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1 Introduction
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1.1 Beginning sentences
This is my paper about Tolkien, I tried to make it about the author himself and not only about his books.
1.2 Structure
Here I present you the structure of my paper
(1) Introduction: Here you're informed about the next minutes.
(2) Biography: Here I tell you the basic things about his life.
(3) Works: I present here what he wrote.
(4) Material: Here I just show you some other things which you should know.
(5) Questions: This is some time for questions
2 His life
2.1 Beginning sentences
Here is his life structured in 4 parts.
2.2 Biography
2.2a Birth & Childhood
He was born in Bloemfontein / Southafrica, in 1892 and he was called John Ronald Reuel Tolkien. Short time after his birth he moved with his younger brother and his mum, Mabel Tolkien, back to England. His father stayed in Southafrica, because of his job, and he died when Tolkien was 4 years old. When he was 12 his mother died, because of diabetes. He became an orphan and went with his younger brother to an aunt. These happenings made him very mature and responsible, but all in all he had a lucky childhood.
2.2b Youth, Edith & First World War
When he was 16 he got to know Edith Bratt, the woman who would get his wife some years later. But a priest, who was a kind of dad for him and the one who brought the brothers up, forbid him to meet her. When John was 21 he started to study english language and literature and married Edith Bratt. After this he made an military training and went to war. While he fighted in France he got ill and went back home. The brutal things he saw in war are reflected in the LotR. with the Orks and the many wars, says his biograph Humphrey Carpenter.
2.2c Children & Career
When Tolkien was 25 his first son, John, was born and with 28, in year 1919, his second son, Michael, was born. Tolkien got professor with 32 years and his third son, Christopher, who is responsible for everything around the LotR today, was born. A short time after that his daughter, Priscilla, was born. He started writing "The Hobbit" just for his children, but some relatives persuaded him to publish it. He published "The Hobbit" by Allen and Unwin and it got very famous.
2.2d The Lord of the Rings, Retirement & his end
Just for Fun and because it was his hobby, but also because many people asked for something like "The Hobbit", he started writing "The Lord of the Rings" (LotR), from which he had parts in his head since the first WorldWar. The process to write this book was very long, because Tolkien was a perfectionist and wrote some parts new. Also he had problems with Allen&Unwin,the publishing company. Tolkien was retired and some years later, a worldwide LotR-Hype starts.
When Tolkien was 80 years old his wife, Edith Tolkien, was 82 and died. Two years later John Ronald Reuel Tolkien dies ans is burried in Oxford.
The time since his first son was born was very busy for Tolkien because he had to move houses caused by a growing family and another job. Despite he was a good father and had still time for his hobbies. For example: He founded a group of men called "The Inklings", including C.S. Lewis, the auther of Narnia, and Humphrey Carpenter. Both of them were good friends of Tolkien. In this group they showed their selfwrote books and talked about literature.
2.3 Anecdotes
Tolkien was Catholic and very religious, this is very rare in Great Britian. But nevertheless, he was a typical british man full of national proud. He smoked pipe and loved to go´in Pubs. He stayed nearly his whole life in Britian and everything from the Continet was very suspect to him, what does not means that he was a rassist!
3 His Works
3.1 Beginning sentences
This is the third part of my paper, wich deals with Tolkiens work. I present two examples, a world famous book and a nearly unknown book. These books should make clear how Tolkien let flew his interests, in new and other languages, his knowlegde and his privat affairs in his books.
3.2 The Lord of the Rings
Now I speak about the most famous book of Tolkien "The Lord of the Rings", which was published in 1954 and 1955 and wich is more popular than the bible. LotR is based on "The Hobbit" and a fantasy novel. It is the fight between good and bad.
First I will resume the story:
It exists a ring which had to be destroyed to save the good. This task should be managed by a group of people, wich splits up in different groups, while the story goes on. Every single group is described and they're able to destroy the ring in the end of the story. For a short time Tolkien tried to write a continue of LotR named "The new shadow" but he didn't finish it.
After publishing, the book got good reviews but the big hype began later, when an unautherised version entered the american market.
With LotR Tolkien created a very complex world with an own history, new languages, new numbers and new alphabets.
Tolkien used his whole knowledge for this book and his experiences are in the book, too.
For example: The shire(Auenland) stands reprasentative for the place of his childhood and the detailed fights are based in Tolkiens memory from the first worldwar.
3.3 The Father Christmas Letters
Secondary I present "The Father Christmas Letters". These stories are written in letters and were published in 1976. In this letters Tolkien wrote the part of Father Christmas and they're adresssed to his children. He began when his first son was three years old and stopped twenty years later. The letters are about the life of Father Christmas and started very simple and got more complex over the years. They were for private use and are very nice illustrated by Tolkien himself. A new language and a new alphabet is in them, too.
4 Material
4.1 Other Books from Tolkien
Here are more books from Tolkien! Evt. Noch nen paar Worte wenn die Zeit reicht.
4.2 Handout
This is my Handout with a booklist, a linklist and a lifeline!
4.3 Secundary Literature
These are other books about and around Tolkien.
Humphrey Carpenter: This is the elemantary biography wich should be read by everyone who is interested in Tolkien, but I don't have it till now.
Micheal Coren: This is a new biography with very good reviews.
Helmut W. Pesch:He analysed and explained the elemantary languages in LotR very good, but it is vey hard to read!
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