Questions about the works of the English author J.R.R. (John Ronald Reuel) Tolkien or his life as a writer. Tolkien is best known for 'The Lord of the Rings', 'The Hobbit', 'The Silmarillion' and the other works making up the Middle-Earth legendarium.
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892-1973), better known as J.R.R. Tolkien, was an English author, and professor of Anglo-Saxon and of English language and literature at the University of Oxford.
In literature, his influence on the fantasy genre has been profound. The influence of The Lord of the Rings and other works of his legendarium can be seen in nearly every fantasy novel written since. Tolkien's tales of Middle-Earth were initiated by his attempts to create a system of "English mythology", although they eventually became something quite different, albeit inspired by various systems of real-world mythology, particularly Germanic and Norse.