J.R.R. Tolkien Boxed Set (The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings) on Amazon™

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J.R.R. Tolkien Boxed Set (The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings)

Regular Price: $31.96 |

Product Details

ISBN-10: 0345340426, ISBN-13: 978-0345340429, Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 4.4 x 4.2 inches
Language: English
Product Details: Boxed Paperback (4) books in a set,
Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies), Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1,260 customer reviews)
Publisher: Del Rey (September 12, 1986)

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Customer Review

Product Description

Contains The Hobbit, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King Top to learn more

Hobbits and wizards and Sauron--oh, my! Mild-mannered Oxford scholar John Ronald Reuel Tolkien had little inkling when he published The Hobbit; Or, There and Back Again in 1937 that, once hobbits were unleashed upon the world, there would be no turning back. Hobbits are, of course, small, furry creatures who love nothing better than a leisurely life quite free from adventure. But in that first novel and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the hobbits Bilbo and Frodo and their elfish friends get swept up into a mighty conflict with the dragon Smaug, the dark lord Sauron (who owes much to proud Satan in Paradise Lost), the monstrous Gollum, the Cracks of Doom, and the awful power of the magical Ring. The four books' characters--good and evil--are recognizably human, and the realism is deepened by the magnificent detail of the vast parallel world Tolkien devised, inspired partly by his influential Anglo-Saxon scholarship and his Christian beliefs. (He disapproved of the relative sparseness of detail in the comparable allegorical fantasy his friend C.S. Lewis dreamed up in The Chronicles of Narnia, though he knew Lewis had spun a page-turning yarn.) It has been estimated that one-tenth of all paperbacks sold can trace their ancestry to J.R.R. Tolkien. But even if we had never gotten Robert Jordan's The Path of Daggers and the whole fantasy genre Tolkien inadvertently created by bringing the hobbits so richly to life, Tolkien's epic about the Ring would have left our world enhanced by enchantment. --Tim Appelo Top to learn more

The Silmarillion

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Customer Review

Tolkien's true life work, ultimately unfinished though it is
In the Tolkien canon, THE SILMARILLION is the most highly contested of all his works. Constructed as a prehistoric history of the Universe, the book has the cultural significance of the Bible in Tolkien's universe. It is Tolkien's primary work, but it's also his most troublesome, in more ways than one. One thing you need to know. In Tolkien scholarship, there are two primary ways to refer to the "Silmarillion". One is the Silmarillion, the legendarium proper, and then the 1977 SILMARILLION, which may or may not be what Tolkien envisioned.THE SILMARILLION, the book Tolkien spent all of his adult life writing, was, sadly, incomplete when Tolkien died at the age of eighty one in 1973. Naturally, this begs the question why did it take him decades to write the book, and it still be unfinished after all that time? Well, to understand that, you need to understand two things: the scope of the project, and how Tolkien worked.The scope of the book was a complete...
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October 4, 2007 (Oxford, UK) | Helpful Votes: 634 | Rating: 5

Tolkien's bible
It's more than slightly staggering to consider: the epic fantasy "Lord of the Rings" to be the tail end of Tolkien's invented history. The "Bible" of Middle-Earth, the "Silmarillion" stretches from the beginning of time to the departure of the Elves from Middle-Earth.A complete summary is impossible, because the book spans millennia and has one earth-shattering event after another. But it includes the creation of Tolkien's invented pantheons of angelic beings under Eru Iluvatar, also known as God; how they sang the world into being; the creation of Elves, Men, and Dwarves (hobbits are, I think, not really covered); the legendary love story of Beren and Luthien, a mortal Man and an Elf maiden who gives up her immortality for the man she loves; the demonic Morgoth and Sauron; Elves of just about any kind -- bad, mad, dangerous, good, sweet, brave, and so forth; the creation of the many Rings of Power -- and the One Ring of Sauron; the Two Trees that made the sun and moon;...
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October 23, 2004 (MD USA) | Helpful Votes: 249 | Rating: 5

