"Some random dude and the gorgeous immortal demigoddess elf princess who for some reason falls in love with him" is the absolute best way to write yourself and your wife into your book.

Nothing but absolute respect for JRR Tolkien.....he did not chase money, he was an inventor, he was a creator of worlds....

Tolkien made a trip to Switzerland in 1911. It was short, but it made a strong impression. He fell in love with mountains, one can see it in the Hobbit and in LOTR.

One interesting tidbit of Tolkien's biography I love accrued shortly before WWII, when a German publisher contacted him, expressing interest in publishing a German edition of the Hobbit, but asking Tolkien to prove his "Aryan" descent. Tolkien's response was simply glorious:
"I regret that I am not clear as to what you intend by arisch. I am not of Aryan extraction: that is Indo-Iranian; as far as I am aware none of my ancestors spoke Hindustani, Persian, Gypsy, or any related dialects. But if I am to understand that you are enquiring whether I am of Jewish origin, I can only reply that I regret that I appear to have no ancestors of that gifted people."
In further part of his letter writhing that: " if impertinent and irrelevant inquiries of this sort are to become the rule in matters of literature, then the time is not far distant when a German name will no longer be a source of pride".
Possibly the classiest burn of Nazi twats ever.

I didn't even know that J.R.R. Tolkien attended the school I'm attending right now!

The Lord of the Rings series of book saw me through some of the darkest times in my life. Sometimes all that kept me going was the line "courage is often found in unlikely places."

I got to know his great grandson Royd Tolkien a bit. He is a great guy, who was in the films on the request of Peter Jackson. Over the last year, he did something great, his brother Mike, who suffered from a ALS, had a bucket list, he couldn't complete himself, he passed away in 2015. So  Royd completed the bucket list for him. To finance that, he was at comic cons. His brother had asked him, to begin the journey dressed as Gandalf, he did it. It was the original costume from Sir Ian McKellen Peter Jackson send to him to support the project. He's trying to help and supports research on MND like ALS using his name. In a way, I think, J.R.R. Tolkien would have supported that.

Sean Bean died during the making of this video.

After reading books consistently during my 66 years of life, The Lord of the Rings remains my all-time favorite.  Thank you for the excellent biography of this wonderful author.

"I never called Edith Luthien – but she was the source of the story that in time became the chief part of the Silmarillion. It was first conceived in a small woodland glade filled with hemlocks at Roos in Yorkshire (where I was for a brief time in command of an outpost of the Humber Garrison in 1917, and she was able to live with me for a while). In those days her hair was raven, her skin clear, her eyes brighter than you have seen them, and she could sing – and dance. But the story has gone crooked, & I am left, and I cannot plead before the inexorable Mandos."

(Mandos is the god of the underworld in Tolkien's mythos, whom Luthien pleads with to bring Beren back from the dead.)

"C.S. Lewis and I were just discussing how you and Jon Snow both know nothing!"

A Great Man
A Great Genius
An amazing Author.

A happy childhood, a religious man, a true lover, a good soldier, a good father, a great author. In other words the perfect man.

Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

Tolkien.  For me, the greatest fantasy writer ever.

The irony of Tolkien's work is that he wrote it as the antithesis of commercial fiction as he saw no real commercial prospects since he was purely writing for himself. But he was able to recognize the law of unintended consequences when Lord of Rings was really gaining popularity in the 60s and how people were taking it to an extreme. Yet his work has become a real cashcow.

I don't have time to explain why, but his work on constructed languages is absolutely incredible.

One author to rule them all. One author to inspire them. One author to bring them all and in his magic bind them.

Tolkien was the single biggest influence on me as far as people go.
I read LOTR when I was in 5th grade at primary school after the school librarian got it in for me to read. (I was a prodigious reader and she thought the book so big it would take me months to read it.) I was forever grateful as it awakened in me a love of myth, ancient history, fantasy, and etymology. Those loves have guided my life ever since. Though circumstance has not given me a chance to do much with any of it, sadly.

Without Tolkien my most exciting years of Dungeons and Dragons may have never existed.