J. R. R. Tolkien was born in 1892 J. R. R. Tolkien was in the era of WW1 when he was molding the land of middle earth. Tolkien went to Oxford and was perfecting his poetic art before he went to the battle front. He hadn't had thought of the famous story of Frodo and the One Ring but he had some scribblings of it written (pg. 10 the Children of Húrin) for an imaginative literature piece. Tolkien had then join the fight in 1915 and had been in only for four months of trench warfare when Tolkien got trench foot. He was medically discharged and sent to a hospital in Birmingham and spent a month recovering. I'm going to sleep this is ridiculous... I have to study for Spanish.