J.R.R. Tolkien

I wanted to take this week to talk about the author of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit: John Ronald Reuel Tolkien. He was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa on January 3, 1892. When his father died in 1896, he, his mother, and his younger brother Hilary returned to their English origins. War eventually broke out in the August of 1931 (WW1), and Tolkien returned to Oxford and recived a first-class degree on 1915. He married Edith Bratt on March 22, 1916, before being sent to active duty on the Western Front. After he succumbed to "trench fever" he was sent back to England and recovered. War took it's toll on Tolkien. All but one of his closest friends had been killed. In 1917, Tolkien's first son had been born. He also began to put his stories down on paper, and these sotries would later become The Lost Tales. The elvish languages present in his books were largely influenced by Finnish. In 1925, Tolkien became a professor at Oxford. He became one of the founding members of a loose group known as "The Inklings". C.S. Lewis was one of Tolkiens closest friends in this group.

Now to the books. There's alot I could say about these, but right now I will just have to settle for the basics. The Hobbit was published on 1937 and immediatley became a success. For 16 years Tolkien worked on what would become The Lord of the Rings, published between 1954 and 1955.

If you want more information, you can go to this website, where they have a much longer and detailed version of what I have here just told in the simplest form.

The False Prince

The False Prince, by Jennifer A. Nielsen, is the first book in the Ascendence Trilogy. It's about an orphaned boy named Sage who gets involved in a twisted plan to impersonate roylaty. The story begins briefly at the orphanage before going to nobleman Conner's estate. The following description is of the outside of Connner's house: "An engraved wooden sign at the entrance identified this as Conner's home. It rose two stories above the ground with a partial third floor arching over the center of the house. The roof was nearly flat and bordered by a low parapet. I wondered if any stairways led up to the rooftop for what was certain to be an impressive view of Conner's extensive ground's."

Later, when they are eating dinner, Sage describes the dining room, "This small dining room appeared to be reserved for everyday meals and more intimate affairs. It was clearly designed to impress whoever ate here with an idea of Conner's wealth. I couldn't help but do the math on how much a clever theif might earn from stealing a polished silver fork or a gold-rimmed goblet' or a singe crystal hanging in beads from the sconces on the wall." He also talks about the food, "They started with cheese as soft as butter and fruit in the prime of ripeness."