The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings"

The Hobbit.
Originally published by Allen & Unwin in 1937 (2nd ed. 1951, 3rd ed. 1966, 4th ed. 1978) and by HM in 1938 (2nd Amer. ed. 1951 [cloth] and 1965 [paper], 3rd Amer. ed. 1966); many editions are currently available, including special 50th anniversary editions; standard ones are: HM, 1966 (ISBN 0-395-28265-9) (paperback); Ballantine, 1966 (ISBN 0-345-33968-1) (paperback).

The Annotated Hobbit.
Annotated by Douglas A. Anderson; HM, 1988 (ISBN 0-395-47690-9).

The Lord of the Rings.
Originally published by Allen & Unwin in 1954-55 and by HM in 1955-56; revised edition in 1965; sometimes published as one volume but generally as three; the 1987 HM editions referred to below are the most recent attempt to correct the many textual errors that have crept in over the years.

The Fellowship of the Ring.
HM, 1987 (ISBN 0-395-48931-8); HM, 1987 (ISBN 0-395-27223-8) (paperback); Ballantine, 1965 (ISBN 0-345-33970-3)(paperback).

The Two Towers.
HM, 1987 (ISBN 0-395-48933-4); HM, 1987 (ISBN 0-395-27222-X) (paper); Ballantine, 1965 (ISBN 0-345-33971-1)(paperback).

The Return of the King.
HM, 1987 (ISBN 0-395-48930-X); HM, 1987 (ISBN 0-395-27221-I) (paper); Ballantine, 1965 (ISBN 0-345-33973-8)(paper).

Lord of the Rings.
Centennary edition, with 50 illustrations by Alan Lee. HM, 1991 (ISBN 0-395-59511-8) [$60.00]; HM, 1991 (ISBN 0-395-60423-0) [Signed edition (by the artist) $250.00].

Related Middle-earth Works:
Any writing by J.R.R. Tolkien which extends our knowledge of Middle-earth (excluding the History of M-e series). The Letters are included because of the many strange and wonderful insights into M-e that they contain, which indeed is why most people read them. A Tolkien Compass is included because it contains "The Guide to Names in LotR", a fascinating but far too little known compilation, also by JRRT himself.

The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien.
Selected and Edited by Humphrey Carpenter with the assistance of Christopher Tolkien. HM, 1981 (ISBN 0-395-31555-7).

The Road Goes Ever On: A Song Cycle.
Poems by J.R.R. Tolkien set to music by Donald Swann. HM, 1967, 1978 (ISBN 0-395-24758-6) [op]. Allen & Unwin, 1968, 1978 (ISBN 0-04-784011-0) (British edition).

A Tolkien Compass.
Including J.R.R. Tolkien's "Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings" (prepared for publication by Christopher Tolkien). Edited by Jared Lobdell. Open Court Publishing Company, 1975 (ISBN 0-87548-316-X); Open Court Publishing Company, 1975 (ISBN 0-87548-303-8) (paperback); Ballantine, 1980 (ISBN 0-345-28855-6) (paperback).

The Silmarillion.
Edited by Christopher Tolkien. HM, 1977 (ISBN 0-395-25730-I); HM, 1983 (ISBN 0-395-34646-0) (paper); Ballantine, 1985 (ISBN 0-345-32581-8) (paperback).

Unfinished Tales.
Edited by Christopher Tolkien. HM, 1980 (ISBN 0-395-29917-9) [op]; HM, 1982 (ISBN 0-395-32441-6) (paperback); Ballantine, 1988 (ISBN 0-345-35711-6) (paperback).

Pictures by J.R.R. Tolkien.
HM, 1979 (ISBN 0-395-28523-2) [op].

The History of Middle-earth Series

Since 1984 Christopher Tolkien has been presenting his father's unpublished writings: his editing is both very careful and extremely detailed. These books are admittedly not for everyone, but being as they are rather a mixed bag, neither should they be dismissed without consideration. Brief descriptions have therefore been provided to aid individual decisions. It must be said up front that, rumors to the contary notwithstanding, these are not new stories (though they arguably approach being new stories in several cases).

