THE J. R. R. TOLKIEN COMPANION AND GUIDE: Boxed Set - part III (11.10.06)

The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion & Guide: Publication Update and Details

In the previous article I announced the publication of The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion & Guide on 2 October 2006 (with possible delay). Some people sent me emails to ask where to find the book because they could not find it in their local bookstore. When amazon started sending out emails that the pre-orders could not be delivered in time I got a lot of panic emails. So here I am with an update; the publication of the book set has indeed been delayed until 2 November (UK). But there is also good news! At the website of the authors we can read the following, here reproduced with their permission:

We have finally completed The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide after some seven years of work, interrupted by more time-sensitive projects and, in its final stage, by illness: Christina had urgent open heart surgery in early August. (Wayne continued to work on the index on a laptop at Christina's bedside in hospital, and completed final editing and typesetting after Christina returned home on 10 August.) HarperCollins U.K. plan to publish the Companion and Guide on 2 November 2006, and Houghton Mifflin in the U.S. later that month. Included in its two volumes (some 2,300 pages) are a lengthy chronology of tolkien's life and works, checklists and descriptions of his writings, and notes on significant persons, places, issues, and events. Although the two volumes of the Companion and Guide are intended to be used in conjunction with each other, they will be sold separately as well as in a boxed set. Images of the upper jackets, and of the slipcase spine, are shown below."

UK EDITIONS
US EDITIONS

"While working on the Companion and Guide we edited the 50th anniversary edition of tolkien's Lord of the Rings, with the approval of Christopher Tolkien, to ensure the most accurate version to date. This was published in 2004. A new printing, with further corrections and a new, much enlarged index, appeared in 2005. Our separate volume of annotations to The Lord of the Rings, entitled The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion, was published by HarperCollins in the U.K. and Houghton Mifflin in the U.S. in 2005. HarperCollins offer this both in hardback and paperback, separately and in boxed sets with The Lord of the Rings. Houghton Mifflin have published only in hardback."

We have also copy-edited for Marquette University Press the twenty papers presented at the October 2004 Tolkien conference held in Milwaukee, The Lord of the Rings, 1954-2004: Scholarship in Honor of Richard E. Blackwelder. This is available from the publisher. The volume includes our own papers, "What Did He Know and When Did He Know It?: Planning, Inspiration, and The Lord of the Rings" (Christina) and "Special Collections in the Service of Tolkien Studies" (Wayne).

Oak Knoll Press have expressed interest in a second edition of Wayne's J.R.R. Tolkien: A Descriptive Bibliography. He had hoped to begin work on this by now (and has been gathering information for it), but our books for HarperCollins have been more urgent and time-sensitive. Meanwhile, Oak Knoll have taken this back to press for a third printing.

With more immediate Tolkien projects out of the way, we have resumed work on an annotated collection catalogue of the artist Pauline Baynes, and are gathering material from the past several years to resume publication of The Tolkien Collector.”

All good news in the end!
On 2 November we will finally see the book set, and at the end of the same month it will also be available across the Atlantic. I remember first seeing the announcement for the Houghton Mifflin edition back in 2003 in Houghton Mifflin's 2003 LoTR Catalogue. Since then I must have announced the book for many times… so waiting for a couple of weeks more will not make the big difference. What will be different is that in stead of 800 pages (as announced in 2003) we will have a 2300 pages to read and the book will be indeed the most comprehensive, in-depth reference ever published. If you take a good look at the List of Topics for Vol. 2 the Reader’s Guide we can see that the book will cover every topic and will bring us a lot of new insight and information. Some topics like “Arthur and the Matter of Britain”, “Atlantis” will really be interesting; maybe we will see some questions answered there. I’m very happy to see the names of many places mentioned in UK and abroad, also here I think we will get some new information. The topics list of Vol II is impressive, now we only have to wait for the publication to start reading.

Summary of the books and expectations
From press releases in the past (and some recent communications with the authors) I will here try to give a small summory of what we can expect. tolkien's progress is traced from his birth in South Africa in 1892, to the battlefields of France and the lecture-halls of Leeds and Oxford, to his success as the author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, until his death in 1973. His many academic and literary achievements, his public reception, and his enduring fame are examined in detail.

The first volume in this set is a Chronology of tolkien's life and works, the most extensive biographical resource about him ever published. Thousands of details have been drawn from letters, contemporary documents in libraries and archives, and a wide variety of other published and unpublished sources. Assembled together, they form a portrait of Tolkien in all his aspects: the distinguished scholar of Old and Middle English, the capable teacher and administrator, the devoted husband and father, the brilliant creator of Middle-earth.

