J. R. R. Tolkien

J. R. R. Tolkien was an English writer and philologist best known for creating Middle-earth in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

Middle-earth: The fictional world in which most of Tolkien’s legendarium is set. Its histories and peoples provide the setting for Tolkien’s major works.
The Hobbit: Tolkien’s 1937 fantasy novel about Bilbo Baggins’s journey with a company of dwarves. The book introduced readers to Middle-earth before its history expanded into a larger legendarium.
Christopher Tolkien: Tolkien’s son and literary executor, who edited and published much of his father’s unfinished writing. His editorial work made extensive parts of Tolkien’s posthumous mythology available.
High fantasy: A fantasy genre set in an invented world with its own histories, peoples, and rules. Tolkien’s Middle-earth became a defining model for the genre’s secondary worlds.
On Fairy-Stories: Tolkien’s essay on fairy-stories, fantasy, recovery, escape, and consolation. The essay sets out his theory of the imaginative work his fiction sought to perform.
Quenya: An Elvish language Tolkien developed, drawing on Finnish and other linguistic influences. Its history and sound patterns show how Tolkien’s philology fed his worldbuilding.
The Children of Húrin: Tolkien’s tragic tale of Túrin Turambar, published as a complete narrative after his death. Its publication shows how Tolkien’s editor assembled a finished story from extensive drafts.
C. S. Lewis: An Irish-born writer and scholar known for The Chronicles of Narnia and Christian apologetics. His friendship with Tolkien included regular discussion of fiction and myth in the Inklings.
Modern fantasy: A literary genre involving magic or supernatural elements in works written primarily since the nineteenth century. Tolkien’s popularity helped make fantasy a major form of modern fiction.
The Mythopoeia: Tolkien’s poem defending humanity’s capacity to create myths as a reflection of divine creation. The poem gives a compact statement of Tolkien’s view of mythmaking.

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