Remembering J. R. R. Tolkien

[Minas Tirith]

Northmoor Road 22 in Oxford

Views

Tolkien was a devout Roman Catholic, and in his religious and political views he was mostly conservative, in the sense of favouring established conventions and orthodoxies over innovation and modernization; in 1943 he wrote "My political opinions lean more and more to Anarchy (philosophically understood, meaning abolition of control, not whiskered men with bombs) – or to 'unconstitutional' Monarchy." As already given above, Tolkien's devout faith was significant in the conversion of C. S. Lewis from atheism to Christianity, although Tolkien was greatly disappointed that Lewis chose to return to Anglicanism, rather than becoming a Catholic like himself.

In the last years of his life, he became greatly disappointed by the reforms and changes implemented after the Second Vatican Council, and at several times voiced his support for the Pre-Conciliar Tridentine Mass in the Latin language, and spoke at traditionalist meetings - although he died in the early years of the Traditionalist movement.

The question of racist or racialist elements in Tolkien's views and works has been the matter of some scholarly discussion. Christine Chism distinguishes accusations as falling into three categories: intentional racism, unconscious Eurocentric bias, and an evolution from latent racism in Tolkien's early work to a conscious rejection of racist tendencies in his late work.

Tolkien is known to have condemned Nazi "race-doctrine" and anti-Semitism as "wholly pernicious and unscientific". He also said of apartheid in his birthplace South Africa,

the treatment of colour nearly always horrifies anyone going out from Britain.

He also spoke out against it in his valedictory address to the University of Oxford in 1959,

I have the hatred of apartheid in my bones; and most of all I detest the segregation or separation of Language and Literature. I do not care which of them you think White.

Tolkien had nothing but contempt for Adolf Hitler, whom he accused of "perverting ... and making for ever accursed, that noble northern spirit" which was so dear to him. However, he could get more agitated over "lesser evils" that struck nearer home; he denounced Anti-German fanaticism in the British war effort during World War II. In 1944, he wrote in a letter to his son Christopher:

But it is distressing to see the press grovelling in the gutter as low as Goebbels in his prime, shrieking that any German commander who holds out in a desperate situation (when, too, the military needs of his side clearly benefit) is a drunkard, and a besotted fanatic ... There was a solemn article in the local paper seriously advocating systematic exterminating of the entire German nation as the only proper course after military victory: because, if you please, they are rattlesnakes, and don't know the difference between good and evil! (What of the writer?) The Germans have just as much right to declare the Poles and Jews exterminable vermin, subhuman, as we have to select the Germans: in other words, no right, whatever they have done.

He also voiced support for Francisco Franco's Falangist regime during the Spanish Civil War upon learning that Republican death squads were destroying churches and killing large numbers of priests and nuns. He expressed admiration for the South African poet, Fascist and fellow Catholic Roy Campbell in a 1944 letter. Since Campbell had served with Franco's armies in Spain, Tolkien regarded him as a defender of the Catholic faith, while C. S. Lewis was "violently" critical of Campbell's fascist sympathies.

He was horrified by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, referring to the Bomb's creators as "these lunatic physicists" and "babel-builders".

His love of myths and devout faith came together in his assertion that he believed that mythology is the divine echo of "the Truth". This view was expressed in his poem Mythopoeia (defending myth-making), and his idea that myths held "fundamental truths" became a central theme of the Inklings in general.

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Tolkien's cover design for the three volumes of The Lord of the Rings

[Minas Tirith]

Northmoor Road 20 in Oxford

Writing

Beginning with The Book of Lost Tales, written while recuperating from illness during World War I, Tolkien devised several themes that were reused in successive drafts of his legendarium. The two most prominent stories, the tales of Beren and Lúthien and that of Túrin, were carried forward into long narrative poems (published in The Lays of Beleriand). Tolkien wrote a brief summary of the legendarium these poems were intended to represent, and that summary eventually evolved into The Silmarillion, an epic history that Tolkien started three times but never published. Tolkien hoped to publish it along with The Lord of the Rings, but publishers (both Allen & Unwin and Collins) got cold feet; moreover printing costs were very high in the post-war years, leading to The Lord of the Rings being published in three books. The story of this continuous redrafting is told in the posthumous series The History of Middle-earth, which was edited by Tolkien's son, Christopher Tolkien. From around 1936, he began to extend this framework to include the tale of The Fall of Númenor, which was inspired by the legend of Atlantis.

Tolkien was strongly influenced by English history and legends, for which he often confessed his love, but he also drew influence from Celtic — Scottish and Welsh — history and legends, as well as from many other European countries such as Scandinavia and Germany. He was also influenced by Anglo-Saxon literature, Germanic and Norse mythologies, Finnish mythology and the Bible. The works most often cited as sources for Tolkien's stories are Beowulf, the Kalevala, the Poetic Edda, the Volsunga saga and the Hervarar saga. Tolkien himself acknowledged Homer, Sophocles, and the Kalevala as influences or sources for some of his stories and ideas. His borrowings also came from numerous Middle English works and poems. A major philosophical influence on his writing is Alfred the Great's Anglo-Saxon translation of Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy known as the Lays of Boethius. Characters in The Lord of the Rings such as Frodo, Treebeard, and Elrond make noticeably Boethian remarks. Also, Catholic theology and imagery played a part in fashioning his creative imagination, suffused as it was by his deeply religious spirit.

In addition to his mythopoetic compositions, Tolkien enjoyed inventing fantasy stories to entertain his children. He wrote annual Christmas letters from Father Christmas for them, building up a series of short stories (later compiled and published as The Father Christmas Letters). Other stories included Mr. Bliss, Roverandom, Smith of Wootton Major, Farmer Giles of Ham and Leaf by Niggle. Roverandom and Smith of Wootton Major, like The Hobbit, borrowed ideas from his legendarium. Leaf by Niggle appears to be an autobiographical allegory, in which a "very small man", Niggle, works on a painting of a tree, but is so caught up with painstakingly painting individual leaves or elaborating the background, or so distracted by the demands of his neighbour, that he never manages to complete it.

Tolkien never expected his stories to become popular, but he was persuaded by C. S. Lewis to publish a book he had written for his own children called The Hobbit in 1937. However, the book attracted adult readers as well, and it became popular enough for the publisher, George Allen & Unwin, to ask Tolkien to work on a sequel.

Even though he felt uninspired on the topic, this request prompted Tolkien to begin what would become his most famous work: the epic three-volume novel The Lord of the Rings (published 1954–55). Tolkien spent more than ten years writing the primary narrative and appendices for The Lord of the Rings, during which time he received the constant support of the Inklings, in particular his closest friend Lewis, the author of The Chronicles of Narnia. Both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are set against the background of The Silmarillion, but in a time long after it.

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Tolkien's monogram, and Tolkien Estate trademark.