The second volume, the Reader's Guide, is an indispensable introduction to tolkien's life, writings, and art. It includes histories and discussions of his works; analyses of the components of his vast 'Silmarillion' mythology; brief biographies of persons important in his life; accounts of places he knew; essays on topics such as tolkien's interests and attitudes towards contemporary issues, ideas found in his works, adaptations, and invented languages; and checklists of his published works, his poetry, his pictorial art, and translations of his writing.

Wayne Hammond drafted most of the entries on people and on tolkien's individual works, while Christina compiled the first version of the chronology and did most of the entries on places and influences and all of the very substantial work on the "Silmarillion" material through its different versions; but the final product was entirely a joint effort.

Christina Scull and Wayne Hammond worked in many libraries, and were in contact with others they couldn't visit. We  can assume that the final covers are as we see them reproduced here. Wayne Hammond did the interior design and typesetting; as both volumes ran much longer than expected, there was no room for pictures (the only sad point about the books I think, maybe there should be made a deluxe edition with pictures).

List of Topics in Vol. 2 (Reader’s Guide) of The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide by Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond

[Titles of works beginning ‘Of’ are alphabetized by the following word.]

A
Abercrombie, Lascelles
Ace Books controversy
Acocks Green (Warwickshire)
Acta Senatus
Adaptations
The Adventures of Tom Bombadil
The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Other Verses from the Red Book
Ae Adar Nín: The Lord’s Prayer in Sindarin
Ainulindalë
Akallabêth: The Downfall of Númenor
Alcar mi Tarmenel na Erun: The Gloria in Excelsis Deo in Quenya
Aldarion and Erendis: The Mariner’s Wife
Aldershot (Hampshire)
Allegory
Aman
Ambarkanta: The Shape of the World
‘Analysis of fragments of other languages found in The Lord of the Rings
Ancrene Riwle
Ancrene Wisse and Hali Meiðhad
Annals of Beleriand
Annals of Valinor
Appearance
An Application for the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship of Anglo-Saxon in the University of Oxford by J.R.R. Tolkien, Professor of the English Language in the University of Leeds, June 25, 1925
Art
Arthur and the Matter of Britain
Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth
Atlantis
Attacks of Taste
Auden, Wystan Hugh
‘Of Aulë and Yavanna’

B
Barfield, Arthur Owen
Barnsley, Thomas Kenneth
Barnt Green (Worcestershire)
Barrowclough, Sidney
The Battle of the Eastern Field
The Battles of the Fords of Isen
Baynes, Pauline Diana
Bedford (Bedfordshire)
‘Of the Beginning of Days’
‘Of Beleriand and Its Realms’
Belgium
Bennett, Henry Stanley
Bennett, Jack Arthur Walter
Beowulf
Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics
‘Of Beren and Lúthien’
Berkshire
Bibliographies
The Bidding of the Minstrel, from the Lay of Eärendel
Bilbo’s Last Song (at the Grey Havens)
Biographies
Birmingham and environs
Birmingham Oratory
Blackwell, Basil Henry
Bliss, Alan Joseph
Bombadil Goes Boating
The Book of Lost Tales
The Book of Lost Tales, Part One
The Book of Lost Tales, Part Two
Bournemouth (Hampshire)
Bradley, Henry
Braunholtz, Gustav Ernst Karl
Brett-Smith, Herbert Francis Brett
Brewerton, George
Brogan, Denis Hugh Vercingetorix
Brookes-Smith family
Bryson, John Norman
Burchfield, Robert William

C
Calligraphy
Cambridge (Cambridgeshire)
Campbell, Alistair
Campbell, Ignatius Roy Dunnachie
Carr, Charlie
Carter, Douglas
Cat
Cecil, Edward Christian David Gascoyne
Celtic influences
Chambers, Raymond Wilson
Chandler, Pamela
Chaucer, Geoffrey
Chaucer as a Philologist: The Reeve’s Tale
Cheddar Gorge and Caves (Somerset)
Cheltenham (Gloucestershire)
Chesterton, Gilbert Keith
Childe, Wilfred Rowland Mary
Children
The Children of Húrin [= The Lay of the Children of Húrin]
Círdan
Cirion and Eorl and the Friendship of Gondor and Rohan
The City of the Gods 
Classical influences
The Clerke’s Compleinte
Clevedon (Somerset)
Coghill, Nevill Henry Kendal Aylmer
Collecting and sales
‘Of the Coming of the Elves and the Captivity of Melkor’
‘Of the Coming of Men into the West’
The Converse of Manwë and Eru
Cornwall
Corrected Names of Chief Valar
Craigie, William Alexander
The Creatures of the Earth
Criticism
Cromer (Norfolk)
Cuivienyarna
Cullis, Colin

