Overview

World first publication of the collected poems of J.R.R. Tolkien, spanning almost seven decades of the author’s life and presented in an elegant three-volume hardback boxed set. J.R.R. Tolkien aspired to be a poet in the first instance, and poetry was part of his creative life no less than his prose, his languages, and his art. Although Tolkien’s readers are aware that he wrote poetry, if only from verses in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, its extent is not well known, and its qualities are underappreciated. Within his larger works of fiction, poems help to establish character and place as well as further the story; as individual works, they delight with words and rhyme. They express his love of nature and the seasons, of landscape and music, and of words. They convey his humour and his sense of wonder. The earliest work in this collection, written for his beloved, is dated to 1910, when Tolkien was eighteen. More poems would follow during his years at Oxford, some of them very elaborate and eccentric. Those he composed during the First World War, in which he served in France, tend to be concerned not with trenches and battle, but with life, loss, faith, and friendship, his longing for England, and the wife he left behind. Beginning in 1914, elements of his legendarium, ‘The Silmarillion’, began to appear, and the ‘Matter of Middle-earth’ would inspire much of Tolkien’s verse for the rest of his life. Within The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien almost 250 works are presented across three volumes, including more than 70 that have never before been seen. The poems are deftly woven together with commentary and notes by world-renowned Tolkien scholars Christina Scull & Wayne G. Hammond, placing them in the context of Tolkien’s life and literary accomplishments and creating a poetical biography that is a unique and revealing celebration of J.R.R. Tolkien.

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9780008628826

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Reviews

‘Professor Tolkien revealed in the verses scattered through The Hobbit that he had a talent for songs, riddling rhymes, and a kind of balladry. In The Adventures of Tom Bombadil the talent can be seen to be close to genius.’ LISTENER

Author Information

J.R.R.Tolkien (1892-1973) was a distinguished academic, though he is best known for writing The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, plus other stories and essays. His books have been translated into over 60 languages and have sold many millions of copies worldwide. Christina Scull is the former librarian of Sir John Soane’s Museum, London. She is the author of ‘The Soane Hogarths’ (1991), edits the journal ‘The Tolkien Collector’, and frequently writes and speaks about Tolkien. Her husband, Wayne G. Hammond, is Assistant Librarian in the Chapin Library of Rare Books, Williams College, author of the standard bibliography of Tolkien’s works, ‘J.R.R. Tolkien: A Descriptive Bibliography’ (1993), and a regular contributor of Tolkien’s notes to the journal ‘Mythlore’. He also lectures on the history of printing and illustration and is a practising book designer and graphic artist – making him the ideal co-author of the acclaimed study of Tolkien’s paintings and drawings, ‘J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist & Illustrator’. The couple live in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Wayne G Hammond is a librarian at the Chapin Library of Rare Books at Williams College Massachusetts. He is the author of The Graphic Art of C.B. Falls (1892), J.R.R. Tolkien: A Descriptive Bibliography (1993), and regular notes on Tolkien in the journal Mythlore. Christina Scull is the former librarian of Sir John Soane's Museum, London. She is the author of The Soane Hogarths (1991), edits the journal The Tolkien Collector, and frequently writes and speaks about Tolkien. Together, Wayne and Christina have written the two-volume J.R.R. TOLKIEN COMPANION & GUIDE and edited Tolkien's ROVERANDOM and FARMER GILES OF HAM 50th anniversary edition.

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