It was on this day, the 3rd of January, in 1892 that John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born into a middle class English family of German descent in Bloemfontein in what was then the Orange Free State and today South Africa. His father represented an English bank. At the age of three he, his younger brother and mother returned to England. His father had planned to join them shortly, but unexpectedly, died. While the poor relations,... Read more