Steven F. Boettcher's  J.R.R. Tolkien Page

JRR TOLKIEN

 

This Page is still Under Construction.  I have put it up in this stage to get some feedback.  If you have any comments or suggestions about this page please email me.

J.R.R. Tolkien is the author of two works of fiction known around the world, The Hobbit and The Lord Of the Rings.  What I want to do with this page is to bring awareness to the other works and writings of J.R.R. Tolkien, especially those that deal with his Middle-earth mythology.  The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings take place in Middle-earth, during the end of the Third Age.  Tolkien spent most of his life working on tales that comprise the First and Second Age of Middle-earth.

 

Color Code: Yellow - basic text.   White - my comentary.  Green - Time (Age) eg. The First Age. Purple - Title of story eg. Valaquenta. Blue - Names eg. Frodo, Gandalf.  Pink - Race eg. Elves, Hobbits, Men. Orange - Location eg. Middle-earth, Beleriand. Red - Objects eg. The One Ring. Light Fuscia - Hyperlink.

 

These are all the Tolkien books that I own.

Primary Works                     Middle-earth Tales                        Others

 

 

Notes:

          The Hobbit (Or There and Back Again)

• This book is the tale of the Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, who finds the One Ring, though it is not stated so within the book.
• Originally, this book was not supposed to be a part of Tolkien's Middle-earth saga, but since he was already familiar with the settings and history of Middle-earth he set the Hobbit there.  It wasn't until The Lord Of The Rings was finished that we went back and revised the Hobbit so that it was more integrated with Middle-earth.
• Gandalf, the Wizard, and Elrond, the Half-Elven, appear in this book.
• There are 13 Dwarves that accompany Bilbo in this tale.
• Although he doesn't appear in this tale, Sauron is referred to as the Necromancer in this book.
• Orcs are called Goblins.
• Smaug is the last of the Dragons.
• Eagles play an important role in The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.
• The events in this book take place before The Lord of the Rings.
• This book, for the most part, is a children's book, but I highly recommend it. Plus it is necessary reading for the Lord of the Rings.

        Return to top

The Lord of the Rings

• This tale is broken up into 3 novels and each novel is broken up into 2 parts (called books).
• The Fellowship of the Ring is the first novel.
• The Two Towers is the second novel.
• The Return of the King is the third novel.
• Although The Lord Of The Rings was orginally a sequel to The Hobbit, it turned out to be more of a sequel to The Silmarillion.
• This is the epic tale of the hobbit, Frodo Baggins and his quest to destroy the One Ring.
• On this quest he is joined by his fellow hobbits Samwise (Sam) Gamgee, Meriadoc (Merry) Brandybuck, and Peregrin (Pippen) Took, the wizard Gandalf, the elf Legolas, the dwarf Gimli, and the men Aragorn (Strider) and Boromir.

·        The Lord of the Rings is Sauron.  He created the One Ring by putting much of his powers into the ring.   Without the One Ring, Sauron was not as powerful as he was before he created the ring.  The One Ring controls the nine Rings of Men, the seven Dwarf Rings and the three Elf Rings.  Sauron helped create all the rings except for the three elf rings and possibly one dwarf ring.  These rings posses  magical powers and give the bearer unusual strength and powers.   Almost all of the dwarf rings have been lost, though Sauron has recovered a few.   Sauron has in his possession the nine rings of men.   With them he controls the Nazgul (Ringwraiths, Black Riders). Elrond and Galadriel each have an elf ring. The third elf ring was originally in the possession of the elf Cirdan, but he willing gave it up to "a messenger from the West". Frodo possesses the One Ring which rules over all of the magical rings. Frodo's uncle, Bilbo Baggins originally found the One Ring (see The Hobbit).   (To find out more about the One Ring see The Silmarillion - Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age.)

• This is probably the best book I have ever read.

            Return to top

The Silmarillion

•  The primary focus of this book is the account of the First Age of Middle-earth and the history  of the Simarils.
•  This book is broken up into five parts.
•  Ainulindalë  (The Music of the Ainur) - The is the account of Eru (aka the One, Ilúvatar) and the Ainur and how they created the Earth.
• Valaquenta (The Account of the Valar and the Maiar) - The history of the Ainur (the Valar) on Earth.
• Quenta Silmarillion (The History of the Simarils) - The story of Elves and the legacy of the elf  Fëanor (who created the most beautiful jewels (the Simarils) ever, from the light of Two Trees) and the history of the First Age of Middle-earth.
•  Akallabêth (The Downfall of Númenor) - The history of the Second Age of Middle-earth with the focus on Men on the island of Númenor.
• Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age - A brief account of the history of the Rings (which are the focus of the book  The Lord of the Rings).  It tells of how Sauron helped create the Rings of Power, how he lost the One Ring and how he tried to regain the One Ring.

