Z Prus do Anglii
From Prussia to England

J. R. R. Tolkien’s Family Saga (14th-19thc.)

Summary/Abstract: Professor Tolkien’s knowledge of his ancestry and the history of his family name was limited to the family legends. The article From Prussia to England. J. R. R. Tolkien’s Family Saga (14th-19thc.) describes Ryszard Derdziński’s tenyears-long research which confirmed that the Tolkien family came to England from Gdańsk in the eighteenth century and that their roots can be tracked down to mediaeval Prussia and the Harz Mountains. The presented findings of Derdziński are based on archival and genealogical research and field research. The author established that Tolkien’s family name comes from Old Prussian (Baltic) etymology and is most probably related to the history of von Markelingerode, a noble family which came to Prussia from the Harz Mountains. Derdziński describes the details of the life of Daniel Gottlieb Tolkien and John Benjamin Tolkien, two brothers from Gdańsk, from whom all English-speaking Tolkiens in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Australia descent. Furthermore, the author of the article presents a detailed family tree, as well as reproductions of important documents that determine the particular phases of the history of the ancestors of J. R. R. Tolkien.

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