The Nature Of Middle-Earth: A Journey Through J.R.R. Tolkien’s Unpublished Writings on the Stories and History of Middle-Earth

I have really enjoyed this book, it has given me a lot of insight into the thought process of J.R.R Tolkien and how Middle Earth all connects. It is an amazing read and I never get bored with it. The book came in great shape from the seller, no problems with it. Will definitely order from seller again in the future.

Editor Carl Hostetter attractively arranges previously unpublished (or published only in snippets in journals and the like) writings by Tolkien on Middle-earth.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 Ageing Part Two: Body, Mind and Spirit Part Three: The World, Its Lands, and Its Inhabitants Also 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 I've also gathered that, outside various unpublished letters, this may be just about the last of it.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.

I’m very happy with this purchase! The product arrived as described, works well, and feels like good quality for the price. It’s easy to use, practical, and has met my expectations so far. Shipping was fast and packaging was secure, which I appreciated. Overall, I would recommend this to others and would consider buying from this seller again in the future.

Good addition to a Tolkien fan's library.

This thing is a treasure trove for Tolkien superfans who are fascinated by all things Middle-earth. And trust me, there are many of them! One thing that makes Lord of the Rings so enduringly great is how much Tolkien deliberated over every detail of his magnum opus, and this book shows that deliberation carried on well past LOTR's publication, for the remainder of his life. Sure, it's not for everybody, but neither is Lord of the Rings! Yet there are many that will be delighted to discover this book and all of the questions it answers. So while it may not be for every Tolkien fan, there's no need to disrespect this outstanding contribution to the Professor's published work simply for existing.

“The Nature of Middle-Earth” is an interesting addition to the body of Tolkien works. The book is comprised of three parts - Part One: Time and Ageing, Part Two: Body, Mind and Spirit, and Part Three: The World, its Lands, and its Inhabitants - each with a separate introduction that sets out the context for each part, which, along with the foreword, I found quite helpful. “The Nature of Middle-Earth” thus doesn’t have one coherent story line; rather, it is a collection of reflective and somewhat academic works and drafts by J.R.R. Tolkien, grouped in accordance with the theme of each part. It must be noted that the editor, Carl E. Hostetter, treated the previously unpublished material with great respect, and most of the chapters within each part have authentic spelling and a brief description of the physical draft itself. However, this also means that some of the texts appear in multiple “incarnations”, sometimes making the content seem repetitive. Part One takes up most of “The Nature of Middle-Earth” and is focused on very detailed analysis of the flow of time in Tolkien’s world, diving into different measures of time in Valinor vs. Middle-Earth and studying the timeline of Elves arrival into the world, and how they age; most of the chapters in Part One are highly quantitative, with conversions, tables, etc. Part Two is discussing physical and spiritual attributes of Elves and Men, as well as visible forms of Valar and Maiar, and is highly metaphysical, in line with the impact Catholicism had on Tolkien’s life. Lastly, Part Three speaks about various aspects of life in Arda, from powers of the Valar and founding of Nargothrond to making of lembas and even Elvish economy (economy!). While all three parts (mostly) document the flow of Tolkien’s mind in ensuring the reality of Arda seems established, coherent, logical, easily visualizable by the reader, some texts contain interesting remarks an advanced Tolkien fan may find rewarding, such as the detail of Galadriel and Celeborn’s relationship and names, explanation of the metaphysical connection of the Elves’ lifespan to the flow of time in Arda (and why Elves, therefore, envied Men’s mortality), and even bits that did not make it to the final edit of the LOTR, such as “Rider to the “White Rider” chapter. Overall, I would recommend “The Nature of Middle-Earth” for those who are already well-familiar with Tolkien’s legendarium and are comfortable with the fine details and chronology of events of “The Silmarillion”. However, for those who only have a casual interest in Tolkien’s works that does not go beyond, say, “The Hobbit” and the Trilogy, the book might seem too technical or philosophical.

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.

The book came to me in good condition. The dust jacket is made of a delicate paper material (unlike a few other of Tolkiens books). Anytime Amazon handles these paper dust jackets, there's a high likelihood of them coming in mildly or moderately damaged. Keep this in mind if you want a prestine version of this book. You could get unlucky and get a version with a beat up jacket. (The books themselves are usually still in great condition.)

Excellent livre.

This book is very much a scholarly text. Keep that in mind. For that purpose it is very thorough and I think a fascinating read. While its probably wise to first read the history of middle earth by christopher tolkien, I read this book first. If you are sufficiently nerdy, you will be fine.

Baski kalitesi ve icerik cok iyi.

