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Sunday, October 5, 2008

J. R. R. Tolkien

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, (3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the high fantasy classic works The Hobbit andThe Lord of the Rings.

Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford from 1925 to 1945, and Merton Professor of English Language and Literature from 1945 to 1959. He was a close friend of C. S. Lewis – they were both members of the informal literary discussion group known as the Inklings. Tolkien was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II on 28 March 1972.

After his death, Tolkien's son, Christopher, published a series of works based on his father's extensive notes and unpublished manuscripts, including The Silmarillion. These, together with The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, form a connected body of tales, poems, fictional histories, invented languages, and literary essays about an imagined world called Arda, and Middle-earth within it. Between 1951 and 1955 Tolkien applied the word legendarium to the larger part of these writings.

While many other authors had published works of fantasy before Tolkien, the great success of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings when they were published in paperback in the United States led directly to a popular resurgence of the genre. This has caused Tolkien to be popularly identified as the "father" of modern fantasy literature—or more precisely, high fantasy. Tolkien's writings have inspired many other works of fantasy and have had a lasting effect on the entire field. In 2008, The Times ranked him sixth on a list of 'The 50 greatest British writers since 1945.

Now some of his famous works are posted below along with the links to download them.

The Silmarillion

The Silmarillion is a collection of J. R. R. Tolkien's mythopoeic works, edited and published posthumously by his son Christopher Tolkien in 1977, with assistance from Guy Gavriel Kay, who later became a noted fantasy writer. The Silmarillion, along with J. R. R. Tolkien's other works, forms a comprehensive, yet incomplete, narrative that describes the universe of Middle-earth within whichThe Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings take place. The History of Middle-earth is a twelve-volume examination of the writing and revisions of The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion by looking into J. R. R. Tolkien's rough drafts and by commentary by Christopher Tolkien.

The Silmarillion comprises five parts. The first part, Ainulindalë, tells of the creation of Eä, the world.Valaquenta, the second part, gives a description of the Valar and Maiar, the supernatural powers in Eä. The next section, Quenta Silmarillion, which forms the bulk of the collection, chronicles the history of the events before and during the First Age. The fourth part, Akallabêth, relates the history of the Downfall of Númenor and its people, which takes place in the Second Age. The final part, Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age, is a brief account of the circumstances which led to and were presented in The Lord of the Rings.

The five parts were initially separate works, but it was the elder Tolkien's express wish that they be published together. Because J. R. R. Tolkien died before he finished revising the various legends, Christopher gathered material from his father's older writings to fill out the book. In a few cases, this meant that he had to devise completely new material in order to resolve gaps and inconsistencies in the narrative.

It's slow. It's methodical. It's good. But you really need to be in the right frame of mind at the time you start reading it or you'll never make it thought.

My advice, don't read it all in one sitting. Read a chapter here and a chapter there and you'll have an easier time with it. Read other material in between and it'll lighten the load.

That's my opinion. The link to download the book is :

http://www.MegaShare.com/469613

 

The Hobbit

The Hobbit, or There and Back Again is an award-winning fantasy novel and children's book by J. R. R. Tolkien. The Hobbit is set in a time "between the dawn of Færie and the Dominion of Men", and follows the quest of home-loving Bilbo Baggins (the titular "Hobbit") to win his share of the treasure guarded by the dragon, Smaug. His journey takes him from light-hearted, rural surroundings into darker, deeper territory, meeting diverse denizens of the Wilderland along the way. By accepting the disreputable, romantic, fey and adventurous side of his nature (the "Tookish" side) and applying his wits and common sense, Bilbo develops a new level of maturity, competence and wisdom.

The link to download the book is :

http://www.MegaShare.com/469611

 

The Lord of the Rings

The Lord of the Rings is an epic high fantasy novel. 

The story began as a sequel to The Hobbit. The title of the book refers to the story's main antagonist, the Dark Lord Sauron, who had in an earlier age created the One Ring that rules the other Rings of Power, as the ultimate weapon in his campaign to conquer and rule all of Middle-earth. From quiet beginnings in the Shire, a hobbit land not unlike the English countryside, the story ranges across Middle-earth following the course of the War of the Ring through the eyes of its characters, most notably the hobbits, Frodo Baggins, Samwise Gamgee (Sam), Meriadoc Brandybuck (Merry) and Peregrin Took (Pippin). The lands of Middle-earth are populated by Men (humans) and other humanoid races (Hobbits, Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs), as well as many other creatures, both real and fantastic (Ents, Wargs, Balrogs, Trolls, etc.).

The link to the complete book is given below:

http://www.MegaShare.com/469612

Some of the maps of middle-earth can be downloaded from the link given below:

http://www.MegaShare.com/469614

The History of Middle-earth

The history of middle-earth is another book which maybe interesting for some of the hardcore LOTR fans. The link for this book is given below for those who are interested:

 

http://www.MegaShare.com/469616

 

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