Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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8 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A WORK OF GENIUS, 3 Mar 2003
In this beautifully illustrated work, David Day has brought Tolkien's vast and complex mythological system to life in the structure of the medieval bestiary. The traditional bestiary was an illustrated encyclopaedia of natural history compiled by scribes, about the magical and monstrous beings inhabiting the medieval mind. This exquisite work encompasses not only the beasts and monsters of The Lord Of The Rings, The Hobbit and The Silmarillion, but also the plants, the nations, races and deities, vividly illuminating all the creations of Tolkien's remarkable world. The book starts with a map of Middle Earth and the Undying Lands surrounded by the encircling sea and also showing the island of Numenor in the great sea. Then follows a double-page chart of the chronology of Arda, demonstrating the order of events through the ages, from the creation to the fourth age. The next spread is a chronology of the kingdoms of Middle-Earth in the ages of the sun from the first age to the War of the Rings. The encyclopaeda proper starts with "Ainur" and takes the reader on a dazzling journey, beautifully illustrated in colour and black and white, to the last entry which is "Yrch." This is followed by a genealogy of the races of Elves, a genealogy of the races of Men, an index of principal sources, and the concluding with a general index. The black and white illustrations are of creatures, races and flora while those in colour follow a chronological sequence from the creation to the end of the War of the Ring and depict broad landscapes, major battles and events like the destruction of Mordor and the departure of the Ringbearers. Amongst these, my favourites include The Vision and Creation of Arda, Trees Of The Valar, The Shire, Death Of Smaug The Golden, Lothlorien And Cerin Amroth, Fall Of Isengard, Wounding Of Shelob The Great and The Golden Hall Of The Rohirrim. In line with the literary form of the bestiary, the text has an archaic flavour that mirrors the writing in Tolkien's own work. Unlike in for example Robert Fosters "Complete Guide To Middle-Earth," there aren't minutely detailed entries, in other words you will find Shelob under "Spiders" not under an own entry, but the general index at the end makes up for that. There are however, different entries for Grey Elves, Green Elves, Fair Elves and Sea Elves, as well as a long main entry under "Elves." My favourite black and white illustrations are found under the entry "Maiar" which discusses, amongst others, Melian, the River-Woman of the Withywindle and Goldberry, wife of Tom Bombadil. David Day has succeeded in providing both a practical reference to Tolkien's work and in paying homage to the imagination of the greatest storyteller of the 20th century. A Tolkien Bestiary is a masterpiece, a true work of genius and I recommend it to all Tolkien fans.
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good, but not the best out there..., 1 Jun 2008
This bestiary is of good quality, since it describes in great detail the peoples, plants and animals of Arda. However, it's not an encyclopaedia of proper names - so you won't find anything of the kind inside. The pluses are a schematic chronology of Middle-earth and Valinor, as well as genealogies for the races of Elves and Men (not proper names, but races as a whole.) There also are some beautiful drawings inside.
The great minus is the map provided. This looks nice, but it's far, far away from Tolkien's, mainly because it tries to be a compilation of all realms from all ages - impossible to do. Day should have bought the copyright from whoever owns the maps and published the original ones - his is a decent job, but one that could be bettered.
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
... Except the map, 19 Nov 2007
I agree with the previous reviewer with nearly all he says. Except for the composite map. It is utter tosh. For starters, Beleriand is far too large and far further north than the various Tolkien texts describe. Nearly everything about the relative position of lands and places is wrong. For a much better illustration of the geography of Arda, see Karen Wynn Fonstad's 'Atlas of Middle-Earth'. Apart from that, yeah, very good book. BTW. Avoid the same author's later 'Illustrated Encyclopedia'. Covers similar territory to this tome (thankfully without the map!), but with all the decent illustrations removed and replaced with images that could be bettered by a 10 year old!
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by Marcia Williams
by J.R.R. Tolkien
by Karen Wynn Fonstad
by Michael Morpurgo
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