Tolkien at first intended The Lord of the Rings to be a children's tale in the style of The Hobbit, but it quickly grew darker and more serious in the writing. Though a direct sequel to The Hobbit, it addressed an older audience, drawing on the immense back story of Beleriand that Tolkien had constructed in previous years, and which eventually saw posthumous publication in The Silmarillion and other volumes. Tolkien's influence weighs heavily on the fantasy genre that grew up after the success of The Lord of the Rings.

After the publication of the final volume of The Lord of the Rings in 1955, Tolkien continued to work both on the earlier stories and the later stories and material concerning Middle-earth. He continued such work right up until his death 18 years later in 1973. Tolkien had appointed his son Christopher to be his literary executor, and he (with assistance from Guy Gavriel Kay, later a well-known fantasy author in his own right) organized some of the unpublished material into a single coherent volume, published as The Silmarillion in 1977—his father had previously attempted to get a collection of 'Silmarillion' material published together with The Lord of the Rings. In 1980 Christopher Tolkien followed The Silmarillion with a collection of more fragmentary material under the title Unfinished Tales. In subsequent years (1983–1996) he published a large amount of the remaining unpublished materials together with notes and extensive commentary in a series of twelve volumes called The History of Middle-earth. They contain unfinished, abandoned, alternative and outright contradictory accounts, since they were always a work in progress, and Tolkien only rarely settled on a definitive version for any of the stories. There is not even complete consistency between The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, the two most closely related works, because Tolkien was never able to fully integrate all their traditions into each other. He commented in 1965, while editing The Hobbit for a third edition, that he would have preferred to completely rewrite the entire book.

The John P. Raynor, S.J., Library at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin preserves many of Tolkien's manuscripts, notes and letters; other original material is in Oxford University's Bodleian Library. Marquette has the manuscripts and proofs of The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and other works, including Farmer Giles of Ham, while the Bodleian holds the Silmarillion papers and Tolkien's academic work.

The Lord of the Rings became immensely popular in the 1960s and has remained so ever since, ranking as one of the most popular works of fiction of the 20th century, judged by both sales and reader surveys. In the 2003 "Big Read" survey conducted by the BBC, The Lord of the Rings was found to be the "Nation's Best-loved Book". Australians voted The Lord of the Rings "My Favourite Book" in a 2004 survey conducted by the Australian ABC.[78] In a 1999 poll of Amazon.com customers, The Lord of the Rings was judged to be their favourite "book of the millennium". In 2002 Tolkien was voted the ninety-second "greatest Briton" in a poll conducted by the BBC, and in 2004 he was voted thirty-fifth in the SABC3's Great South Africans, the only person to appear in both lists. His popularity is not limited to the English-speaking world: in a 2004 poll inspired by the UK’s "Big Read" survey, about 250,000 Germans found The Lord of the Rings to be their favourite work of literature.

In September 2006, Christopher Tolkien, who had spent 30 years working on his father's unpublished manuscripts, announced that The Children of Húrin has been edited into a completed work for publication in 2007; it was released on April 17, 2007. J. R. R. Tolkien had first written what he called the Húrin's saga (and later the Narn) in 1918, and rewritten it several times, including as an epic poem, but never completed his mature, novelistic version. Extracts from the latter had been published before by Christopher Tolkien in Unfinished Tales, with other texts appearing in The Silmarillion and his later literary investigations of The History of Middle-earth.

It has seemed to me for a long time that there was a good case for presenting my father's long version of the legend of The Children of Hurin as an independent work, between its own covers.

[Minas Tirith]

Sandfield Road 76 in Headington, Oxford

Languages

Both Tolkien's academic career and his literary production are inseparable from his love of language and philology. He specialized in Ancient Greek philology in college, and in 1915 graduated with Old Norse as special subject. He worked for the Oxford English Dictionary from 1918, and is credited with having worked on a number of W words, including walrus, over which he struggled mightily. In 1920, he went to Leeds as Reader in English Language, where he claimed credit for raising the number of students of linguistics from five to twenty. He gave courses in Old English heroic verse, history of English, various Old English and Middle English texts, Old and Middle English philology, introductory Germanic philology, Gothic, Old Icelandic, and Medieval Welsh. When in 1925, aged thirty-three, Tolkien applied for the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship of Anglo-Saxon, he boasted that his students of Germanic philology in Leeds had even formed a "Viking Club".

Privately, Tolkien was attracted to "things of racial and linguistic significance", and he entertained notions of an inherited taste of language, which he termed the "native tongue" as opposed to "cradle tongue" in his 1955 lecture English and Welsh, which is crucial to his understanding of race and language. He considered West Midlands Middle English his own "native tongue", and, as he wrote to W. H. Auden in 1955, "I am a West-midlander by blood (and took to early west-midland Middle English as a known tongue as soon as I set eyes on it)".

Parallel to Tolkien's professional work as a philologist, and sometimes overshadowing this work, to the effect that his academic output remained rather thin, was his affection for the construction of artificial languages. The best developed of these are Quenya and Sindarin, the etymological connection between which formed the core of much of Tolkien's legendarium. Language and grammar for Tolkien was a matter of aesthetics and euphony, and Quenya in particular was designed from "phonaesthetic" considerations; it was intended as an "Elvenlatin", and was phonologically based on Latin, with ingredients from Finnish and Greek.[85] A notable addition came in late 1945 with Adûnaic or Númenórean, a language of a "faintly Semitic flavour", connected with Tolkien's Atlantis legend, which by The Notion Club Papers ties directly into his ideas about inheritability of language, and via the "Second Age" and the story of Eärendil was grounded in the legendarium, thereby providing a link of Tolkien's twentieth-century "real primary world" with the legendary past of his Middle-earth.

Tolkien considered languages inseparable from the mythology associated with them, and he consequently took a dim view of auxiliary languages: in 1930 a congress of Esperantists were told as much by him, in his lecture A Secret Vice, "Your language construction will breed a mythology", but by 1956 he concluded that "Volapük, Esperanto, Ido, Novial, &c, &c, are dead, far deader than ancient unused languages, because their authors never invented any Esperanto legends".

The popularity of Tolkien's books has had a small but lasting effect on the use of language in fantasy literature in particular, and even on mainstream dictionaries, which today commonly accept Tolkien's revival of the spellings dwarves and elvish (instead of dwarfs and elfish), which had not been in use since the mid-1800s and earlier. Other terms he has coined such as eucatastrophe are mainly used in connection with Tolkien's work.

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Works inspired by Tolkien

In a 1951 letter to Milton Waldman, Tolkien writes about his intentions to create a "body of more or less connected legend", of which

The cycles should be linked to a majestic whole, and yet leave scope for other minds and hands, wielding paint and music and drama.

The hands and minds of many artists have indeed been inspired by Tolkien's legends. Personally known to him were Pauline Baynes (Tolkien's favourite illustrator of The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Farmer Giles of Ham) and Donald Swann (who set the music to The Road Goes Ever On). Queen Margrethe II of Denmark created illustrations to The Lord of the Rings in the early 1970s. She sent them to Tolkien, who was struck by the similarity they bore in style to his own drawings.

