ‘you will find that the trees will fail, and you will come to a barren country. There the River flows in stony vales amid high moors, until at last after many leagues it comes to the tall island of the Tindrock, that we call Tol Brandir. There it casts its arms about the steep shores of the isle, and falls then with a great noise and smoke over the cataracts of Rauros down into the Nindalf, the Wetwang as it is called in your tongue. That is a wide region of sluggish fen where the stream becomes tortuous and much divided. There the Entwash flows in by many mouths from the Forest of Fangorn in the west. About that stream, on this side of the Great River, lies Rohan. On the further side are the bleak hills of the Emyn Muil. The wind blows from the East there, for they look out over the Dead Marshes and the Noman-lands to Cirith Gorgor and the black gates of Mordor.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more
“When the glamour wears off, or merely works a bit thin, they think they have made a mistake, and that the real soul-mate is still to find. . . And of course they are as a rule quite right: they did make a mistake. Only a very wise man at the end of his life could make a sound judgment concerning whom, amongst the total chances, he ought most profitably to have married! Nearly all marriages, even happy ones, are mistakes: in the sense that almost certainly (in a more perfect world, or even with a little more care in this very imperfect one) both partners might have found more suitable mates. But the 'real soul-mate' is the one you are actually married to.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more
“Kalbine ateş düşmesinden de kaçın kalbinin buz tutmasından da...”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more
“Dwarves are not heroes, but a calculating folk with a great idea of the value of money; some are tricky and treacherous and pretty bad lots; some are not but are decent enough people like Thorin and Company, if you don't expect too much.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more
“Farmer Giles went home feeling very uncomfortable. He was finding that a local reputation may require keeping up, and that may prove awkward.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more
“Good morning! said Bilbo, and he meant it.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more
“There is little or no magic about them, except the ordinary everyday sort which helps them to disappear quietly and quickly when large stupid folk like you and me come blundering along, making a noise like elephants which they can hear a mile off.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more
“The Bagginses had lived in the neighbourhood of The Hill for time out of mind, and people considered them very respectable, not only because most of them were rich, but also because they never had any adventures or did anything unexpected: you could tell what a Baggins would say on any question without the bother of asking him.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more
“Better mistrust undeserved than rash words.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more
“Things might have been different, but they could not have been better. - From "Leaf by Niggle”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more
“What do you fear, lady?' he asked.'A cage,' she said.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more
“Do not spoil the wonder with haste!”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more
“Then are we not to see the merry young hobbits again?" said Legolas."I did not say so," said Gandalf. "Who knows? Have patience. Go where you must go, and hope!”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more
“Elves seldom give unguarded advice, for advice is a dangerous gift, even from the wise to the wise, and all courses may run ill.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more
“Whether they've made the land, or the land's made them, it's hard to say, if you take my meaning.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more
“As far as he could remember, Sam slept through the night in deep content, if logs are contented.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more
“What then was this hope, if you know?’ Finrod asked.‘They say,’ answered Andreth: ‘they say that the One will himself enter into Arda, and heal Men and all the Marring from the beginning to the end.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more
“This hobbit was a very well-to-do hobbit, and his name was Baggins. The Bagginses had lived in the neighbourhood of The Hill for time out of mind, and people considered them very respectable, not only because most of them were rich, but also because they never had any adventures or did anything unexpected: you could tell what a Baggins would say on any question without the bother of asking him. This is a story of how a Baggins had an adventure, and found himself doing and saying things altogether unexpected. He may have lost the neighbours’ respect, but he gained—well, you will see whether he gained anything in the end.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more
“A traitor may betray himself and do good he does not intend.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more
“It's more comfortable standing still thinking of nothing.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more
“He told them tales of bees and flowers, the ways of trees, and the strange creatures of the Forest, about the evil things and the good things, things friendly and things unfriendly, cruel things and kind things, and secrets hidden under brambles.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more
“¿Has estado con frecuencia en Rivendel? -le dijo Frodo.Sí -respondió Trancos-, viví allí un tiempo, y vuelvo siempre que puedo. Mi corazón está allí, pero mi destino no es vivir en paz, ni siquiera en la hermosa casa de Elrond.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more
“After some while Bilbo became impatient. "Well, what is it?" he said. "The answer's not a kettle boiling over, as you seem to think by the noise you are making.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more
“That's what I meant,' said Pippin. 'We hobbits ought to stick together, and we will. I shall go, unless they chain me up. There must be someone with intelligence in the party.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more
“I may be a burglar...but I'm an honest one, I hope, more or less.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more
“wandering in the summer in the woods of Neldoreth [Beren] came upon Lúthien, daughter of Thingol and Melian, at a time of evening under moonrise, as she danced upon the unfading grass in the glades beside Esgalduin. Then all memory of his pain departed from him, and he fell into an enchantment; for Lúthien was the most beautiful of all the Children of Ilúvatar. Blue was her raiment as the unclouded heaven, but her eyes were grey as the starlit evening; her mantle was sewn with golden flowers, but her hair was dark as the shadows of twilight. As the light upon the leaves of trees, as the voice of clear waters, as the stars above the mists of the world, such was her glory and her loveliness; and in her face was a shining light.But she vanished from his sigh; and he became dumb, as one that is bound under a spell, and he strayed long in the woods, wild and wary as a beast, seeking for her. In his heart he called her Tinúviel, that signifies Nightingale, daughter of twilight, in the Grey-elven tongue, for he knew no other name for her. And he saw her afar as leaves in the winds of autumn, and in winter as a star upon a hill, but a chain was upon his limbs.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more
“Though Isengard be strong and hard, as cold as stone and bare as bone,We go, we go, we go to war, to hew the stone and break the door!”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more
“A large grey stone lay in the centre of the grass and he stared moodily at it or watched the great snails. They seemed to love the little shut-in bay with its walls of cool rock, and there were many of them of huge size crawling slowly and stickily along its sides.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more
“till suddenly his hand met what felt like a tiny ring of cold metal lying on the floor of the tunnel. It was a turning-point in his career, but he did not know it. He put the ring in his pocket almost without thinking; certainly, it did not seem of any use at the moment.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more
“I am a Christian…so that I do not expect ‘history’ to be anything but a ‘long defeat’ — though it contains (and in a legend may contain more clearly and movingly) some samples or glimpses of final victory.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more
“Much evil must befall a country before it wholly forgets the Elves, if once they dwelt there.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more
“Despair, or folly?' said Gandalf. 'It is not despair, for despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt. We do not. It is wisdom to recognize necessity, when all other courses have been weighed, though as folly it may appear to those who cling to false hope. Well, let folly be our cloak, a veil before the eyes of the Enemy! For he is very wise, and weighs all things to a nicety in the scales of his malice. But the only measure that he knows is desire, desire for power; and so he judges all hearts. Into his heart the thought will not enter that any will refuse it, that having the Ring we may seek to destroy it. If we seek this, we shall put him out of reckoning.' 'At least for a while,' said Elrond. 'The road must be trod, but it will be very hard. And neither strenght nor wisdom will carry us far upon it. This quest may be attempted by the weak with as much hope as the strong. Yet such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more