John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born op January 3 1982. As author of The Hobbit, The Silmarillion and especially The Lord of The Rings, Tolkien is seen by many as the best and most influential fantasy author. Personally I have put him on a second place as there is one author who’s style I prefer but I too cannot deny that no other author has done more for the genre genre than J.R.R. Tolkien.
Most important works
Everyone with even the slightest interest in fantasy is of course familiar with the pinnacle of Tolkien’s works: The Lord of the Rings. Translated into dozens of languages and read by millions, LOTR has become one of the major literature works of the 20th century. In turn, the movies were the cinematic highlights of the first decade of the new millennium.
Next to The Lord of The Rings, Tolkien also wrote The Hobbit and The Silmarillion. The Hobbit has more of a fairytale feeling to it, describing the adventures of the hobbit Bilbo Baggins who, together with a group of dwarves, tries to steal back a treasure from the dragon Smaug.
The Silmarillion is a collection of stories and descriptions of Middle-Earth before the age in which The Lord of The Rings is set. When Tolkien died he had not finished the collection but his son Christopher Tolkien, with assistance from Guy Gavriel Kay (author of Tigana) completed the book in 1977.
Style of writing
Tolkien’s writing style may not the most accessible ever. He liked to write elaboratively about the settings of his stories and to go in much detail about the world, the races and the characters he created. He even went as far as creating complete mythologies and languages, like Elvish. Personnaly I do not dislike his way of writing but I can definitely imagine people growing quite tired of it.
To conclude: the world and stories Tolkien has created are simply fantastic and by writing The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings he produced the main landmarks of the fantasy genre. He deserves all the recognition and credit he has gotten and I wish he could have seen the full impact of his works.
Tags: Guy Gavriel Kay, J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion