Standalone Scholarly, Essays, and Translations
Reading Order.

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Commentary (works not included). Pages: 25. Chapters: Books by J. R. R. Tolkien, Collections of works by J. R. R. Tolkien, Essays by J. R. R. Tolkien, Poetry by J. R. R. Tolkien, Short stories by J. R. R. Tolkien, Leaf by Niggle, On Fairy-Stories, Farmer Giles of Ham, Smith of Wootton Major, The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun, J. R. R. Tolkien bibliography, Finn and Hengest, Unfinished Tales, The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, The History of Middle-earth, Roverandom, Songs for the Philologists, Mythopoeia, Sigelwara Land, Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics, English and Welsh, The Father Christmas Letters, A Secret Vice, Tales from the Perilous Realm, The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son, Mr. Bliss, The Devil's Coach Horses, The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun, Tree and Leaf, Beowulf and the Critics, The Tolkien Reader, A Tolkien Miscellany, Ancrene Wisse and Hali Meiohad. Excerpt: The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun is a narrative poem composed by J. R. R. Tolkien. The book was released worldwide on May 5, 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and HarperCollins. Written by Tolkien during the 1920s and the 1930s, inspired by the legend of Sigurd and the fall of the Niflungs from Norse mythology. It is composed in a form of alliterative verse inspired by the traditional poetry of the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century. Christopher Tolkien has added copious notes and commentary upon his father's work. After the creation of the Nine Worlds by the Aesir, the walls of Asgard are besieged by an army of jotunns and trolls. Wielding the hammer Mjollnir, Thor succeeds in driving these, "foes immortal," back to Jotunheim. However, there are new perils to come. A female seer prophesies the apocalyptic battle of Ragnarok and speaks of how Odin shall be slain by the wolf Fenrir and Thor by the Midgard serpent....

8vo brown cloth with gilt lettering in dustwrapper.

Translation of the Middle English manual 'Ancrene Riwle' ('Rule for Anchoresses'), which was composed between 1225 and 1240 for the spiritual instruction of women. This edition contains an introduction by Dom Gerard Sitwell and a preface by J.R.R. Tolkien.

New edition of Tolkien's Tree and Leaf, illustrated for the first time by Pauline Baynes, which includes his famous essay, 'On Fairy-stories' and the story that exemplifies this, 'Leaf by Niggle', together with the poem 'Mythopoeia' and the verse drama, 'The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth', that tells of events following the disastrous Battle of Maldon. Fairy-stories are not just for children, as anyone who has read Tolkien will know. In his essay On Fairy-Stories, Tolkien discusses the nature of fairy-tales and fantasy and rescues the genre from those who would relegate it to juvenilia. The haunting short story, Leaf by Niggle, recounts the story of the artist, Niggle, who has 'a long journey to make' and is seen as an allegory of Tolkien's life. The poem Mythopoeia relates an argument between two unforgettable characters as they discuss the making of myths. Lastly, we are treated to The Homecoming of Beorthnoth which considers the wastefulness of war following the disastrous Battle of Maldon in 991. Tree and Leaf is an eclectic, amusing, provocative and entertaining collection of works which reveals the diversity of J.R.R. Tolkien's imagination, the depth of his knowledge of English history, and the breadth of his talent as a creator of fantastic fiction.

A new expanded edition of Tolkien's most famous, and most important essay, which defined his conception of fantasy as a literary form, and which led to the writing of The Lord of the Rings. Accompanied by a critical study of the history and writing of the text. J.R.R. Tolkien's "On Fairy-stories" is his most-studied and most-quoted essay, an exemplary personal statement of his views on the role of imagination in literature, and an intellectual tour de force vital for understanding Tolkien's achievement in the writing of The Lord of the Rings. "On Fairy-stories" comprises about 18,000 words. What is little-known is that when Tolkien expanded the essay in 1943, he wrote many more pages of his views that were originally condensed into or cut from the published version. An estimate is difficult, but these unpublished passages perhaps amount to half again as much writing as the essay itself. These passages contain important elaborations of his views on other writers, and their publication represents a significant addition to Tolkien studies. Included in this new critical study of the work are: An introductory essay setting the stage for Tolkien's 1939 lecture (the origin of the essay) and placing it within a historical context. A history of the writing of 'On Fairy-stories', beginning with coverage of the original lecture as delivered, and continuing through to first publication in 1947. The essay proper as published in corrected form in Tree and Leaf (1964). Commentary on the allusions in the text, and notes about the revisions Tolkien made to the text as published in Tree and Leaf. Important material not included in the essay as published, with commentary by the editors. Contained within "On Fairy-stories" are the roots of the tree of tales that bore such glittering fruit in Tolkien's published and unpublished work. Here, at last, Flieger and Anderson reveal through literary archaeology the extraordinary genesis of this seminal work and discuss, in their engaging commentary, how what Tolkien discovered during the writing of the essay would shape his writing for the rest of his life.

