In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.

[pokerfan]

Happy 121st birthday to J. R. R. Tolkien! I hope he sees this. (Do they get the Internet in Valinor?)

Today is the birthday of J.R.R. Tolkien, born in Bloemfontein, South Africa (1892). He studied classics, language, and literature at Oxford. In 1925, Tolkien returned to Oxford University as a professor. One day, while grading exams, he discovered that a student had left one whole page in his examination booklet blank. Tolkien, for reasons unknown even to him, wrote on the page, "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit." This single line turned into a bedtime story that he told his children, and from there, a book: The Hobbit.
http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php?date=2013/01/03

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Happy Birthday to J.R.R. Tolkien!

His one line has led to the delight of countless millions of readers, including myself.

How dreary our world would have been had there never been such a line!

[pokerfan]

2. Indeed...

I have trouble thinking of any other author who has brought me as much joy over the years.

"There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach."

[handmade34]

3. a happy birthday indeed!

I named one of my children after one of his characters

[pokerfan]

4. Let us guess!

Tom, Bert, William?

Another favorite quote of mine, one that the neocon chickenhawks need tattooed on their foreheads:

“War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend.” -Faramir

[handmade34]

5. well, it isn't Bilbo

"I must feel the wind on my face soon or die..."

[pokerfan]

6. Ah...

Got it.