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).