J.R.R. Tolkien Lord of Story-Telling

By this time, John had mastered the Latin and Greek languages, which was the staple fare of an arts education at that time, and was becoming more than competent in a number of other languages, both modern and ancient, notably Gothic, and later Finnish. In 1911 John then entered Exeter College in Oxford.
             During his years at Exeter John turned 21 and didn't hesitate contacting Edith Bratt. Edith, however, was committed in another relationship at that time. Tolkien persuaded her to break her engagement and become engaged to him. After some time John eventually won, and Edith became engaged to Tolkien. He then obtained a disappointing second class degree in Honour Moderations, the "midway" stage of a 4-year Oxford "Greats" (i.e. Classics) course, although with an "alpha plus" in philology. As a result of this he changed his school from Classics to the more congenial English Language and Literature. .
             In 1915 Tolkien worked very hard to obtain a first class degree at Oxford in English. In this year he also joined the Lancashire Fusiliers, mobilised after the outbreak of WW1 in 1914. During this time of war John focused mainly on poetic attempts and his own language that he came to call Qenya [sic], which was heavily influenced by Finnish. As a second lieutenant in the Lancashire Fusiliers it finally appeared that Tolkien would have to embark for France. Before he left, however, John and Edith married on March 22, 1916. He was sent off to active duty on the Western Front where he came down with "trench fever-. During November he was sent back to England where he spent a month in the hospital. He recovered just in time to spend Christmas with his new wife Edith. After this time Tolkien received information that two of his three closest friends from T.C.B.S. have died in WWI. This helped him put his works into shape. .
             He started to put tragic losses in his works. He focused on his main project Book of Lost Tales.