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John Ronald Reul Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa, in 1882. His father was Arthur Tolkien and his mother was Mabel Suffield. Two years passed and Hilary Tolkien was born, Ronald now had a brother. In that same year the boys and Mabel left for Birmingham because of Ronald's constant teething which upset him very much. Arthur remained in South Africa to look after the work. Arthur was going to meet them once they found a house. Ronald lived in his mother's parent's house in Birmingham right in the centre of the busy city. Ronald wrote a letter to his father in 1886- it was never posted as only a few days later Mabel found out that Arthur had died of a severe hemorrhage.

After Arthur's death they all moved to a semi-detached house in Sarhole The boys especially Ronald picked up the local slang like "Pikelet" for crumpet, "miskin" for dustbin, "chawl" for "cheek of pork" and "gamgee"for cotton wool. Ronald was at an age when the enviroment that he lived in was to affect his love of things. It was in Birmingham that Ronald developed his love of trees. This was largely due to the fact that in Birmington there was very little greenery and a lot of smog from the city, but once he was in Sarhole there were so many farms and trees everywhere. He began to love trees as he could climb them, and gradually he began to think that every living thing depended on trees. Such things were to influence his characters in later books.

Tolkien had a varied education. When he moved to Birmingham his mother started teaching him Latin, French, German as well as English, Maths and Geography. His favourite languages were Latin and German. He loved the Welsh language, and learnt it by reading the names of trains but he hated French because of its sound. He based the Elvish languages Quenya and Sindarin later on in his life when he learnt more about the Welsh language. If you compare the languages they sound very similar. After the first year of Mabel teaching Ronald, Ronald and Hilary went for the first entrance exam for King Edward School in Birmingham where his father had recieved his education also. Sadly they both didn't make the first exam so Mabel taught them for another year. As the next year came by, Ronald and Hilary finally were accepted into King Edward School. Their education only lasted one year as their mother found the cost of education too hard to sustain.

Early in 1902 Mabel and the boys moved to Edgbaston where the boys were enrolled at St Philips School which was across the road from their new home. Unfortunantly Ronald and Hilary were too bright, and the school failed to satisfy their eager minds. Eventually Mabel secured enough money for them to move back to King Edward's School. The boys thrived here, although Ronald didn't pay much attention to the French language, as he was inventing the Elvish language at this time!...Sadly this peace didn't last because Mabel suddenly developed Diabetes The boys were once again taken out of their school, and moved into the country with a friend Father Morgan to help recover Mabel's health.

On the 14th November 1904, Mabel, without warning went into a fatal diabetic coma. Ronald and Hilary were then taken into the care of Father Morgan, according to Mabel's wishes. Tolkien was rather fond of his pipe later in life, and he attributes this to often seeing Father Frances on the porch with a very long pipe. (This is the reason that the hobbits have very long pipes!)

By Beriadan

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