But Tolkien was not fond of all the artistic representation of his works that were produced in his lifetime, and was sometimes harshly disapproving.

In 1946, he rejected suggestions for illustrations by Horus Engels for the German edition of The Hobbit as "too Disnified",

Bilbo with a dribbling nose, and Gandalf as a figure of vulgar fun rather than the Odinic wanderer that I think of.

He was sceptical of the emerging Tolkien fandom in the United States, and in 1954 he returned proposals for the dust jackets of the American edition of The Lord of the Rings:

Thank you for sending me the projected 'blurbs', which I return. The Americans are not as a rule at all amenable to criticism or correction; but I think their effort is so poor that I feel constrained to make some effort to improve it.

And in 1958, in an irritated reaction to a proposed movie adaptation of The Lord of the Rings by Morton Grady Zimmerman he wrote

I would ask them to make an effort of imagination sufficient to understand the irritation (and on occasion the resentment) of an author, who finds, increasingly as he proceeds, his work treated as it would seem carelessly in general, in places recklessly, and with no evident signs of any appreciation of what it is all about.

He went on to criticize the script scene by scene ("yet one more scene of screams and rather meaningless slashings"). But Tolkien was in principle open to the idea of a movie adaptation. He sold the film, stage and merchandise rights of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings to United Artists in 1968, while, guided by scepticism towards future productions, he forbade that Disney should ever be involved.

United Artists never made a film, though at least John Boorman was planning a live-action film in the early seventies; apparently it would have been more to Tolkien's liking than an animated film. In 1976 the rights were sold to Tolkien Enterprises, a division of the Saul Zaentz Company, and the first movie adaptation of The Lord of the Rings appeared in 1978, an animated rotoscoping film directed by Ralph Bakshi with screenplay by the fantasy writer Peter S. Beagle. It however only contained the first half of the story of The Lord of the Rings. In 1977 an animated TV production of The Hobbit was made by Rankin-Bass, and in 1980 they produced an animated The Return of the King, which covered some of the portions of The Lord of the Rings that Bakshi was unable to complete.

In 2001–3, New Line Cinema released The Lord of the Rings as a trilogy of live-action films directed by Peter Jackson. Among veteran fans reviews were mixed. Casting and characterizations were praised while alterations to central story concepts drew passionate disagreement from Tolkien loyalists. The series was extremely successful however - performing well commercially, winning numerous Oscars and exposing the work to a wider audience.

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Blue plaques

There are five blue plaques that commemorate places associated with Tolkien, one in Oxford and four in Birmingham. The Birmingham plaques commemorate three of his childhood homes right up to the time he left to attend Oxford University. The Oxford plaque commemorates the residence where Tolkien wrote The Hobbit and most of The Lord of the Rings.


Address Commemoration Date unveiled Issued by
Sarehole Mill
Hall Green, Birmingham "Inspired" 1896–1900
(i. e. lived nearby) 15 August 2002 Birmingham Civic Society and
The Tolkien Society
1 Duchess Place
Ladywood, Birmingham Lived near here 1902–1910 Unknown Birmingham Civic Society[94]
4 Highfield Road
Edgbaston, Birmingham Lived here 1910–1911 Unknown Birmingham Civic Society and
The Tolkien Society
 
Plough and Harrow
Hagley Road, Birmingham Stayed here June 1916 June 1997 The Tolkien Society
20 Northmoor Road
Oxford Lived here 1930–1947 3 December 2002 Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Board

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Sarehole Mill's blue plaque.

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The Plough and Harrow's blue plaque.

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Fiction and poetry
•   1936 Songs for the Philologists, with E.V. Gordon et al.
•   1937 The Hobbit or There and Back Again, ISBN 0-618-00221-9 (HM).
•   1945 Leaf by Niggle (short story)
•   1945 The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun, published in Welsh Review
•   1949 Farmer Giles of Ham (medieval fable)
•   1953 The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son (a play written in alliterative verse), published with the accompanying essays Beorhtnoth's Death and Ofermod, in Essays and Studies by members of the English Association, volume 6.
•   The Lord of the Rings
o   1954 The Fellowship of the Ring: being the first part of The Lord of the Rings, ISBN 0-618-00222-7 (HM).
o   1954 The Two Towers: being the second part of The Lord of the Rings, ISBN 0-618-00223-5 (HM).
o   1955 The Return of the King: being the third part of The Lord of the Rings, ISBN 0-618-00224-3 (HM).
•   1962 The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Other Verses from the Red Book
•   1964 Tree and Leaf (On Fairy-Stories and Leaf by Niggle in book form)
•   1966 The Tolkien Reader (The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son, On Fairy-Stories, Leaf by Niggle, Farmer Giles of Ham, and The Adventures of Tom Bombadil)
•   1967 The Road Goes Ever On, with Donald Swann
•   1967 Smith of Wootton Major

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Academic and other works
•   1922 A Middle English Vocabulary, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 168 pp.
•   1925 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, co-edited with E.V. Gordon, Oxford University Press, 211 pp.; Revised edition 1967, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 232 pp.
•   1925 Some Contributions to Middle-English Lexicography, published in The Review of English Studies, volume 1, no. 2, pp. 210–215.
•   1925 The Devil's Coach Horses, published in The Review of English Studies, volume 1, no. 3, pp. 331–336.
•   1929 Ancrene Wisse and Hali Meiðhad, published in Essays and Studies by members of the English Association, Oxford, volume 14, pp. 104–126.
•   1932 The Name 'Nodens', concerning the name Nodens, published in Report on the Excavation of the Prehistoric, Roman, and Post-Roman Site in Lydney Park, Gloucestershire, Oxford, University Press for The Society of Antiquaries.
•   1932–34 Sigelwara Land parts I and II, in Medium Aevum, Oxford, volume 1, no. 3 (December 1932), pp. 183–196 and volume 3, no. 2 (June 1934), pp. 95–111.
•   1934 Chaucer as a Philologist: The Reeve's Tale, in Transactions of the Philological Society, London, pp. 1–70 (rediscovery of dialect humour, introducing the Hengwrt manuscript into textual criticism of Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales)
•   1937 Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics, London, Humphrey Milford, 56 pp. (publication of his 1936 lecture on Beowulf criticism)
•   1939 The Reeve's Tale: version prepared for recitation at the 'summer diversions', Oxford, 14 pp.
•   1939 On Fairy-Stories (1939 Andrew Lang lecture) - concerning Tolkien's philosophy on fantasy, this lecture was a shortened version of an essay later published in full in 1947.
•   1944 Sir Orfeo, Oxford, The Academic Copying Office, 18 pp. (an edition of the medieval poem)
•   1947 On Fairy-Stories (essay - published in Essays presented to Charles Williams, Oxford University Press) - first full publication of an essay concerning Tolkien's philosophy on fantasy, and which had been presented in shortened form as the 1939 Andrew Lang lecture.
•   1953 Ofermod and Beorhtnoth's Death, two essays published with the poem The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth, Beorhthelm's Son in Essays and Studies by members of the English Association, volume 6.
•   1953 Middle English "Losenger": Sketch of an etymological and semantic enquiry, published in Essais de philologie moderne: Communications présentées au Congrès International de Philologie Moderne (1951), Les Belles Lettres.
•   1962 Ancrene Wisse: The English Text of the Ancrene Riwle, Early English Text Society, Oxford University Press.
•   1963 English and Welsh, in Angles and Britons: O'Donnell Lectures, University of Cardiff Press.
•   1964 Introduction to Tree and Leaf, with details of the composition and history of Leaf by Niggle and On Fairy-Stories.
•   1966 Contributions to the Jerusalem Bible (as translator and lexicographer)
•   1966 Foreword to the Second Edition of The Lord of the Rings, with Tolkien's comments on the varied reaction to his work, his motivation for writing the work, and his opinion of allegory.
•   1966 Tolkien on Tolkien (autobiographical)

