The Nature of Middle-earth

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 AGEINGThis 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 SPIRITSeventeen 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.

This book is, in effect, Volume 13 of The Complete History of Middle-earth, and how you feel about it will be exactly the same as how you felt about its twelve predecessors. I can't imagine that you'd enjoy it if your interest in Tolkien is only casual. But if, like me, you love his legendarium so much that its every tiny detail is a thing of absorbing interest, The Nature of Middle-earth will reward you with much new information about his world that'll absolutely fascinate you. Presumably the last book of its kind, it is, as it were, the cheese board concluding the banquet that Christopher Tolkien bestowed on us, full of delicious things to nibble and savour.What nobody can dispute is that in their deluxe edition, HarperCollins have kept up the high, almost Folio Society quality standard that has made their seventeen earlier deluxe Tolkien books a delight for any Tolkien fan who's a bibliophile as well as a hobbitomane. The paper is acid-free and smooth, the print quality superb, the silk bookmark present and correct as usual, the binding elegant and beautiful (with a JRRT painting of the Tree of Amalion on its front board), the slipcase sturdy and exquisitely decorated. The Ted Nasmith painting of the shore of Aman that's used on the jacket of the standard edition is included as a fold-out frontispiece, and the endpapers are decorated with some Tolkinian arithmetic. Whether the luxury of the special edition is worth its premium price is a matter of opinion, but I guarantee that, if you were happy with the earlier books in the JRRT deluxe series, you won't regret buying this one either.

This is a Tolkien Collectors Dream. I purchased this for my husband who is a serious Tolkien fan.This Folio Deluxe Book is beautifully bound and gilded, has original artwork and notes made by Tolkien on this nature of Middle Earth including dates and ages of the elven kind. The paper used for this book is of the highest quality and is a must to own for any serious Tolkien fan, who wants to know more than just the stories but the background history.

As many of the other reviewers have said, the target audience for this book is the serious Tolkien enthusiast: the type of reader who enjoyed The History of Middle Earth, and the more technical sections in Unfinished Tales. For that audience, this book will be rewarding and interesting. Personally, I loved it. It will leave *everyone* else *cold*... hence the distribution of both very high and very low review scores. For a more casual reader, it is not even a good route into a more detailed consideration of the Middle Earth mythos. It is best seen as a technical addendum to The History of Middle Earth.The publisher, Harper Collins, deserves some blame. The last 20 years has seen elements of Tolkien's work repeatedly restructured for republication in ways which emphasized specific stories (eg Beren and Lúthien; The Children of Hurin), seeking to make them more accessible to the general reader. The publisher's publicity blurb does not make it clear that this is a very different book, encourages the casual buyer to think that it includes more narrative elements than it actually does, and is more than a bit misleading. Caveat emptor!

Like any book based on Tolkien's writings, you have to take everything here with a pinch of salt. Scraps of paper and notes in margins do not a narrative make, but the theories and conclusions in this book are agreeable enough. I found it to be a lot drier than Unfinished Tales which is written in a similar style, and I switched off when the author went into the details of his mathematical solutions.As a reference book, much like History of Middle Earth and Unfinished Tales, it does the job. I would absolutely recommend this to any Tolkien enthusiast to add to their collection. Casual fans / readers who prefer narratives would probably be less likely to get a lot out of it.

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.

Such a great book 😁

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.