The Nature Of Middle-Earth

Beautiful book, arrived in pristine condition. For hardcore Tolkien fans only describes all aspects of manner of lives of elves mostly, and some about dwarves and man. Life cycles, time and metaphysical concepts. No stories here.

Anyone that loved Lord of the Rings will truly enjoy this book ! It's a great read.

Editor Carl Hostetter attractively arranges previously unpublished (or published only in snippets in journals and the like) writings by Tolkien on Middle-earth.These are arranged in three categories-Part One: Time and AgeingPart Two: Body, Mind and SpiritPart Three: The World, Its Lands, and Its InhabitantsAlso included are two appendices, one of which covers the metaphysics and theology that would have formed Tolkien's underlying worldview as he wrote his legendarium. For those readers who might be unfamiliar with Catholic metaphysics or have difficulty in understanding what Tolkien meant when he called The Lord of the Rings a "fundamentally religious and Catholic work," Hostetter's work here should be quite insightful.Hostetter reveals at the outset in his introduction that some of what's included here is material that Christopher Tolkien was forced to cut for space in the twelve-volume The History of Middle-Earth. Now, there are different levels of Tolkien fans. If reading twelve volumes that include multiple drafts, rewrites, dead ends, and Tolkien's own analysis on the minutiae of his own legendarium does not sound like a good time to you, then the chances are very good that you won't enjoy stuff that was cut out of that! But for other fans who crave every last drop of insight Tolkien ever wrote down on Middle-Earth, including tiny, pedantic details that most writers wouldn't even dream of covering, then this book is a must-have and the best "new" Tolkien book in quite some time. I've also gathered that, outside various unpublished letters, this may be just about the last of it.This book contains details on how Tolkien thought of Middle-Earth, some of which may change and enrich the way I read The Lord of the Rings or The Silmarillion. After so long, for the Tolkien fanatics out there, what a gift that is! The reader might be surprised to know what exactly Tolkien thought about how elves aged (and he thought about it a lot), or which characters had beards.The Nature of Middle-Earth is suited for a very specific sort of fan, but for that fan this book is guaranteed to become a regular reference.

This is a good book for a J.R.R Tolkien fan. I can't remember the details of the book since it's been awhile since I bought it

Great addition to my Tolkien library

This book looks really interesting in looking at more of the creation and development of Middle Earth and I expect it will be a very informative and immersive read! I did have to sent it back for another copy because the first I received had a damaged binding and was creased on the inside cover.

I've been eagerly anticipating this books for months, and devoured it as soon as it arrived. It was chock full of all kinds of new information about Middle Earth and its history: the nature of Elvish birth, growth, death and reincarnation, population figures for the Elves in the period after they first awakened, descriptions on the physical and metaphysical nature of the universe and the power of the Valar within it, and so forth.This book gave me exactly what I wanted and expected, but the general reader has to understand what it actually is: a series of loosely-related and often incomplete essays as Tolkien explored ideas on how the world of Middle Earth worked. It's not a collective of narratives, and the ideas presented are largely in draft form.Nevertheless, there is quite of lot of never-before-seen and extremely valuable information in this book, a delight to the hard-core Tolkien fan.

I'd love this book just for the look at Tolkien's thought processes and the extra information it contains about the world he created. It turns out that Elves *do* age; Arwen was the mortal equivalent of 32-33 during The Lord of The Rings and Galadriel 54. But in a prior version of Elvish aging rates, Tolkien suddenly realizes that he's made Maeglin the equivalent of 2 years old when he first crushed on the King's daugther! Tolkien cheerfully (it seems) starts over. He clearly loved the process of piecing his world together as much as he loved achieving the final results. Occasionally he ascribes apparent errors in published texts to mistranslations.But Tolkien seems constitutionally incapable of creating extra background for his world without occasionally dropping into storytelling.There is here, for instance details about the debate between the first three Elves to awaken and the current leaders of the Elves (who will end up as the Emissaries), each the patrilineal heir of one of the first, as to whether they should accept the invitation to move from Middle-Earth to Aman.The big blockbuster: the five Wizards' first job was to help the Elves in the days after their awakening; the leader of that team was Melian. Should that be regarded as canon? The debates will be endless. But at least we now have the original Quenya names for the other wizards!

Purchased to indulge my inner Tolkien geek. Anything ME is tops with me altho' RoP is just tolerable if you disassociate it from Tolkien.

Coleção.

Excellent book. Full of technical content and many text for purses of clarity. A nice lecture for committed readers.

Arrived in new condition, item fits the description on the page. This is a great book.

Tyvärr blev min bok skadad i frakten då den var nedlagd i en alldeles för stor kartong utan skyddande packmaterial, så den åkte runt där i. Men med amazons service i världsklass så byttes den ut snabbt och enkelt. Därav en 4!