·        The book was published after the author's death, though he started writing it in 1915 as  The Book of Lost Tales.

•  Tolkien never truly finished these stories.  He was constantly revising these stories up till the time of his death in 1973.
•  It might take repeated reading before you truly enjoy this book.  You should read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings before reading The Silmarillion even though The Silmarillion takes place before the other two books.

Return to top

Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth

• This book has four parts, The First Age, The Second Age, The Third Age, a miscellaneous part.
• Part One: The First Age - The focus of this second is the stories of the cousins Tuor and Túrin.  Knowing that these tales are unfinished should not diminish their worth as a work of  literature or as a source in the history of Middle-earth.  I approached the works in this book as well as in the History of Middle-earth series not as works in progress, but as different accounts or traditions of the myth which is The Silmarillion.  When I read The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings or The Silmarillion, I don't read them as just a work of fiction but as legends from an almost forgotten past.  And since they are legends or myths, there might be one or more accounts of these stories as told from various sources (though all were written by Tolkien).  That is why there are different versions of the same story and why The Silmarillion is not entirely consistent.
• Of Tuor and His Coming to Gondolin - This is a more comprehensive story,  of Tuor, than found in the Silmarillion, though it is incomplete.  It ends just as Tuor enters the hidden city of Gondolin.  It is unfortunate that Tolkien never finished this tale for it is a very compelling story.
• Narn I Hîn Húrin - This is the tragic tale of the Children of Hurin: Túrin and Nienor.  This too is incomplete because a section in the middle of the story was never finished from the arrival of Beleg to Túrin fleeing from Nagothrond (though you can get the details from the Silmarillion).
• Part 2: The Second Age
• A Description of the Island of Númenor - Exactly as the title says.
• Aldarion And Erendis: A Mariner's Wife - An unfinished story of the life of future king of Númenor and his wife. Aldarion's true love was for sailing and he made many voyages to Middle-earth.  Apparently, he was of great help to the elf king Gil-galad during his wars with Sauron.  It is unfortunate that this story was never finished. 
• The Line of Elros: Kings of Númenor - A chronicle of the Kings and Queens of Númenor.
• The History of Galadriel and Celeborn - Various essays and fragments dealing with Galadriel and Celeborn.  Also the short story called The Elessar.                                                       
• Part 3: The Third Age
• The Disaster of the Gladden Fields - This tale tells the story of how Isildur lost the One Ring.
• Cirion and Eorl and the Friendship of Gondor and Rohan - An account of Cirion and Eorl early in the Third Age. We find out why Cirion of Gondor gave Eorl the land of Rohan.
• The Quest of Erebor - This tale tells how Gandalf talks Thorin Oakenshield into accepting Bilbo Baggins in the quest for the Lonely Mountain (Erebor).   This tales takes place just before the events in The Hobbit.
• The Hunt for the Ring - An account of Gollum and the Nazgul's (Ringwraiths, Black Riders) search for the One Ring.   We find out that all but the Chief Nazgul (The Witch King) is afraid of water.  Here we learn how the Nazgul found out about the location of the Shire.  Also Grima Wormtongue's betrayal of Saruman.
• The Battles of the Fords Of Isen - An account of Saruman's attack on Rohan.
• Part Four:
• The Drúedain - This essay deals with the race of Men called the Drúedain.  They appear in the Lord Of The Rings as the Wild Men.  It was Tolkien's intention to incorporate this group of Men into the history of The Silmarillion, but he never accomplished this.  The Drúedain were a short people, slightly taller than Hobbits, in fact a lot like Dwarves but short lived.  They also were highly skilled in stone carving and had magical powers.  Within this essay there is a short tale called The Faithful Stone.
• The Istari - The Wizards.  Origin and speculation concerning the Wizards.  Wizards were of the race Maiar.   The Blue Wizards are given names - Alatar and Pallando.  Saruman's (the White) true name is Curumo. Gandalf's (the Grey) true name is Olórin, though there is a brief essay where Tolkien played with the idea that Gandalf might in fact be Manwë (chief of the Valar).  Radagast's (the Brown) true name is Aiwendil.
• The Palantíri - An essay on the Palantíri (The Seeing Stones).
• This book was highly enjoyable, though a bit difficult to read.  As with the History of Middle-Earth series, this book contains many notes and you will find yourself flipping back and forth many times.  This can be tedious, but necessary.  Only read this book if you want to get more of the back-story of The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings.

