{"product_id":"tolkiens-world-from-a-to-z-the-complete-guide-to-middle-earth","title":"Tolkien's World from A to Z: The Complete Guide to Middle-Earth","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBook info:\u003c\/strong\u003e Tolkien's World from A to Z: The Complete Guide to Middle-Earth (Paperback, 569 pages) – Del Rey, 2001. Language: English.\u003c\/p\u003e\n For the millions who have already ventured to Middle-earth—and for the countless others who have yet to embark on the journey—here is the one indispensable A-to-Z guide that brings Tolkien’s universe to life. EVERY CHARACTERFrom Adaldrida Brandybuck to Zaragamba—every Hobbit, Elf, Dwarf, Man, Orc, and other resident of Middle-earth is vividly described and accurately located in its proper place and time. EVERY PLACEColorful and detailed descriptions of geographical entries allow you to pick up the action anywhere in Middle-earth and follow it through The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and beyond.  EVERY THINGFrom stars and streams to food and flora, everything found in Middle-earth is alphabetically listed and, when necessary, cross-referenced. This is truly a master key to Tolkien’s Middle-earth.  \n        About the Author   Robert Foster is an assistant professor of English at Rutgers College. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he first encountered The Lord of the Rings during a summer in his early teens. Several years later he began tracing the etymology of names used in Tolkien’s works, a labor of love which eventually resulted in The Complete Guide to Middle-earth, a PhD in English and medieval studies from the University of Pennsylvania, and a scholarly career.           Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.   With the appearance of The Silmarillion, the publication of\u003cbr\u003eJ. R. R. Tolkien's mythopoesis is virtually complete. The\u003cbr\u003ereader can now appreciate the full scope and significance of the\u003cbr\u003ehistory of Aman and Middle-earth, the central stages in the great\u003cbr\u003edrama of the Creation of Eae. One can trace in detail the Light of\u003cbr\u003eAman from the Two Trees on Ezellohar to the renewing power of\u003cbr\u003ethe Phial of Galadriel in the stinking darkness of Shelob's Lair.\u003cbr\u003eThe terror felt there by Sam Gamgee is better understood after\u003cbr\u003ereading of the Unlight of Ungoliant, and Boromir's desire for the\u003cbr\u003eRing can be seen as a wisp of the Shadow of Melkor, who lusted\u003cbr\u003eafter Light but created only Darkness. Not only do the great conflicts\u003cbr\u003ebetween East and West--from the First War and the Battle of\u003cbr\u003ethe Powers to the Battle of Fornost and the War of the Ring--\u003cbr\u003ereveal the nature of good and evil and the immeasurable compassion\u003cbr\u003eof Iluvatar, but also, the identity of the forces that intervene\u003cbr\u003eto give victory to the good suggests the progressive freeing of Man\u003cbr\u003efrom the influence of both Valar and demons to work out his own\u003cbr\u003edestiny, known to Iluvatar alone.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWriting this revised edition of my Guide to Middle-earth has\u003cbr\u003eenhanced my awareness of these correspondences, designs which\u003cbr\u003eare surely central to the joy of Faerie and which give Professor\u003cbr\u003eTolkien's work its marvelous and profound coherence. But it has\u003cbr\u003ealso made me aware of the difference between the conception and\u003cbr\u003ethe realization of this cycle of myth and romance, between the\u003cbr\u003e'visionary scene' and its 'frame,' 1 between the Vision and the Text.