A fantasy classic, but not for everyone
"The Silmarillion" is perhaps the most unique and difficult-to-explain book I have read. It is among the books I love the most, but this might not be the case if I had not read it in a bizarre way that I can hardly recommend to anyone else, and yet may be the best way to read it. For ten or twelve years I skimmed through "The Silmarillion," "The Hobbit," "The Lord of the Rings," and many of Tolkien's posthumous books (many of which present the stories of "The Silmarillion" in different forms which Tolkien wrote at various times in his life) without reading the books verbatim. Only in the last twelve months have I read these books all the way through.This was a wise way of approaching Tolkien's most famous works because of the odd nature of "The Silmarillion," which must be understood by anyone desiring to enjoy it. "The Silmarillion" is not a "novel," as are "The Hobbit" and "The Lord...
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November 1, 2002 (Arlington, MA United States) | Helpful Votes: 357 | Rating: 5

Product Description

The tales of The Silmarillion were the underlying inspiration and source of J.R.R. Tolkien's imaginative writing; he worked on the book throughout his life but never brought it to a final form. Long preceding in its origins The Lord of the Rings, it is the story of the First Age of Tolkien's world, the ancient drama to which characters in The Lord of the RIngs look back and in which some of them, such as Elrond and Galadriel, took part.

The title Silmarillion is shortened from Quenta Silmarillion, "The History of the Silmarils," the three great jewels created by Feanor, most gifted of the Elves, in which he imprisoned the light of the Two Trees that illumined Valinor, the land of the gods. When Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, destroyed the Trees, that light lived on only in the Silmarils; Morgoth seized them and set them in his crown, guarded in the impenetrable fortress of Angband in the north of Middle-earth. The Silmarillion is the history of the rebellion of Feanor and his people against the gods, their exile in Middle-earth, and their war, hopeless despite all the heroisim of Elves and Men, against the great Enemy.

The book includes several other, shorter works beside The Silmarillion proper. Preceding it are "Ainulindale," the myth of Creation, and "Valaquenta," in which the nature and powers of each of the gods is set forth. After The Silmarillion is "Akallabeth," the story of the downfall of the great island kingdom of Numenor at the end of the Second Age; completing the volume is "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age," in which the events of The Lord of the Rings are treated in the manner of The Silmarillion.

This new edition of The Silmarillion contains the revised and corrected "second edition" text and, by way of introduction, a letter written by J.R.R. Tolkien in 1951, which provides a brilliant exposition of his conception of the earlier Ages. It also contains almost fifty full-color illustrations by the artist Ted Nasmith, many of which appear for the first time.

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The Silmarillion is J.R.R. Tolkien's tragic, operatic history of the First Age of Middle-Earth, essential background material for serious readers of the classic Lord of the Rings saga. Tolkien's work sets the standard for fantasy, and this audio version of the "Bible of Middle-Earth" does The Silmarillion justice. Martin Shaw's reading is grave and resonant, conveying all the powerful events and emotions that shaped elven and human history long before Bilbo, Frodo, Gandalf and all the rest embarked on their quests. Beginning with the Music of the Ainur, The Silmarillion tells a tale of the Elder Days, when Elves and Men became estranged by the Dark Lord Morgoth's lust for the Silmarils, pure and powerful magic jewels. Even the love between a human warrior and the daughter of the Elven king cannot defeat Morgoth, but the War of Wrath finally brings down the Dark Lord. Peace reigns until the evil Sauron recovers the Rings of Power and sets the stage for the events told in the Lord of the Rings. This is epic fantasy at its finest, thrillingly read and gloriously unabridged. (Running time: 14 hours, 6 CDs) Top to learn more

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Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-earth

