The late Professor J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion have delighted millions of readers in recent years.

Middle-Earth, the world in which the stories take place, is as real and complex as our own. Events, geography and names were created with care and loving attention by Tolkien, who wanted every single detail of his books to fit into their total pattern. A belief in perfection, the fun of sub-creation and the desire to create something so totally convincing that the reader could believe in it (in a sense) as actual history, involved him in map-making, endless charts of dates and events and the development of his many invented languages.

The Complete Guide to Middle-Earth is intended to be supplementary to the works of Tolkien and no more. It draws together in logical sequence facts and information about names, languages, places and events from Tolkien's books and will be an indispensable aid in every reader's discovery of Tolkien's world.

The heraldic device on the jacket represents the ancient throne of Elendil: it bears his monogram L.N.D.L. The seven stars of Elendil and his captains have five rays. They originally represented the single stars on the banners of each of the seven ships that bore a palantir. In Gondor, founded by Elendil, the seven stars were set about a white tree. The winged crown is the chief mark of royalty of Gondor. The green jewel at the bottom represents the coming of the new king, Elessar.