\u003cbr\u003eThe 'seamless web of Story' 2 is indeed endless and without blemish,\u003cbr\u003ebut books--and lives--alas, are not. In the first edition of the\u003cbr\u003eGuide, I used any information available to me that I believed came\u003cbr\u003efrom Professor Tolkien and had been transmitted accurately; I\u003cbr\u003ehoped that these details would ultimately appear in print. But\u003cbr\u003enow--faced with a plethora of revised texts, calendars, letters, illustrations,\u003cbr\u003einterviews, anecdotes, and reports of conversations,\u003cbr\u003esome containing contradictory information--I have come to believe\u003cbr\u003ethat inconsistencies, sometimes deliberately maintained by\u003cbr\u003eProfessor Tolkien, occur where the details of the Vision were not\u003cbr\u003eclear to him, where he was stymied by a single leaf on the Tree,\u003cbr\u003enot sure of 'its shape, and its sheen, and the glistening of dewdrops\u003cbr\u003eon its edge,' 3 not yet ready to fix it in the Text. Yet these inconsistencies,\u003cbr\u003ewhich can bulk large in an alphabetic treatment of Faerie,\u003cbr\u003eshould not be allowed to detract from the general bloom of this\u003cbr\u003elushly foliated Tree.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSo this revised Guide is limited to the Text, to published works\u003cbr\u003eby Professor Tolkien in the latest editions available to American\u003cbr\u003ereaders. The basic text for The Lord of the Rings is again the Ballantine\u003cbr\u003epaperback edition, with emendations from the revised\u003cbr\u003eHoughton Mifflin hardback edition; Appendix C contains a concordance\u003cbr\u003ebetween the two editions. British editions contain several\u003cbr\u003efurther emendations, which I have not taken into account; of\u003cbr\u003ethose I have heard of or seen, the most significant is the change of\u003cbr\u003ed to dh in Galadrim and Caras Galadon, which resolves the confusion\u003cbr\u003e(encouraged, it seems, by the Elves themselves, as Christopher\u003cbr\u003eTolkien's comment in The Silmarillion on Galadhriel suggests)\u003cbr\u003ebetween Sindarin galad 'light' and galadh 'tree.' The three exceptions\u003cbr\u003eto this rule of Text are sources which seem particularly trustworthy:\u003cbr\u003ethe Pauline Baynes map of Middle-earth displays a number\u003cbr\u003eof place-names evidently given her by Professor Tolkien; Clyde\u003cbr\u003eKilby's intimate Tolkien and the Silmarillion contains intriguing hints\u003cbr\u003eof the End; so much of the information contained in Professor\u003cbr\u003eTolkien's letters to and conversations with my friend Dick Plotz\u003cbr\u003ehas been corroborated by The Silmarillion that I feel confident in\u003cbr\u003eusing other items.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn general, I hope that I have not forgotten the limits of a reference\u003cbr\u003ework. I count myself fortunate to have wandered in the\u003cbr\u003eFairy-realm of Arda for fifteen years now, and while my tongue is\u003cbr\u003ecertainly not tied, for the sake of my own delight I have learned\u003cbr\u003enot 'to ask too many questions, lest the gates should be shut and\u003cbr\u003ethe keys be lost.' 4 This Guide is intended to be supplementary to\u003cbr\u003ethe works of Professor Tolkien and no more; its value is that it can\u003cbr\u003eclarify deep-hidden historical facts and draw together scraps of information\u003cbr\u003ewhose relation is easily overlooked, thus aiding the\u003cbr\u003ewanderer in Arda in his quest for its particular Truth. When matters\u003cbr\u003eare unclear in the Text I have tried to remain silent, but those\u003cbr\u003eplaces where I have been unable to restrain my conjectures are liberally\u003cbr\u003esprinkled with 'perhaps', 'presumably', and such words. By\u003cbr\u003enow the entries which comprise this Guide represent the product\u003cbr\u003eof ten years of intermittent labor and frequent correction by myself\u003cbr\u003eand careful readers, until I can hope that the errors which remain\u003cbr\u003eare more mechanical than substantive.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThere is one major deviation from this conservative treatment\u003cbr\u003eof the Text. Unlike The Lord of the Rings, whose Appendix B provides\u003cbr\u003eprecise dates for the events of the Second and Third Ages,\u003cbr\u003eThe Silmarillion contains little exact chronological information\u003cbr\u003easide from sporadic indications of the passage of years ('But when\u003cbr\u003eTuor had lived thus in solitude as an outlaw for four years') and\u003cbr\u003erough dating from the first rising of the Sun. Desiring to make the\u003cbr\u003einformation concerning the First Age more compatible with that\u003cbr\u003efor later Ages, I have taken it upon myself