Why Queen Elizabeth II Named J.R.R. Tolkien Commander Of The Order Of The British Empire
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On the afternoon of September 8, 2022, at the age of 96, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II passed away peacefully. She was beloved by many and very supportive of the British people, especially in the arts. One of those people that she supported was British author J.R.R. Tolkien. TheOneRing.net posted on their Facebook page the story of how she honored Tolkien for his writing.
J.R.R. Tolkien is famous for writing The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and for creating an epic fantasy world that still, to this day, rivals any other fantasy world created. He had said that he set out to not only create an epic story but also to create a “mythology” of sorts for the British people since they really didn’t have much in the realm of mythology. Tolkien first started out with the idea of Hobbits, and the rest, over the years, slowly came into being, even past his death. The most recent addition to the ever-expanding Tolkien library is Amazon’s The Rings of Power which is currently being released episodically every week on Prime.
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Queen Elizabeth grew up with Tolkien’s work. She was ten when The Hobbit was published in 1937, and The Lord of the Rings was published two years into her reign in 1954. Even when it was published, Tolkien’s work was impactful, and Queen Elizabeth decided to bestow an honor on Tolkien that he was “deeply moved” by. 50 years ago, in the New Year Honors on January 1, 1972, Queen Elizabeth appointed J.R.R Tolkien Commander of the Order of the British Empire “for services to English Literature.” Tolkien received the insignia at Buckingham Palace on March 28, 1972.
Tolkien wrote his publisher Raynor Unwin, talking about what this day meant to him. “But I was very deeply moved by my brief meeting with the Queen, & our few words together. Quite unlike anything that I had expected” (Letter 334).
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The OneRing.net added in their post: “After everything he had lived through, and all the fairy stories he had written, meeting the Queen was a special moment for him.”
Queen Elizabeth touched the lives of many and helped and supported many of her subjects, and Tolkien’s stories have delighted and helped many around the globe. So it truly feels right that The Queen would bestow such an honor on one of the most influential authors of our time.
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Source(s): Theonering.net
