John Ronald Reuel (J. R. R.) Tolkien (1892–1973) was an English author, born in Bloemfontein, South Africa. He taught for 35 years at Oxford University in England. As a teacher and scholar, Tolkien's field was the languages and literature of the Middle Ages. Tolkien borrowed heavily from folk tales and legends from the Middle Ages to write his famous fantasy stories. Those stories are full of elves, fairies, dragons, and goblins like Gollum. Tolkien wrote a series of books about hobbits, imaginary creatures who live in a place called Middle-earth. If you enjoyed this selection from The Hobbit, the first in the series, you might want to read the rest of the book and try Tolkien's three other novels about Middle-earth, The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King.