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Not seen anything comprehensive on this in previous threads here but thought it worth doing as I'm sure we all have books we'd recommend to help with understanding Middle Earth a little more and therefore getting the most out of TOR from an LM and player perspective.

So, here's my collection of recommendations.

General Guides
All make really good reference guides.

The Atlas of Middle Earth: Link
Guide to Tolkien's World: Link
The Complete Guide to Middle Earth: Link
A Guide to Tolkien: Link
The Origin of Tolkien's Middle Earth for Dummies: Link

Don't scoff at that last one; I've really enjoyed reading it and still find it useful due to its accessibility.

Maps
Journeys of Frodo: Link

Some lovely maps in here but the Atlas of Middle Earth also has some as well so consider that if looking to pick up something in this regard.

Languages
The Languages of Tolkien's Middle Earth: Link

Out of all the book on this subject, I've found it the easiest to get into and read.

Riddles
The Middle Earth Riddle Book: Link

Just picked this up, and it's probably the driver of creating this thread as I wanted to recommend it to people; although a niche area it is fun to read and is great for adding embellishments into your campaign and riddle contests are a great trope of fantasy gaming anyway.

Anyone want to share any reference books, or otherwise, that they'd recommend*.

* I'm not listing things like Unfinished Tales, History of Middle Earth, etc as I'm guessing as fans of Tolkien we all know about these!

I would add:

The Complete Tolkien Companion by J.E.A. Tyler makes a terrifc alternate or suppliment to Robert Foster's The Complete Guide to Middle-earth.

I second the recommedation for Karen Wynn Fonstad's The Atlas of Middle-earth, especially the revised edition wich incoporates material from the HOME volume The Shaping of Middle-earth.

Not a book per-se, but the Encyclopedia of Arda (and the iOS app of the same name) are really exceptional.

Here is the website (http://www.glyphweb.com/arda/) but I don't have the AppStore link handy.

I am sure I posted this once, but it could have been on the older forums. It actually needs updating, there have been books since I wrote it, but this gives you an idea of just how much is out there

A Tolkien reading list – where next?

After reading the two main Tolkien books, you have many options.
This is quite a big guide, but don't be put off, just pick what is of interest to you. I have missed books out since I don't have them, please feel free to add to my list below.

There are annotations to both the Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, worth a look as they give you extra information to the stories you are reading (a highlight for me in the Hobbit one is that there are illustrations by Tove Jansson, creator of the Moomins, for the Finnish version of The Hobbit!) -
• The Annotated Hobbit - annotations by Douglas A. Anderson
• The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion - Wayne G. Hammond & Christina Scull

A handy reference to have by your side is -
• The Complete Guide to Middle-Earth by Robert Foster -I have the illustrated version, beautiful art by Ted Nasmith

Both the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings are set in the Third Age of Middle Earth. But there are two Ages before that, and quite a lot of the history/stories from those ages are collected by JRR Tolkien's son, Christopher, from unpublished work (in his lifetime) by Tolkien. Tolkien always pushed for these to be published, but he never got it to a stage he was happy with. There are in some cases many versions of the core stories.
• Silmarillion by JRR & Christopher Tolkien - The First Age (from before there was a Middle Earth to the downfall of Morgoth), a chapter about the Second Age (Numenor), a chapter on the Rings of Power (Third Age)
• Unfinished Tales by JRR & Christopher Tolkien - incomplete stories from all three ages of Middle Earth. There is some great stuff in here, including the how Gandalf convinced the Dwarves to visit Bilbo in the Hobbit (known as the "Quest of Erebor"), what the Nazgul, Gandalf and Aragorn were up to before the hobbits reached Bree ("Hunt for the Ring"), more on Numenor and how Rohan became Rohan.

As well as those, Tolkien wrote many other stories, not all necessarily set in Middle Earth but all worth a read -
• Children of Hurin - a story from the Silmarillion
• Bilbo's Last Song - a poem by JRR Tolkien illustrated by Pauline Baynes
• Tales from the Perilous Realm - The Adventures of Tom Bombadil (set in Middle Earth), Leaf by Niggle, Smith of Wootton Manor, Farmer Giles of Ham
• Roverandom - based on a toy dog his son lost at the beach whilst on holiday
• Tree and Leaf - my version of this includes "Leaf by Niggle," the poems "Mythopoeia" and "The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth" and Tolkien's essay "On Fairy Stories"
• Letters from Father Christmas - letters Tolkien sent to his children at Christmas time, alleged to be from Father Christmas, each one furthering his story. Beautiful llustrations by Tolkien himself
• Mr Bliss - a children's story, again illustrated by Tolkien.

