After the death of the mother of JRR Tolkien, a priest born in Puerto de Santa María, in Cádiz, became legal guardian of the writer of The Lord of the Rings. Although he was known in Birmingham as Francis Xavier Morgan, the one who served as a guide, educator and, of course, also inspiration, he was actually the Spaniard Francisco Javier Morgan and Osborne.
If I’m talking to you about a tall and wise man dressed in a long cape, capable of scaring children with his presence and righteousness and then demonstrating that he was as endearing as he was imposing, under the context of The Lord of the rings You probably think of the wizard Gandalf, but I’m actually referring to Father Francis.
With a Welsh father and Spanish mother, and grandson of the founder of the Osborne Wineries, as a child he went to study in England where he was ordained a priest. It was there where he met Mabel Tolkien, who had been widowed shortly before and was suffering financial difficulties that meant she could not pay for the prestigious school her children attended. It was then that Father Francis welcomed them into his congregation so that the religious would be in charge of the education of both children: Hilary and John Ronald Reuel Tolkien.
JRR Tolkien’s legal guardian was Spanish
Shortly after that, Mabel Tolkien contracted severe diabetes that prevented her from leading a normal life and the priest found her two rooms in a country house in Rednal, south of Birmingham, where several assistants could look after her and the children. A beautiful retirement home in the English countryside that would later serve as Tolkien’s inspiration for the creation of Rivendell.
Due to the complexity of her situation, at the end of 1904 Mabel Tolkien died in Rednal assisted by Father Francis, whom she named legal guardian of his two children in his will. Francis Xavier Morgan would take care of his education and well-being, so he took them with him to his congregation to live together.
It was precisely in the priest’s library where Tolkien learned Spanish and, mixing his tutor’s original language with others, he shaped his first invented language: Naffarin (for Nazarene) which would later serve as the structure for the creation of Elvish.
Among those books he would also find other inspirations, such as Gollum’s famous riddle in The Hobbit, which is very similar to the one that appeared in Tales, Prayers, Riddles and Popular Sayings of Fernan Caballeropseudonym of the writer Cecilia Böhl who was the priest’s great aunt.
It was not the only thing that Father Francis contributed to Tolkien’s mythology with his education. It was thanks to his guidance and financial resources that he graduated with honors from Oxford and became a writer. It inspired his passion for travel, and in addition to that eternal parent-child relationship Among the characters, from Bilbo and Gandalf with Frodo, to the latter with Gollum, it would even be easy to relate the way of life of the hobbits with the tranquility and passion for the Cádiz festival that his tutor told him about.
