Guide to Tolkien's world

Press, 3 February 1979, Page 15

Guide to Tolkien's world

The Complete Guide to Middle-Earth. By Robert Foster. Unwin Paperbacks. 435 pp., appendices. $4.05.

(Reviewed by Margaret Quigley)

Appendages to Tolkien’s works continue to appear, along with biographies of the man and critical analyses or ardent appreciations of his work. It seems that anything, from calendars and cards to expensive hardback volumes, that bears Tolkien’s name or the name of one of his creations will sell readily. If an admirer of Tolkien must buy anything more than “the Hobbit," “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Silmarillion” this revised edition of “The Complete Guide to Middle-Earth” is probably as useful as anything else.

but it is by no means the “indispensable aid in every reader s discovery of Tolkien’s world” that the blurb claims. The mythology, history, geography, races and language of Middle-Earth were created in such astonishing detail by Tolkien that his world seems as real and complex as our own to those who enter it with imagination. Much of this convincing creation is contained in “The Silmarillion” and its index, but the “Complete Guide to Mid d 1 e-Earth” draws together comprehensively and accurately facts and information about names, places, maps and events from all the books. It will be a useful supplementary reference for those fascinated by the • multitudinous detail of Tolkien’s writings.