If you are interested in knowing more about the man and how he came to write all these wonderful stories, there are a few "official" books -
• JRR Tolkien: A Biography by Humphrey Carpenter
• JRR Tolkien: Author of the Century by Tom Shippey
• The Road to Middle Earth by Tom Shippey
• The Letters of JRR Tolkien by JRR Tolkien, edited by Humphrey Carpenter and Christopher Tolkien

Carpenter's book is very accessible and enjoyable. Shippey's books are enjoyable but can be tough reading since he really gets into what makes Tolkien tick. Worth the time spent on all those three.

You then can dig deeper into the whole of Middle Earth with the twelve volume (volume 13 is an index) "History of Middle Earth" series by Christopher Tolkien where he collects and discusses the various versions of the tales written by JRR Tolkien from the First to Fourth Age. Volume 12 ("The Peoples of Middle Earth") actually has an unfinished story set in the Fourth Age called "The New Shadow". There are also tons of essays in the series by Tolkien himself about the lore, races, etc. I won't lie, the books can be hard going because they are very scholarly and there are multiple repeats of the same stories with various versions and alterations, but if you really want to get into Middle Earth, these are just fantastic. I am still reading through them now!
• 1. The Book of Lost Tales 1
• 2. The Book of Lost Tales 2
• 3. The Lays of Beleriand
• 4. The Shaping of Middle-earth
• 5. The Lost Road and Other Writings
• 6. The Return of the Shadow (The History of The Lord of the Rings v.1)
• 7. The Treason of Isengard (The History of The Lord of the Rings v.2)
• 8. The War of the Ring (The History of The Lord of the Rings v.3)
• 9. Sauron Defeated (includes The History of The Lord of the Rings v.4)
• 10. Morgoth's Ring (The Later Silmarillion v.1)
• 11. The War of the Jewels (The Later Silmarillion v.2)
• 12. The Peoples of Middle-earth
• 13. Index

There is also a two volume History of the Hobbit, containing the original manuscript -
• 1. The History of the Hobbit: Mr Baggins - John D. Rateliff
• 2. The History of the Hobbit: Return to Bag-End - John D. Rateliff

If you want to see more about the art of Tolkien, check out the following -
• JRR Tolkien: Artist & Illustrator by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull
• The Art of the Hobbit by JRR Tolkien by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull
• A Tolkien Tapestry by Cor Blok - Blok created a series of paintings illustrating the Lord of the Rings back in the 1960s, Tolkien himself bought a few of the paintings. Note: This book is about Blok's art not Tolkien's.

If you love Tolkien's maps and want more -
• The Atlas of Middle-Earth by Karen Wynn Fonstad - beautiful maps by a skilled cartographer.
• There and Back Again: The Map of Tolkien's The Hobbit by Brian Sibley and John Howe
• The road goes ever on and on: The Map of Tolkien's Middle-earth by Brian Sibley and John Howe
• West of the Mountains, East of the Sea: The Map of Tolkien's Beleriand by Brian Sibley and John Howe

If music is your thing, I'd recommend the following -
• The Road goes ever on by JRR Tolkien and Donald Swann (includes a CD of Swann's music)
• Complete Songs and Poems: The Lord of the Rings by the Tolkien Ensemble and Christopher Lee - collection of music on CDs covering any songs or poems in the Lord of the Rings. The accompanying guidebook is illustrated by HM Queen Margrethe II of Denmark!
• The Tolkien Audio Collection - excerpts from the Hobbit, Lord of the Rings and the Silmarillion read by Tolkien himself and his son, Christopher - 4 1/2 hours worth.

