Tolkien wrote The Hobbit, and then Lord of Rings when he was professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University.

The blue plaque has been put up on the house in Northmoor Road where he lived from 1930 to 1947.

His daughter Pruscilla and his granddaughter Joanna attended Tuesday's unveiling ceremony.

Tolkien has a long association with the city, achieving a first in English Language and Literature while at the university before returning as a professor.

He moved to Bournemouth after completing his professorship, but then returned to Oxford following his wife's death.

He died in Oxford on 2 September 1973, aged 81.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy has now been turned into three films, the second of which, The Two Towers, opens this month.