J.R.R. Tolkien: South African or Englishman?

[Joe McCarthy]

From Wiki:

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born on 3 January 1892 in Bloemfontein in the Orange Free State (now Free State Province, part of South Africa) to Arthur Reuel Tolkien (1857–1896), an English bank manager, and his wife Mabel, née Suffield (1870–1904).

[Padre Organtino]

For God's Sake - Englishman! He wrote himself that he did not have much memories of his childhood life there.

[Beorn]

Tolkien was an Englishman.

http://freepages.folklore.rootsweb.a...ar5/pafg01.htm

There was a wiki page detailing his ancestry, but I can't find it at this late hour.

[Joe McCarthy]

For God's Sake - Englishman! He wrote himself that he did not have much memories of his childhood life thee.

It's not quite that cut and dried. From the bio info at the Tolkien Society:

http://www.tolkiensociety.org/tolkien/biography.html

His memories of Africa were slight but vivid, including a scary encounter with a large hairy spider, and influenced his later writing to some extent

[Joe McCarthy]

Tolkien was an Englishman.

http://freepages.folklore.rootsweb.a...ar5/pafg01.htm

There was a wiki page detailing his ancestry, but I can't find it at this late hour.

Likely Anglicised Germans on his paternal side. Again from the Tolkien Society:

The name "Tolkien" (pron.: Tol-keen; equal stress on both syllables) is believed to be of German origin; Toll-kühn: foolishly brave, or stupidly clever - hence the pseudonym "Oxymore" which he occasionally used. His father's side of the family appears to have migrated from Saxony in the 18th century, but over the century and a half before his birth had become thoroughly Anglicised.

[El Comunero Errante]

25 July 1938
To Rutten & Loening Verlag
Dear Sirs,
Thank you for your letter … I regret that I am not clear as to what you intend by arisch. I am not of Aryan extraction: that is Indo-iranian; as far as I am aware noone of my ancestors spoke Hindustani, Persian, Gypsy, or any related dialects. But if I am to understand that you are enquiring whether I am of Jewish origin, I can only reply that I regret that I appear to have no ancestors of that gifted people. My great-great-grandfather came to England in the eighteenth century from Germany: the main part of my descent is therefore purely English, and I am an English subject – which should be sufficient. I have been accustomed, nonetheless, to regard my German name with pride, and continued to do so throughout the period of the late regrettable war, in which I served in the English army. I cannot, however, forbear to comment that if impertinent and irrelevant inquiries of this sort are to become the rule in matters of literature, then the time is not far distant when a German name will no longer be a source of pride.

Your enquiry is doubtless made in order to comply with the laws of your own country, but that this should be held to apply to the subjects of another state would be improper, even if it had (as it has not) any bearing whatsoever on the merits of my work or its sustainability for publication, of which you appear to have satisfied yourselves without reference to my Abstammung.

I trust you will find this reply satisfactory, and remain yours faithfully

J.R.R. Tolkien

He left no space for doubt.

[Beorn]

Likely Anglicised Germans on his paternal side. Again from the Tolkien Society:

.... Yes, an Englishman.

Still can't find the site that went into detail, but this should do.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tolkien_family

Fromthe names it looks like he was of English/Welsh and German descent...or, English.

[Joe McCarthy]

He left no space for doubt.

I don't see how that settles the matter at all.

[Osweo]

If an English couple has a kid abroad (especially in a part of the British Empire) and the kid comes back to grow up in England, the kid is English.

[Joe McCarthy]

If an English couple has a kid abroad (especially in a part of the British Empire) and the kid comes back to grow up in England, the kid is English.

Tolkien was not born in the British Empire.