In Tolkien's narrative conceit, in which all the writings of Middle-earth are translations from the fictitious volume of The Red Book of Westmarch, Bilbo is the author of The Hobbit and translator of various " works from the elvish ", as mentioned in the end of The Return of the King.

This version survives until Tolkien's time, and he translates the Red Book from the original languages into English and other representative languages or lects ( e. g. Old English for Rohirric ).

As a memoir and history, the contents of the Red Book probably correspond to Tolkien's work as follows:

Book twelve discusses the development of the Appendices to The Lord of the Rings and assorted writings from the last years of Tolkien's life.

Books include The Disney Studio Story and Mickey Mouse: His Life and Times ( with Richard Holliss ); The Land of Narnia, illustrated by Pauline Baynes ; The Treasury of Narnia ( with Alison Sage ); Shadowlands: The True Story of C. S. Lewis and Joy Davidman ; The Book of Guinness Advertising ; a biography of Wilbert Vere Awdry, entitled The Thomas the Tank Engine Man ; A Christmas Carol: The Unsung Story ; Cracking Animation: The Aardman book of 3-D Film-making, ( with Peter Lord ); Chicken Run: Hatching the Movie ; Three Cheers for Pooh ; and The Maps of Tolkien's Middle-earth with artist John Howe.

Within the context of Tolkien's work, the Thain's Book was the original source for what we know as The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.

* Ausir, one of the children in the Cottage of Lost Play in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Book of Lost Tales

The Book of Lost Tales is the title of a collection of early stories by J. R. R. Tolkien, and of the first two volumes of Christopher Tolkien's 12-volume series The History of Middle-earth, in which he presents and analyses the manuscripts of those stories, which were the earliest form of the complex fictional myths that would eventually comprise The Silmarillion.

The first versions of the long lays fit chronologically in with Tolkien's earliest writings, as recounted in The Book of Lost Tales, but the later version of The Lay of Leithian is contemporary with the writing of The Lord of the Rings.

It presents an abridged cycle of Tolkien's drafts of his Elvish legends, drawing material from the earliest Book of Lost Tales to drafts written long after The Lord of the Rings.

Book three of scholar and author J. R. R. Tolkien's fiction work The Lord of the Rings — The Return of the King — contains an appendix ( Appendix D ) that provides a sample of the Shire calendar.

These papers, which make a number of comments on Lewis ' Space Trilogy, remind one of C. S. Lewis ' commentary to Tolkien's poem The Lay of Leithian, in which Lewis created a fictional history of scholarship of the poem and even referred to other manuscript tradition to recommend changes to the poem.

Tolkien believed he had invented the word " hobbit " when he began writing The Hobbit ( it was revealed years after his death that the word predated Tolkien's usage, though with a different meaning ).

Other races of Men are mentioned in Tolkien's work, though they play a relatively small part in the history of Middle-earth.

These Giants may be related to the race of Man, though the scant information about them had led to debate over their exact nature and even their existence as an independent race in Tolkien's world.

Alongside the Dungeons & Dragons Greyhawk setting, Warhammer is among the oldest of commercial fantasy worlds, a direct descendant of both that game and Tolkien's Middle-earth, though the 1st edition cited Robert E Howard ( Conan the Barbarian ) alongside Michael Moorcock and Tolkien as influencing fantasy table-top games.

The name derives from Tolkien's Akallabêth, part of The Silmarillion ; though the game is not based on Tolkien's story.

The Lhammas and related writings like " The Etymologies " illustrate Tolkien's conception of the languages of Middle-earth as a language family analogous to Indo-European, with diverging branches and sub-branches — though for the immortal Elves the proto-language is remembered rather than reconstructed.

Almost nothing can be known of the lands beyond the Sea of Rhûn from Tolkien's written work, though it is vaguely described in The Fellowship of the Ring as a realm of " wide uncharted lands, nameless plains, and forests unexplored ".

* Like many of Tolkien's Hobbit names, ' Took ' is a real ( though rare ) English surname.

