I'm done! I finished my first semester of community college. Now I will be able to post every day(right). I really am going to try to post something everyday even if it is just a small quote or something.

For my English class our final assignment was a research report on an artist. I chose to do mine on J.R.R Tolkien. The paper had six parts, a biography, historical context, cultural context, argument, comparison and a conclusion. This is the biography. Probably the blandest part of the paper but a good introduction.

The Making of an Artist
John Ronald Reul Tolkien, also known as J.R.R Tolkien, began writing stories at the age of seven. From his earliest years he was attracted to fantasy. His first story was about a big, green dragon. He was also fascinated with languages and words. In grammar school one of his teachers introduced him to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, which greatly influenced his style of writing. In high school his favorite subjects were grammar, Greek, Latin and philology, the study of languages. He began to study Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse during this time. In college he took an interest in Finnish and began to attend a Finnish Grammar school were he studied the language and mythology of Finland. (Collins, David. J.R.R Tolkien. First. Minneapolis: Lerner Publications Company, 2005. Print.)During World War I Tolkien lost many of his good friends. The loss of his school colleagues deeply touched him. He realized how frail human life is and resolved to give something to England before he died, a great work, similar to the old Finnish tales he had studied. He wanted to write an epic that embodied the spirit and culture of the English people. “Tolkien had read thousands of legends from many countries. He knew how they were set up. But he didn’t want to copy any other story. For England he hoped to write with clear and simple beauty.” (Collins, David. J.R.R Tolkien. First. Minneapolis: Lerner Publications Company, 2005. Print. ) Tolkien began his great epic in 1917. It took almost his whole life to complete and is known to the world as The Silmarillion. It was his tribute to his fallen comrades and his gift to his country. It was published in 1977 four years after his death.
Although Tolkien considered The Silmarillion his greatest work the world knows him as the creator of The Lord of the Rings. The Lord of Rings began in 1929 with the creation of the first hobbit, Bilbo Baggins. Bilbo was originally invented to entertain Tolkien’s children at bedtime. Upon sharing the stories with his friends they insisted he publish them. Tolkien was reluctant but eventually agreed. Bilbo’s adventures, titled The Hobbit, were published in 1937. The public loved them. They wanted a sequel so J.R began work on part one of The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring. It wasn’t published until 1954 due to the great length of the story. In between the time of the Hobbit’s publication and Lord of the Rings Tolkien wrote a number of short stories including The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Farmer Giles of Ham. These stories never had the success of the others. The public loved him for his hobbits.