A journey in search of Middle-earth In 1911, at the age of nineteen, J. R. R. Tolkien embarked on an adventurous journey through the Swiss Alps; with a heavy pack, he hiked over many high passes. More than fifty years later, he mentioned in a letter to his son Michael that this trip had deeply affected him. Bilbo's journey in The Hobbit from Rivendell to the other side of the Misty Mountains, he said, was based on his own adventures in 1911. Tolkien himself named a few specific sources of inspiration, most explicitly the Silberhorn (Silverhorn). So I wondered: Was this perhaps only the tip of the iceberg? Following in Tolkien's footsteps, I myself set out into the spectacular mountain world with its stories, myths, and legends, in search of his sources of inspiration; and little by little, a vivid and mysterious world revealed itself to me: a world that helped shape Middle-earth. More than 100 color images accompany the author's research and discovery journey, along with 11 hiking and 3 road trip suggestions that allow readers to recreate Tolkien's experience with all its impressions themselves in the Swiss mountains. "This book is above all else an invitation to step into Tolkien's hiking shoes, shoulder his pack, and step back a century into a world which is as far from today as Middle-earth is from our world; a guidebook of impressions, a walking tour of the nature of imagination and the imagination of nature." - John Howe

In 1911 a 19 year old J.R.R. Tolkien finished his schooling and had won a place at Oxford University for the coming academic year in October. He was invited to join a party of walkers who were touring Switzerland, including his brother and aunt, his brother's employers family and family friends. They spent the summer in the Bernese Oberland and the Valais in Switzerland. The experiences he had there, the places he saw, opened his mind and provided direct inspiration for his invented world of Middle earth and his major works - The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and The Silmarillion. Those weeks in Switzerland gave him the bedrock of scenery to drawn upon to create his detailed landcapes. Switzerland was the gateway to Faerie.

In J.R.R. Tolkien's footsteps, the author embarks on a breathtaking journey through the Swiss Alps in search of sources of inspiration for Middle-earth, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, illustrated with 127 color images.

An expertly written investigation of the places that shaped the work of one of the world's best loved authors, exploring the relationship between worlds real and fantastical.

Written by the writer and broadcaster Brian Sibley, this slipcase features Tolkien's maps of The Hobbit, Beleriand and Middle-earth. Each map is presented in a box-set illustrated by Tolkien artist John Howe, the conceptual artist employed by Peter Jackson to work on his Lord of The Rings film trilogy. The maps, presented with individual books and wallets show Tolkien's mythical lands in detail - they are also bound with fewer folds, making them suitable for portfolios or framing.

An illustrated journey into the life and imagination of one of the world's best-loved authors, Tolkien's Worlds provides a unique exploration of the relationship between the real and the fantastical and is an essential companion for anyone who wants to follow in Tolkien's footsteps.

Best known for his epic Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien was born in British-occupied South Africa. His early life was full of action and adventure. Tolkien spent his childhood roaming the British countryside with his family and could read and write by age four. He was naturally gifted with languages and used this skill as a signals officer in World War I as well as in his fantasy writing. By creating alternate universes and inventing languages in his work he demonstrated that imaginary realms were not just for children. Fondly remembered as the “Father of High Fantasy,” Tolkien’s books have inspired blockbuster movies and legions of fans.

This volume analyzes the literary role played by history in the works of J. R. R. Tolkien. It argues that the events of The Lord of the Rings are placed against the background of an already-existing history, both in reality and in the fictional worlds of the books. History is unfolded in various ways, both in explicitly archival annals and in stories told by characters on the road or on the fly, and in which different visions of history emerge. In addition, the history within the work can resemble, or be patterned on, histories in our world. These histories range from the deep past of prehistoric and ancient worlds to the early medieval era of the barbarian invasions and Byzantium, to the modern worlds of urbane civility and a paradoxical longing for nature, and finally to great power rivalries and global prospects. The book argues that Tolkien did not employ these histories indiscriminately or reductively. Rather, he regarded them as aspects of aesthetic and representative figuration that are above all literary. While most criticism has concentrated on Tolkien’s use of historical traditions of Northern Europe, this book argues that Tolkien also valued Southern and Mediterranean pasts and registered the Germanic and the Scandinavian pasts as they related to other histories as much as his vision of them included a primeval mythic aura.

Tolkien, Race, and Racism in Middle-earth is the first systematic examination of how Tolkien understood racial issues, how race manifests in his oeuvre, and how race in Middle-earth, his imaginary realm, has been understood, criticized, and appropriated by others. This book presents an analysis of Tolkien’s works for conceptions of race, both racist and anti-racist. It begins by demonstrating that Tolkien was a racialist, in that his mythology is established on the basis of different races with different characteristics, and then poses the key question “Was Tolkien racist?” Robert Stuart engages the discourse and research associated with the ways in which racism and anti-racism relate Tolkien to his fascist and imperialist contemporaries and to twenty-first-century neo-Nazis and White Supremacists—including White Supremacy, genocide, blood-and-soil philology, anti-Semitism, and aristocratic racism. Addressing a major gap in the field of Tolkien studies, Stuart focuses on race, racisms and the Tolkien legendarium.

Fimi explores the evolution of Tolkien's mythology throughout his lifetime by examining how it changed as a result of his life story and contemporary cultural and intellectual history. This new approach and scope brings to light neglected aspects of Tolkien's imaginative vision and contextualizes his fiction.