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Pub "The Eagle and Child" in Oxford

Posthumous publications

•   1975 Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings (edited version) - published in A Tolkien Compass by Jared Lobdell. Written by Tolkien for use by translators of The Lord of the Rings, a full version, re-titled "Nomenclature of The Lord of the Rings," was published in 2005 in The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull ISBN 0-618-64267-6.
•   1975 Translations of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl (poem) and Sir Orfeo
•   1976 The Father Christmas Letters
•   1977 The Silmarillion ISBN 0-618-12698-8 (HM).
•   1979 Pictures by J. R. R. Tolkien
•   1980 Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth ISBN 0-618-15405-1 (HM).
•   1980 Poems and Stories (a compilation of The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son, On Fairy-Stories, Leaf by Niggle, Farmer Giles of Ham and Smith of Wootton Major)
•   1981 The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien (eds. Christopher Tolkien and Humphrey Carpenter)
•   1981 The Old English "Exodus" Text translation and commentary by J. R. R. Tolkien; edited by Joan Turville-Petre. Clarendon Press, Oxford
•   1982 Finn and Hengest: The Fragment and the Episode
•   1982 Mr. Bliss
•   1983 The Monsters and the Critics (an essay collection)
o   Beowulf: the Monsters and the Critics (1936)
o   On Translating Beowulf (1940)
o   On Fairy-Stories (1947)
o   A Secret Vice (1930)
o   English and Welsh (1955)
•   1983–1996 The History of Middle-earth:
I.   The Book of Lost Tales 1 (1983)
II.   The Book of Lost Tales 2 (1984)
III.   The Lays of Beleriand (1985)
IV.   The Shaping of Middle-earth (1986)
V.   The Lost Road and Other Writings (1987)
VI.   The Return of the Shadow (The History of The Lord of the Rings vol. 1) (1988)
VII.   The Treason of Isengard (The History of The Lord of the Rings vol. 2) (1989)
VIII.   The War of the Ring (The History of The Lord of the Rings vol. 3) (1990)
IX.   Sauron Defeated (The History of The Lord of the Rings vol. 4, including The Notion Club Papers) (1992)
X.   Morgoth's Ring (The Later Silmarillion vol. 1) (1993)
XI.   The War of the Jewels (The Later Silmarillion vol. 2) (1994)
XII.   The Peoples of Middle-earth (1996)
o   Index (2002)
•   1995 J. R. R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator (a compilation of Tolkien's art)
•   1998 Roverandom
•   2002 A Tolkien Miscellany - a collection of previously published material
•   2002 Beowulf and the Critics ed. Michael D.C. Drout (Beowulf: the monsters and the critics together with editions of two drafts of the longer essay from which it was condensed.)
•   2005 Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings (full version) - published in The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull ISBN 0-618-64267-6. Re-titled to "Nomenclature of The Lord of the Rings" in this book. Written by Tolkien for use by translators of The Lord of the Rings, an edited version had been published in 1975 in A Tolkien Compass by Jared Lobdell.
•   2007 The Children of Húrin
•   2007 The History of The Hobbit
Audio recordings
•   1967 Poems and Songs of Middle-earth, Caedmon TC 1231
•   1975 JRR Tolkien Reads and Sings his The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings, Caedmon TC 1477, TC 1478 (based on an August, 1952 recording by George Sayer)