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Customer Review

Unfinished, but not unremarkable.
When JRR Tolkien died, he left a massive amount of material that, for various reasons, had not been published. Some of this material was sufficiently comprehensive and consistant with published materials that Tolkien's son, Christopher, was able to compile it into 'The Silmarillion'.But there were also several stories, polished, but not quite complete, which pertained to the events in 'The Lord of the Rings' -- things like the story of how Isildur lost the One Ring; like what, exactly, were the Wizards: who sent them and why? Questions like 'How did Galadriel and Celeborn come to rule Lorien?' and 'Just what happened at the Fords of Isen when Saruman attacked Rohan and Theoden's son, Theodred, was slain?'All these questions and many more are addressed in the many unfinished tales that are to be found in this book: tales from all three of the ages of Middle-earth; from heroes such as Tuor and Turin in the First Age, to Bilbo and Gandalf in the Third. Almost every tale is told in...
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May 29, 2000 (Bellevue, WA USA) | Helpful Votes: 401 | Rating: 5

Got questions? Here are many of the answers.
This collection of stories is just what the name implies--unfinished tales from both the continent of Middle-Earth and the island of Numenor. These tales are great and rich in detail, but one should be warned that they are not your everyday fantasy story. Both The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion are complicated and not casually understood, but this book tops both of them in terms of complexity. The story of the compilation of the book is this: Tolkien's son Christopher collected a mass of writings of his father--notes scrawled on scraps of paper, unpublished essays, even letters dealing with Middle-Earth. He edited and organized them, and prepared them for publication, and the result is this book. Because of this, many of the stories are missing detail and have some speculation, and all of them relate to other events related in Tolkien's other works. Because of the relation to Tolkien's other work, this book should be read AFTER The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and...
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October 21, 2002 (Utah, USA) | Helpful Votes: 254 | Rating: 5

lovely book
Though Unfinished Tales cannot be read as a book in its own right, any one who comes to it after reading The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion will indubitably find it interesting, as the book gives various nuggets of information about characters, events and places that are only hinted at in the other two books; e.g. the chapter on the Istari. 'Old' legends or myths of Middle-Earth, like the actual story of Isildur's fall in the Gladden Fields, are given in their 'authoritative' versions. A number of other tales, like the history of Galadriel and Celeborn or the Black Riders' hunt for Frodo and the Ring, are told in different versions or from differing perspectives.A particular gem is the story of Aldarion and Erendis, the only story of Numenor before its fall. Through it, Numenor becomes a living place, not just a name from legends.A map of Numenor is also included in the book.A lovely book - no other words for it.
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November 6, 2003 (Mumbai, India) | Helpful Votes: 78 | Rating: 5

Product Description

A New York Times bestseller for twenty-one weeks upon publication, UNFINISHED TALES is a collection of narratives ranging in time from the Elder Days of Middle-earth to the end of the War of the Ring, and further relates events as told in THE SILMARILLION and THE LORD OF THE RINGS.
The book concentrates on the lands of Middle-earth and comprises Gandalf's lively account of how he came to send the Dwarves to the celebrated party at Bag-End, the story of the emergence of the sea-god Ulmo before the eyes of Tuor on the coast of Beleriand, and an exact description of the military organization of the Riders of Rohan and the journey of the Black Riders during the hunt for the Ring.
UNFINISHED TALES also contains the only surviving story about the long ages of Númenor before its downfall, and all that is known about the Five Wizards sent to Middle-earth as emissaries of the Valar, about the Seeing Stones known as the Palantiri, and about the legend of Amroth.
Writing of the Appendices to THE LORD OF THE RINGS, J.R.R. Tolkien said in 1955, "Those who enjoy the book as a 'heroic romance' only, and find 'unexplained vistas' part of the literary effect, will neglect the Appendices, very properly." UNFINISHED TALES is avowedly for those who, to the contrary, have not yet sufficiently explored Middle-earth, its languages, its legends, it politics, and its kings.

