Tolkien

[glen]

2 Questions:
1. What is the best encyclopedia or companion book such as The Complete Guide to Middle-Earth and Atlas of Middle-Earth today?
2. What other Tolkien books are connected to LOTR besides the Hobbit?

 

[kami]

1. I really like The Guide to Middle-earth. Whenever I need to lookup a name, location, thing, battle, etc. it is there.
2.
Let's see...

The Hobbit
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
The Simarillion
Unfinished Tales
The Book of Lost Tales (History of Middle-earth, volume 1)
The Book of Lost Tales 2 (History of Middle-earth, volume 2)
The Lays of Beleriand (History of Middle-earth, volume 3)
The Shaping of Middle-earth (History of Middle-earth, volume 4)
The Lost Road and other Writings (History of Middle-earth, volume 5)
The Return of the Shadow (History of Middle-earth, volume 6 [History of The Lord of the Rings, part 1])
The Treason of Isengard (History of Middle-earth, volume 7 [History of The Lord of the Rings, part 2])
The War of the Ring (History of Middle-earth, volume 8 [History of The Lord of the Rings, part 3])
Sauron Defeated: The End of the Third Age (History of Middle-earth, volume 9)
Morgoth's Ring: The Later Simarillion, Part 1 (History of Middle-earth, volume 10)
The War of the Jewels: The Later Simarillion, Part 2 (History of Middle-earth, volume 11)
The Peoples of Middle-earth (History of Middle-earth, volume 12)

Another extremely valuable book to have is The Letters of JRR Tolkien. To me anyway 😛
🙂

 

[glen]

One more thing:

Where can I find a list of all the creatures and ideas in Tolkien?s books that says which he created, like hobbits, and which he did not create, like dragons?

 

[glen]

<< Unfinished Tales
The Book of Lost Tales (History of Middle-earth, volume 1)
The Book of Lost Tales 2 (History of Middle-earth, volume 2)
The Lays of Beleriand (History of Middle-earth, volume 3)
The Shaping of Middle-earth (History of Middle-earth, volume 4)
The Lost Road and other Writings (History of Middle-earth, volume 5)
The Return of the Shadow (History of Middle-earth, volume 6 [History of The Lord of the Rings, part 1])
The Treason of Isengard (History of Middle-earth, volume 7 [History of The Lord of the Rings, part 2])
The War of the Ring (History of Middle-earth, volume 8 [History of The Lord of the Rings, part 3])
Sauron Defeated: The End of the Third Age (History of Middle-earth, volume 9)
Morgoth's Ring: The Later Simarillion, Part 1 (History of Middle-earth, volume 10)
The War of the Jewels: The Later Simarillion, Part 2 (History of Middle-earth, volume 11)
The Peoples of Middle-earth (History of Middle-earth, volume 12) >>



Did he write all of those? Are they "official?"

 

[kami]

Well he wrote LOTR, Simarillion, and The Hobbit.

The rest was just his notes put together and edited by his son, Christopher.

Yes they are "official"...it does say J.R.R. Tolkien right on the books 🙂

 

[glen]

Where can I find a list of all the creatures and ideas in Tolkien?s books that says which he created, like hobbits, and which he did not create, like dragons?

I used to have a web page bookmarked which had all this info.