Tolkien was trying to be a good dad when he created Middle-Earth

J.R.R. Tolkien married Edith Bratt on March 22, 1916 and they would bring into the world four children: three boys and one girl.  As many can attest, one of the greatest legacies he left was his devotion and love of his children.

In fact, nearly his entire world of Middle-Earth came from this love of his children.

In the early years when his children were still young, Tolkien would be found telling his children exciting stories when they had trouble falling asleep. 

Tolkien was a great storyteller and took this opportunity to tell his sons grand adventures about elves, dragons, and even hobbits.  His boys loved the stories so much that Tolkien wrote them down and even made elaborate illustrations.

These stories became more complicated over time and eventually Tolkien was inspired to send a few of his manuscripts to a local publisher.  The rest is history.

After the commercial success of The Hobbit, a request for a sequel was inevitable.  As Tolkien composed the next volume, he would continually collaborate with his children, who were now young adults.  In a real sense they knew the story as well as he did.

It was fitting that as the story progressed, his son, Christopher, became a collaborator and after his father’s death, the primary editor and preserver.

According to the introduction to the 50th anniversary printing of The Hobbit, Christopher wrote about his collaboration, even in the early years.

“He also remembered that I (then between four and five years old) was greatly concerned with petty consistency as the story unfolded, and that on one occasion I interrupted: ‘Last time, you said Bilbo’s front door was blue, and you said Thorin had a gold tassel on his hood, but you’ve just said that Bilbo’s front door was green, and the tassel on Thorin’s hood was silver’; at which point my father muttered ‘Damn the boy,’ and then ‘strode across the room’ to his desk to make a note.”

For Christopher Middle-Earth had much personal meaning and is why he guarded it with all his energy.

In many ways ‘Lord of the Rings’ was a “family story,” something that was born out of Tolkien’s fatherhood (though not restricted to it, as he didn’t write it “only” for his children, though they were in his mind).

Family First

A constant struggle for Tolkien was the balance of work and family.  After being retired for many years Tolkien came to regret the times when he failed to love his children properly.  Yet, he strove to make time for his children and would do all he could to ensure that they knew he loved them.

One feature of Tolkien’s affection for his children proved to be embarrassing when they were older: he would always kiss them, even his boys when they were adults.  He never shied away from showing his affection for his children.

While working as a professor, the morning would pass by after meeting with various pupils and lecturing at Oxford, then he would return home to have lunch with his family.  Tolkien would be keenly interested in the activities of his children and made use of the time to have genuine conversations with them.

After lunch, Tolkien’s time was caught up in various meetings with dinner being short and the day ending in his study working on his latest adventure in Middle-Earth.  In fact, the majority of his stories were written well into the early hours of the morning when the rest of the family members were fast asleep.  Thus, he tried not to invade family time with his writing.  However, much of the inspiration behind his stories began with his children.

Tolkien’s greatest legacy was not his multi-million dollar estate, but the devotion and care of his children.  All he accomplished in life was for them and it was through his call to fatherhood that he became the greatest fantasy writer the world has ever known.