Timeline of J.R.R. Tolkien

Late 1850′s

Arthur Reuel Tolkien is born.

January 1870

Mabel Suffield is born

April 16, 1891

Mabel Suffield and Arthur Reuel Tolkien are married at the Cape Town Cathedral in Bloemfontien, South Africa

January 3, 1892

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien is born in Bloemfontein, South Africa

January 31, 1892

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien is christened in the Bloemfontein Cathedral

February 17, 1894

Hilary Arthur Reuel Tolkien, younger brother to JRRT, is born in Bloemfontein, South Africa

April 1895

Mabel Tolkien boards the SS Guelph and returns to Birmingham, England with her two children, John and Hilary. Arthur Tolkien remains in South Africa with plans to join his family when time permits.

February 15, 1896

Arthur Tolkien dies in Bloemfontien, South Africa, as a result of a severe hemorrhage suffered the previous day. He had been sick for many months with rheumatic fever, and never made the trip to Birmingham to see his family.

1896

Mabel Tolkien moves her family from Birmingham to the hamlet of Sarehole.

1899

January 21

Edith Bratt is born in Gloucester.

Autumn

JRRT, at the age of 7, takes the entrance exam for King Edwards School, but fails to obtain a place.

1900

June — Mabel Tolkien and her sister May Incledon are received into the Church of Rome, bringing about the wrath and opposition of their strongly Baptist relatives.

September – Tolkien re-takes the entrance exam for King Edward’s, and is accepted.

Late 1900 — The J.R.R. Tolkien’s move from Sarehole to Moseley to be closer to Birmingham and King Edwards School.

1901

The J.R.R. Tolkien’s move again, from Moseley to a small villa behind King’s Heath Station.

Early 1902

Mabel Tolkien again moves her family, from King’s Heath to a house in Edgbaston next door to the Birmingham Oratory and the Grammar School of St. Philip. To save money, Mabel removes the boys from King Edwards and enrolls them in St. Philips.

Autumn 1903

JRRT wins a Foundation Scholarship to King Edwards, and returns there to continue his studies.

1904

November 14

Mabel Tolkien, age 34, dies after spending six days in a diabetic coma.

November/December

Ronald & Hilary move in with their Aunt, Beatrice Suffield

Late 1904, Early 1905

After the death of Tolkien’s mother, the guardianship of he and Hilary is taken over by Father Francis Xavier Morgan, a priest of the Birmingham Oratory.

1908

Early 1908

Ronald and Hilary move to 37 Duchess Road, behind the Birmingham Oratory, into a room lent by a Mrs. Faulkner. J.R.R Tolkien begins his first term at Oxford.

December 17, 1910

Tolkien is awarded an Open Classical Exhibition to Exeter College.

1913

Tolkien takes the Honours Moderations exams.

1915

Awarded First Class Honours degree in English Language and Literature Commissioned in the Lancashire Fusiliers.

March 22, 1916

John Ronald Reuel Tolkein marries Edith Bratt.

June 1916

Tolkien is assigned to the Lancashire Fusiliers and sent to France where he sees some action in Somme as second Lieutenant. Returns to England suffering from shell shock.

1917

Birth of J.R.R. Tolkien’s first son John.

1919

Tolkien works as an assistant on the Oxford English Dictionary for two years.

1920

Birth of J.R.R. Tolkien’s second son Michael.

1921

Tolkien begins teaching at the University of Leeds as Reader in the English Language.

1924

Tolkien becomes Professor of English Language at Leeds. Birth of third son Christopher.

1925

Tolkien moves to Oxford, where he serves as Rawlingson Professor of Anglo-Saxon and Fellow of Pembroke College for the next 24 years. Tolkien and E.V. Gordon publish their translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

1926

Tolkien meets C.S. Lewis and the two enter into a lifelong friendship.

1929

Tolkien’s forth child, Priscilla, is born.

c. 1933

JRRT first begins telling his children of a funny little creature named Bilbo. Tolkien gives W.P. Ker lecture at Glasgow University.

1936

Tolkien completes The Hobbit. Tolkien delivers his address “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics” before the British Association.

1937

The Hobbit is published, and Tolkien begins working on the “sequel”.

1938 – 1939

Tolkien writes Leaf by Niggle.

1939

Tolkien delivers his lecture On Fairy-Stories.

1945

Tolkien becomes Merton Professor of English Language and Literature at Oxford; a position he holds until his retirement in 1959.

1947

Leaf by Niggle is published in The Dublin Review, a scholarly Catholic journal.

1948

Leaf by Niggle is published. The Lord of the Rings is completed.

1949

Farmer Giles of Ham is published

1954

The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, the first two portions of The Lord of the Rings, are published.

1955

The Return of the King, the final portion of The Lord of the Rings, is published.

1957

Tolkien was to travel to the United States to accept honorary degrees from Marquette, Harvard, and several other universities, and to deliver a series of addresses. The trip was canceled due to the ill health of his wife Edith. Tolkien never made the trip before his death in 1973.

1959

Tolkien retires his professorship at Oxford.

1960′s

Tolkien was a collaborator in the translation of the Jerusalem Bible from the French (he did Job).

1962

The Adventures of Tom Bombadil is published.

1964

Leaf by Niggle and On Fairy Stories are published together in a single edition called Tree and Leaf.

1965

Publication of American paperback editions of The Lord of the Rings.

1967

Smith of Wooton Major and The Road Goes Ever On are published.

1968

The Tolkien family moves to Poole near Bournemouth.

November 29, 1971

Edith Tolkien dies after a short, but severe, illness attributed to an inflamed gall-bladder.

1972

Tolkien returns to Oxford. Receives CBE from the Queen.

September 2, 1973

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien dies at the age of eighty-one in a private hospital in Bournemouth.

1977

The Silmarillion published posthumously (final editing was completed by his son Christopher).