to coordinate these\u003cbr\u003eindications of time into a Chronology of the First Age (Appendix\u003cbr\u003eA). This Chronology may help to unify in the minds of read-ers\u003cbr\u003ethe episodic sequence of events and personages in the Wars of\u003cbr\u003eBeleriand; by counting years, it also underscores the rapid collapse\u003cbr\u003eof Beleriand after Dagor Bragollach and the tragedies of the early\u003cbr\u003edeaths of Huor (at 31), Turin and Nienor (36 and 27), and Dior\u003cbr\u003e(about 39). In addition, I must confess to having succumbed to the\u003cbr\u003escholarly joys of writing an Appendix. The dates given for the\u003cbr\u003eFirst Age, therefore, both in the entries and in Appendix A, are\u003cbr\u003estrictly my own and should be taken as approximations rather than\u003cbr\u003eas completely trustworthy deductions; my derivation of these\u003cbr\u003edates is fully explained in the Appendix.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe principles involved in determining entries are fairly\u003cbr\u003esimple. In general, any capitalized word or phrase receives a separate\u003cbr\u003eentry unless it is a clearly identified epithet or a translation of\u003cbr\u003ea name not used independently of the main name; thus there is an\u003cbr\u003eentry for Sulimo but not for its full translation, Lord of the Breath of\u003cbr\u003eArda, and Voronwe as the epithet of Steward Mardil is not listed\u003cbr\u003eseparately. In addition, certain noncapitalized items (mostly the\u003cbr\u003enames of species and objects, such as the great spiders and ithildin)\u003cbr\u003ehave been included. Variant spellings (which in most cases reflect\u003cbr\u003eProfessor Tolkien's further development of the Eldarin languages)\u003cbr\u003eare noted, but most variations in the use of accent marks have\u003cbr\u003ebeen ignored. Page references in main entries are to significant references\u003cbr\u003eonly; cross-references usually cite the first occurrence\u003cbr\u003eonly. Geographical entries do not always cite the maps on which\u003cbr\u003ethe place in question is shown, and historical entries occasionally\u003cbr\u003euse dates given in Appendix B without citation; in both cases the\u003cbr\u003ereferences can easily be found. References to the various Indices\u003cbr\u003eare given only when they contain new information.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen entries are genuine forms in Middle-earth languages, I\u003cbr\u003ehave indicated this, giving translations wherever I am sure of\u003cbr\u003ethem. A question mark following a language identification or\u003cbr\u003etranslation obviously indicates uncertainty. Translated Rohirric\u003cbr\u003e(Old English) forms are occasionally translated again into modern\u003cbr\u003eEnglish; the language of other forms is indicated as 'tr.--' wherever\u003cbr\u003eI felt there was a possibility of confusing them with Elvish or\u003cbr\u003egenuine Mannish forms. However, by and large I have not indicated\u003cbr\u003ethe language of names and terms 'Anglicized' into English,\u003cbr\u003eGermanic, or Celtic equivalents; as Appendix F of The Return of\u003cbr\u003ethe King suggests, most Adunaic, Rohirric, Westron, Mannish, and\u003cbr\u003eHobbitish forms have been so translated. In The Lord of the Rings I\u003cbr\u003ehave assumed that English versions of Middle-earth names (e.g.,\u003cbr\u003eTreebeard for Fangorn) represent Westron forms used by Men and\u003cbr\u003eHobbits. But in The Silmarillion this is obviously not the case, since\u003cbr\u003eWestron did not develop until the late Second Age. Here I have\u003cbr\u003eassumed that the English versions, even though capitalized, are\u003cbr\u003emerely translations intended for the convenience of the reader,\u003cbr\u003enot translated Mannish names.      ","brand":"Robert Foster","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46068875493610,"sku":"9780345449764","price":21.53,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0714\/5301\/6298\/files\/91Kzt9H4oJL._SL1500.jpg?v=1781188002","url":"https:\/\/textbookme.store\/products\/tolkiens-world-from-a-to-z-the-complete-guide-to-middle-earth","provider":"TextbookMe","version":"1.0","type":"link"}