D
Dagnall, Margery Kathleen Mary, known as Susan
Dangweth Pengoloð
Darbishire, Helen
D’Arcy, Martin Cyril
D’Ardenne, Simonne Rosalie Thérèse Odile
‘Of the Darkening of Valinor’
Davis, Norman
Dawkins, Richard MacGillivray
Day, Mabel
A Description of the Island of Númenor
The Devil’s Coach-horses
The Disaster of the Gladden Fields
Disney Studio
Dobson, Eric John
Domestic duties
Doworst
The Dragon’s Visit
Dragons
Drama
The Drowning of Anadûnê
Dundas-Grant, James Harold
Of Dwarves and Men
Dyson, Henry Victor Dyson

E
Éalá Éarendel Engla Beorhtast
Earendel at the Helm
‘Early Chart of Names’
‘Early Noldorin Grammar’
‘Early Qenya Pronouns’
Earp, Thomas Wade
Eddison, Eric Rucker
‘Of Eldamar and the Princes of the Eldalië’
Eldarin Hands, Fingers & Numerals
‘Elvish Reincarnation’
Elvish Song in Rivendell
Emery, Augustine
The End of the Third Age: The History of The Lord of the Rings, Part IV
England
English and Medieval Studies Presented to J.R.R. Tolkien
on the Occasion of His Seventieth Birthday

English and Welsh
English language
‘English–Qenya Dictionary’
Enigmata Saxonica Nuper Inventa Duo
Of the Ents and the Eagles
Environment
Eriol and Ælfwine
Errantry
Escape
Etymologies
Eucatastrophe
An Evening in Tavrobel
Everett, Dorothy
Examinations

F
Fairford (Gloucestershire)
fairy-stories
The Fall
The Fall of Númenor
Fandom
Farmer Giles of Ham
Farnell, Lewis Richard
Farrer, Katharine Dorothy
Fastitocalon
The ‘Father Christmas’ letters
‘Of Fëanor and the Unchaining of Melkor’
‘Of the Fifth Battle: Nirnaeth Arnoediad’
Filey (Yorkshire)
Finn and Hengest: The Fragment and the Episode
Firth, Charles Harding
The Five Wizards
Fletcher, Ronald Frank William
‘Flight of the Gnomes’
The Flight of the Noldoli from Valinor
‘Of the Flight of the Noldor’
Folkestone (Kent)
Food and drink
For W.H.A.
A Fourteenth-Century Romance
Fox, Adam
France
Fraser, John
Free will and Fate
From the Many-Willow’d Margin of the Immemorial Thames

G
Gale, St Teresa
Gardner, Helen Louise
Gedling (Nottinghamshire)
‘Gerald of Wales on the Survival of Welsh’
Gilson, Robert Cary
Gilson, Robert Quilter
Glip
Glorfindel
‘The Gnomes Come to the Great Lands’
Gnomish GrammarGnomish Lexicon Goblin Feet
Gollins, Annie
Good and Evil
Gordon, Eric Valentine
Gordon, George Stuart
Grahame, Kenneth
Green, Roger Gilbert Lancelyn
The Grey Bridge of Tavrobel
Griffiths, Mary Elaine
Grove, Jennie

H
Habbanan beneath the Stars
Haggard, Henry Rider
Halsbury, John Anthony Hardinge Giffard, Earl of
The Happy Mariners
Hardie, Colin Graham
Harrogate (Yorkshire)
Havard, Robert Emlyn
Health
The Heirs of Elendil
‘Heraldic Devices of Tol Erethrin’
Hill, Margaret Joy
Historical and cultural influences
The History of Galadriel and Celeborn and of Amroth King of Lórien
The History of Middle-earth
The History of The Lord of the Rings
The Hoard
The Hobbit
Holy Maidenhood
The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm’s Son
Hope and Despair
The Horns of Ylmir
Hove (Sussex)
The Hunt for the Ring

