J. R. R. Tolkien J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, (; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor who is best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works "The Hobbit", "The Lord of the Rings", and "The Silmarillion". He served as the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon and Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford, from 1925 to 1945 and Merton Professor of English Language and Literature and Fellow of Merton College, Oxford, from 1945 to 1959. He was at one time a close friend of C. S. Lewis—they were both
Adaptations of The Lord of the Rings Adaptations of The Lord of the Rings "The Lord of the Rings", an epic high fantasy novel by the British author J. R. R. Tolkien, set in his fictional world of Middle-earth, has been adapted several times. Three film adaptations of "The Lord of the Rings" have been made. The first was "The Lord of the Rings" (1978), by animator Ralph Bakshi, the first part of what was originally intended to be a two-part adaptation of the story. The second, "The Return of the King" (1980), was a television special by Rankin-Bass. The third was director Peter Jackson's "The Lord