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Notes and references
1.   ^ a b c d de Camp, L. Sprague (1976). Literary Swordsmen and Sorcerers: The Makers of Heroic Fantasy. Arkham House. ISBN 0-87054-076-9. 
2.   ^ Mitchell, Christopher. J. R. R. Tolkien: Father of Modern Fantasy Literature (Google Video). "Let There Be Light" series. University of California Television. Retrieved on 2006-07-20..
3.   ^ L. Sprague de Camp: 'The Miscast Barbarian: Robert E. Howard' in Literary Swordsmen and Sorcerers: The Makers of Heroic Fantasy
4.   ^ Westfahl, Gary, ed. (2005). The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Themes, Works, and Wonders. Greenwood Press. ISBN 0313329508. 
5.   ^ Carpenter, Humphrey and Tolkien, Christopher (eds.) (1981). The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, no. 165. ISBN 0-395-31555-7. 
6.   ^ (undergraduate John Jethro Rashbold, and "old Professor Rashbold at Pembroke"; J. R. R. Tolkien (1992). in Christopher Tolkien (ed.): Sauron Defeated. Boston, New York, & London: Houghton Mifflin, page 151. ISBN 0-395-60649-7. ; Carpenter, Humphrey and Tolkien, Christopher (eds.) (1981). The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, no. 165. ISBN 0-395-31555-7. 
7.   ^ Image of John Suffield's shop before demolition with caption - Birmingham.gov.uk
8.   ^ Carpenter, Humphrey (1977). Tolkien: A Biography. New York: Ballantine Books, page 22. ISBN 0-04-928037-6. 
9.   ^ Carpenter, Humphrey (1977). Tolkien: A Biography. New York: Ballantine Books, page 21. ISBN 0-04-928037-6. 
10.   ^ Carpenter, Humphrey (1977). Tolkien: A Biography. New York: Ballantine Books, page 24. ISBN 0-04-928037-6. 
11.   ^ Carpenter, Humphrey (1977). Tolkien: A Biography. New York: Ballantine Books, page 27. ISBN 0-04-928037-6. 
12.   ^ Carpenter, Humphrey (1977). Tolkien: A Biography. New York: Ballantine Books, page 113. ISBN 0-04-928037-6. 
13.   ^ Carpenter, Humphrey (1977). Tolkien: A Biography. New York: Ballantine Books, page 29. ISBN 0-04-928037-6. 
14.   ^ Doughan, David (2002). JRR Tolkien Biography. Life of Tolkien. Retrieved on 2006-03-12.
15.   ^ Carpenter, Humphrey (1977). Tolkien: A Biography. New York: Ballantine Books, page 22. ISBN 0-04-928037-6. 
16.   ^ Carpenter, Humphrey (1977). Tolkien: A Biography. New York: Ballantine Books, page 30. ISBN 0-04-928037-6. 
17.   ^ Carpenter, Humphrey and Tolkien, Christopher (eds.) (1981). The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, no. 306. ISBN 0-395-31555-7. 
18.   ^ Carpenter, Humphrey (1977). Tolkien: A Biography. New York: Ballantine Books, page 31. ISBN 0-04-928037-6. 
19.   ^ Carpenter, Humphrey (1977). Tolkien: A Biography. New York: Ballantine Books, page 39. ISBN 0-04-928037-6. 
20.   ^ a b Carpenter, Humphrey (1978). The Inklings. Allen & Unwin.  Lewis was brought up in the Church of Ireland, and after his conversion joined the Church of England.
21.   ^ Doughan, David (2002). War, Lost Tales And Academia. J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biographical Sketch. Retrieved on 2006-03-12.
22.   ^ Humphrey Carpenter: J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography, George Allen & Unwin, 1977, page 43.
23.   ^ Carpenter, Humphrey (1977). Tolkien: A Biography. New York: Ballantine Books, pages 53 – 54. ISBN 0-04-928037-6. 
24.   ^ Carpenter, Humphrey and Tolkien, Christopher (eds.) (1981). The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, no. 306. ISBN 0-395-31555-7. 
25.   ^ map of the trail of the 1911 expedition (Google Maps)
26.   ^ Carpenter, Humphrey (1977). Tolkien: A Biography. New York: Ballantine Books, pp. 67–69. ISBN 0-04-928037-6. 
27.   ^ Carpenter, Humphrey (1977). Tolkien: A Biography. New York: Ballantine Books, page 73. ISBN 0-04-928037-6. 
28.   ^ Carpenter, Humphrey (1977). Tolkien: A Biography. New York: Ballantine Books, page 86. ISBN 0-04-928037-6. 
29.   ^ Carpenter, Humphrey (1977). Tolkien: A Biography. New York: Ballantine Books, page 85. ISBN 0-04-928037-6. 
30.   ^ Carpenter, Humphrey (1977). Tolkien: A Biography. New York: Ballantine Books, page 93. ISBN 0-04-928037-6. 
31.   ^ Following rural English usage, Tolkien used the name 'hemlock' for various plants with white flowers in umbels, resembling the poison hemlock; the flowers among which Edith danced were more probably cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris) or Queen Anne's lace (Daucus carota). See John Garth Tolkien and the Great War (HarperCollins/Houghton Mifflin 2003) and Peter Gilliver, Jeremy Marshall, & Edmund Weiner The Ring of Words (OUP 2006).
32.   ^ Cater, Bill (12 April 2001). We talked of love, death, and fairy tales. UK Telegraph. Retrieved on 2006-03-13.
33.   ^ Gilliver, Peter; Jeremy Marshall and Edmund Weiner (2006). The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the OED. OUP. 
34.   ^ Carpenter, Humphrey (1977). Tolkien: A Biography. New York: Ballantine Books, pages 109, 114–115. ISBN 0-04-928037-6. 
35.   ^ See The Name Nodens (1932) in the bibliographical listing. For the etymology, see Nodens#Etymology.
36.   ^ Carpenter, Humphrey (1977). Tolkien: A Biography. New York: Ballantine Books, page 143. ISBN 0-04-928037-6. 
37.   ^ Ramey, Bill (March 30, 1998). The Unity of Beowulf: Tolkien and the Critics. Wisdom's Children. Retrieved on 2006-03-13.
38.   ^ Kennedy, Michael (2001). Tolkien and Beowulf - Warriors of Middle-earth. Amon Hen. Retrieved on 2006-05-18.
39.   ^ Tolkien: Finn and Hengest. Chiefly, p.4 in the Introduction by Alan Bliss; for the parenthesis, the discussion of Eotena, passim.
40.   ^ Carpenter, Humphrey and Tolkien, Christopher (eds.) (1981). The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, no. 64, 131, etc.. ISBN 0-395-31555-7. 
41.   ^ Carpenter, Humphrey and Tolkien, Christopher (eds.) (1981). The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, no. 327. ISBN 0-395-31555-7. 
42.   ^ Doughan, David (2002). JRR Tolkien Biography. Life of Tolkien. Retrieved on 2006-03-13.
43.   ^ Meras, Phyllis (15 January 1967). "Go, Go, Gandalf". New York Times. Retrieved on 2006-03-12.
44.   ^ Carpenter, Humphrey and Tolkien, Christopher (eds.) (1981). The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, no. 336. ISBN 0-395-31555-7.  Chu-Bu and Sheemish are idols in a 1912 story by Lord Dunsany)
45.   ^ Carpenter, Humphrey and Tolkien, Christopher (eds.) (1981). The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, no. 332. ISBN 0-395-31555-7. 
46.   ^ People of Stoke-on-Trent. Retrieved on 2005-03-13.
47.   ^ The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, no. 52, to Christopher Tolkien on 29 November 1943
48.   ^ http://www.beliefnet.com/story/95/story_9572_1.html Tolkien was a Roman Catholic, close to the Tridentines in his conservative Catholicism (Source: International Beliefnet)], A Catholic Poem in Time of War, catholiceducation.org
49.   ^ Was Tolkien a racist? Were his works? from the Tolkien Meta-FAQ by Steuard Jensen. Last retrieved 2006-11-16
50.   ^ J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia (2006), s.v. "Racism, Charge of", p. 557.
51.   ^ John Yatt, The Guardian (December 2, 2002) writes: "White men are good, 'dark' men are bad, orcs are worst of all." (Other critics such as Tom Shippey and Michael Drout disagree with such clear-cut generalizations of Tolkien's white and 'dark' men into good and bad.) Tolkien's works have also been embraced by self-admitted racists such as the British National Party.
52.   ^ The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, no. 29, to Stanley Unwin 25 July 1938: When German publishers inquired whether he was of Aryan origin, he declined to answer, instead stating: "... I regret that I appear to have no ancestors of that gifted [Jewish] people." He gave his publishers a choice of two letters to send; these quotations are from the less tactful draft, which was not sent - Letters no. 30
53.   ^ The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien no. 61, to Christopher 18 April 1944
54.   ^ Published in The Monsters and the Critics (1983, ISBN 0-04-809019-0)
55.   ^ Carpenter, Humphrey and Tolkien, Christopher (eds.) (1981). The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, #45. ISBN 0-395-31555-7. 
56.   ^ The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, no. 81.
57.   ^ Carpenter, Humphrey (1977). Tolkien: A Biography. New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-04-928037-6. 
58.   ^ Carpenter, Humphrey and Tolkien, Christopher (eds.) (1981). The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-31555-7. 
59.   ^ Letters, no. 83, to Christopher Tolkien, 6 October 1944
60.   ^ The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, nr. 102, to Christopher on 9 August 1945
61.   ^ Wood, Ralph C., Biography of J. R. R. Tolkien.
62.   ^ "Tolkien, Mythopoiea (the poem), circa 1931.
