Last Updated: 15 June 1999
The purpose of this site is to provide readily available bibliographical information concerning the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien. In the future this might hopefully be extended to similiar list of books (monographs and anthologies) about Professor J.R.R. Tolkien.
Professor J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) was one of the most eminent scholars of his generation, working as Professor in Anglo-Saxon at the University of Oxford from 1925 to 1945. In 1945 he was elected to the Merton Professorship in English Language and Literature and served on this post until his retirement in 1959. Among his scholary publications might be mentioned A Middle English Vocabulary (1922), his edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (1925; together with E.V. Gordon, revised by Norman Davis in 1967), "Ancrene Wisse and Hali Meiðhad". (1929), "Chaucer as a Philologist" (1934), Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics (1937) Prefatory Remarks on Prose Translation of Beowulf" (1940), his edition Ancrene Wisse: The English Text of the Ancrene Riwle: Ancrene Wisse (1962), and "English and Welsh" (1963).
Posthumously have appeared The Old English Exodus (1982), the collection The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays (1983) and Finn and Hengest: The Fragment and the Episode (1983).
Of vital importance for understanding Tolkien's aesthetics as a fantasy writer is the essay "On Fairy-Stories" (1947, 1962).
For the general public, however, Tolkien is far better known for his fiction, especially his works concerning Middle-earth, Númenor and Valinor (=Arda). During his own life-time only the novels The Hobbit, or, There and Back Again (1937) and The Lord of the Rings (1954-1955) and the poetry collection The Adventures of Tom Bombadil(1962).
Posthumously have appeared The Silmarillion (1977), Unfinished Tales of Númenor and of Middle-earth (1980) as well as the long series of editions of manuscripts (chiefly of earlier versions of The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings), The History of Middle-earth, comprising twelve volumes: The Book of Lost Tales (2 parts, 1983-1984), The Lays of Beleriand (1985), The Shaping of Middle-earth (1986), The Lost Road and Other Writings (1987) The Return of the Shadow: The History of The Lord of the Rings, Part One (1988), The Treason of Isengard: The History of The Lord of the Rings, Part Two (1989), The War of the Ring: The History of The Lord of the Rings, Part Three (1990), Sauron Defeated: The End of the Third Age: (The History of The Lord of the Rings, Part Four); The Notion Club Papers and The Drowning of Anadûnê (1992), Morgoth's Ring: The Later Silmarillion, Part One: The Legends of Aman (1993), The War of the Jewels: The Later Silmarillion, Part Two: The Legends of Beleriand (1994), and, finally, The Peoples of Middle-earth (1996).
Among Tolkien's works of fiction not connected with Middle-earth might be mentioned "The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun" (1945; poem), "Leaf by Niggle" (1945; short story), Farmer Giles of Ham (1949; story), "The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth, Beorhthelm's Son"; (1953; dramatic verse), "Imram" (1955; poem), Smith of Wootton Major (1967).
Posthumously have appeared The Father Christmas Letters (1976), Mr. Bliss (1982), and Roverandom (1998).
There has also appeared a selection of J.R.R. Tolkien's letters, Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (1981).
| Tolkien's writings | A Chronological Bibliography of the Writings of J.R.R. Tolkien |
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ICQ #29539439
Created: 15 June 1999
Last Updated: 15 June 1999