Customer Reviews

A Tolkien Bestiary

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Simply put, the other illustrated guides to Middle Earth are enormously inadequate next to this. The information is first rate, neither dumbed down for the common reader nor tediously verbose. Do check it against things like J.E.A. Tyler's A Tolkien Companion, but still it is infomative and moreover written with flare. While the A-Z tellings of the goings on in Middle Earth are solid, the illustrations are unparalleled. Buy this book for Ian Miller's vision alone, because it is sadly one of the only books in print that showcases this genius, sadly forgotten in his own time. Now he draws the occasional magic card and art for the FASA line of Role Playing Games, but his art in A Tolkien Bestiary is unabashidly furious and unrelenting, dark and majestic. Today John Howe and Alan Lee serve more or less adequately to show us Middle Earth, but they are little kids and Miller is a master. Keep your fingers crossed that Peter Jackson has a copy of this, and that we'll see something vaguely Milleresque in the new flicks. This book also has early works from John Blanche, who went on to pioneer the dark grit of Games Workshop's Warhammer world. If you are at all interested in illustration and you haven't seen this book before, it will take you to school. When I was a kid I had this book checked out from the library more or less constantly for 10 years, in the process acruing a small fortune in late fees. It was sadly out of print and so I couldn't buy it (and I was a good kid, so I didn't steal it). Get the book. It's super. Tolkien would have dug it.

The Tolkien Beastiary is a lavishly illustrated book which plunges deeply into the wonderful world dreamed up by J.R.R. Tolkien. David Day's use of colorful illustrations mixed with facinating, well written history makes this book not just informative, but a fantastic addition to The Guide To Middle Earth. It will provide hours of reading pleasure. I would recommend this handsome oversized "coffee table book" to any and all fans of Middle Earth.

David Day is one of the more imaginative Tolkien annotators ever to be published. His work is completely without merit from a scholarly point of view because he makes up his facts and includes many misleading details. He is constantly hammered by Tolkien researchers on the Internet.

What he brings to the realm of Middle-earth commentary is an imaginative retelling of Tolkien's mythology. It's unique, if not legitimate. He lacks Tolkien's style and depth, but many people have enjoyed Day's books through the years despite their inaccuracy.

These books make good conversationalist pieces, but the reader should beware. They won't teach you much about Tolkien's world and what little they have to offer in the way of accurate information is washed away by the unauthorized additions and changes.

Day calls this compendium a 'bestiary' largely because of the medieval flavor such a title conveys; but the equally medieval 'encyclopedia' would be a more accurate term. The book lays out the fundamentals of Tolkien's world, from the cosmology of the posthumous "Silmarillion" to minor details of hobbit-lore. Some attack Day's lack of Tolkien 'scholarship', though this hardly seems fair of a work intended more as a textbook primer than a serious study. He irons out some rough spots and inconsistencies in Tolkien's sprawling mythology to create a somewhat simplified, smoother corpus, and this is no mean feat. More distressing is the wildly uneven quality of the copious illustrations, which are meant to make this a richly atmospheric coffee-table book. Some of the artwork is beautifully rendered, but much is indifferent, and some is downright amateurish, despite the fact that all contributors are purportedly artists of some acclaim (different standards seem to apply in the relatively closed circles of illustrators who define themselves as 'fantasy artists'). Still, for many who'd like a glimpse at the historical depths and rich cosmology behind Middle Earth but don't wish to sift through the vast corpus of Tolkien texts extant, the Tolkien Bestiary is a generally adequate effort.

In this beautifully illustrated work, David Day has brought Tolkien's vast and complex mythological system to life in the structure of the medieval bestiary. The traditional bestiary was an illustrated encyclopaedia of natural history compiled by scribes, about the magical and monstrous beings inhabiting the medieval mind. This exquisite work encompasses not only the beasts and monsters of The Lord Of The Rings, The Hobbit and The Silmarillion, but also the plants, the nations, races and deities, vividly illuminating all the creations of Tolkien's remarkable world. The book starts with a map of Middle Earth and the Undying Lands surrounded by the encircling sea and also showing the island of Numenor in the great sea. Then follows a double-page chart of the chronology of Arda, demonstrating the order of events through the ages, from the creation to the fourth age. The next spread is a chronology of the kingdoms of Middle-Earth in the ages of the sun from the first age to the War of the Rings. The encyclopaeda proper starts with "Ainur" and takes the reader on a dazzling journey, beautifully illustrated in colour and black and white, to the last entry which is "Yrch." This is followed by a genealogy of the races of Elves, a genealogy of the races of Men, an index of principal sources, and the concluding with a general index. The black and white illustrations are of creatures, races and flora while those in colour follow a chronological sequence from the creation to the end of the War of the Ring and depict broad landscapes, major battles and events like the destruction of Mordor and the departure of the Ringbearers. Amongst these, my favurites include The Vision and Creation of Arda, Trees Of The Valar, The Shire, Death Of Smaug The Golden, Lothlorien And Cerin Amroth, Fall Of Isengard, Wounding Of Shelob The Great and The Golden Hall Of The Rohirrim. In line with the literary form of the bestiary, the text has an archaic flavor that mirrors the writing in Tolkien's own work. Unlike in for example Robert Fosters "Complete Guide To Middle-Earth," there aren't minutely detailed entries, in other words you will find Shelob under "Spiders" not under an own entry, but the general index at the end makes up for that. There are however, different entries for Grey Elves, Green Elves, Fair Elves and Sea Elves, as well as a long main entry under "Elves." My favorite black and white illustrations are found under the entry "Maiar" which discusses, amongst others, Melian, the River-Woman of the Withywindle and Goldberry, wife of Tom Bombadil. David Day has succeeded in providing both a practical reference to Tolkien's work and in paying homage to the imagination of the greatest storyteller of the 20th century. A Tolkien Bestiary is a masterpiece, a true work of genius and I recommend it to all Tolkien fans.