63.   ^ Hammond, Wayne G. J.R.R. Tolkien: A Descriptive Bibliography, London: January 1993, Saint Pauls Biographies, ISBN 1-873040-11-3, American edition ISBN 0-938768-42-5
64.   ^ http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2386/is_2_117/ai_n16676591Fimi,Dimitra, "Mad" Elves and "elusive beauty": some Celtic strands of Tolkien's mythology,Folklore, Volume 117, Issue 2 August 2006 , pages 156 - 170
65.   ^ http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/tolkien_studies/v004/4.1fimi.html
66.   ^ Day, David (1 February 2002). Tolkien's Ring. New York: Barnes and Noble. ISBN 1-58663-527-1. 
67.   ^ As described by Christopher Tolkien in Hervarar Saga ok Heidreks Konung (Oxford University, Trinity College). B. Litt. thesis. 1953/4. [Year uncertain], The Battle of the Goths and the Huns, in: Saga-Book (University College, London, for the Viking Society for Northern Research) 14, part 3 (1955–6) [1]
68.   ^ Handwerk, Brian (March 1, 2004). Lord of the Rings Inspired by an Ancient Epic. National Geographic News. Retrieved on 2006-03-13.
69.   ^ Gardner, John (23 October 1977). The World of Tolkien. New York Times. Retrieved on 2006-03-13.
70.   ^ Bofetti, Jason (November 2001). Tolkien's Catholic Imagination. Crisis Magazine. Retrieved on 2006-08-30.
71.   ^ Phillip, Norman (2005). The Prevalence of Hobbits. New York Times. Retrieved on 2006-03-12.
72.   ^ Site Editor (2005). Leaf by Niggle - a symbolic story about a small painter. Leaf by Niggle. Retrieved on 2006-03-12.
73.   ^ Times Editorial Staff (3 September 1973). J.R.R. Tolkien Dead at 81: Wrote "The Lord of the Rings". New York Times. Retrieved on 2006-03-12.
74.   ^ Times Editorial Staff (5 June 1955). Oxford Calling. New York Times. Retrieved on 2006-03-12.
75.   ^ Martinez, Michael (7 December 2004). Middle-earth Revised, Again. Merp.com. Retrieved on 2006-03-13.
76.   ^ McDowell, Edwin (4 September 1983). Middle-earth Revisited. New York Times. Retrieved on 2006-03-12.
77.   ^ Seiler, Andy (16 December 2003). 'Rings' comes full circle. USA Today. Retrieved on 2006-03-12.
78.   ^ Cooper, Callista (December 5, 2005). Epic trilogy tops favorite film poll. ABC News Online. Retrieved on 2006-03-12.
79.   ^ O'Hehir, Andrew (4 June 2001). The book of the century. Salon.com. Retrieved on 2006-03-12.
80.   ^ Diver, Krysia (5 October 2004). A lord for Germany. The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved on 2006-03-12.
81.   ^ Statement by Christopher Tolkien
82.   ^ Winchester, Simon (2003). The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-9654996-3-4
83.   ^ (Letter dated 27 June 1925 to the Electors of the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship of Anglo-Saxon, University of Oxford, Carpenter, Humphrey and Tolkien, Christopher (eds.) (1981). The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, no. 7. ISBN 0-395-31555-7. 
84.   ^ Carpenter, Humphrey and Tolkien, Christopher (eds.) (1981). The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, no. 163. ISBN 0-395-31555-7. 
85.   ^ Carpenter, Humphrey and Tolkien, Christopher (eds.) (1981). The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, no. 144, 25 April 1954, to Naomi Mitchison. ISBN 0-395-31555-7. 
86.   ^ Carpenter, Humphrey and Tolkien, Christopher (eds.) (1981). The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, no. 180. ISBN 0-395-31555-7. 
87.   ^ Carpenter, Humphrey and Tolkien, Christopher (eds.) (1981). The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, no. 131. ISBN 0-395-31555-7. 
88.   ^ Thygesen, Peter (Autumn, 1999). Queen Margrethe II: Denmark's monarch for a modern age. Scandinavian Review. Retrieved on 2006-03-12.
89.   ^ Carpenter, Humphrey and Tolkien, Christopher (eds.) (1981). The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, no. 107. ISBN 0-395-31555-7. 
90.   ^ Carpenter, Humphrey and Tolkien, Christopher (eds.) (1981). The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, no. 144. ISBN 0-395-31555-7. 
91.   ^ Carpenter, Humphrey and Tolkien, Christopher (eds.) (1981). The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, no. 207. ISBN 0-395-31555-7. 
92.   ^ Canby, Vincent (15 November 1978). Film: 'The Lord of the Rings' From Ralph Bakshi. New York Times. Retrieved on 2006-03-12.
93.   ^ Birmingham Civic Society. Sarehole Mill. Blue Plaques Photograph Gallery. Retrieved on 2007-03-21.
94.   ^ Birmingham Civic Society. Duchess Place. Blue Plaques Photograph Gallery. Retrieved on 2007-03-21.
95.   ^ Birmingham Civic Society. 4 Highfield Road. Blue Plaques Photograph Gallery. Retrieved on 2007-03-21.
96.   ^ Birmingham Civic Society. Plough and Harrow. Blue Plaques Photograph Gallery. Retrieved on 2007-03-21.
97.   ^ Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Board. J. R. R. Tolkien Philologist and Author. Plaques Awarded. Retrieved on 2007-03-21.
General references
•   Biography: Carpenter, Humphrey (1977). Tolkien: A Biography. New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-04-928037-6. 
•   Letters: Carpenter, Humphrey and Tolkien, Christopher (eds.) (1981). The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien. London: George Allen & Unwin. ISBN 0-04-826005-3. 
Further reading
A small selection of books about Tolkien and his works:
•   (2004) in Anderson, Douglas A., Michael D. C. Drout and Verlyn Flieger: Tolkien Studies, An Annual Scholarly Review Vol. I. West Virginia University Press. ISBN 0-937058-87-4. 
•   Bruner, Kurt D.; Jim Ware (2003). Finding God in the Lord of the Rings. ISBN 0-8423-8555-X. 
•   Carpenter, Humphrey (1979). The Inklings: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams and Their Friends. ISBN 0-395-27628-4. 
•   (2003) in Chance, Jane: Tolkien the Medievalist. London, New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-28944-0. 
•   (2004) in Chance, Jane: Tolkien and the Invention of Myth, a Reader. Louisville: University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0-8131-2301-1. 
•   Curry, Patrick (2004). Defending Middle-earth: Tolkien, Myth and Modernity. ISBN 0-618-47885-X. 
•   (2006) in Drout, Michael D. C.: J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment. New York City: Routledge. ISBN 0-415969425.. 
•   Duriez, Colin; David Porter (2001). The Inklings Handbook: The Lives, Thought and Writings of C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, Owen Barfield, and Their Friends. ISBN 1-902694-13-9. 
•   Duriez, Colin (2003). Tolkien and C.S. Lewis: The Gift of Friendship. ISBN 1-58768-026-2. 
•   (2000) in Flieger, Verlyn and Carl F. Hostetter: Tolkien's Legendarium: Essays on The History of Middle-earth. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-30530-7. DDC 823.912. LC PR6039.. 
•   Fonstad, Linda Wynn (1991). The Atlas of Middle-earth. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-618-126996. 
•   Garth, John (2003). Tolkien and the Great War. Harper-Collins. ISBN 0-00-711953-4. 
•   Giddings, Robert; Elizabeth Holland (1981). The Shores of Middle-Earth. University Publications of America. ISBN 0-313-27059-7. 
•   Gilliver, Peter; Jeremy Marshall, Edmund Weiner (2006). The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-861069-6. 
•   Diana Pavlac Glyer The Company They Keep: C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien as Writers in Community. Kent State University Press. Kent Ohio. 2007. ISBN 978-0-87338-890-0
•   Haber, Karen (2001). Meditations on Middle-earth: New Writing on the Worlds of J. R. R. Tolkien. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-27536-6. 
•   (2003) in Harrington, Patrick: Tolkien and Politics. London, England: Third Way Publications Ltd.. ISBN 0-9544788-2-7. 
•   (2005) in Lee, S. D., and E. Solopova: The Keys of Middle-earth: Discovering Medieval Literature through the Fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 1-4039-4671-X. 
•   O'Neill, Timothy R. (1979). The Individuated Hobbit: Jung, Tolkien and the Archetypes of Middle-earth. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 0-395-28208-X. 
•   Pearce, Joseph (1998). Tolkien: Man and Myth. London: HarperCollinsPublishers. ISBN 0-00-274018-4. 
•   Perry, Michael (2006). Untangling Tolkien: A Chronology and Commentary for The Lord of the Rings. Seattle: Inkling Books. ISBN 1-58742-019-8. 
•   (2003) in Pytrell, Ariel: El profesor de los Anillos. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Mondragón Argentina. ISBN 987-20607-0-3. 
•   Tom Shippey (2000). J. R. R. Tolkien — Author of the Century. Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 0-618-12764-X, ISBN 0-618-25759-4 (pbk). 
•   Strachey, Barbara (1981). Journeys of Frodo: an Atlas of The Lord of the Rings. London, Boston: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 0-04-912016-6. 
•   Tolkien, John & Priscilla (1992). The Tolkien Family Album. London: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-261-10239-7. 
•   White, Michael (2003). Tolkien: A Biography. New American Library. ISBN 0-451-21242-8. 

