The Tolkien Calendar 2011 features 13 paintings by the artist Cor Blok. Cor Blok is the only artist ever to have met JRR Tolkien, and the only artist Tolkien admired enough to purchase some of his work. The paintings are inspired by Tolkien’s classic masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings and were completed during the early 1960s when the young artist was attempting to create a Bayeux tapestry approach to illustrating this monumental book. Many of this paintings included here have never been seen before. This delightful collection of scenes takes the reader on a unique journey through the beauty and drama of Middle-earth. It represents a truly charming addition to the series of official calendars by a gifted artist, and promises to be a memorable calendar for fans.

From the brush of Donato Giancola, one of the world’s most recognized and lauded fantasy artists, comes a book filled with new illustrations that apply his legendary Renaissance craftsmanship to J. R. R. Tolkien’s fantastic Middle-Earth. Dramatic lighting and deft draftsmanship reminiscent of master painters like Caravaggio, Rembrandt, and Vermeer explain Donato’s popularity with millions of fans, as well as the numerous Hugo and Chesley Awards he has received. This long-awaited, moving, and beautiful voyage through Middle-Earth — a must-have for eager genre readers everywhere — offers a refreshingly new exploration of literature’s most beloved fantasy realm. From Helm’s Deep to Mount Doom, Donato takes readers on a colorful tour filled with warriors, wizards, dragons, and dwarfs. Throughout he exhibits his astonishing technical virtuosity with every scene he brings to life, while also demonstrating the delight and wonder familiar to all true devotees of Middle-Earth.

An amazing journey through the thriving worlds of fantasy and gaming.

In this enthralling blend of travelogue, pop culture analysis, and memoir, forty-year-old former Dungeons & Dragons addict Ethan Gilsdorf embarks on a quest that begins in his own geeky teenage past and ends in our online gaming future. He asks, Who are these gamers and fantasy fans? What explains the irresistible appeal of such “escapist” adventures? And what could one man find if he embarked on a journey through one fantasy world after another?

In Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks, Gilsdorf crisscrosses America, the world, and other worlds–from Boston to Wisconsin, France to New Zealand, and Planet Earth to Middle-earth to the realm of Aggramar. He asks D&D players, LARPers, medieval re-eanctors, World of Warcraft players, Harry Potter fans and convention goers–old, young, male, female, able-bodied and disabled–what attracts them to fantasy worlds, and for what reasons. What he discovers is funny, poignant, and enlightening.

A beautiful boxed set: the definitive examination of how Tolkien came to write his original masterpiece, including the complete unpublished draft and little-known illustrations and unpublished maps, along with a new edition of the classic work itself.

First published in 1938, The Hobbit is a story that “grew in the telling,” and many characters and events in the published book are completely different from what Tolkien first wrote to read aloud to his young sons as part of their “fireside reads.” For the first time, The History of the Hobbit reproduces the original version of one of literature’s most famous stories, and includes many little-known illustrations and previously unpublished maps for The Hobbit created by Tolkien himself. Also featured are extensive annotations and commentaries on the date of composition, how Tolkien’s professional and early mythological writings influenced the story, the imaginary geography he created, and how he came to revise the book in the years after publication to accommodate events in The Lord of the Rings.

These two volumes are boxed together with a new edition of The Hobbit with a short introduction by Christopher Tolkien, a reset text incorporating the most up-to-date corrections, and all of Tolkien’s own drawings and color illustrations, including the rare “Mirkwood” piece.

Howard Shore’s Academy Award-winning score for The Lord of the Rings has been hailed as among the greatest film music ever written. Sweeping in scope, it is an interpretation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth as music — an operatic tapestry of cultures, histories, languages, and principles. The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films takes the reader on an unprecedented journey into the heart of this history-making opus with extensive music examples, original manuscript scores, a rarities CD, and fascinating glimpses into the creative process from the composer himself. Includes: Foreword by Howard Shore Introduction by Fran Walsh Sketches by John Howe and Alan Lee Includes Exclusive Rarities CD of unreleased LOTR music Color stills from the films

It is time. For Frodo to overcome the wickedness of Gollum, the horrifying attack of the colossal arachnid Shelob and the soul-twisting allure of a ring that resists destruction. For Aragorn to take up the sword of his forebears and the crown of his birthright. For the mighty clash that wizard Gandalf calls “the great battle of our time.” And for the inspired culmination of the films based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s literary classic. For the third time, a Rings movie was a Best Picture Academy Award® nominee and for the first time it claimed that prize (plus 10 more).* The King deserves its crown.