David Day's Tolkien Bestiary is a lovely book, filled with color and monochrome drawings and maps. Arranged alphabetically, it makes researching races and groups of creatures fairly easy. The drawings are beautiful.

The reader must keep in mind, however, that this is not a full encyclopedia of Tolkien's world. You won't find a listing for Aragorn under "A", for instance. Also, the descriptions of various races and animals have sometimes been enlarged from the original. This is an interesting read in itself, but do not expect this to be completely true to The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings.

Most readers who pick up this book will probably already have read The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. If not, go to them first.

I was very impressed with this book, although some people will probably not enjoy it too much. First of all, this is not a complete guide to Middle-Earth (like the Robert Foster book). For example, you can't look up the word Bilbo and find a definition of the famous burglar himself. Instead you would look up the word Hobbit, and then you would see a description of Hobbits as a race of people. In other words, this is a complete guide to the different species of Middle-Earth, and boy is it complete. It even details the flora and fauna of Middle-Earth. One thing the average fan may enjoy, however, is the beautiful illustrations included. There are about 36 color illustrations and well over one-hundred black and white sketches to help visualize the elements of Tolkien's works. These illustrations are from artists not normally associated with Tolokien. Here are some of the artists: Ian Miller, Allan Curless, John Blanche, Sue Porter, and Victor Ambrus. In addition to all of this, the book has a map of Middle-Earth, and two chronology charts of time during Middle-Earth. As the book states itself "the value of a Tolkien Bestiary lies in its ability to assist in opening up Tolkien's magical world through impeccably researched explanations and haunting, atmospheric illustrtations of rare brilliance." So, if you are only an average fan of maybe The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings, you will probably not want to get this book. However, if you are a hard core Tolkien fanatic who really enjoys the entire World of Tolkien, you should pick this title up today. p.s. I love the painting titled "The Death of Smaug the Golden" on page 166-7.

There are many great reference books out there to guide fans both old and new through the intricacies of Tolkien's Middle-Earth. This is not one of them. While this book does contain a good deal of accurate information, much of the rest is either David Day's own invention or just plain wrong. The composite map at the beginning of the book scarcely even makes sense when compared to those drawn by Tolkien himself. The book is an interesting conversation starter, but it is not faithful to The Lord of the Rings and the Silmarillion. It gains a second star primarily because of the beauty of some of the illustrations it contains. For a true encyclopedia of Arda, search elsewhere. There are any number of other books, as well as on-line resources, that are much better researched.

I'm just responding to the review in which the fellow claims the book is 'worse than useless' - I'm a hugely critical reader, in spite of which I enjoyed and found useful the entries in this book. Most entries are very close to what one might call the 'official definition.' There are a few entries that are 'richer' than the official texts provide for, but it's pretty easy to detect the 'story-teller's voice' What's more, these embellishments don't detract from the story and don't frivolously change it.

Ever since I read Lord of the rings I have been fascinated by this 'new world' of Tolkien. I tried to read 'The Silmarillion', however, I found it a difficult read and so for a long time I did not know too much about the history of the middle earth and the undying lands. Recently, I got my hands on "A Tolkien Bestiary" and was finaly hooked. This book is an easy read, and is usefull as a reference book, one ends up paging back and forth referencing particular subject matter. In so doing one gets a better understanding of the complexity of Tolkien's world. It has inspired me to fight my way through 'The Silmarillion', however I am continuously referencing back to the Bestiary in order to gain clarity on certain issues.

For those who are reading 'Lord of The Rings' either for the first, second or third time the Tolkien Bestiary is an essential reference manual, because it will clarify and give insite into what the characters of the three books are facing during their journeys. Terminologies used in Lord of the rings will be explained, and knowledge of the histories of the characters in 'Lord of The Rings' will enhance the pleasure of this magnificent trilogy.

The illustrations bring the visual aspect to life and have been well done sticking very closely to Tolkien's descriptions.They are vivid, original and clearly of another world.

There are however gaps in 'A Tolkien Bestiary' which have at times proved frustrating. Whilst David Day has been quite thorough in describing the characters in the Tolkien world, he has left out some key characters. For example, whilst there are references to Celebrimbor, in the book there is no detailed account of him and his fashioning of the rings of power. In a similar vein there are no detailed headings of Smeagol, the Rings of Power or Sauron. These are referenced under other titles, hence the need to page back and forth under various headings in order to get the full picture.

I would also have liked to have seen more genealogies. Currently the 'Genealogy of the Races of Elves and Men' are a usefull reference, however there is no genealogy of the Dwarves, Hobbits and the dark characters of Sauron and Melkor.

All in all this is a brilliant book and a must for any avid Tolkien follower.