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The Histories of Middle Earth, Volumes 1-5

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Customer Review

Back in fictional time
"Lord of the Rings" was the climax. Silmarillion was the Bible. And the Histories of Middle-Earth series is the big stack of history books. Author J.R.R. Tolkien wrote a vast fictional history of Middle-Earth, and the first five volumes of the Histories are compiled here. The evolving backdrop of stories about Elves, Men, and the rich tapestry of fictional history is shown here, such as earlier versions of the legendary romance of Beren and Luthien, or the history of the Valar. Not the finished product of "Silmarillion," but older drafts riddled with footnotes and commentary from Tolkien's son Christopher. What's more, it includes linguistic evolution, exquisite poetry, and a time travel story that evolved into something much greater. It takes a certain amount of geeky dedication to read these books. They are not light reading, and it takes knowledge of the final material to understand their significance. In many of the stories, there is greater detail than...
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November 23, 2003 (MD USA) | Helpful Votes: 611 | Rating: 5

For the serious student and avid lover of Middle-earth
With this compilation of the mammoth HISTORY OF MIDDLE-EARTH, we get the literary backstory, so to say, of J. R. R. Tolkien's turmoil and travails of the composition of one of the most complex fantasies every constructed. Admittedly difficult reading, you must have a deep, abiding interest in mythology and Tolkien's desire to create one to get through this, and you need a working knowledge of Tolkien's work to really understand the HISTORY. Do not buy this expecting anything as nearly accessible THE LORD OF THE RINGS or THE HOBBIT. The real meat, to literary historians who are not specialized in Tolkien and to the causal fan, is the volumes VI-IX, which deal with the creation of THE LORD OF THE RINGS, one of the most significant volumes ever released the world, online with Homer, Virgil, and Dante. This is a graduate level look at what goes in the making of a literary masterpiece. These four volumes are THE RETURN OF THE SHADOW, THE TREASON OF ISENGARD, THE WAR OF THE RING, and...
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June 4, 2004 (Oxford, UK) | Helpful Votes: 390 | Rating: 5

Product Description

The Histories of Middle-Earth series is 5 softcovers in slipcase from the author of The Hobit. J.R.R. Tolkien wrote a vast fictional history of Middle-Earth, and the first five volumes of the Histories are compiled here. Top to learn more

Not for the casual fan, a tall glass of limpe for devotees
I first feel the need to level a good-natured attack at the reviewer who claimed that Christopher Tolkien spent uncounted exhausted hours reviewing and annotating his father's mountains of notes and manuscripts to "line his pockets." The very notion is ludicrous. The publication of the Histories was a labor of love, nothing more, and I for one appreciate it immensely. "The Histories of Middle-Earth" is an invaluable collection for anyone who would know the process behind the creation of a literary world as vast as Tolkien's. For someone who has read "The Lord of the Rings," "The Hobbit," and "The Silmarillion" (I recommend also reading "The Unfinished Tales" first) and is interested in knowing more about the origins of Middle-Earth and Valinor, these volumes are fascinating. For someone who simply loves the story of LOTR and sees the greater history of Middle Earth as nothing more than a setting, these books probably...
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July 11, 2004 (Bozeman, MT United States) | Helpful Votes: 145 | Rating: 4

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The Children of Húrin

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Customer Review

Answers to questions, and a man misplaced in time
THE QUESTIONSTo address the questions that most people have:* This is an easier read than The Silmarillion.* It is a greatly expanded version of Chapter XXI of The Silmarillion, "Of Túrin Turambar", BUT...* Reading The Silmarillion is not necessary.* It is told in a narrative voice.* The narrative voice is archaic.* The so-called archaic voice falls somewhere in between The Silmarillion and LOTR in style.* Húrin is a great hero amongst men.* His son, Túrin, is whom this story is chiefly about. His daughter Nienor makes a late, but significant, appearance. Significant enough for this book to be called The Children of Húrin.* You will recognize a few names from LOTR, but don't look for furry-footed Hobbits. A Balrog makes a brief appearance, as does a dragon.* Unlike some posthumous publications of Tolkien's, there is only one footnote in the entire narrative, and it doesn't interrupt the...
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April 18, 2007 (Oxford, UK) | Helpful Votes: 306 | Rating: 5