[Minas Tirith]

Eagle and Child

[Minas Tirith]

List of poems by J. R. R. Tolkien
This is a list of poems written by J. R. R. Tolkien (years are the date of composition, if not stated otherwise)
•   The Battle of the Eastern Field 1911
•   From the many-willow'd margin of the immemorial Thames 1913
•   The Voyage of Eärendel the Evening Star (The Book of Lost Tales 2 267–269) 1914
•   The Bidding of the Minstrel 1914 (The Book of Lost Tales 2 261f.,269f. )
•   Tinfang Warble 1914 (The Book of Lost Tales 1 107f.)
•   Goblin Feet 1915
•   You and Me / and the Cottage of Lost Play 1915 (The Book of Lost Tales 1 27f.)
•   Kôr 1915, published as The City of the Gods in 1923 (The Book of Lost Tales 1 136)
•   Kortirion among the Trees 1915 (revised in 1937 and in the 1960s, The Trees of Kortirion)
•   Over Old Hills and Far Away 1915
•   A Song of Aryador 1915
•   The Shores of Elfland 1915
•   Habbanan beneath the Stars 1916
•   The Sorrowful City 1916
•   The Song of Eriol 1917 (The Book of Lost Tales 2 298ff.)
•   The Horns of Ulmo 1917
•   The Happy Mariners, published in 1920, composed in 1915
•   The Children of Húrin (begun in 1920 or earlier, continued to 1925) (The Lays of Beleriand)
•   The Clerke's Compleinte 1922
•   Iúmonna Gold Galdre Bewunden 1923
•   The Eadigan Saelidan 1923
•   Why the Man in the Moon Came Down Too Soon 1923
•   Enigmala Saxonic - a Nuper Inventa Duo 1923
•   The Cat and the Fiddle: A Nursery-Rhyme Undone and its Scandalous Secret Unlocked 1923
•   An Evening in Tavrobel 1924
•   The Lonely Isle 1924
•   The Princess Ni 1924
•   Light as Leaf on Lindentree 1925
•   The Flight of the Noldoli from Valinor 1925 (The Lays of Beleriand)
•   The Lay of Leithian 1925–1931 (The Lays of Beleriand)
•   The Lay of Eärendel 1920s (The Lays of Beleriand)
•   The Nameless Land 1926
•   Adventures in Unnatural History and Medieval Metres, being the Freaks of Fisiologus 1927:
•   Fastitocalon
•   Iumbo
•   Tinfang Warble, published in 1927, composed in 1914
•   Mythopoeia, circa 1931 (published in the Tree and Leaf)[1]
•   Progress in Bimble Town 1931
•   Errantry 1933
•   Firiel 1934
•   Looney 1934
•   Songs for the Philologists, with E.V. Gordon et al., published 1936:
•   Bagme Bloma
•   Éadig Béo þu!
•   Frenchmen Froth
•   From One to Five
•   I Sat upon a Bench
•   Ides Ælfscýne
•   La Húru
•   Lit and Lang
•   Natura Apis: Morali Ricardi Eremite
•   Ofer Wídne Gársecg
•   The Root of the Boot
•   Ruddoc Hana
•   Syx Mynet
•   The Dragon's Visit 1937
•   Knocking at the Door: Lines induced by sensations when waiting for an answer at the door of an Exalted Academic Person 1937
•   The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun, published in Welsh Review, December 1945
•   Imram (The Death of St. Brendan) 1946 (published in Time and Tide, December 1955, Sauron Defeated 261ff,296ff)
•   Elvish translations of catholic prayers (ed. Wynne, Smith, Hostetter in Vinyar Tengwar 43, 44, 2002), composed in the 1950s:
•   Ataremma versions (Quenya Pater Noster) versions I-VI
•   Aia María (Quenya Ave Maria) versions I-IV
•   Litany of Loreto in Quenya
•   Ortírielyanna (Quenya Sub Tuum Praesidium)
•   Alcar i Ataren (Quenya Gloria Patri)
•   Alcar mi tarmenel na Erun (Quenya Gloria in Excelsis Deo)
•   Ae Adar Nín (Sindarin Pater Noster)
•   The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son 1953
•   The Adventures of Tom Bombadil published in 1962:
•   The Adventures of Tom Bombadil
•   Bombadil Goes Boating
•   Errantry
•   Little Princess Mee
•   The Man in the Moon Stayed Up Too Late
•   The Man in the Moon Came Down Too Soon
•   The Stone Troll
•   Perry-the-Winkle
•   The Mewlips
•   Oliphaunt
•   Fastitocalon
•   The Cat
•   Shadow-Bride
•   The Hoard
•   The Sea-Bell
•   The Last Ship
•   Once upon a time 1965
•   Bilbo's Last Song 1966 (first published as a poster in 1974)
•   For W. H. A. in 1967 in Shenandoah
•   King Sheave in The Lost Road in 1987 in The Lost Road and Other Writings
•   Narqelion published in 1988 in Mythlore

