J.R.R. Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa, in 1892.
His full name was John Ronald Reuel Tolkien. He was born on 3 January 1892, while his father, Arthur Tolkien, worked as a bank manager in the Orange Free State. Tolkien spent part of his early childhood in South Africa before moving to England with his mother and brother after his father died.
The family settled in Birmingham, where Tolkien developed a lifelong interest in languages, medieval literature, and mythology. His South African birthplace is sometimes overlooked because he became strongly associated with Oxford and the English Midlands. Tolkien later drew on many linguistic and literary traditions when creating Middle-earth, but his birthplace was Bloemfontein, then part of the Orange Free State.