Today in 1973, J.R.R. Tolkien passed. He was a philologist, a student and professor of language, and indeed created something like his own language, and his own world, the adventures within which are chronicled in his fantasy works The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and Simarillion. He was raised by his mother as his father died when he was young. Born in South Africa but he moved to England as a child and stayed when his father died. His mother taught him botany and languages including Latin, which the child enjoyed. He could read by the age of four, and began writing shortly thereafter. He was raised with the help of his grandparents, who were Baptists, but when his mother became Catholic, the family stopped all financial assistance to her and the children and essentially disowned the young man. His mother died of diabetes when the young writer was only twelve. She left him to be cared for by the church, specifically Fr. Francis Xavier Morgan, in the shadow of church towers and in the presence of medievalist paintings all of which seem to have influenced his work. He married the sweetheart of his youth, another orphan named [...]
