Where was J.R.R. Tolkien born on 3 January 1892?

J.R.R. Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein, in what was then the Orange Free State, on 3 January 1892.

His parents, Arthur and Mabel Tolkien, were English and were living in southern Africa because Arthur worked as a bank manager. Tolkien spent his earliest years there before returning to England with his mother and brother, Hilary, after his father died in 1896.

Tolkien later drew on memories of the African landscape, including its heat and vivid natural surroundings, although most of Middle-earth was shaped by English and northern European traditions. A common mix-up is calling his birthplace South Africa: the modern country did not yet exist under that name in 1892. Bloemfontein is now the capital of the Free State province.

Tolkien became one of the twentieth century’s most influential fantasy writers, best known for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.