Overview

Few settings in literature are as widely known or celebrated as J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-Earth. The natural landscape plays a major role in nearly all of Tolkien's major works, and readers have come to view the geography of this fictional universe as integral to understanding and enjoying Tolkien's works. And in laying out this continent, Tolkien paid special attention to its plant life; in total, over 160 plants are explicitly mentioned and described as a part of Middle-Earth. Nearly all of these plants are real species, and many of the fictional plants are based on scientifically grounded botanic principles.In Flora of Middle Earth: Plants of Tolkien's Legendarium, botanist Walter Judd gives a detailed species account of every plant found in Tolkien's universe, complete with the etymology of the plant's name, a discussion of its significance within Tolkien's work, a description of the plant's distribution and ecology, and an original hand-drawn illustration by artist Graham Judd in the style of a woodcut print. Among the over three-thousand vascular plants Tolkien would have seen in the British Isles, the authors show why Tolkien may have selected certain plants for inclusion in his universe over others, in terms of their botanic properties and traditional uses. The clear, comprehensive alphabetical listing of each species, along with the visual identification key of the plant drawings, adds to the reader's understanding and appreciation of the Tolkien canon.

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9780190276317

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Reviews

Walter Judd lifts lovely passages from Tolkien's prose to elucidate on different plant species. There is helpful basic botany to further offset [our] plant blindness.

"""...This volume, with its handsome and haunting woodcuts, is best appreciated in small doses. It's heady stuff, quite concentrated. But it made me blow the dust off my copy of ""The Silmarillion"" and add it to my stash of winter reading."" -- The New York Times Book Review ""[Judd] has in this book produced an extremely detailed survey of the plants that create the distinctive landscapes of Middle-earth. Each plant is treated with the same botanical precision."" -- Lynn Forest-Hill, Tolkien Studies ""Walter Judd lifts lovely passages from Tolkien's prose to elucidate on different plant species. There is helpful basic botany to further offset [our] 'plant blindness'. Graham Judd's rich, black and white illustrations are intriguing combinations of botanical likenesses and psychological commentary."" -- The New York Journal of Books ""Moved by Tolkien's passion for plants, the retired botany professor spent years cataloging every plant that appeared in his writing, eventually compiling a list of 141 different species. He teamed up with his son, Graham, a professional illustrator. And together, they embarked on quest to transform that list into a botanical guide to Middle Earth."" -- NPR ""No one who dips into, or better still, reads this book will ever think of The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit in the same way again."" -- Nature Plants ""The clear, comprehensive alphabetical listing of each species, along with the visual identification key of the plant drawings, adds to the readers understanding and appreciation of the Tolkien canon."" -- Ian Street, Annals of Botany"

Author Information

Walter S. Judd is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Biology, University of Florida. His research focuses on the systematics and evolution of the flowering plants. He has published over 200 refereed articles and has described numerous new species of plants. Graham Judd holds an MFA in Printmaking, and received a Jerome Foundation Fellowship for Emerging Printmakers at Highpoint Center for Printmaking. He currently teaches at Augsburg College and Minneapolis College of Art and Design.

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