Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth
Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth is a 2018 art book exploring images of the artwork, illustrations, maps, letters and manuscripts of J. R. R. Tolkien. The book was written by Catherine McIlwaine, Tolkien archivist at the Bodleian Library. It was timed to coincide with an exhibition of the same name, also curated by McIlwaine.
Cover of first edition, showing Tolkien's painting "Bilbo Comes to the Huts of the Raft-Elves"
"Bilbo woke up with the sun in his eyes": a double-page spread from the book, showing the combination of detailed text, Tolkien's artwork, and a spacious layout
Tolkien's first prose fiction was the 1914 The Story of Kullervo, inspired by the Finnish Kalevala. Painting Kullervo Rides to War by Akseli Gallen-Kallela, 1901
J. R. R. Tolkien's artwork
J. R. R. Tolkien's artwork was a key element of his creativity from the time when he began to write fiction. A professional philologist, J. R. R. Tolkien prepared a wide variety of materials to support his fiction, including illustrations for his Middle-earth fantasy books, facsimile artefacts, more or less "picturesque" maps, calligraphy, and sketches and paintings from life. Some of his artworks combined several of these elements.
Ink drawing of "Quallington Carpenter", Eastbury, Berkshire, 1912
Watercolour painting The Hill: Hobbiton-across-the-Water used as the frontispiece of the first American edition of The Hobbit, 1938
The first page from The Book of Mazarbul, in the form of a facsimile artefact created by Tolkien to support the story and bring readers into his fantasy. The publishers declined to include a reproduction of the artefact in the first edition of The Lord of the Rings.
A Numenorean tile, such as might have been saved from the wreck of Númenor by Elendil, and taken in his ships to Middle-earth.