I
Illustration
Imram
Incledon family
‘Index of Names for The Lay of the Children of Húrin
The Inklings
Ireland, Republic of (Eire)
‘Iþþlen’ in Sawles Warde
Iumbo, or ye Kinde of ye Oliphaunt Oliphaunt

J
J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator
Jennings, Elizabeth Joan
The Jerusalem Bible
Jones, Gwyn

K
Kalevala
Katherine Group
Ker, Neil Ripley
King Edward’s School, Birmingham

L
Lancashire Fusiliers
Lang, Andrew
Languages
Languages, Invented
Lascelles, Mary Madge
The Last Ark
The Last Ship
Laws and Customs among the Eldar
The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun
‘Lay of Eärendel’
Lay of Leithian
The Lay of the Fall of Gondolin
The Lays of Beleriand
Lea, Kathleen Marguerite
Leaf by Niggle
Leeds (Yorkshire)
Leeds, University of
Leeds University Verse, 1914–24
Of Lembas
The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
Lewis, Clive Staples
Lewis, Warren Hamilton
The Lhammas
Libraries and archives
Light
Light as Leaf on Lindentree
Lincoln (Lincolnshire)
The Line of Elros: Kings of Númenor
The Little House of Lost Play: Mar Vanwa Tyaliéva
London
The Lonely Isle
The Lord of the Rings
Loss
The Lost Road
The Lost Road and Other Writings
Lyme Regis (Dorset)

M
McCallum, Ronald Buchanan
MacDonald, George
McFarlane, Kenneth Bruce
Madlener, Josef
‘Of Maeglin’
Of Maeglin: Sister-son of Turgon, King of Gondolin
Magic
Malvern (Worcestershire)
The Man in the Moon Came Down Too Soon
The Man in the Moon Stayed Up Too Late
MS. Bodley 34: A Re-Collation of a Collation
Masefield, John Edward
Matar and Tulir
Mathew, Anthony Gervase
Melkor Morgoth
‘Of Men’
The Mewlips
Middle English ‘Losenger’
A Middle English Vocabulary
Milford-on-Sea (Hampshire)
Mills, Stella Marie
Mr. Bliss
Mitchison, Naomi Mary Margaret
The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays
Morgan, Francis Xavier
Morgoth’s Ring: The Later Silmarillion, Part One: The Legends of Aman
Morris, William
Mortality and Immortality
Murray, Robert Patrick Ruthven
Music
Mythopoeia

N
‘Name-list to The Fall of Gondolin
The Name ‘Nodens’
The Nameless Land
Names
Names and Required Alterations
‘Names of the Valar’
Napier, Arthur Sampson
Narn i Chîn Húrin
Narqelion
Nature
Neave, Emily Jane
Nesbit, Edith
Netherlands
A New Glossary of the Dialect of the Huddersfield District
The New Shadow
Newby, Percy Howard
Nichol Smith, David
Nieninque
‘Noldorin Dictionary’
‘Noldorin Word-lists’
Nomenclature of The Lord of the Rings
‘Of the Noldor in Beleriand’
A Northern Venture
Northernness
Notes on Motives in the Silmarillion
Notes on Óre
The Notion Club Papers
Númenor
Númenórean Linear Measures

O
Official Name List
The Old English Apollonius of Tyre
The Old English Exodus
Oliphaunt
On fairy-stories
Once upon a Time
Onions, Charles Talbut
Orcs
Ósanwe-kenta
Quendi and Eldar
Otley (Yorkshire)
‘Otsan and Kainendan’
Over Old Hills and Far Away
Oxford and environs
Oxford, University of
Oxford English Dictionary
Oxford English Monographs
Oxford English School
The Oxford English School
Oxford Letter

P
The Palantíri
Payton, Ralph S.
Payton, Wilfrid Hugh
Pearl
The Peoples of Middle-earth
Perry-the-Winkle
Philology
Pictures by J.R.R. Tolkien
Pity and Mercy
Poems and Stories
The Poetic and Mythologic Words of Eldarissa
Poetry
Political thought
Poole (Dorset)
Possessiveness
Power
Prefatory Remarks on Prose Translation of ‘Beowulf’
Prejudice and Racism
Princess Mee
The Princess Ní
The Problem of Ros
Progress in Bimble Town
Publishers

Q
Qenya: Descriptive Grammar of the Qenya Language
The Qenya Verb Forms
Qenyaqetsa
Quantock Hills (Somerset)
Quendi and Eldar
Quenta Noldorinwa
‘Quenta Silmarillion’
Quenta Silmarillion
Quest
The Quest of Erebor

