Additional books

[Taurendil]

Does anyone have any additional books to Tolkien works? I mean like Guides to Middle-earth, Atlases of Middle-earth or anything like that. If yes, are they useful and, say, essential? Or maybe History of Middle-earth Volumes and the Letters are enough??
I'm thinking about buying a book like that

[EG]

I have the Maps of Middle Earth.

They are great.. I love looking them up, especially when Im reading the books, to trace journeys.

Im afraid I dont ahve many of the "other books" other than the Silmarillion .... simply because I dont ahve time to read them all.. and im not sure which would be best to read (essentially Id like to broaden my knowledge of Tolkien's elves..)

[Taurendil]

If you want to improve your knowledge of the elves you should read one of the History of Middle-earth volumes (Can't remember which, but I'm sure someone here knows).

Do these maps you're saying of greatly differ from the maps in the Lord of the Rings, the Silmarillion?

[Rowiel the Elven Maiden]

i have the guides to the movie and the arts based of the three books, there are surely a bonus! i really recommend them

[Lessa]

let's see I have the Silmarillion, the Unfinished tales, the book of lost tales parts1 and 2, Tales from the perilous realm, the hobbit, Farmer Giles of Ham, an all in one lotr with appendice (2nd copy as first one fell to pieces I'd read it that much).

I think that covers all of it

[Taurendil]

let's see I have the Silmarillion, the Unfinished tales, the book of lost tales parts1 and 2, Tales from the perilous realm, the hobbit, Farmer Giles of Ham, an all in one lotr with appendice (2nd copy as first one fell to pieces I'd read it that much).

I think that covers all of it

No, Lessa. I meant books that aren't necessarily written by the Tolkiens but about JRRT's world. And not about the movies. Books that help you to better understand and analise the Tolkien world. Like I said, Guides to Middle-earth and so on. Not including the Silmarillion, History of Middle-earth volumes, Leaf by Niggle, Adventures of Tom Bombadil and so on.

[Rowiel the Elven Maiden]

stuff from the movie then? like the ones i meantioned.. the guides and stuff like that are good? as they do give some insight to middle earth....

[Taurendil]

stuff from the movie then? like the ones i meantioned.. the guides and stuff like that are good? as they do give some insight to middle earth....

Nope. Not from the movie. Not connected to the movie in any way.

[Rowiel the Elven Maiden]

oh i see... *seatches her library*

[Lessa]

no nothing by anyone else about Tolkien's Middle-earth

[Rowiel the Elven Maiden]

once i saw this book that was a sort of analiysis of tolkiens LOTR.. but i forgot the author... when i find out ill post the name..

[Mithrandir]

There are loads of books not by Tolkien but about his world, and to be honest I'm not a fan of many of them.

I can, however, recommend the following (some are posthumously by Tolkien): The Letters of JRR Tolkien by Humphrey Carpenter, JRR Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull; The Complete Guide to Middle-earth by Robert Foster (very good); The Ring of Words by Peter Gilliver, Jeremy Marshall and Edmund Weiner (about the names The Lord of the Rings as well as Tolkien's work on the OED); The Annotated Hobbit by Douglas A. Anderson; The Lord of the Rings - A Reader's Companion by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull; The Complete Tolkien Companion by J. E. A. Tyler; The Atlas of Tolkien's Middle-earth by Karen Wynn Fonstad; The Science of Middle-earth by Henry Gee; The Road to Middle-earth by Tom Shippey; JRR Tolkien: A Biography by Humphrey Carpenter.

That is by no means an exhaustive list but those are books supplementary to Tolkien's works, in my opinion. Those are books which, in my opinion, help you understand Tolkien's works (and Tolkien himself) a lot better. Some of them don't really help you understand the story but are about the Tolkien, and some of them are just interesting.

If you are looking for books which analyse and discuss the content of Tolkien's works, then I can't really help you too much there because I read those sorts of opinions on the Internet rather than in books. But the following is a very short list of examples of books which are "discussions" of the work: Finding God in The Lord of the Rings by Kurt Brunder; Following Gandalf by Matthew T. Dickerson; Tolkien's Legendarium: Essays on the History of Middle-earth by Verlyn Flieger and Carl F. Hostetter; and Tolkien Studies: An Annual Scholarly Review by Michael Drout, Douglas Anderson and Verlyn Flieger.

[Taurendil]

Thanx, Mith! That's exactly what I was looking for.

[Mithrandir]

Anything for you.

[Theo]

The Complete Guide to Middle-earth by Robert Foster (very good)

 I can vouch for that; this one is very good..  I love it!

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