J. R. R. Tolkien

In ancient times the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and Sauron, the Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his own power so that he could rule all others. But the One Ring was taken from him, and though he sought it throughout Middle-earth, it remained lost to him. After many ages it fell into the hands of Bilbo Baggins, as told in THE HOBBIT. In a sleepy village in the Shire, young Frodo Baggins finds himself faced with...

A number-one New York Times bestseller when it was originally published, The Silmarillion is the core of J.R.R. Tolkien's imaginative writing, a work whose origins stretch back to a time long before The Hobbit. Tolkien considered The Silmarillion his most important work, and, though it was published last and posthumously, this great collection of tales and legends clearly sets the stage for all his other writing. The story of the creation of the world...

Presents the epic depicting the Great War of the Ring, a struggle between good and evil in Middle-earth, following the odyssey of Frodo the hobbit and his companions on a quest to destroy the Ring of Power.

"The Fall of Gondolin centers on evil Morgoth, and his foe, Ulmo. At the heart of their power struggle is the hidden city of Gondolin, whose king, Turgon, is reviled by Morgoth. Guided unseen by Ulmo, the man Tuor sets out in search of Gondolin. There, he weds the king's daughter, with whom he has a son. As Morgoth attacks, Tuor and his family escape and Gondolin falls. Christopher Tolkien uses a 'history in sequence' mode in this edition. In...

A collection of illustrated letters from Father Christmas recapping the activities of the preceding year at the North Pole. The letters were written by the author to his children.

This third installment finds Middle-Earth on the verge of great change. Frodo and Sam are approaching Mount Doom to destroy the One Ring and a massive battle is about to ensue that will determine the fate of Middle Earth.

In this sixth volume of The History of Middle-earth the story reaches The Lord of the Rings. In The Return of the Shadow (an abandoned title for the first volume) Christopher Tolkien describes, with full citation of the earliest notes, outline plans, and narrative drafts, the intricate evolution of The Fellowship of the Ring and the gradual emergence of the conceptions that transformed what J.R.R. Tolkien for long believed would be a far shorter book,...

This book includes J.R.R. Tolkien's translation of Beowulf, as well as notes and commentaries he wrote to accompany it. Also includes the short prose text "Sellic Spell," an original work by Tolkien that reconstructs a folktale of Beowulf and his origins.