Beyond The Hobbit: J.R.R. Tolkien’s Other Works for Children

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien is best known to the world as the author of the classic fantasies The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. In his professional life, he was a superb philologist, a skilled translator, the author of a seminal essay on Beowulf, and a contributor to the Oxford English Dictionary. But Tolkien was also a father who loved to make up stories for his four children, write them down, and in many cases, as we’ve seen in the exhibit at the Morgan, illustrate them himself. Tolkien was an enthusiastic amateur artist with a unique style, loved color and line and repetitive decoration, but he was rather better at depicting landscapes than people. He usually worked in pen and ink, chalk, or colored pencil. In addition to The Hobbit, widely considered a classic of children’s literature, he also wrote four shorter works specifically for children, two published during his lifetime and two posthumously, as well as many poems and a delightful collection of annual illustrated letters from Father Christmas

Bibliographic Resources for Literature Searches on J.R.R Tolkien

This guide is designed to help the student, scholar, or thesis writer begin an in-depth literature search on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. This guide is geared towards the English-speaking, North American user, but I have attempted to include European sources as well when I am aware of them. As this is a field friendly to independent scholars not attached to a university or college, I am addressing their information needs as well

Briefly Noted

The Wanderer’s Hávámal, translated by Jackson Crawford; Cinderella across Cultures: New Directions and Interdisciplinary Perspectives , edited by Martine Hennard Dutheil de la Rochère et al.; A Palace of Pearls: The Stories of Reb Nachman of Bratslav, retold by Howard Schwartz; Electra: A Gender Sensitive Study of the Plays Based on the Myth, by Batya Casper; Forschungsdrang und Rollenspiel: Motivgeschichtliche Betrachtungen zum Fantasy-Rollenspiel Das Schwarze Auge, edited by Stefan Donecker et al

Naming the Evil One: Onomastic Strategies in Tolkien and Rowling

Investigates name magic associated with evil characters in Tolkien and Rowling, such as acts of naming and self-naming, avoidance terms, and the use of true names. Describes the naming plots associated with Melkor/Morgoth, Sauron, Saruman, and Voldemort

The Road to Fair Elfland: Tolkien On Fairy-stories: An Extended Commentary (2022) by Giovanni Carmine Costabile

Book review by Janet Brennan Croft of The Road to Fair Elfland (2022) by Giovanni Carmine Costabil