The Book of Lost Tales is the earliest version of the Silmarillion -- the storyline is much the same but the style is very different indeed (extremely archaic). Compared to the Silmarillion (which is to some extent a compression of BoLT) these tales read more like stories and less like annals. A significant minority appear to prefer these versions to the published Silm. [BoLT was begun in 1916-17 while Tolkien was in hospital after serving in the Battle of the Somme.]

The Lays of Beleriand consists of two long poems, each one an expansion of a Lost Tale. "The Lay of the Children of Hurin" is 2300 lines of alliterative verse (unfinished). "The Lay of Leithian" (the Beren and Luthian story) is in rhymed couplets and runs to some 4000 lines. Included is a revision of the Lay made around 1950 (i.e. post-LotR). For those who have a taste for such things the poems are wonderful, with the result that this is perhaps the most popular of the HoMe volumes. An added bonus is a commentary on the Lay written by C.S. Lewis in 1929. Lewis pretended that the Lay was an ancient manuscript and made numerous references to divergent texts and the opinions of ponderous nineteenth century scholars with absurd names. He nevertheless included much thoughtful criticism, which Tolkien took seriously.

The Shaping of Middle-earth returns to the development of the prose Silmarillion, presented chronologically. Contained herein are 1) Tolkien's plot summary of BoLT (labelled "the earliest Silmarillion" by CJRT).

2) the re-expansion of the summary in both narrative (the Quenta Noldorinwa) and annalistic (the Earliest Annals of Valinor and of Beleriand) forms. 

3) The Ambarkanta (or "Of the Fashion of the World"): Tolkien's musings on the physical construction of Middle-earth, accompanied by diagrams.

The Lost Road contains the rest of Tolkien's M-e work up to 1937 (when LotR was begun), a somewhat diverse set of writings presented in three major sections. The Lost Road is an unfinished time-travel story, conceived in the same impulse as were C.S. Lewis' space-travel stories. A re-telling of the Atlantis story, it involved a father and son who were reincarnated during various time-periods significant in Germanic legend (Anglo-Saxon, Lombardic, etc.). In their most ancient incarnation their names were Amandil and Elendil and they lived on Atlantis itself, called "Númenor" in this story and already linked to the world of the Silmarillion. Tolkien's intention was to explicitly link M-e with many different Germanic legends, and these manuscripts are therefore significant in the context of Tolkien's wider literary interests. Eventually, both Númenor and Elendil became important elements in the history of the Second Age of M-e. The Silmarillion continued. Included are the next versions of the three parallel presentations: the Quenta Silmarillion, and the Later Annals of Valinor and of Beleriand. Also the first version of the Ainulindale (the Creation myth) and the Lhammas (The Account of Tongues), the latter accompanied by complicated charts depicting the evolution of a large number of related Elven languages.

The Etymologies. This was Tolkien's working dictionary of Elvish words and roots. Although he of course never stopped developing the languages, this remains a useful reference today: he was still working on it during the early stages of writing LotR, as is shown by the notes on some of the Shire names which accompany various entries.

These are the rough drafts of LotR, very carefully analysed and annotated. They are most likely only for those who are interested both in Tolkien's work and in the craft of writing. Vol VI is perhaps the most interesting, since the early drafts are those which differ most from the final form. However, certain aspects of the drafts of Book VI of LotR (i.e. the second half of RK), which comprise the first third of Vol IX, are also surprisingly different from the final version (e.g. Frodo's actions during the Scouring of the Shire).

Two thirds of Vol IX consist of the Notion Club Papers, a much altered re-telling of The Lost Road. The Notion Club was said to have been loosely based on the Inklings, although there was no attempt to depict Inkling personalities. Tolkien took a long sabbatical from writing LotR during 1945-46 to work on this story; a necessary part of this work was the development of Adunaic, the language of Númenor.

The current plan is for volumes X and XI to deal with the later development of the Silmarillion, X with the Valinorean half and XI with the Beleriandic half. The series is to continue at least through volume XII, which will contain miscellaneous pieces, such as "The New Shadow", Tolkien's quickly-abandoned sequel to LotR.

