Hi! My name is Mark Holliday and this is my homepage. I felt it only fair to give you a bit of background about this homepage before you go into the main part. Anyone who is a fan of JRR Tolkien will probably feel right at home here. I recently read his novels entitled "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings". I found that they were both very well written, and I thought that I'd make this homepage to encourage anyone who is the least bit interested in the Fantasy Genre to read some of his works. The image at the top of my homepage is an illustration of one of Tolkien's most popular and best known characters, Bilbo Baggins, from Tolkien's immortal work entitled "The Hobbit" (published in 1937), which actually began as a story written by Tolkien to entertain his children. As you can no doubt tell from the picture, Bilbo Baggins is not a human. To be more specific, Mr. Baggins is a Hobbit, but I'll speak about Hobbits in more detail a bit later. For now, please feel free to browse some of my favourite Tolkien-related sites using the links below. I'll get back to Tolkien and his many different creations a bit later on.
As promised earlier, here is some more about Tolkien and his works. John Ronald Reuel Tolkein was born in Britain in 1892. He was a professer of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University from 1925 to 1945, and was the professor of English Language and Literature at Oxford from 1945-1949. His greatest writings include his "Middle Earth" novels, such as "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings". Quite possibly, though, Tolkien is best remembered for his prowess as a fantasy writer. In his novels, Tolkien blended mythology with folklore to create truly interesting novels. One of Tolkien's most original creations were a race he called the Hobbits (also known as Halflings). The Hobbits were a race that resembled humans, but when full grown, they only stood about three feet tall and grew thick hair on their feet. They were a reclusive and peace-loving folk, and no sight was more pleasing to a Hobbit than well-ploughed farmland. Hobbits tended to enjoy six square meals a day (when they could get them), and their race possessed no magical powers, except the ability to move in complete silence when they so chose. Hobbits liked to live in dry holes they dug in the ground, and feared large bodies of water, because they could not swim. Tolkien was a writer of great genius, and his novels are viewed by many as being the inspiration for the entire modern Fantasy Genre.