John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was bornon January 3, 1892 in Bloemfontein, South Africa to British parents Arthur and Mabel Tolkien. His father was a branch bank manager. Tolkien was a pure Englishman, despite his place of birth. While in Africa, Tolkien had some kind of an encounter with a large hairy spider. This must have had some influence on his second book of the Lord of the Rings (The Two Towers). In 1895 he moved to Birmingham, England with his mother and his younger brother Hilary. Ronald's father died of a severe hemorrhage while the rest of the family was in Birmingham. Arthur never made the trip from Bloemfontein to Birmingham to see his family because he had been sick with rheumatic fever for many months.

Mabel then moved the family to the hamlet of Sarehole in 1896. JRRT then took the entrance exam for King Edwards school. He failed to obtain a place at the school this first time. The second time he took the exam he was accepted. Mabel then moved the family from Sarehole to Moseley. Here, they were closer to King Edwards and Birmingham. The Tolkien's moved many more times until 1904 when John Ronald's mother, Mabel, died. She died of a diabetic coma. J. R. R. then moved with his siblings to their Aunt Beatrice Suffield's house in Birmingham. A priest named Father Francis Xavier Morgan from the Birmingham Oratory became their guardian. Tolkien then moved behind the Birmingham Oratory. At Oxford, he then began his first term.