J.R.R. Tolkien’s
Lord of the Rings in German
„Herr der Ringe“-Bücher und Filme
The author's name is of German origin
The German biography of
the creator of 'Herr der Ringe'.
More Tolkien books
One of the first surprises I discovered when I started my research for this article concerns the famous author's last name. John Ronald Reuel Tolkien's family name in all likelihood goes back to 18th century Saxony and the Germanic name "Tollkühn" ("daring"). Tolkien (pron. TOL-KEEN) sometimes used the pseudonym "Oxymore," reflecting the contradictory literal translation of his name's Germanic components: toll + kühn = foolish + brave, or "stupidly clever."
But Ronald, as he was always known to family and friends, was born into a very English family in Bloemfontein, South Africa on the third day of January 1892. Both his father, Arthur Reuel Tolkien, and mother, Mabel Suffield, were thoroughly English. Ronald's father died when he was only four, and he and his mother returned to England to live.
As the young J.R.R. Tolkien grew up in the English West Midlands, he displayed a talent for languages. After mastering Latin and Greek, he went on to Gothic*, Welsh and Finnish. His works are clearly influenced by his study of Anglo-Saxon (Old English).
| *The Germanic language family split off into several branches. One of those branches was East Germanic, which produced Gothic (Gotisch), a language that died out and had no descendents. The other main Germanic branch was West Germanic, out of which two sub-branches developed: Anglo-Frisian and German. More in Latin in German. |
It was, in fact, his love of languages that led Tolkien to create the fantasy world for which he is now so famous. Once the linguist had created the make-believe languages he called Quenya and Sindarin, he realized that he also needed to create a world with people to speak them. The process of inventing and populating Middle-earth took many years. As a student on a trip to Switzerland in 1911, for instance, Tolkien bought a postcard depicting the "Berggeist" (mountain spirit) by the German artist Madelener. This illustration of an old man with a white beard and an unusual hat was the inspiration for the character known as Gandalf. (Tolkien even made a note on the postcard to that effect.) Other influences came from the Nordic Edda sagas. In the early 1920s, while a professor at the University of Leeds, Tolkien co-founded the "Viking Club" in which he and his colleagues and students would read old Norse sagas, translate verses into Old English and Gothic, and drink beer.
Soon, all of Tolkien's myth-making would come together in the form of The Hobbit.
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ALSO SEE > The Ring Verse in English, German, Latin
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