Selected letters discuss his books, their meanings, his interests and also reveal his view of the world.

Analyzes the depictions of the fifth century legendary heroes, Hengest and Finn, in the Anglo-Saxon poems, Beowulf and The fight at Finnesburg

Contains three stories from the age of chivalry, knights and holy quests.

Dual text on facing pages, now revised and updated. Critically acclaimed translation now in its twenty fifth year. Extensive notes, glossary and introduction .

Tolkien's version of the great legend of Northern antiquity. In the first part, we follow the adventures of Sigurd, the slayer of Fafnir, and his betrothal to the Valkyrie Brynhild. In the second, the tragedy mounts to its end in the murder of Sigurd at the hands of his blood-brothers, the suicide of Brynhild, and the despair of Gudrún.

From his creative attention to detail in these lectures there arises a sense of the immediacy and clarity of his vision. It is as if he entered into the imagined past: standing beside Beowulf and his men shaking out their mail shirts as they beached their ship on the coast of Denmark, listening to the rising anger of Beowulf at the taunting of Unferth, or looking up in amazement at Grendel's terrible hand set under the roof of Heorot. But the commentary in this book includes also much from those lectures in which, while always anchored in the text, he expressed his wider perceptions. He looks closely at the dragon that would slay Beowulf "snuffling in baffled rage and injured greed when he discovers the theft of the cup"; but he rebuts the notion that this is "a mere treasure story", "just another dragon tale". He turns to the lines that tell of the burying of the golden things long ago, and observes that it is "the feeling for the treasure itself, this sad history" that raises it to another level. "The whole thing is sombre, tragic, sinister, curiously real. The 'treasure' is not just some lucky wealth that will enable the finder to have a good time, or marry the princess. It is laden with history, leading back into the dark heathen ages beyond the memory of song, but not beyond the reach of imagination."

The first-ever publication of the collected poems of J.R.R. Tolkien, spanning almost seven decades of the author’s life and presented in an elegant three-volume hardcover boxed set. J.R.R. Tolkien aspired to be a poet in the first instance, and poetry was part of his creative life no less than his prose, his languages, and his art. Although Tolkien’s readers are aware that he wrote poetry, if only from verses in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, its extent is not well known, and its qualities are underappreciated. Within his larger works of fiction, poems help to establish character and place as well as further the story; as individual works, they delight with words and rhyme. They express his love of nature and the seasons, of landscape and music, and of words. They convey his humor and his sense of wonder. The earliest work in this collection, written for his beloved, is dated to 1910, when Tolkien was eighteen. More poems would follow during his years at Oxford, some of them very elaborate and eccentric. Those he composed during the First World War, in which he served in France, tend to be concerned not with trenches and battle, but with life, loss, faith, and friendship, his longing for England and the wife he left behind. Beginning in 1914, elements of his legendarium, “The Silmarillion,” began to appear, and the “Matter of Middle-earth” would inspire much of Tolkien’s verse for the rest of his life. The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien presents almost 200 works across three volumes, including more than 60 that have never before been seen. The poems are deftly woven together with commentary and notes by world-renowned Tolkien scholars Christina Scull & Wayne G. Hammond, placing them in the context of Tolkien’s life and literary accomplishments and creating a poetical biography that is a unique and revealing celebration of J.R.R. Tolkien.