Customer Reviews

Guide to Tolkien's World: A Bestiary

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In the Dark Ages, bestiaries were volumes (often illustrated) were written as allegorical or moralizing works on the appearance and traits of real or imaginary animals. They were often thick and lavishly illustrated, and their text described in detail such mythical creatures as griffins, gargoyles, giants, and dog-headed men.

David Day's Guide to Tolkien's World: A Bestiary (also published as A Tolkien Bestiary) is a beautifully written and illustrated bestiary, containing entries on the 129 different races that inhabited Middle-Earth. Fauna and flora, ranging from the Athelas (kingsfoil) plant to the awesome Warg are vividly described, and all of Tolkien's major works (The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion) are covered. The black and white drawings depict the various races (Elves, Men, Orcs, Istari, Vala, Maia...) and the color plates depict major events from the Creation of the World to the Ringbearers' departure to the West.

A must have for Tolkien fans.

Alex Diaz-Granados

This book is a must for Tolkien fans because of its utter comprehensiveness! Anything you need to know is in here and it is very user friendly.

I found this book very informative of Tolkien's world, from first to last, The First Age forward, I got this paperback and it is well made and the black and white drawings are descriptive. Like I said a plus for your Tolkien library.

Many people care for the art in Day's books. I don't. But still, the real problems are in the text. Day constantly goes above and beyond what Tolkien writes (when he doesn't simply get it wrong) ceating a world that is as much or more his than Tolkien's. This book is interesting as a faux medeival bestiary but as a guide or analysis of Tolkien's world it is very poor indeed. Robert Foster, J.E. Tyler, Micheal Martinez, Tom Shippey, and the like are simply much more careful scholars. Read their books instead.