Thread: The Complete Tolkien Companion
There is, of course, Robert Foster's Complete Guide to Middle Earth, David Day's Tolkien Bestiary, and another one by David Day which I cannot remember the name of just now.
Is that the one by JEA Tyler, Aule?
There is, of course, Robert Foster's Complete Guide to Middle Earth, David Day's Tolkien Bestiary, and another one by David Day which I cannot remember the name of just now.
Yeah the postAuthorID is J.E.A. Tyler and it is completely MARVELOUS!! Never heard of the other ones but my sister said she bought another book about Tolkien and his work......maybe it was Complete Guide to M-E by Robert Foster? oh well....
As to more Tolkien books, I love Tolkien: Author of the Century by Tom Shippey. It analyzes LotR, the Hobbit, The Sil., Leaf by Niggle and Farmer Giles of Ham. It also points out some ancient literature from which Tolkien may have drawn his ideas.
If you are interested in books about Tolkien as a person, I strongly recommend Humphrey Carpenters biography, called simply Tolkien, and The Letters of JRR Tolkien, also compiled by Carpenter.
I found it quite interesting but I do not fully know if it is true or not! So you can see my dilemma!
I prefer Foster. Foster, to me, has created a great (not necessarily perfect) internal guide -- that is, a guide to everything Tolkien himself published plus the 1977 Silmarillion. Even Christopher Tolkien recommended it... I think he did anyway (I seem to recall him mentioning it at least).
Tyler, by trying to update his book (I have an old edition), has 'mixed' things a bit. Granted the 1977 Silmarillion is not author-published, but it is the only 'shared Silmarillion' on bookshelves, and that alone, I think, means that it's the best candidate for such a guide.
Add The Children of Hurin these days too -- although I'm not sure there is an edition that considers this fairly recent publication. I have a version of Foster's guide that was written before the Silmarillion was published.