am secretly disappointed cuz but 5 stars for tolkien ( )

Previously, I read the author's comprehensive book on J.R.R. Tolkien's art and was quite pleased with it, but this book fell somewhat short. Clearly, Tolkien's artwork for the Lord of the Rings was never meant to be included in any sort of publication (besides the map), since they aren't more than prepatory sketches. Ironically, the few paintings that Tolkien did complete (and do appear to be finished artwork) were not included in publications unil their much later use for promotional merchandise... ( )

In The Art of The Lord of the Rings, editors Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull compile all of the artwork J.R.R. Tolkien created while writing and during the publication phase of The Lord of the Rings. They gathered their sources primarily from Tolkien’s papers in the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford and the University Archives at Marquette University in Wisconsin. Hammon and Scull divide their work into five categories: cartographic, drawings as aids for working out details, drawings made for his own pleasure, art meant to appear within the text, and art intended for the text but that never before appeared in publication. They use Tolkien’s letters and Christopher Tolkien’s The History of Middle Earth as guides in contextualizing art used for scenes that changed between drafts.

While much of the work is cartographic – as Tolkien used maps to help work out characters’ paths and the scale of events – a fair amount features sketches of buildings and other locations that helped make Middle Earth a physical place in the author’s – and readers’ – mind. Tolkien spend a great deal of time working out the appearances of Tengwar and Cirth, his primary written languages in The Lord of the Rings, and his letters convey his concerns that Tengwar look appropriately elfin. Other pieces, like Tolkien’s facsimiles of the “Book of Marzarbul” and the “King’s Letter” he intended as an epilogue, offer an invaluable look into the ideas that never made it into the final version of Tolkien’s legendarium. The Art of The Lord of the Rings is a must-read for all fans of Tolkien’s work! ( )

If you're not a devoted fan of Tolkien's work, you will likely not find this book at all interesting. If you are however, then you will love it. It includes many early drafts of manuscripts and maps, which are not only interesting in their own right but also provide some insight into the creative process and how the story developed and changed over time. Different drafts of the same map, and maps with place names crossed out and rewritten illustrate this point.

All items are reproduced as high quality images (and indeed the book itself is printed on high quality gloss paper) and are discussed and described at length in the text. The authors have done a good job of getting the verbosity right - providing enough explanation and context without getting dry or boring.

If you read the word "art" in the title and were hoping for drawings of scenes rather than maps, you may be disappointed - these are represented, but are few and far between, as Tolkien didn't do a great deal of this type of work. ( )

As a research volume this is outstanding - every sketch, down to the little squiggles in the manuscript meant to help work out the geography, that Tolkien made in the course of writing or to accompany The Lord of the Rings. Anyone interested in the particulars of the geography of Middle-earth, or in how a writer can use maps and sketches to work out details of fiction, should take a look at this.