Even though goblinoids in modern fantasy fiction are derived from J. R. R. Tolkien's orcs, in his Middle-earth " orc " and " goblin " were names for the same race of creatures.

Hostetter claims that he has never objected to Fair Use of Tolkien's works, but argues that dictionaries of Tolkien's languages ( and potentially, though less clearly, grammars, depending on the proportion of quoted to original material ), due to their wholly derivative nature, do not constitute Fair Use, and thereby violate the Estate's copyright, drawing parallels to Marc Okrand's Klingon and to the Estate's lawsuit against Michael Perry's Tolkien chronology.

Tolkien's Elves are still very much " human ," and although they can be killed by injury or die of grief, and they do age ( besides " emotional ageing ," the males grow beards upon reaching a " third cycle of life ," though these beards never reach the glory of an adolescent dwarf woman ), dead Elves are normally re-embodied after an indefinite period of time — according to Tolkien's Letters and other posthumously published writings.

Tolkien's conviction that the poem dates to the 8th century is defended by Tom Shippey ( 2007 ).

Tom Shippey in The Road to Middle-earth says how “ Boethian ” much of the treatment of evil is in Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

( This time phenomenon is retold in Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings when the Fellowship pass into both Rivendell and Lothlórien, where time seems almost to stand still.

J. R. R. Tolkien, in the legendarium surrounding his Elves, uses " Gnomes " as a name of the Noldor, the most gifted and technologically minded of his elvish races, in conscious exploitation of the similarity with gnomic ; Gnomes is thus Tolkien's English loan-translation of Quenya Noldor, " those with knowledge ".

This is notable because the book, consisting of a seminal essay called " On Fairy-Stories " and " Leaf by Niggle ," offers the underlying philosophy ( Creation and Sub-Creation, see below ) of much of Tolkien's fantastical writings.

" Leaf by Niggle " is often seen as an allegory of Tolkien's own creative process, and, to an extent, of his own life.

This philosophy is evident in Tolkien's other works, especially The Silmarillion — one Vala, Morgoth, creates the Orc race as a foul mockery of the elf.

From a metanarrative viewpoint, Tolkien's Arda is itself a subcreation designed to honour the true stories of the real world.

The essay is significant because it contains Tolkien's explanation of his philosophy on fantasy and thoughts on mythopoiesis.

Tolkien's love of myths and devout Catholic faith came together in his assertion that mythology is the divine echo of " the Truth ".

* 1937 – J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit is published.

Tolkien: Master of Middle-earth ," which describes the impact Tolkien's writings had on him, is featured in the following titles:

Tolkien's prose is unpretentious and straightforward, taking as given the existence of his imaginary world and describing its details in a matter-of-fact way, while often introducing the new and fantastic in an almost casual manner.

Patrick Curry notes that animism is also found in Tolkien's other works, and mentions the " roots of mountains " and " feet of trees " in The Hobbit as a linguistic shifting in level from the inanimate to animate.

Indeed, Tolkien's " On Fairy-Stories " includes discussions of world-building and is considered a vital part of fantasy criticism.

In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional world of Middle-earth, Angband ( Sindarin for ' iron prison ') is the name of the fortress of Melkor, constructed before the First Age, located in the Iron Mountains in the enemy's land Dor Daedeloth north of Beleriand.

The fortress is described in Tolkien's The Silmarillion.

* Middle-earth, in J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional world of Arda, where Endor is the Quenya name for it

Gandalf () is a character in J. R. R. Tolkien's novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

Like constructed languages in general, the study of Tolkien's languages is not typically undertaken by mainstream linguists.

In Tolkien's fictional world of Middle-earth, the Shire is divided into four Farthings, into the Fourth Age.

In general, Smaug's design is consistent with Tolkien's description save his face.

In J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium, the Lonely Mountain ( Sindarin Erebor ) is a mountain in the northeast of Rhovanion.

" The Bard's Song-The Hobbit " is a song by the Power metal band Blind Guardian, featured in their 1992 album Somewhere Far Beyond which is based on J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit.