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The Works of J.R.R. Tolkien

"Out of the Black Years come the words that the Smiths of
Eregion heard, and knew that they had been betrayed:

The One Ring of Power

-- Gandalf the Gray to the Council of Elrond

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (nearly always called "J.R.R. Tolkien" or simply "Tolkien") is generally acknowledged to be the father and grandmaster of the entire sub-genre called epic fantasy. But he never set out to be any kind of writer. He started as a language professor who specialized in Old English, the language of such great epics as Beowulf. First he created languages of his own patterned after the ones he studied. Then he created peoples to speak those languages. And finally he began creating stories for those peoples to move through.