Tolkien's Missing Link between the Hobbit Cycle and The Silmarillion tradition
When the Tolkien Estate announced a new Tolkien novel to be published in April, 2007, the world was shocked. After all, Tolkien died 34 years before THE CHLDREN OF HURIN was published. Reactions varied from trepidation and fear, to charges that the Estate is trying to milk the pubic for more money, to sheer excitement that, beyond all odds, we're getting another Tolkien story. We all know Hollywood is eying it greedily, though the Estate has made it quite clear that it is not interested in selling the film rights any time soon.Naturally, an event such as a publication of a new novel by a long deceased major author is bound to excite different reactions from different quarters. Depending on where you stand in Tolkien fandom will largely define your reactions to the story.First, just a few quick facts about the novel.*CoH can be read independently of Tolkien's other works, due largely in part to C. Tolkien's excellent introduction, explaining the...
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April 19, 2007 (Ithaca, NY) | Helpful Votes: 529 | Rating: 5

a review for the curious LOTR fan
Taking place in the distant past of the Middle Earth most people know from the "Lord of the Rings," the "Children of Hurin" is a poignantly beautiful gem from JRR Tolkien's literary world. Before great cataclysms that altered the very substance of Middle Earth, the High Elves were allied with three great Houses of Men in a proud and hopeless struggle against the original Dark Enemy. "The Children of Hurin" begins with the most disastrous defeat of Elves and Men in that war, and how Turin, son of the greatest warrior in the history of Men, tries to take up his father's responsibility and reverse the damage. One of JRR Tolkien's greatest achievements was the world of Middle Earth itself, which contained endless layers of history and backstory that informed the origin and actions of its characters. What can be easy to miss in reading LOTR is that Middle Earth is a desolate shadow of what it used to be, before time and the mistakes of foolish pride wore down the greatness of Elves...
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April 11, 2007 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

Product Description

Long before the One Ring was forged in the fires of Mount Doom, one man—Húrin—dared to defy Morgoth, the first and greatest of the dark lords to plague Middle-earth. Thus did he and his children, Túrin and Niënor, earn the enmity of a merciless foe that would shape the destiny of all the ages to come.

Only J.R.R. Tolkien, the undisputed master of the fantastic, could have conceived this magical tale of Elves and Men united against a brutal foe. And only Christopher Tolkien, the master’s son and literary heir, could have fit the pieces of his father’s unfinished work together with such deep understanding and consummate artistry. With an introduction and appendiCes by Christopher Tolkien, who has also contributed maps and genealogy tables, and eight stunning paintings and twenty-five pencil drawings by Oscar-winning artist Alan Lee, The Children of Húrin at last takes its proper place as the very cornerstone of J.R.R. Tolkien’s immortal achievement. Top to learn more

The first complete book by J.R.R. Tolkien in three decades--since the publication of The Silmarillion in 1977--The Children of Húrin reunites fans of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings with Elves and Men, dragons and Dwarves, Eagles and Orcs. Presented for the first time as a complete, standalone story, this stirring narrative will appeal to casual fans and expert readers alike, returning them to the rich landscape and characters unique to Tolkien.

Adam Tolkien on The Children of Húrin

How did a lifetime of stories become The Children of Húrin? In an essay on the making of the book, Adam Tolkien, grandson of J.R.R. Tolkien (and French translator of his History of Middle-earth), explains that the Húrin legends made up the third "Great Tale" of his grandfather's Middle-earth writing, and he describes how his father, Christopher Tolkien, painstakingly collected the pieces of the legend into a complete story told only in the words of J.R.R. Tolkien. "For anyone who has read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings," he writes, The Children of Húrin "allows them to take a step back into a larger world, an ancient land of heroes and vagabonds, honour and jeopardy, hope and tragedy."

