J. R. R. Tolkien married Edith Bratt on March 22, 1916. At about that time World War I broke out. Like other men Tolkien didn't rush to sign up for the war. Instead in June 1915 he went back to Oxford and obtained a first-class degree. After this Tolkien began to develop an interest for writing poetry and inventing new languages. One language he came up with was called Quenya, which was mostly influenced by Finnish. In June of 1916 Tolkien was assigned as second Lieutenant Lancashire Fusiliers and sent to France to fight in WWI. He saw a little action in Somme, but returned home suffering from shell shock. He then began to work on the Silmarillion. John Ronald joined the staff of New English Dictionary in 1918. He also worked as a freelance tutor at Oxford in 1919. Tolkien then became Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University and taught at the University of Leeds. He retired in 1959 after being named Merton Professor of English at Oxford in 1945.

Tolkien had three sons, John, Michael, and Christopher, and one daughter, Priscilla. He began telling his children stories about a hobbit named Bilbo and many other interesting characters. Tolkien completed his book, the Hobbit, in 1936. It was published in 1937 and he soon began working on a sequel.

The Inklings