Oxford topics of interest and background information to help you learn more about the city
How Oxford's spires (and pints in a local pub) helped inspire Tolkien's Middle Earth
The original tea party on an Oxford riverbank inspires a beloved fantasy realm
This late 19C Romantic offshoot offered a, well, a romanticized reinterpretation of the Medieval style
When John Ronald Reuel Tolkien wasn't creating Middle Earth or imbibing with CS Lewis and the other Inklings, he held down a day job as an Oxford don. He had graduated Oxford's Exeter College in 1915 with first-class honours and, after World War I, had stints working on the letter "W' at the Oxford English Discitonary and serving as a reader at the University of Leeds. Tolkien returned to Oxford as a Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College, where he wrote The Hobbit and the first two books in The Lord of the Rings. He moved to Merton College as Professor of English Language and Literature in 1945, completing the Return of the King in 1948 and retiring in 1959.
