In 1900, his mother Mabel and her sister May were received into the Roman Catholic Church. Tolkien and Hilary were brought up in the faith of Pio Nono and were devoted Catholics during the rest of their lives. Father Francis Morgan, a parish priest who was half-Welsh half-Spanish regularly visited the family. (Doughan 2) By the time Tolkien was just 5 years old, his mother taught him to read Latin, French, German, and English. His mother, encouraging his love for plants, also introduced him to the science of botany. (Neimark 10-11)

In 1911 Tolkien first “went up” to Oxford at the beginning of the Micahelmas term as a Classical Exhibitioner in Residence at Exeter College. (Grotta 32) “Although somewhat shy and reserved, Tolkien was popular with his contemporaries and quickly made a number of friends at Exeter. He was especially close to a loose coterie of fellow students – Brown, Field, Shakespeare, Cartright, Windle, Norton, Carters, Trimmingham, Cullis, and his old T.C.B.S. friends from King Edward days, Smith and Gilson.” (Grotta 41) In 1914 Tolkien decided to stick to his original plan and spend a fourth year at Oxford. He was twenty-two and while wanting to marry Edith Mary, he decided to wait until he had his degree. Her relatives disapproved of young, Catholic, penniless Tolkien, and he wished to impress them with a fellowship or a teaching post. (Grotta 45)

(Opening poem, The Lord of the Rings)

Some topics in this essay:
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