The Book of Lost Tales, Part One.
(HoM-e Vol I). HM, 1984 (ISBN 0-395-35439-0) [op]; HM, 1986 (ISBN 0-395-40927-6) (paperback); Del Rey (Ballantine), 1992 (ISBN 0-345-37521-1) (paperback).

The Book of Lost Tales, Part Two.
(HoM-e Vol II). HM, 1984 (ISBN 0-395-36614-3) [op]; HM, 1986 (ISBN 0-395-42640-5) (paperback); Del Rey (Ballantine), 1992 (ISBN 0-345-37522-X) (paperback).

The Lays of Beleriand.
(HoM-e Vol III). HM, 1985 (ISBN 0-395-39429-5); HM, 1988 (ISBN 0-395-48683-1) (paperback).

The Shaping of Middle-earth: The Quenta, The Ambarkanta, and The Annals.

(HoM-e Vol IV). HM, 1986 (ISBN 0-395-42501-8).

The Lost Road and Other Writings: Language and Legend Before 'The Lord of the Rings'.
(HoM-e Vol V). HM, 1987 (ISBN 0-395-45519-7).

The Return of the Shadow: The History of The Lord of the Rings, Part One.
(HoM-e Vol VI). HM, 1988 (ISBN 0-395-49863-5).

The Treason of Isengard: The History of The Lord of the Rings, Part Two.
(HoM-e Vol VII). HM, 1989 (ISBN 0-395-51562-9).

The War of the Ring: The History of The Lord of the Rings, Part Three.
(HoM-e Vol VIII). HM, 1990 (ISBN 0-395-56008-X).

Sauron Defeated: The History of The Lord of the Rings, Part Four.
(HoM-e Vol IX). HM, 1992 (ISBN 0-395-60649-7).

Children's Stories
These could arguably have been placed with the "Short Works". Our reasons for making a separate section:

1) they are children's stories in a way that the other short works are not and 2) for convenience -- each has appeared in one form, whereas the other short works exist in a multitude of combinations.

Bilbo's Last Song.
Illustrated by Pauline Baynes. HM, 1990 (ISBN 0-395-53810-6). Dragonfly Books, 1992 (ISBN 0-679-82710-2) (paperback). (Published originally as a poster in 1974 by Allen & Unwin and by HM).

The Father Christmas Letters.
Edited by Baillie Tolkien. HM, 1976 (ISBN 0-395-24981-3) [op]; HM, 1977, 1991 (ISBN 0-395-59698-X) (paperback). Allen & Unwin, 1976 (ISBN 0-04-823130-4) (British edition).

Mr. Bliss.
HM, 1983 (ISBN 0-395-32936-1) [op]. Allen & Unwin, 1983 (ISBN 0-04-823215-7). (Facsimile edition reproduced from Tolkien's illustrated manuscript.)

Oliphaunt (Beastly Verse Board Book).
Illustrated by Hank Hinton. Calico Books (Contemporary Books, Inc.), 1989 (ISBN 0-8092-4353-9). (An illustrated version of the well-known poem.)

Short Works:
Various shorter pieces, all of them fiction except for 'On Fairy Stories', a lecture, and 'The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son', which includes scholarly commentary. All appeared during Tolkien's lifetime and thus presumably were completed to his satisfaction. A variety of combinations exists; the list below is not complete.

Farmer Giles of Ham.
HM, 1950, 1978 (illustrated by Pauline Baynes) (ISBN 0-395-07121-6) [op] ; HM, 1991 (illustrated by Roger Garland) (ISBN 0-395-57645-8).

The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son,
In Essays and Studies by members of the English Association, New Series Volume VI, 1953, pp 1-18. (London, John Murray).

The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Other Verses From the Red Book.
HM, 1963 (illustrated by Pauline Baynes); HM, 1991 (illustrated by Roger Garland) (ISBN 0-395-57647-4).

Tree and Leaf.
HM, 1965, 1989 (ISBN 0-395-50232-2). (The 1989 edition includes the poem 'Mythopoeia'.)

The Tolkien Reader.
Ballantine, 1966 (ISBN 0-345-29881-0) (paper). [Contains HBBS, TL, FGH, and ATB.]

