Books by J R R Tolkien

“Tolkien is mainly known for The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and so on, but he was a Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford and wrote a fair number of scholarly works and articles. The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún is a creative work, consisting of two long poems written in Modern English but mainly in epic metre. Now, the main manuscript in which the eddic poems are preserved is called the Codex Regius, and the unfortunate thing is that some eight leaves of this manuscript are missing…This is essentially the story of how Sigurd and Brynhild get together and are betrothed, but in various ways are tricked, so that Sigurd marries Gudrún instead. Brynhild in revenge arranges for Sigurd to be killed and then she commits suicide. We know the details of the story from various sources, but the sources conflict with each other, and Tolkien does his best to give them coherent form.” Read more...

The best books on Old Icelandic Culture

Rory McTurk, Theologians & Historians of Religion

“This one book, which was published in 1937, defined so many variables for the fantasy tradition that are still in place today. Tolkien’s extraordinary achievement was to recover the epic landscapes of Anglo-Saxon myth, bring them back to life, and then to take us through them on foot, so we could see the details up close, at human scale. The Hobbit is both mythic and relatable at the same time – The New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik called it ‘an arranged marriage between the Elder Edda and The Wind in the Willows’, and I think that’s entirely fair. Though I would give more credit to the bass register of Tolkien’s imagination, its abyssal depths. Mole never delved as deep as the Mines of Moria.” Read more...

The best books on Fantasy

Lev Grossman, Novelist

“Beren and Lúthien is based on Tolkien’s own experience. It was inspired by seeing his own wife, Edith, dancing in a wood, under the moonlight, amongst hemlock flowers. And this created an image in his mind that he kept on reworking throughout his life. But that it the central image. When she died he had the name Lúthien inscribed on her gravestone. When Tolkien died, his children inscribed the name Beren on his.” Read more...

Books Drawn From Myth and Fairy Tale

Alan Lee, Cartoonists & Illustrator

“Tolkien didn’t set out to write novels, he set out to create a world. He wrote The Hobbit almost by accident–because he was telling the stories to his children, you see. After that his publishers wanted a follow up to The Hobbit, so he said ‘Well, I’ve got this thing I’ve been working on,’ which was the manuscript of The Silmarillion. They balked at that and asked if he had anything else with more Hobbits in it. So, he set himself to the task of writing a sequel which grew and grew and grew.” Read more...

Books Drawn From Myth and Fairy Tale

Alan Lee, Cartoonists & Illustrator

“It is essentially about the sons of a man called Húrin who are trying to recover what they lost with his death. They are claiming their own stories and glories, trying to be good people, and often failing.” Read more...

If You Liked The Lord of the Rings: Other Books in Tolkien’s World

Valentin, Children

“Every December an envelope bearing a stamp from the North Pole would arrive for J R R Tolkien’s children. The letters were from Father Christmas.” Read more...

The best books on Elves

Igreth the Elf, Miscellaneou

“Gondolin is an elvish city in the mountains in a vast land, that has survived through being hidden for centuries.” Read more...

If You Liked The Lord of the Rings: Other Books in Tolkien’s World

Valentin, Children