R
Raleigh, Walter Alexander
Ransome, Arthur Michell
Reade, Francis Vincent
Reading
Recordings
Recovery
Rednal (Worcestershire)
The Reeve’s Tale
Reincarnation of Elves
Religion
Research v. Literature
‘Of the Return of the Noldor’
The Return of the Shadow: The History of The Lord of the Rings, Part One
Reynolds, Richard William
Rice-Oxley, Leonard
Ridley, Maurice Roy
Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age
The Rivers and Beacon-hills of Gondor
The Road
The Road Goes Ever On: A Song Cycle
Roverandom
‘Of the Ruin of Beleriand and the Fall of Fingolfin’
‘Of the Ruin of Doriath’

S
Salu, Mary Bertha
Sarehole (Warwickshire)
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
Sayer, George Sydney Benedict
Science
Scotland
The Sea
The Sea-Bell
A Secret Vice
Shadow-Bride
The Shaping of Middle-Earth: The Quenta, The Ambarkanta and the Annals Together with the Earliest ‘Silmarillion’ and the First Map
The Shibboleth of Fëanor
The Shores of Faery
‘Sí Qente Feanor’
Sidmouth (Devon)
Sigelwara Land
‘The Silmarillion’
The Silmarillion
‘Of the Silmarils and the Unrest of the Noldor’
Simpson, Percy
‘Of the Sindar’
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl and Sir Orfeo
Sir Orfeo
Sisam, Kenneth
Sketch of the Mythology
Smith, Albert Hugh
Smith, Geoffrey Bache
Smith of Wootton Major
Smithers, Geoffrey Victor
Smoking
Societies and clubs
Some Contributions to Middle-English Lexicography
A Song of Aryador
Songs for the Philologists
Source-hunting
South Africa
Spiders
Sports
Staffordshire
Stevens, Courtenay Edward
Stewart, John Innes Mackintosh
The Stone Troll
Stonyhurst (Lancashire)
Sub-creation
Suffield family
‘Of the Sun and Moon and the Hiding of Valinor’
Sun The Trees Silmarils
Swann, Donald Ibrahim
Switzerland
‘Synopsis of Pengoloð’s Eldarinwe Leperi are Notessi

T
Tal-Elmar
The Tale of Years
Tales and Songs of Bimble Bay
Tales from the Perilous Realm
T.C.B.S.
‘Of Thingol and Melian’
Thompson, William Meredith
Tidworth (Wiltshire)
Tinfang Warble
Tolkien family
Tolkien, Arthur Reuel
Tolkien, Christopher Reuel
Tolkien, Edith Mary
Tolkien, Hilary Arthur Reuel
Tolkien, John Francis Reuel
Tolkien, Mabel
Tolkien, Michael Hilary Reuel
Tolkien, Priscilla Mary Reuel
Tolkien on Tolkien
The Tolkien Reader
The Town of Dreams and the City of Present Sorrow
Translations
Travel and transport
The Treason of Isengard: The History of The Lord of the Rings, Part Two
Tree and Leaf
The Trees of Kortirion
Trought, Vincent
Of Tuor and His Coming to Gondolin
‘Of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin’
‘Of Túrin Turambar’
Turlin and the Exiles of Gondolin
Turville-Petre, Edward Oswald Gabriel
Turville-Petre, Joan Elizabeth

U
Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth
Unwin, Rayner Stephens
Unwin, Stanley

V
Valaquenta
Valedictory Address to the University of Oxford
‘Variation D/L in Common Eldarin’
‘Of the Voyage of Eärendil and the War of Wrath’

W
Wade-Gery, Henry Theodore
Wain, John Barrington
Waldman, Milton
Wales
The Wanderings of Húrin
War
The War of the Jewels: The Later Silmarillion, Part Two:
The Legends of Beleriand

The War of the Ring: The History of The Lord of the Rings, Part Three
Wardale, Edith Elizabeth
Warwick (Warwickshire)
West Midlands
Weston-super-Mare (Somerset)
Whitby (Yorkshire)
Whitelock, Dorothy
Wilkinson, Cyril Hackett
Williams, Charles Walter Stansby
Wilson, Frank Percy
Wiseman, Christopher Luke
Women and marriage
‘Words of Joy’
Wrenn, Charles Leslie
Wright, Joseph
Writing systems
Wyke-Smith, Edward Augustine
Wyld, Henry Cecil Kennedy

XYZ
The Year’s Work in English Studies
Yorkshire