A Look Inside the Book

This first edition of The Children of Húrin is illustrated by Alan Lee, who was already well-known for his Tolkien illustrations in previous editions (see our Tolkien Store for more) as well as his classic collaboration with Brian Froud, Faeries, and his Kate Greenaway Medal-winning Black Ships Before Troy, before his Oscar-winning work as conceptual designer for Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings film trilogy brought him even greater acclaim. Here's a quick glimpse of two of Lee's interior illustrations for The Children of Húrin. (Click on each to see larger images.)

Questions for Alan Lee

We had the chance to ask Alan Lee a few questions about his illustrative collaboration with the world imagined by J.R.R. Tolkien:

Amazon.com: How much of a treat was it to get first crack at depicting entirely new characters rather than ones who had been interpreted many times before? Was there one who particularly captured your imagination?

Lee: Although it was a great honor to illustrate The Children of Húrin, the characters and the main elements of the story line are familiar to those who have read The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales, and these narratives have inspired quite a few illustrators. Ted Nasmith has illustrated The Silmarillion and touched on some of the same characters and landscapes. This was the first time that I ventured into the First Age; while working on The Lord of the Rings books and films--and The Hobbit--I've had to refer back to events in Middle-earth history but not really depict them.

I'm drawn to characters who bear similarities to the protagonists in myths and legends; these correspondences add layers and shades of meaning, and most of the characters in this story have those archetypal qualities. However, I prefer not to get too close to the characters because the author is delineating them much more carefully than I can, and I'm wary of interfering with the pictures that the text is creating in the reader's mind.

Amazon.com: The Húrin story has been described as darker than some of Tolkien's other work. What mood did you try to set with your illustrations?

Lee: It is a tragic story, but the darkness is offset by the light and beauty of Tolkien's elegiac writing. In the illustrations I tried to show some of the fragile beauty of the landscapes and create an atmosphere that would enhance the sense of foreboding and impending loss. I try to get the setting to tell its part in the story, as evidence of what happened there in the past and as a hint at what is going to occur. My usual scarred and broken trees came in handy.

Amazon.com: You were a conceptual designer (and won an Oscar) for Peter Jackson's film trilogy of The Lord of the Rings, which I think we can safely say had a bit of success. How does designing for the screen compare to designing for the page?

Lee: They both have their share of joys and frustrations. It was great to be part of a huge film collaboration and play a small part in something quite magical and monumental; I will always treasure that experience. Film is attractive because I enjoy sketching and coming up with ideas more than producing highly finished artwork, and it's great having several hundred other people lending a hand! But books--as long as they don't get moldy from being left in an empty studio for six years--have their own special quality. I hope that I can continue doing both.

Amazon.com: Of all fiction genres, fantasy seems to have the strongest tradition of illustration. Why do you think that is? Who are some of your favorite illustrators?

Lee: A lot of excellent illustrators are working at the moment--especially in fantasy and children's books. It is exciting also to see graphic artists such as Dave McKean, in his film Mirrormask, moving between different media. I also greatly admire the more traditional work of Gennady Spirin and Roberto Innocenti. Kinuko Craft, John Jude Palencar, John Howe, Charles Vess, Brian Froud ... I'll stop there, as the list would get too long. But--in a fit of pride and justified nepotism--I'll add my daughter, Virginia Lee, to the list. Her first illustrated children's book, The Frog Bride [coming out in the U.K. in September], will be lovely.