Return to top

The History of Middle-Earth I

The Book of Lost Tales: Part One

• The Book Of Lost Tales was how Tolkien first envisioned the tales that would become The Silmarillion.
• In Part One, the stories go up to the coming of Mankind (though that story was never finished).
• Tolkien wanted to write a mythology for England and envisioned a story where a human mariner named Eriol (Ælfwine) sails to the land of Eressea and encounters Elves. There the Elves tell Eriol about the history of the Gods and the Elves.
• Note: These stories are very rough and written in a very archaic form.
• The first story is "The Cottage Of Lost Play".  Here Eriol meets the Elves and they begin their tales.  Each tale has a link where Eriol is told the tale.
• The Music Of The Ainur
• The Coming of the Valar and the Building of Valinor
• The Chaining of Melko
• The Coming of the Elves and the Making of Kôr
• The Theft of Melko and the Darkening of Valinor
• The Flight of the Noldoli
• The Tale of the Sun and Moon
• The Hiding of Valinor
• Gilfanon's Tale: The Travail of the Noldoli and the Coming of Mankind

History of Middle-Earth II

The Book Of Lost Tales: Part Two

• This book continues where Part One leaves off.
• The Tale of Tinuviel The Tale of Tinúviel
• Turambar and the Foalókë
• The Fall of Gondolin
• The Nauglafring
• The Tale of Eärendel
• The History of Eriol or Ælfwine and the End of the Tales

 

 

The History of Middle-Earth III

The Lays of Beleriand

·         The Lay of the Children of Húrin

·         Poems early abandoned   The Flight of the Noldoli Lay of Eärendel The Lay of the Fall of Gondolin

·         The Lay of Leithian

·         The Lay of Leithian recommenced

 

The History of Middle-Earth IV
The Shaping of Middle-Earth

·         The Earliest 'Silmarillion' (The 'Sketch of the Mythology')

·         The Quenta [Noldorinwa]

·         The First 'Silmarillion' Map

·         The Ambarkanta

·         The Earliest Annals of Valinor

·         The Earliest Annals of Beleriand

·          

 

The History of Middle-Earth V
The Lost Road and Other Writings

·         The story the Lost Road is an unfinished time travel novel (only a few chapters long) about
a father and son who travel back in time and eventually get to Numenor. This book also
has the earliest stories of the Fall of Numenor.

·         The Fall of Númenor

·         The Lost Road

·         The Later Annals of Valinor

·         The Later Annals of Beleriand

·         Ainulindalë

·         The Lhammas

·         Quenta Silmarillion

·         The Etymologies

·         The Genealogies

·         The List of Names

·         The Second 'Silmarillion' Map

·          

 

The History of Middle-Earth VI
The History of The Lord of The Rings Part 1
The Return of the Shadow

 

·         Early drafts of the first book of the LOTR up to Moria.  Tolkien orignally named the main
character, Bingo. Also, Strider (named Trotter) was a hobbit.

·         The First Phase

·         The Second Phase

·         The Third Phase

·         The Story Continued

·          

 

The History of Middle-Earth VII

The History of The Lord of The Rings Part 2

The Treason of Isengard

 

·         Early drafts of the first book of the LOTR up to Moria.  Tolkien orignally named the main
character, Bingo. Also, Strider (named Trotter) was a hobbit.

·         rewriting of Book I

·         Book II and III as far as ' The King of the Golden Hall'.

·         The first map

·         Appendix on Runes

 

The History of Middle-Earth VIII

The History of The Lord of The Rings Part 3

The War Of The Ring

·        The Fall of Saruman

·        The Ring Goes East

·        Minas Tirith

 

The History of Middle-Earth IX

The History of The Lord of The Rings Part 4

Sauron Defeated

·         This book includes the Epilogue that Tolkien wanted for the LOTR,but his publisher rejected.
 Also in this book, are the Notion Club Papers. The Notion Club Papers
is an unfinished novel that dealt with similar themes as The Lost Road.

