The History of Middle-Earth Index

j.r.r. tolkien christopher tolkien

Although J.R.R Tolkien is well-known for The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, the material which laid the groundwork for what must be the most fully realised sub-creation ever to spring from a single imagination was begun many years before the publication of The Hobbit, and indeed Tolkien continued to work upon its completion until his death in 1973.

In on of the single largest works of 'literary archaeology' ever undertaken, J.R.R. Tolkien's son and literary executor, Christopher Tolkien, edited the vast collection of manuscripts together with maps and illustrations and these were posthumously published in twelve volumes as The History of Middle-earth.

Christopher Tolkien also compiled a very detailed and through index for each of these books. This companion edition to the twelve-volume History now brings together all of the indexes in one place, and provides the reader with an invaluable sourcebook to all the peoples, places and other significant entries from The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings which appear in The History of Middle-earth.

Genres fantasyfictionreferenceclassicsepic fantasyliteraturescience fiction fantasybritish literatureadult fictionadult

484 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,2002

Series

The History of Middle-Earth

This edition

Format: 484 pages, Paperback
Published: August 5, 2002 by HarperCollins
ISBN: 9780007137435
ASIN: 0007137435
Language: English

About the author

j.r.r. tolkien

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien: writer, artist, scholar, linguist. Known to millions around the world as the author of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien spent most of his life teaching at the University of Oxford where he was a distinguished academic in the fields of Old and Middle English and Old Norse. His creativity, confined to his spare time, found its outlet in fantasy works, stories for children, poetry, illustration and invented languages and alphabets.

Tolkien's most popular works, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are set in Middle-earth, an imagined world with strangely familiar settings inhabited by ancient and extraordinary peoples. Through this secondary world Tolkien writes perceptively of universal human concerns – love and loss, courage and betrayal, humility and pride – giving his books a wide and enduring appeal.

Tolkien was an accomplished amateur artist who painted for pleasure and relaxation. He excelled at landscapes and often drew inspiration from his own stories. He illustrated many scenes from The Silmarillion, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, sometimes drawing or painting as he was writing in order to visualize the imagined scene more clearly.

Tolkien was a professor at the Universities of Leeds and Oxford for almost forty years, teaching Old and Middle English, as well as Old Norse and Gothic. His illuminating lectures on works such as the Old English epic poem, Beowulf, illustrate his deep knowledge of ancient languages and at the same time provide new insights into peoples and legends from a remote past.

Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa, in 1892 to English parents. He came to England aged three and was brought up in and around Birmingham. He graduated from the University of Oxford in 1915 and saw active service in France during the First World War before being invalided home. After the war he pursued an academic career teaching Old and Middle English. Alongside his professional work, he invented his own languages and began to create what he called a mythology for England; it was this ‘legendarium' that he would work on throughout his life. But his literary work did not start and end with Middle-earth, he also wrote poetry, children's stories and fairy tales for adults. He died in 1973 and is buried in Oxford where he spent most of his adult life.