Tolkien family Tolkien family The Tolkien family is an English family whose best-known member is J. R. R. Tolkien, Oxford academic and author of the fantasy books "The Hobbit", "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Silmarillion". According to J. R. R. Tolkien, the family emigrated from Lower Saxony in Germany to England in the 18th century. The Tolkien name, with different spellings, is also still found in Germany. The name was possibly derived from the village of Tolkynen near Rastenburg, East Prussia (now in Poland and known as Tołkiny). John Ronald Reuel Tolkien CBE (3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973)
J. R. R. Tolkien by the UK's "Big Read" survey, about 250,000 Germans found "The Lord of the Rings" to be their favourite work of literature. Tolkien wrote a brief "Sketch of the Mythology", which included the tales of Beren and Lúthien and of Túrin; and that sketch eventually evolved into the "Quenta Silmarillion", an epic history that Tolkien started three times but never published. Tolkien desperately hoped to publish it along with "The Lord of the Rings", but publishers (both Allen & Unwin and Collins) declined. Moreover, printing costs were very high in 1950s Britain, requiring "The Lord of the Rings" to be