Smith of Wooton Major.

HM, 1967 (illustrated by Pauline Baynes) [op] ; HM, 1991 (illustrated by Roger Garland) (ISBN 0-395-57646-6).

Smith of Wooton Major and Farmer Giles of Ham.

Illustrated by Pauline Baynes. Ballantine, 1969 (ISBN 0-345-33606-2) (paperback).

Poems and Stories.

Illustrated by Pauline Baynes. Allen & Unwin, 1980 (ISBN 0-04-823174-6) (Deluxe Edition). [Contains ATB, HBBS, TL, FGH, and SWM.]

Scholarly Works:

Such scholarly work of Tolkien's as has appeared in book form. Tolkien in his own lifetime produced only the Middle English Vocabulary and the editions of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and the Ancrene Wisse. The others were edited by Christopher Tolkien or other former students. The book of Essays in Memoriam contains only one piece by Tolkien but this seems a suitable place to list it. Songs for Philologists strictly speaking is not a work of scholarship, but it is certainly of that flavour. This is the category it comes closest to fitting; since only about 15 copies are in existence it hardly matters where it is listed. It contains poems by Tolkien and colleagues in Old, Middle, and Modern English, Icelandic, and Latin, plus the only existing poem in Gothic (by Tolkien). Some have been reprinted, most notably the one that became Sam Gamgee's Troll Song. Three of Tolkien's Old English poems and the one in Gothic are printed with translations in an appendix to The Road to Middle-earth by T.A. Shippey.

Songs for Philologists.

J.R.R. Tolkien, E.V. Gordon, and others. Privately printed in the Department of English at University College, 1936.

A Middle English Vocabulary.

Clarendon Press, 1922. (Designed for use with Kenneth Sisam's Fourteenth Century Verse and Prose, Clarendon Press, 1921; subsequently published as a glossary to Sisam.)

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
Edited by J.R.R. Tolkien and E.V. Gordon. Clarendon Press, 1925. (2nd edition revised by Norman Davis, 1967).

Ancrene Wisse: The English Text of the Ancrene Riwle.

Edited by J.R.R. Tolkien. Oxford University Press, 1962. Early English Text Society, Original Series No. 249.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, and Sir Orfeo.

Translated by J.R.R. Tolkien; edited by Christopher Tolkien. HM, 1975 (ISBN 0-395-21970-1) [op]; Ballantine, 1980 (ISBN 0-345-27760-0) (paper). Allen & Unwin, 1975 (ISBN 0-04-821035-8).

The Old English Exodus.

Text, translation, and commentary by J.R.R. Tolkien; edited by Joan Turville-Petre. Oxford University Press, 1981 (ISBN 0-19-811177-0).

Finn and Hengest: the Fragment and the Episode. Edited by Alan Bliss. HM, 1983 (ISBN 0-395-33193-5).

The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays.

Edited by Christopher Tolkien. HM, 1984 (ISBN 0-395-35635-0).

J.R.R. Tolkien, Scholar and Storyteller: Essays in Memoriam.

Edited by Mary Salu and Robert T. Farrell. Cornell University Press, 1979 (ISBN 0-8014-1038-X). [op]

Biographical Works:

Books about Tolkien's life rather than his literary or scholarly work exclusively.

Tolkien: A Biographyby Humphrey Carpenter.

HM, 1977 (ISBN 0-395-25360-8) [op]; HM, 1988 (ISBN 0-395-48676-9) (paperback); Ballantine, 1985 (ISBN 0-345-32729-2) (paperback).

The Inklings: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, and Their Friends.

by Humphrey Carpenter. HM, 1979 (ISBN 0-395-27628-4). [op]

J.R.R. Tolkien, Architect of Middle-earth.by Daniel Grotta.

Running Press, 1976 (ISBN 0-89471-034-6); Running Press, 1978 (ISBN 0-89471-035-4) (paperback).

A Tolkien Family Album.by John and Priscilla Tolkien.

HM, 1992 (ISBN 0-395-59938-5).

