Topic: The Ultimate Tolkien Mystery!

[Zyphit]

I've searching high and low for this.  

What does J.R.R. stand for?  I've never heard or seen him referred to in any other way.

Even this little biographical insert in his books doesn't decode his initials.

He must have a real name, I'm sure of it.  

[Cheantoa]

James Ronald Ruel.

As with most authors who love the writting, not the money, he keeps a certain air of privacy. oops I just blew that for him... good thing he's dead so he can roll in his grave....

[Jiaurtel]

Brutal you are such an atrocious heretic
You want to know an even bigger mystery?
He is an actual Lord. His family to date hold an estate somewhere in UK and I am pretty sure he was a Colonel or some sort of Officer rank in UK army since he spent some time in Africa doing military service!

[Niran of Asha An]

here's a trivia fact: tolkien was cast as Dr. Ransom by his friend CS Lewis in his famous space operas (not narnia, you ninnies!)

[Aulan Cnesha]

Also, C.S. Lewis and Tolkien once had a competition.  Tolkien had to write a scifi novel and C.S. Lewis had to write fantasy.  Both were terrible and were never published.  I always thought it was Jonathan Ronald Ruel.  O well, its been awhile since I read a History of Middle-Earth book.

[Lord Calamir]

Actually, it's John Ronald Reuel.

[Cheantoa]

I knew it was one of them J- names... thanx for the correction....

[the_Bard_72]

Yes, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (the R.R. portion being a family name passed right on down the line, even though J.R.R. didn't seem to care for it).

As for the CS Lewis/JRR Tolkien books, CS Lewis books were indeed published - the Peralandra chronicles, and they are actually fairly good, given the time of their writing.  The last one is a bit lengthy and philosophical, but worth a read.  Basically about a philoligist (the aforementiond Ransom, based on Tolkien as a bit of an inside joke by Lewis) who ends up traveling to Mars with some criminals.
Tolkien was supposed to right a Time Travel story which was shared, in part, with the Inklings, but never published...Tolkien was always loathe to publish anything anyway, and he didn't care much for the story.

As for Tolkiens military history, he served in Europe in WWI.  It was while he was in the hospital that he started work on the Silmarillion.  It was one of his sons, Christopher, who served in South Africa with the RAF in WWII.

Any further questions can be directed to my office  
Just kidding, but he is my favorite author and I have only written essays about him in High School/College a few dozen times.  If you've never read "The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien", you can get a decent insight of his opinions of himself and the reception of his fictional works.

[Cheantoa]

Do you right essays for minimum wage?

[the_Bard_72]

Well, in college, I was writing essays and paying the university to do it  
However, if its a proposition to write essays for you down the road, I'd have to decline.  Having a degree in education, I have two views on this: 1) You don't learn unless you do it yourself, and 2) By golly, I had to suffer, so should you!