English Department

at the University of Michigan-Flint

TolkienJohn Ronald Reuel Tolkien, best known for writing The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, “On Fairie Stories,” and other seminal works of fiction, was an Oxford professor and linguist who contributed to the Oxford English Dictionary, the translation of the Jerusalem Bible, and other historical literature.

After Tolkien’s death his son Christopher became his litarary biography, publishing his father’s drafts, notes, and unfinished work, much to the delight of Tolkien scholars. The most recent is the poetic The Fall of Arthur (pub. May 2013). Begun around 1934, Tolkien put the work aside in favor of publishing The Hobbit in 1937. Although Arthur remained unfinished, “in these notes can be discerned clear if mysterious associations of the Arthurian conclusion with The Silmarillion, and the bitter ending of the love of Lancelot and Guinevere, which was never written” (Amazon review).  (post by Cathy Akers-Jordan)

Tolkien’s First World War revolver can be seen here.