Secondary Works I

-- Middle-earth Lore: These books are compilations of various kinds of information about Middle-earth. How helpful any given one may be depends on the needs of the individual reader. In general they are labours of love by people who genuinely care about Middle-earth and thus are generally well done. Some are enjoyable even when unneeded and more than one is impressive merely from the truly phenomenal amount of detailed study it represents. Two works on the following (incomplete) list (Strachey, Foster) have been referred to positively by Christopher Tolkien in his various commentaries and a third (Allan) by several people knowedgable in Middle-earth languages.

The Atlas of Middle-earth. by Karen Wynn Fonstad.

HM, 1981 (ISBN 0-395-28665-4) [op]; HM, 1991 (revised edition) (ISBN 0-395-53516-6) (paperback).

A Tolkien Bestiary.by David Day.

Crescent Books, 1979 (ISBN 0-517-47325-9). [op]

The Languages of Tolkien's Middle-earth.by Ruth S. Noel.

HM, 1974, 1980 (ISBN 0-395-29129-1) [op]; HM, 1980 (ISBN 0-395-29130-5) (paperback).

An Introduction to Elvish: and to other tongues and proper names and writing systems of the Third Age of the Western Lands of Middle-earth as set forth in the published writings of Professor John Ronald Reuel Tolkien.

Edited and compiled by Jim Allan from his own researches and from those of Nina Carson [and others]; as authorized by the Mythopoeic Linguistic Fellowship, a discussion group of the Mythopoeic Society. Bran's Head Books Ltd., 1978 (ISBN 0-905220-10-2). [US -- op ; England -- in print]

Journeys of Frodo: An Atlas of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. by Barbara Strachey.

Ballantine, 1981.

(the maps used on this website are taken from this book)

The Complete Guide to Middle-earth.by Robert Foster.

HM, 1971, 1978 (ISBN 0-345-27520-9) [op]; Ballantine, 1974, 1979 (ISBN 0-345-32436-6) (paperback).

Secondary Works II

-- Critical Works: A small sampling of the voluminous body of critical works which have attempted to address the "Lord of the Rings phenomenom". Except for the last two, the ones listed are those studies which we have read and which we have reason to think are above average (which is to say, they don't miss the mark entirely). The last two: the Knight book (which may indeed be interesting though only one quarter about Tolkien, the other three-quarters being about Lewis, Williams, and Barfield) is included because it's listing was so garbled in Books in Print (Tolkien is NOT the author); the Johnson book (a bibliography) is included to help those who have a taste for such things to pursue the literature (it takes us up through c. 1985).
A word on The Road to Middle-earth. We recommend it unreservedly - there's no question that it's the best study of Tolkien available, being primarily philological and medievalist rather than literary in perspective. Shippey, a friend of both Tolkiens, father and son, is himself a philologist and medievalist who holds the chair at Leeds University that Tolkien once held himself.

The Road to Middle-earth.by T.A. Shippey.

HM, 1983 (ISBN 0-395-33973-1). [op]

Splintered Light: Logos and Language in Tolkien's World.by Verlyn Flieger.

Eerdmans, 1983 (ISBN 0-8028-1955-9) (paperback) [op]. (a facsimile version of the original hardcover is available for an outrageous sum.)

Tolkien and the Silmarillion.by Clyde S. Kilby. Harold Shaw,

1976 (ISBN 0-87788-816-7). [op]

Master of Middle-earth: The Fiction of J.R.R. Tolkien.by Paul Kocher. HM, 1972 (ISBN 0-395-14097-8) [op]; HM, 1972 (ISBN 0-395-17701-4) (paperback).

J.R.R. Tolkien: Myth, Morality, and Religion.by Richard L. Purtill. Harper & Row, 1984 (ISBN 0-06-066712-5). [op]

The Magical World of the Inklings.by Gareth Knight.

Element Books, UK (Tempest Books, US), 1990 (ISBN 1-85230-169-4) (paperback).

J.R.R. Tolkien: Six Decades of Criticism.by Judith A Johnson. (Bibliographies & Indexes in World Literature Series No. 6). Greenwood Press, 1986 (ISBN 0-313-25005-7).