Tolkien, J(ohn) R(onald) R(euel) (1892–1973)

English writer and scholar. To express his theological and philosophical beliefs, and as a vehicle for his linguistic scholarship, he created a complete mythological world of ‘Middle Earth’, on which he drew for his children's fantasy The Hobbit (1937), and the trilogy The Lord of the Rings (1954–55, filmed 2001–03). His work developed a cult following in the 1960s and had many imitators.

At Oxford University he was professor of Anglo-Saxon 1925–45 and Merton professor of English 1945–59. His son Christopher Tolkien edited and published two posthumous collections, The Silmarillion (1977) and The Children of Húrin (2007).