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Collector's Edition

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Tales from the Perilous Realm

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Customer Review

Four stories for the adventurous hobbit. . .
In this wonderful volume (small and inexpensive enough for frugal hobbits to give away on their birthdays) three short stories and one collection of poems are to be found. The collection of poetry, "The Adventures of Tom Bombadil" is drawn from the many poetic examples found in the Red Book of Westmarch and were written or compiled by Bilbo, Frodo, Samwise, and their families. Tom Bombadil is, of course, a well-known figure to those hobbits living in Buckland, and is a figure providing much comic relief. Some of the other poetic examples, however, are darker and more serious in nature. "Leaf by Niggle" is a wonderful short story about a little man (very hobbitlike in his habits) who is a painter whose dream and ambition far exceed the level of his talent. "Farmer Giles of Ham" discusses the adventures of a small farmer living in a town not unlike Bree who gets the best of a devious (but not overbold) dragon. "Smith of Wooten Major" tells the...
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August 24, 2001 (Lake-by-Downs, The Shire, Middle-Earth) | Helpful Votes: 79 | Rating: 5

What more could you ask?
Tolkien's four greatest short stories (well, three acutally, plus the poetry) together in one volume."The Adventures of Tom Bombadil" involves two long poems with Tom as the main character, a number of poems from "The Lord of the Rings" as well as other assorted poetry concerning Middle Earth."Farmer Giles of Ham" is an extraordinary tale about a wise farmer who outwits a wicked (but not overbold) dragon. A wonderful story for children -- and full of delightful (and deliberate) anachronisms for the alert adult."Leaf by Niggle" is a profound and powerful story about death, life, Purgatory and eternity. It should be read in conjunction with Tolkien's non-fiction essay "On Fairy Stories"."Smith of Wooten Major", one of the last works by the Master, tells the story of a very ordinary person who is given a very extraordinary gift. (The story also suggests the presence of the sacramental in the act of...
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June 14, 2001 (Delavan, Wisconsin) | Helpful Votes: 52 | Rating: 5

Tolkien Beyond Middle earth
In Tales From the Perilous Realm we have five short stories or novellas by J.R.R. Tolkien, plus his very famous lecture "On Fairy Stories". Only one of the selections has a direct connection with Middle earth: the poems which make up "The Adventures of Tom Bombadil". The other four are "Leaf By Niggle", a short tale with deeply moving theological connotations which originally accompanied the Fairy Stories lecture; "Roverandom", a story written by Tolkien to comfort one of his sons who had lost a toy dog while at the seashore and not published until 25 years after the author died; "Farmer Giles of Ham," a rollicking tale set in early Britain featuring a bumbling farmer, a near sighted giant, and a dragon which was originally published in the late 1940s; "Smith of Wooton Major", a beautiful story published in the 1960s which is usually interpreted as being Tolkien's acknowledgment that his life was coming to a close and his gifts must be returned or passed on to others.All...
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November 4, 2008 | Helpful Votes: 28 | Rating: 5

Product Description

The definitive collection of Tolkien’s classic fairie” tales, in the vein of The Hobbit, illustrated by Oscar winner Alan Lee

Never before published in a single volume, Tolkien’s four novellas (Farmer Giles of Ham, Leaf by Niggle, Smith of Wootton Major, and Roverandom) and one book of poems (The Adventures of Tom Bombadil) are gathered together for the first time, in a fully illustrated volume. This new, definitive collection of works -- which had appeared separately, in various formats, between 1949 and 1998 -- comes with a brand-new foreword and endmatter, and with a series of detailed pencil illustrations by Alan Lee, in the style of his other award-winning Tolkien work, most recently in The Children of Húrin.

The book is the perfect opportunity for fans of Middle-earth to enjoy some of Tolkien’s often overlooked yet most creative storytelling. With dragons and sand sorcerers, sea monsters and hobbits, knights and dwarves, this collection contains all the classic elements for Tolkien buffs of all ages.

