Sandfield Road is a road in the suburb of Headington, Oxford, England. [2] It is close to the John Radcliffe Hospital. It was home to author and academic J. R. R. Tolkien in the 1950s and 1960s.
Hugo Dyson, a member of the Oxford literary group called the Inklings, lived at 32 Sandfield Road until his death in 1975. [3]
Sandfield Road's most famous resident was the author and academic J. R. R. Tolkien, another member of the Inklings, who lived at No 76 with his wife Edith from 1953 to 1968, towards the end of his time in Oxford. [3] [4] [5] There is an inscription above the garage. [6] When living here, Tolkien attended the Catholic Church of St Anthony of Padua in nearby Headley Way. [7] Tolkien previously lived in Northmoor Road, North Oxford, and Holywell Street, in central Oxford. The following volumes of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings novel were first published while he lived in this house:
Tolkien attended the Church of St Anthony of Padua nearby (opened in 1960) when he was a resident in Sandfield Road. In due course, Tolkien's private address at Sandfield Road received some publicity and his telephone number was in the Oxford telephone directory. [4] In 1968, partly due to harassment by fans at his home in Sandfield Road, Tolkien moved to Bournemouth on the south coast of England. [8]
W. H. Auden, an admirer of Tolkien, described his Sandfield Road house by reportedly stating "He lives in a hideous house, I can't tell you how awful it is — with hideous pictures on the walls." [4] [9]
Sandfield Day Nursery is in Sandfield Road. [10]
Clive Staples Lewis was a British writer and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Oxford University and Cambridge University. He is best known as the author of The Chronicles of Narnia, but he is also noted for his other works of fiction, such as The Screwtape Letters and The Space Trilogy, and for his non-fiction Christian apologetics, including Mere Christianity, Miracles, and The Problem of Pain.
Charles Walter Stansby Williams was a British poet, novelist, playwright, theologian, literary critic, and member of the Inklings, an informal literary discussion group associated with C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien at the University of Oxford.
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was an English writer, poet, philologist, and academic, best known as the author of the high fantasy works The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
The Inklings were an informal literary discussion group associated with J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis at the University of Oxford for nearly two decades between the early 1930s and late 1949. The Inklings were literary enthusiasts who praised the value of narrative in fiction and encouraged the writing of fantasy. The best-known, apart from Tolkien and Lewis, were Charles Williams, and Owen Barfield.
Humphrey William Bouverie Carpenter was an English biographer, writer, and radio broadcaster. He is known especially for his biographies of J. R. R. Tolkien and other members of the literary society the Inklings.
The Eagle and Child, nicknamed The Bird and Baby, is a pub in St Giles' Street, Oxford, England, owned by St. John's College, Oxford and operated by Mitchells & Butlers as a Nicholson's pub. The pub had been part of an endowment belonging to University College since the 17th century. It has associations with the Inklings writers' group which included J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. In 2005, 25 other pubs had the same name.
Thomas Alan Shippey is a British medievalist, a retired scholar of Middle and Old English literature as well as of modern fantasy and science fiction. He is considered one of the world's leading academic experts on the works of J. R. R. Tolkien about whom he has written several books and many scholarly papers. His book The Road to Middle-Earth has been called "the single best thing written on Tolkien".
Bilbo's Last Song is a poem by J. R. R. Tolkien, written as a pendant to his fantasy The Lord of the Rings. It was first published in a Dutch translation in 1973, subsequently appearing in English on posters in 1974 and as a picture-book in 1990. It was illustrated by Pauline Baynes, and set to music by Donald Swann and Stephen Oliver. The poem's copyright was owned by Tolkien's secretary, to whom he gave it in gratitude for her work for him.
The Notion Club Papers is an abandoned novel by J. R. R. Tolkien, written during 1945 and published posthumously in Sauron Defeated, the 9th volume of The History of Middle-earth. It is a time travel story, written while The Lord of the Rings was being developed. The Notion Club is a fictionalization of Tolkien's own such club, the Inklings.
The works of J. R. R. Tolkien have generated a body of research covering many aspects of his fantasy writings, principally The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, along with the large legendarium that remained unpublished on his death in 1973, and the constructed languages that he invented in connection with these, especially the Elvish languages that gave rise to many of the names he used, Quenya and Sindarin. Scholars from different disciplines have examined the linguistic and literary origins of Middle-earth, and have explored many aspects of his writings from Christianity to feminism and race.
Headington is an eastern suburb of Oxford, England. It is at the top of Headington Hill overlooking the city in the Thames valley below, and bordering Marston to the north-west, Cowley to the south, and Barton and Risinghurst to the east. The life of the large residential area is centred upon London Road, the main road between London and Oxford.
Henry Victor Dyson Dyson, generally known as Hugo Dyson and who signed his writings H. V. D. Dyson, was an English academic and a member of the Inklings literary group. He was a committed Christian, and together with J. R. R. Tolkien he helped C. S. Lewis to convert to Christianity, particularly after a long conversation as they strolled on Addison's Walk at Oxford.
Holywell Street is a street in central Oxford, England. It runs east-west with Broad Street to the west and Longwall Street to the east. About halfway along, Mansfield Road adjoins to the north.
Northmoor Road is a residential street in North Oxford, England.
Colin Duriez is a writer on fantasy, especially that of J. R. R. Tolkien.
J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy books on Middle-earth, especially The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, drew on a wide array of influences including language, Christianity, mythology, archaeology, ancient and modern literature, and personal experience. He was inspired primarily by his profession, philology; his work centred on the study of Old English literature, especially Beowulf, and he acknowledged its importance to his writings.
Jack Straw's Lane is a residential road in Oxford, England. It runs between the north end of Pullens Lane on Headington Hill and Marston Road.
The Church of St Anthony of Padua, Oxford is a yellow brick-built Catholic church in suburb of Headington, east Oxford, Oxfordshire, England. The church building is located in Headley Way.
Charles Jared Lobdell was an American author and one of the first Tolkien scholars. He is best known for some thirty academic books on American history and the Inklings including J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and Charles Williams.
Jason Fisher is a Tolkien scholar and winner of a Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in 2014 for his book Tolkien and the Study of His Sources: Critical Essays. He served as the editor of the Mythopoeic Society's monthly Mythprint from 2010 to 2013. He is the author of many book chapters, academic articles, and encyclopedia entries on J. R. R. Tolkien.