This lavish gift edition of J.R.R. Tolkien's classic features cover art, illustrations, and watercolor paintings by the artist Alan Lee.
Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit who enjoys a comfortable, unambitious life, rarely traveling any farther than his pantry or cellar. But his contentment is disturbed when the wizard Gandalf and a company of dwarves arrive on his doorstep one day to whisk him away on an adventure. They have launched a plot to raid the treasure hoard guarded by Smaug the Magnificent, a large and very dangerous dragon. Bilbo reluctantly joins their quest, unaware that on his journey to the Lonely Mountain he will encounter both a magic ring and a frightening creature known as Gollum.
Written for J.R.R. Tolkien's own children, The Hobbit has sold many millions of copies worldwide and established itself as a modern classic.

Three-volume boxed set edition lavishly illustrated in full color by Alan Lee One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them In ancient times the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and Sauron, The Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his own power so that he could rule all others. But the One Ring was taken from him, and though he sought it throughout Middle-earth still it remained lost to him. After many ages it fell, by chance, into the hands of the hobbit, Bilbo Baggins. From his fastness in the Dark Tower of Mordor, Sauron's power spread far and wide. He gathered all the Great Rings to him, but ever he searched far and wide for the One Ring that would complete his dominion. On his eleventy-first birthday, Bilbo dissapeared bequeathing to his young cousin, Frodo, the Ruling Ring, and a perilous quest: to journey across Middle-earth, deep into the shadow of the Dark Lord and destroy the Ring by casting it into the Cracks of Doom. The Lord of the Rings tells of the great quest undertaken by Frodo and the Fellowship of the Ring: Gandalf the wizard, the hobbits Merry, Pippin and Sam, Gimli the Dwarf, Legolas the Elf, Boromir of Gondor, and a tall, mysterious stranger called Strider.

For readers throughout the world, The Hobbit serves as an introduction to the enchanting world of Middle-earth, home of elves, wizards, dwarves, goblins, dragons, orcs and a host of other creatures depicted in The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion -- tales that sprang from the mind of the most beloved author of all time, J.R.R. Tolkien.
Newly expanded and completely redesigned, Douglas A. Anderson's The Annotated Hobbit is the definitive explication of the sources, characters, places, and things of J.R.R. Tolkien's timeless classic. Integrated with Anderson's notes and placed alongside the fully restored and corrected text of the original story are more than 150 illustrations showing visual interpretations of The Hobbit specific to many of the cultures that have come to know and love Tolkien's Middle-earth. Tolkien's original line drawings, maps and color paintings are also included, making this the most lavishly informative edition of The Hobbit available.
The Annotated Hobbit shows how Tolkien worked as a writer, what his influences and interests were, and how these relate to the invented world of Middle-earth. It gives a valuable overview of Tolkien's life and the publishing history of The Hobbit, and explains how every feature of The Hobbit fits within the rest of Tolkien's invented world. Here we learn how Gollum's character was revised to accommodate the true nature of the One Ring, and we can read the full text of The Quest of Erebor, Gandalf's explanation of how he came to send Bilbo Baggins on his journey with the dwarves. Anderson also makes meaningful and often surprising connections to our own world and literary history -- from Beowulf to The Marvellous Land of Snergs, from the Brothers Grimm to C. S. Lewis.

The first complete book by J.R.R. Tolkien in three decades -- since the publication of The Silmarillion in 1977 -- The Children of Hurin reunites fans of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings with Elves and Men, dragons and Dwarves, Eagles and Orcs. Presented for the first time as a complete, standalone story, this stirring narrative will appeal to casual fans and expert readers alike, returning them to the rich landscape and characters unique to Tolkien. The Children of Hurin, begun in 1918, was one of three 'Great Tales' J.R.R. Tolkien worked on throughout his life, though he never realized his ambition to see it published. Though familiar to many fans from extracts and references within other Tolkien books, it has long been assumed that the story would forever remain an unfinished tale. Now reconstructed by Christopher Tolkien, painstakingly editing together the complete work from his father's many drafts, this book is the culmination of a tireless thirty-year endeavor by him to bring J.R.R.Tolkien's vast body of unpublished work to a wide audience. Having drawn the distinctive maps for the original The Lord of the Rings more than 50 years ago, Christopher has also created a detailed new map for this book. In addition, it will include a jacket and color paintings by Alan Lee, illustrator of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings Centenary Edition and Academy Award-winning designer of the film trilogy.

THE BOOKS THAT INSPIRED THE EPIC MOTION PICTURES
J.R.R. TOLKIEN
THE LORD OF THE RINGS

THE HOBBIT
THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING
THE TWO TOWERS
THE RETURN OF THE KING

© New Line Productions, Inc. All rights reserved. THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY and the names of the characters, items, events and places therein are trademarks of The Saul Zaentz Company d/b/a Middle-earth Enterprises under license to New Line Productions, Inc. (s12)
Motion Picture Artwork © 2012 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

In the third volume of The Lord of the Rings trilogy the good and evil forces join battle, and we see that the triumph of good is not absolute. The Third Age of Middle-earth ends, and the age of the dominion of Men begins.