·        The End of the Third Age 

·        The Notion Club Papers

• The Drowning of Anadûnê 

The History of Middle-Earth X

Morgoth's Ring

 

·        Ainulindalë II

·        The Annals of Aman

·        The Later Quenta Silmarillion

·        Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth

·        Myths Transformed

The History of Middle-Earth XI

The War of the Jewels

 

·        The Grey Annals

·        The Later Quenta Silmarillion II

·        The Wanderings of Húrin and other writings

·        Quendi and Eldar

 

The History of Middle-Earth XII

The Peoples of Middle-Earth

·         This book is the last of the History of Middle-earth series. It includes the beginnings of Tolkien's

·         sequel to LOTR called "A New Shadow" which is only a few pages long.    

·         The Prologue

·         The Appendix on Language

·         The Family Trees

·         The Calendars

·         The History of the Akallabêth 

·         The Tale of Years of the Second Age 

·         The Heirs of Elendil

·         The Tale of Years of the Third Age 

·         The Making of Appendix A 

·         Of Dwarves and Men 

·         The Shibboleth of Fëanor

·         The Problem of Ros 

·         Last Writings 

·         Dangweth Pengoloþ

·         Of Lembas

·         The New Shadow 

·         Tal-Elmar 

Bilbo's Last Song

·         A poem by Bilbo, composed on his way to the Grey Havens. Tolkien wrote this near the end of his life

	and gave it to his secretary as a gift.  

---

The Adventures of Tom Bombadil

·         Various poems about Tom Bombadil and other fantastical poems loosely based in  Middle-Earth.

	The second Bombadil poem was written just for this collection.  The other poems come from
The Lord of the Rings and other sources.

Farmer Giles of Ham

·         A story about a farmer who scares away a giant and becomes a reluctant hero to fight off
a dragon.  This is one of Tolkiens more famous shorter works.  

Tree By Niggle

·         A story about a painter spends his life painting the perfect leaf in hopes that he would someday paint the
 most perfect tree But, alas, he never finishes the tree except for the leaf.  And he journeys to a wonderful place
where his tree is real.   This is one of Tolkien's greatest and saddest stories that he ever wrote.
It is very autobiographical and parallels Tolkien's own endless quest to create the perfect Silmarillion.  Alas, 
that never happened in his lifetime.  I am sure that he has completed his masterpiece in his wonderful place.

Smith of Wotton Major

·         A story about a smith who becomes the town's baker's apprentice.  A story Tolkien wrote in the late 60's.

Mr. Bliss

·        The adventure of Mr. Bliss, his automobile and his very peculiar friends.  An early story Tolkien wrote and draw for his children

Roverandom

·        The adventures of a dog named Rover who journeyed to the Moon and under the ocean.

·        Tolkien created this story for his son Michael when his son lost a toy dog during a family holiday.

·         There are some references to Tolkien's Middle-earth mythology, especially to The Book Of Lost Tales.

	This story is a bit rough around the edges, but fun nonetheless.  It was published for the first time
in the 1990's.

The Father Christmas Letters
 

·         Drawers and letters that Tolkien made for his young children as if they came from Father Christmas
himself..   This is a wonderful collection of whimsical drawings and stories.  Great for the whole family.

---

Tree and Leaf

·         An anthology of an essay on Fairy Tales, Leaf By Niggle, and the poem Mythopia.   

---

The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

·         Letters written by Tolkien through his lifetime.    This is essential reading for it is rich in info
of the Hobbit, Lord Of the Rings, and the Silmarillion.

---

Pictures by J.R.R. Tolkien

·         Art and drawings by Tolkien, usually depicting scenes from his stories.

---

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

·         Three poems translated by Tolkien.   

---

Finn and Hengest

·         Tolkien's analysis of the Episode and the Fragment.  This is strictly for the Old English Scholar.

---

Poems and Stories

·          An anthology of  the Adventures of Tom Bombadil, and various stories like Farmer Giles.

---

The Road Goes Ever On  with Donald Swan

·          A collection of Tolkien's poetry set to music.  If you know how to play the piano, this is for you.

---

The Tolkien Reader

·      An anthology of  the Adventures of Tom Bombadil, and various stories like Farmer Giles.
        Similar to Poems And Stories.

---

The Monsters & The Critics

·         Various essays about Old English (Beowulf), Fairy Tales, etc.   This is for the serious Tolkien and 
and Old English Scholar.

---

Return to top