As a writer
•   Splintered Light: Logos And Language In Tolkien's World Verlyn Flieger (1st Edition 1983, Revised Edition 2002)
•   The Keys of Middle-earth ed. Stuart D. Lee & Elizabeth Solopova (2005)
•   The Road to Middle-earth T. A. Shippey (1st Edition 1993, Revised and Expanded Edition 2003)
•   J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century T. A. Shippey (2000)
•   Tolkien in the Land of Heroes : Discovering the Human Spirit ed. Anne C. Petty, J. Stein
•   Tolkien's Legendarium: Essays on The History of Middle Earth ed. Verlyn Flieger and Carl F. Hostetter (2000)
•   Tolkien Studies ed. Douglas A. Anderson, Michael D. C. Drout and Verlyn Flieger vols. 1-4 (2004-2007)
Invented languages
Tolkien's invented languages, especially Quenya and Sindarin, the languages of Elves, have inspired extensive linguistic research in the form of academic newsletters and journals, such as Parma Eldalamberon and Vinyar Tengwar, published by the Elvish Linguistic Fellowship. These publications have published and discussed text fragments, notes, and essays by Tolkien that haven't been published elsewhere.
•   1989 Plotz Quenya Declensions (written 1966/1967) Beyond Bree newsletter, VT 6, p. 14
•   1991 Koivieneni Sentence (written ca. 1937) VT 14, p. 5–20, Mythlore 17, p. 23-30.
•   1992 New Tengwar Inscription (written ca. 1954) VT 21, p. 6
•   1992 Liège Tengwar Inscription (written 1954) VT 23, p. 16
•   1993 Two Trees Sentence (written ca. 1937) VT 27, p. 7–42
•   1993 Koivieneni Manuscript (written ca. 1937) VT 27, p. 7–42
•   1993 Bodleian Declensions (written ca. 1936) VT 28, p. 9–30
•   1994 The Entu Declension (written ca. 1924–1929) VT 36, p. 8–29
•   1995 Gnomish Lexicon (written ca. 1917) PE 11
•   1995 Rúmilian Document (written 1919) VT 37, p. 15–23
•   1998 Qenya Lexicon (written ca. 1915) PE 12
•   1998 Osanwe-kenta, Enquiry into the communication of thought (ed. Hostetter, composed in 1960) VT 39
•   1999 Narqelion (written 1915/1916) VT 12, p. 16–17, VT 40, p. 5–32
•   2000 Qenya Grammar Fragment (ca. 1924–1929) Elfling mailing list, digest nr. 34
•   2000 Etymological Notes — Osanwe-kenta (written 1959–1960) VT 41, p. 5–6
•   2000 From The Shibboleth of Fëanor (written ca. 1968) VT 41, p. 7–10 (A part of the Shibboleth of Fëanor was published in The Peoples of Middle-earth, p. 331–366)
•   2000 Notes on Óre (written ca. 1968) VT 41, p. 11–19
•   2000 Quenya Dedication (written 1968) Elfling mailing list, 11 May.
•   2000 Merin Sentence (written ca. 1937) TT 14, p. 32–35
•   2001 The Rivers and Beacon-hills of Gondor (written 1967–1969) VT 42, p. 5–31 (Referred to in Unfinished Tales.)
•   2001 Essay on negation in Quenya (written ca. 1970) VT 42, p. 33–34
•   2001 Goldogrim Pronominal Prefixes (written ca. 1917) PE 13 p. 97
•   2001 Early Noldorin Grammar (written ca. 1920–1925) PE 13, p. 119–132
•   2001 Comparison of Adjectives (written after 1915) TT 16, p. 23–28
•   2002 Elvish translations of Catholic prayers (ed. Wynne, Smith, Hostetter), composed in the 1950s:
•   Ataremma versions (Quenya Pater Noster) versions I-VI, VT 43, 4–26, TT 18
•   Aia María (Quenya Ave Maria) versions I–IV, VT 43, 26–36, TT 18
•   Litany of Loreto in Quenya, VT 44, p. 11–20
•   Ortírielyanna (Quenya Sub tuum praesidium) VT 4, p. 5–11
•   Alcar i Ataren (Quenya Gloria Patri) VT 43, p. 36–38
•   Alcar mi tarmenel na Erun (Quenya Gloria in Excelsis Deo) VT 44, p. 31–38
•   Ae Adar Nín (Sindarin Pater Noster) VT 44, p. 21–30
•   2003 Early Qenya Fragments, edited Wynne and Gilson, PE 14
•   2003 Early Qenya Grammar, ed. Hostetter and Welden, PE 14
•   2003 "The Valmaric Scripts", ed. Smith, PE 14
•   2004 "Sí Qente Feanor and Other Elvish Writings", ed. Smith, Gilson, Wynne, and Welden, PE15
•   2006 "Pre-Fëanorian Alphabets", Part 1, ed. Smith, PE16
•   2006 "Early Elvish Poetry: Oilima Markirya, Nieninqe and Earendel", ed. Gilson, Welden, and Hostetter, PE16
•   2006 "Early Elvish Poetry: Oilima Markirya, Nieninqe and Earendel", ed. Gilson, Welden, and Hostetter, PE16
•   2006 "Qenya Declensions", "Qenya Conjugations", "Qenya Word-lists", ed. Gilson, Hostetter, Wynne, PE 16
The Vinya Tengwar and Parma Eldalamberon material published at in increasing rate during the early 2000s is from the stock of linguistic material in the possession of the appointed team of editors (some 3000 pages according to them), consisting of photocopies sent them by Christopher Tolkien and notes taken in the Bodleian library around 1992. There is a mailing list called Tolklang which is dedicated to the languages of J. R. R. Tolkien. It was started on November 1, 1990.