As the dark forces of Mordor spread throughout Middle-earth, the fellowship forged to destroy the One Ring of power is broken, leaving Frodo Baggins and the stalwart Sarnwise Gamgee alone to return the ring to Mount Doom -- and to face former ringholder Gollum. Meanwhile, the rest of the fellowship comes up against the growing power of the renegade wizard Sarnman, while huge armies build in preparation for the first great battles of the War of the Ring.

From the land of Mordor, an evil darkness creeps across Middle-earth. Armies of men and elves and dwarves have been raised in futile efforts to combat this evil. Great wizards have been unable to check it. But in the peaceful, far-off Shire, a hobbit named Frodo Baggins holds a ring that may be the key to defeating Mordor. This stirring saga of epic evil and heroic courage begins with a fellowship joined in a desperate quest that may be the only hope for restoring goodness and light to the land.

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them In ancient times the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and Sauron, the Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his own power so that he could rule all others. But the One Ring was taken from him, and though he sought it throughout Middle-earth, it remained lost to him. After many ages it fell by chance into the hands of the hobbit Bilbo Baggins. From Sauron's fastness in the Dark Tower of Mordor, his power spread far and wide. Sauron gathered all the Great Rings to him, but always he searched for the One Ring that would complete his dominion. When Bilbo reached his eleventy-first birthday he disappeared, bequeathing to his young cousin Frodo the Ruling Ring and a perilous quest: to journey across Middle-earth, deep into the shadow of the Dark Lord, and destroy the Ring by casting it into the Cracks of Doom. The Lord of the Rings tells of the great quest undertaken by Frodo and the Fellowship of the Ring: Gandalf the Wizard; the hobbits Merry, Pippin, and Sam; Gimli the Dwarf; Legolas the Elf; Boromir of Gondor; and a tall, mysterious stranger called Strider. This new edition includes the fiftieth-anniversary fully corrected text setting and, for the first time, an extensive new index. J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973), beloved throughout the world as the creator of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion, was a professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford, a fellow of Pembroke College, and a fellow of Merton College until his retirement in 1959. His chief interest was the linguistic aspects of the early English written tradition, but while he studied classic works of the past, he was creating a set of his own.

Presented here in hardcover with a beautiful jacket chosen through a global fan poll, J.R.R. Tolkien's epic masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings, has been hailed throughout the world as one of the greatest adventure stories ever written. Millions of readers have celebrated this exciting tale of hobbits, wizards, men, dwarves, and elves in a land called Middle-earth. Now millions of filmgoers have embraced the blockbuster motion picture trilogy that has fired the imaginations of a new generation.
Returning to Hobbiton after an absence of many years, the wizard Gandalf quickly sought out Bag End, the home of his old and dear friend the hobbit Bilbo Baggins. It was the morning of Bilbo's one hundred and eleventh birthday, and a party of special magnificence was planned for that night. The old hobbit had been plagued by the incessant attentions of unwanted visitors, well-wishers, and distant relations, prompting him to hang out a sign on his front gate warning "No admittance except on party business." It was in this grumpy state of mind that Bilbo, completely unprepared for the joyous reunion that awaited him, stomped to the door to answer Gandalf's knock.
These unique, limited-edition bookend sculptures have been hand-cast in heavyweight polystone and hand-painted to the highest standards by the artists of Sideshow/Weta, a unique partnership between museum-quality collectibles manufacturer Sideshow, Inc. and Weta Workshop of New Zealand, the artisans responsible for the conceptualization, prosthetics, makeup effects, weapons, armor, and miniatures for Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings film trilogy.

Includes volumes 10 to 12 of The History of Middle-earth.
Issued in a cloth covered slipcase.
Limited edition of 1,000 copies.

Review
'How, given little over half a century of work, did one man become the creative equivalent of a people?' The Guardian 'Demanding to be compared with English mythologies! at times rises to the greatness of true myth' Financial Times 'A creation myth of singular beauty! magnificent in its best moments' Washington Post
Product Description
For the first time in paperback, a fully illustrated edition of The Silmarillion, with colour plates by the celebrated artist Ted Nasmith -- designed to match the rest of the Tolkien series. J R R Tolkien's SILMARILLION is the core work of the Middle-earth canon. It is in this complex and often neglected masterpiece that the entire cosmology for the background for THE HOBBIT and, particularly, THE LORD OF THE RINGS is documented. This new paperback volume contains fabulous tales of heroes and monsters, and the history of the Silmarils -- the magical jewels produced by Feanor, most gifted Lord of the Elves; it tells of the creation of Middle-earth, and the coming of Men into the world; it chronicles the early epic battles between good and evil, forces of light and dark, which foreshadow the great conflict with Sauron, the Dark Lord, in THE LORD OF THE RINGS. These tales of Middle-earth were published posthumously in 1977. Tolkien worked on THE SILMARILLION all his life -- long before THE HOBBIT or LORD OF THE RINGS -- and his son and literary executor Christopher Tolkien edited the material he left behind into its current form. Complete with a series of full-colour paintings by acclaimed Tolkien artist Ted Nasmith, this sumptuous new edition allows the stories within to really come alive - from the creation of the world and the Tale of Beren and Luthien to the Fall of Numenor and the End of the First Age.