J.R.R. Tolkien had a three official professions in his life; military member, teacher, and writer. Tolkien faught on the western front of France during World War I. He saw action at the Battle of Somme and was injured. When World War II rolled around he was aproached to become a codebreaker and even went as far as taking classes in London. Ultimately he was told that he would not be needed.

Tolkien's first job after the war was to work on the Oxford English Dictionary where his specialty was working on words of Germanic origin. In 1924 he became a profesor at the University of Leeds. Here he and a collegue worked on a new edition of Sir Gaiwan and the Green Knight, a version that is still considered one of the best editions today. He then moved back to Oxford where he became the Profesor of Anglo-Saxon. It was here that he wrote the Hobbit and the first two portions of the Lord of the Rings. The rest of his career is defined by his relationship with C.S. Lewis and the furthering of Middle Earth mythology.

Tolkien has 5 blue plaques commemorating places associated with him and his writing. Four of them are in Birmingham and one is in Oxford.

Works Cited

- Rogers, Debra Webster. "J.R.R. Tolkien" In Twayne's English Authors Series Online, New York: G.K. Hall & Co. Online, 1999.

- "About J.R.R. Tolkien", http://www.lord-of-the-rings.org/author.html, 2009