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 and Lúthien. On 3 November 1920, Tolkien was demobilized and left the army, retaining his rank of lieutenant. His first civilian job after World War I was at the "Oxford English Dictionary", where he worked mainly on the history and etymology of words of Germanic origin beginning with the letter "W". In 1920, he took up a post as reader in English language at the University of Leeds, becoming the youngest professor there. While at Leeds, he produced "A Middle English Vocabulary" and a definitive edition of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" with E. V. Gordon; both became academic