The Complete Guide to Middle-Earth (Paperback)

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Key Phrases: third age, second age, first age, Minas Tirith, Misty Mountains, Durin's Folk (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With the release of The Fellowship of the Rings in movie theaters this December, Tolkien enthusiasts might consider Robert Foster's The Complete Guide to Middle-earth: From The Hobbit Through The Lord of the Rings and Beyond as essential to their viewing pleasure as popcorn. For anyone who's ever wondered "who's Beren?," "where's the Great Shelf?" or "what's the Council of Gondor?," this A-Z reference describes every person, locates every place and explains everything in Tolkien's saga.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

'Middle-earth is the country of J.R.R. Tolkien's tales -- the territory of Sauron, Bilbo Baggins, Gandalf and Sam Gamgee -- whose legends, history, geography and inhabitants combine to make a unique fictional world. This Guide is a comprehensive reference work to every name and event in Tolkien's books, from The Hobbit to The Silmarillion.' Daily Telegraph 'Mr Robert Foster's Complete Guide to Middle-earth supplies, as I have found through frequent use, an admirable work of reference.' CHRISTOPHER TOLKIEN --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 569 pages
• Publisher: Del Rey; Revised edition (December 4, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345449762
• ISBN-13: 978-0345449764
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (64 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #142,324 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In my book this is 10 stars!, July 7, 2000

By	Peter Dykhuis (Grandville, MI USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Complete Guide to Middle-Earth: From the Hobbit to the Silmarillion (Mass Market Paperback)

I can't say enough good about this book. As a companion resource to the any of Tolkien's novels based in mythical Middle Earth this is the perfect companion. This isn't a series of essays and it doesn't try to explain the twists of plot in all of Tolkien's books. What this book does is give complete, sourced and easy to find definitions for nearly ALL of the terms, places and people in Middle Earth.

Ever wonder what the difference between the Maiar and the Istari? Want to know a brief history of Morgoth, the original poison in Middle Earth? This is the book for you. I had to work VERY hard to find any obscure term not included in this book. Not only is this book complete but it is cross-referenced and multiple terms are listed. For instance both Melkor and Morgoth are listed separately so you will find him regardless of which name you look him up under.

What a wonderful piece of work. This book has furthered my reading enjoyment of the Lord of the Rings and opened the Silmarillion to me in a entirely new light. A definite A+ recommendation.

35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is the all-time best Tolkien resource, December 13, 2000

By	Michael Martinez (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Complete Guide to Middle-Earth: From the Hobbit to the Silmarillion (Mass Market Paperback)

I feel a bit of nostalgia whenever I open this book because it takes me back more than twenty years to when I was first beginning to study Tolkien's world. Robert Foster's glossary is now sadly outdated because so many informative books have been published by Christopher Tolkien, but none of the tertiary sources written by other Tolkien researchers even come close to Foster's dedicated achievement.

Unlike some early Tolkien indexers, Foster usually refrains from mixing his opinions with the facts he is reporting. His occasional guesses and interpretations may be wrong but given the information available when the book was written they are solid and well-considered. Many more recent books have contained unforgivably egregious errors because those later authors had access to material Foster didn't.

The sources that Foster covers include some of Tolkien's private correspondence, and the research has been vindicated by Humphrey Carpenter's Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien. Foster's other sources include The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, Pauline Baynes' 1969 map of Middle-earth (on which she was advised by Tolkien himself), and the first edition of The Road Goes Ever On.

The most impressive section, however, is Foster's attempt to devise a chronology of the First Age. Such a chronology could be achieved with any hope of accuracy only after Christopher Tolkien published The War of the Jewels in 1994, 16 years after Foster published the Complete Guide. Foster's guesswork was off by no more than a few years. I still glance through his chronology for a quick reference when I just need to be reminded of critical dates.

My only regret is that this book was never updated, although I heard a rumor that HarperCollins was looking for someone to revise it. It would be good to see a much fuller guide published, but only if Foster's impeccable standard was adhered to.

26 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best reference on the subject, December 8, 1999

By	Mario Bergeron (Calgary, Alberta, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Complete Guide to Middle-Earth: From the Hobbit to the Silmarillion (Mass Market Paperback)

The book truly deserves praise. The most wanted quality of a reference is its completeness. I assure you: there are NO entries missing. Places, people, topics and events are ALL present. There are many cross-references that help you find more about a specific subject. I've been in Sciences for quite a few years and read intensively. In many books I've read, the index is often weak and incomplete. As an index, the book fulfills my wishes, everything is there. Furthermore all entries receive a complete description and explains relationships with other subjects. This work is apparently a Ph.D., well it certainly deserves the title.