My copy arrived today (2.Sep.21), the day of the book's hardback publication in the UK, so obviously I've not read it cover-to-cover as yet. However, I have skimmed through it, and found an interesting store of detailed knowledge about Tolkien's creation - Middle-earth. As one would expect from Tolkien, and indeed of Carl Hostetter who edited this book, everything has been set out logically, with appropriate annotations that add to, rather than clutter the text, which is very nicely presented. I would caution prospective purchasers that this book will not give you a story to read: there is no substantial narrative or connected text for you to get your teeth into. What you will find here is a collection of fairly short pieces, delving into some detail or another of Middle-earth, to enable to truly committed to enjoy and visualise the realms in which were set The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and the other posthumous publications such as The Children of Húrin and The History of Middle-earth. So if it's not a story, what do you get in this book? The body of the book is divided into three parts (each with its own short introduction), together with a brief Foreword and introductory matter at the beginning, and a couple of Appendices and an Index at the back. Here's an outline of its content - ONE - TIME AND AGEING This is the longest of the three parts, and consists of 23 short chapters averaging 7 pages each. The first four are JRRT's workings of the horology of Middle-earth: they are surprisingly detailed - scientific even - and parts are presented in tabular form. Then comes a short piece describing the 'life-cycle' of the Quendi (Elves), and another (in two versions) on the origin ('Awakening') of the Quendi, alternating with two more 'mathematical' interludes which calculate the growth of their population across successive generations. The next three sections explore in more detail the chronology and ageing of the Quendi, and these are followed by a chapter called Key Dates which is the draft of a 'timeline'. The next four chapters are highly numerical expositions of Quendi Generational Schemes. Then come two more on Elvish Ages and their life-cycles, before we return to two more brief purely horological pieces. The last two chapters in Part One are fragments from the Annals of Aman and the Grey Annals: each fragment is only a page long, but the latter includes a short poem. PART TWO - BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT Seventeen chapters, averaging 6 pages each, discuss all sorts of attributes of Tolkien's peoples - beauty, goodness, gender and sex (don't worry: nothing to frighten the horses), hands, fingers, hair, beards, minds, and memories. There's a version of 'Ósanwe-kenta' (different to that in Vinyar Tengwar [VT]), relating to communication of thoughts, and - perhaps one of the most interesting sections of all - Tolkien's commentary on his visualisation of some of his characters, as related to the Allen & Unwin poster map of 1970. Notes on Órë is a representation of a short piece already published in VT - it is somewhat linguistic in nature, as are the following chapters entitled Fate And Free Will, The Knowledge Of The Valar, Spirit, and The Visible Forms Of The Valar And Maiar. At 21 pages, Elvish Reincarnation looks like a fascinating collection of pieces, previously only available (in different form) in a French publication. Part Two concludes with a portion of The Statute of Finwë and Míriel that did not appear in The History of Middle-earth (X: Morgoth's Ring), and a final piece on Death. PART THREE - THE WORLD, ITS LANDS, AND ITS INHABITANTS [Potentially the most interesting and accessible, but one I have barely looked at yet, so this 'description' is little more than a summary of the chapter headings]. Like the second part, the third occupies about 100 pages. It consists of 22 chapters, some only 2 or 3 pages long. They discuss Dark and Light, Spirit, the Powers of the Valar, Lembas, the Economy, Dwellings, the Founding of Nargothrond, Manwë's Ban, some calculations as to how fast Elves could travel on horseback, and a short passage that Tolkien chose not to use in The Lord of the Rings' chapter 'The White Rider'. There There are chapters concerned with the lives and ageing of Númenóreans, the land and beasts of their domain, and even mushrooms(!) There are musings on the Númenórean catastrophe, Galadriel and Celeborn (especially their names), the Silvan Elves and their language, and short notes on 'the delay of Gil-galad and the Númenóreans in attacking Sauron', Dwarvish voices, and the Dwarf Road. A 'new' brief fragment of The Hunt for the Ring follows, and the main text ends with a longish discussion of the topography of Gondor (updated and streamlined from Hostetter's own version that appeared in VT). The longer appendix discusses methaphysical and theological themes, and the shorter is a 2-page Quenya glossary. If you've not read any Tolkien before, do not under any circumstances start with this! But if you've read everything there is and are still hungry for more, this volume may fill some of the gaps in your knowledge.

Las opiniones del anuncio pueden tratar de diferentes ediciones del libro (gracias a las fotos incluidas en algunos comentarios, vi que la edición no coincidía con la que se ofertaba cuando lo compré). La edición que yo adquirí es la "de luxe", de tapa dura y dentro de una cajita. Llegó perfecta, sin rasguño o esquinas dobladas (el paquete de envío es de doble caja, más la propia de la edición). Es una edición muy cuidada, la portada de la tapa pertenece a un dibujo de J.R.R.Tolkien y dentro incluye una página laminada de Ted Nadsmith. Todo estudioso y curioso de Tolkien, con interés en los escritos previos y borradores de sus obras publicadas, estará encantado con esta edición, por los detalles cuidados y porque conocerá más sobre el mundo que Tolkien nos presentó en sus novelas. Este libro no es ni tiene la intención de ser una novela, ni continuación de las publicadas, por lo que su lectura no atraerá ni será adecuada para todo tipo de lector.