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the FOTR and ROTK i just bought were "correction" both the 1967 "2nd impression of the 2nd ed, and i got them for 14 pounds and 7 pounds respectively, and there was a TT 1966 1st impression of the second edition that i didn't buy and it went for... ), what is actually collectible, as in what should i want to buy (point being i see it faaarrr down the road to have a 1/1 set of very good LOTR with DJ. ), and is there any way to set a value to the later printings. I first started finding interest in LOTR in high school and early on in college starting a small collection of Tolkien books, now i've been married a couple of years and have found a renewed interest in my collection (mainly the obtaining part. are the later impression sets i see listed way over priced, or is it because they are a box set. But recently i got a 1/7 TT and a 2/1 FOTR and ROTK and i love them. Obviously i wasn't going to entertain the thought of trying for a 1/1 LOTR and definately not the hobbit. I like the history of the books and i think that that is something that has come with getting older and feeling like time is moving faster.

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was the son of Arthur Tolkien and Mabel Suffield Tolkien, and he was known as Ronald among the family. This edition made the book a possible impulse buy—and the resulting copyright battle brought new awareness of the title throughout the US. Tolkien remained a prolific author, and his death hardly slowed publication. The resulting book sales made Tolkien wish he’d taken early retirement. Among our latest acquisitions are several exceptional works by JRR Tolkien . The author has been lionized (and rightfully so) among readers around the world. Though Tolkien was a member of academia himself, his works are often snubbed by experts in the field. The Inklings included many of Tolkien’s prominent contemporaries, most notably CS Lewis. By the end of the war, Tolkien had already been looking around for a job in academia. While Tolkien kept company of writers, he’d also begun writing stories himself. Tolkien’s work also transcends literary boundaries, appealing to an incredibly wide audience. For a definitive guide to all of Tolkien’s works, look to the Hammond bibliography. When World War I broke out, Tolkien didn’t rush to enlist like most of his peers. However, Tolkien was one of the founding members of a group called “The Inklings.

I can't wait to experience his act with the hundreds of other Tolkien fans that will be coming - having Charlie with us proves that The Return of the Ring isn't just an academic event, but that it is a celebration and a convention in the broadest...

I also was TOTALLY lost in what was going on. A bit of background, Rankin and Bass made The Hobbit, but someone else, Ralph Bakshi, made a “Lord of the Rings” film that covered about 1 1/2 of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but they never got... The books on tape are very nice and Rob Inglis does a good job of trying to keep the voice different from each other, and that’s not an easy task when you’re dealing with so many different characters. Well, I still enjoyed the film and eventually I was watching the Disney channel and there was a commercial for another film “The Return of the King” that was by the same people and was to do with hobbits and all. The Silmarillion, I’ve read twice, I think, with one book on tape listening. I finally read the Hobbit at age 12 when we went to a second hand book store. The Hobbit covers most of the bases and even has plenty of the songs from the book. Many, many years later, I finally saw the Ralph Bakshi “LOTR” film. ROTK is a bit different than the original story in many places, for example Legolas and Gimli aren’t even in the film, and you don’t really get much of “What happened before” except a song that overall covers that the ring is bad and must be... The name of the film was “The Hobbit” by Rankin and Bass, who you might know as well from making those old Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer movies (The one with the yeti and all).

Tolkien Books News

The Author as Agent of Change

Book publishers liked these series. They concluded that what sells books is not new ideas but the familiar. It's the world that sells—Herbert's Dune or McCaffrey's Pern or Tolkien's Middle-earth—and the nice thing about that is, it's predictable.
Interview: Christine Norris, Author of The Mirror of Yu-Huang

Who are some of your favorite authors/books? Oh, gosh, there are so many. Right now, I'm really into Carrie Jones' Need series, and James Owen's Imaginarium Geographica books. I buy those in hardcover. But I have a Kindle now, so I'm able to download
Steve Earle interview: he talks acting, singing, writing and reading

I bought Tolkien for my iPad because the maps are all there in color and they're not on the Kindle. I think there's going to be people that can afford the digital versions of things that won't be able to afford books and also can't afford in the sense