Gymnasium №2 The roots of some Tolkien's characters. Tolkien's view on some events from the Bible and archaic history.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    Name: Yanov Andrey
    Teacher: Mordasova L.M.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    Voronezh 2004
    CONTENTS I. Introduction 3 II. Body
    1. J.R.R.Tolkien: A biographical sketch a) Tolkien's birth 4 b) Tolkien's childhood in South Africa 4 c) Tolkien's childhood in England 4 d) Tolkien's childhood fears 4 e) Tolkien's education at home 5 f) Tolkien's childhood books 5 g) Tolkien in elementary school 6 h) Tolkien learns some philology 6 i) Tolkien's mother dies 6 j) Tolkien in high school 7 k) Tolkien in Oxford 7 l) Tolkien after World War II 9 m) Tolkien now 10 2. The roots of some Tolkien characters 11 3. Tolkiens view on some events from
    The Bible and archaic history 15 III. Conclusion 19 IV. List of used literature 20 V. Appendix 21 Introduction
    I have many hobbies and one of them is reading. I like to read. Books liberalize us, and it is just very interesting. My favorite kinds of literature are fantasy, science fiction, myths and historical books. But when I saw the film "The Lord Of The Rings" for the first time, I liked it very much. I realized that there was something unusual in it that attracted me. One day someone told me, that this film is a screen version of the book, written by Tolkien. Then I decided to read the book. And when I read its last page, I realized, that the world, that was described there is very close to me. That is how my keening of Tolkien's works started. I've read the whole "The Lord Of The Rings", "The Silmarillion", "The Hobbit Or There And Back Again", some Tolkien's poems, such as "Namarie" (which means "farewell" in the "Quenya Lambe" (The Elvish Language)), "Oh, queen beyond the western sees..." and other works. Besides I've read "The Biography Of J.R.R.Tolkien", written by H. Carpenter and many works of different famous critics devoted to Tolkien. While reading such literature, I understand and realize very interesting ideas of Tolkien, his philosophy, and it is very interesting to know, what things influenced the creation of his characters and his own world that he developed in "The Silmarillion". And in my work I'm trying to show you just some of those things. J.R.R.Tolkien: A biographical sketch Tolkien's birth John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born to Mabel Suffield and Arthur Tolkien in South Africa on January 3, 1892. On February 17,1894, Mabel gave birth to Hilary Arthur Reuel Tolkien, J.R.R's only brother. When Ronald (J.R.R)'s health worsened in 1895, the Tolkiens (except for Arthur, who had to stay in order to wrap up business) left to Southampton. On February 15, 1896, Arthur Tolkien, in South Africa, died due to a severe hemorrhage. Tolkien's childhood in South Africa ". . . many months later, when Ronald was beginning to walk, he stumbled on a tarantula. It bit him, and he ran in terror across the garden until the nurse snatched him up and sucked out the poison . . . Nevertheless, in his stories he writes more than once of monstrous spiders with venomous bites" (Carpenter 14) "During the first year of the boy's life Arthur Tolkien made a small grove of cypresses, firs and cedars. Perhaps this had something to do with the deep love of trees that wood that would develop in Ronald" (Carpenter 14) Tolkien's childhood in England Since his father (the sole source of money) was dead, J.R.R. and his family went to live with the Suffields (his maternal grandparents). In the summer of 1896, the Tolkiens moved out of Birmingham to the hamlet of Sarehole (located in the English countryside). Tolkien's childhood fears "An old farmer who once chased Ronald for picking mushrooms was given the nickname 'The Black Ogre' by the boys . . . they began to pick up something of the local vocabulary, adopting dialect words into their own speech: 'chawl' for a cheek of pork, 'miskin' for dustbin, 'pickelet' for crumpet, and 'gamgee' for cotton wool. (Carpenter 21) Tolkien's education at home "Mabel soon began to educate her sons, and they could have had no better teacher - nor she an apter pupil than Ronald, who could read by the time he was four and had soon learnt to write proficiently." (Carpenter 21). ". . . his favorite lessons were those that concerned languages. Early in his Sarehole days, his mother introduced him to the rudiments of Latin, and this delighted him. He was just as interested in the sounds of the words as their meanings, and she began to realize that he had a special aptitude for language. (Carpenter 22). "His mother taught him a great deal of botany, and he responded to this and soon became very knowledgeable. But again he was more interested in the shape and feel of a plant than in its botanical details. This was especially true of trees. And though he liked drawing trees he liked most of all to be with trees. He would climb them, lean against them, even talk to them." (Carpenter 22) Tolkien's childhood books "He was amused by Alice in Wonderland, though he had no desire to have adventures like Alice. He did not enjoy Treasure Island, nor the stories of Hans Anderson, nor The Pied Piper. But he liked Red Indian stories and longed to shoot with a bow and arrow. ............