Elon Musk just clarified something on Twitter that's been bugging him: he's British/English descent, not Afrikaner. Pretty straightforward, but here's where it gets fun — he drew a parallel to J.R.R. Tolkien, the LOTR author who was also born in South Africa back in 1892.

Tolkien moved to England as a kid, and Musk... well, his South African childhood was apparently intense (wilderness camps at 12, the whole thing). But the fact that both these legendary figures share that random South Africa birth link is kind of wild.

The clarification came after a fan's blog post described Musk's upbringing as "Afrikaner," which prompted him to set the record straight. Turns out context matters — Afrikaners are descendants of 17th-century Dutch/German/French settlers with distinct cultural roots, while English South Africans trace back to 19th-century British immigrants.

Also worth noting: Musk's a hardcore Tolkien fan. Like, he actually cites LOTR on social media regularly, and apparently Tolkien's works even played a role in his relationship with Grimes. So this isn't just a random ancestry flex — it's basically him saying, "Yeah, I'm connected to one of history's greatest authors through this shared South African origin story." Pretty cool way to set the record straight.