Online scholarly work about Tolkien, especially looking into the Hobbit can be found here -
• Mythgard Institute: The Hobbit Lectures - http://www.mythgard.org/exclusives/the-hobbit-lectures/
• Mythgard Institute: Riddles in the Dark - http://www.mythgard.org/exclusives/riddles-in-the-dark/
• Oxford University: Tolkien at Oxford - http://itunes.apple.com/gb/itunes-u/tol ... d381700970

There are plenty of organisations and institutions about Tolkien and researching his work. The Tolkien Society is definitely worth a look!

And if you are in the UK and want to walk around places that may have inspired Tolkien, I'd recommend Hurst Green/Stonyhurt College in the Ribble Valley, Lancashire (http://www.ribblevalley.gov.uk/download ... _trail_map), Tolkien's Oxford (http://www.chem.ox.ac.uk/oxfordtour/tol ... index.html) and Sarehole Mill near Birmingham (http://www.bmag.org.uk/uploads/fck/file ... -trail.pdf).

Lastly, there are several books by a member of the Tolkien Society discussing the places in the UK associated with Tolkien.

• The Pitkin Guide to Tolkien by Robert S Blackham
• The Roots of Tolkien's Middle Earth by Robert S Blackham - Tolkien in Birmingham
• Tolkien's Oxfordby Robert S Blackham
• Tolkien and the Peril of War by Robert S Blackham - Tolkien during WW1
There are more books out there and some are worth looking out for. I’ll post more when I get time, but for now I’d like to think this is a good start…

a tolkien bestiary. by david day. i love the art. greetings qwercus

Would Other Minds Magazine be an appropriate suggestion?
http://www.omzine.org/

they sure have some interesting articles re Middle Earth & stuff to help LMs with ideas for adventures.

Does anyone recommend any of the MERP books as being helpful for a TOR LM? I'm thinking mainly for adventure ideas, I had considered picking up a copy of the Northern Mirkwood supplement.

I second the Tolkein Bestiary.

I picked up a file box full of old MERP books from a game store a few years ago, but every time I open one up for adventure ideas, I'm disappointed. They aren't really adventures per se - they just give you some NPC's, a map to a keep or something, and some very vague story lines. Maybe I'm just not imaginative enough, but to me, that's not every interesting. And never any monsters either . . . always other humans.

I find them more useful for research regarding the history of a region, or the geography. They are very detailed in those respects.

nazgul_2000 wrote:every time I open one up [MERP Books] for adventure ideas, I'm disappointed. They aren't really adventures per se - they just give you some NPC's, a map to a keep or something, and some very vague story lines.

I find them more useful for research regarding the history of a region, or the geography. They are very detailed in those respects.

Fully agreed. In fact, some supplements have such a good background (settlement, NPCs,...) that the adventures are even more disappointing.

Just for information (not adventures, again), Mirkwood, Riders of Rohan (a greater supplement than I expected) and Lake-town contain interesting info. The only adventures that had a certain interest for me (and they are inferior to the ones in ToW or DoM) where The Ghost of the North (first and second adventures only) and The Necromancer's Lieutenant. I don't recall any others that where well presented or had any interest.

nazgul_2000 wrote:And never any monsters either . . . always other humans.

That's one of the aspects I enjoyed. Humans are much more versatile and you can have any shading of morality in them (from very evil to almost saintly) which is often not discernible easily. IMO this makes for very interesting roleplaying situations and difficult decisions of the player characters.
I guess the heavy reliance on humans may also be the result of the setting. In the standard MERP setting of TA 1640, there are much more human realms around (as far as the "good guys" are concerned at least) and less wilderness with roaming monsters. And IMHO there's a finite number of of monsters that can be invented and fit the tone of Middle-earth. It has the inherent danger of becoming an "arms race" for ever new monsters as the old ones become "boring". If you're not very careful you may end up with DnD-style creatures

nazgul_2000 wrote:I find them more useful for research regarding the history of a region, or the geography. They are very detailed in those respects.

Indeed. That's their greatest strength (and an aspect that is mostly lacking in the TOR publications so far).

Falenthal wrote:The only adventures that had a certain interest for me (and they are inferior to the ones in ToW or DoM) where The Ghost of the North (first and second adventures only) and The Necromancer's Lieutenant. I don't recall any others that where well presented or had any interest.

I found the majority of the MERP adventures quite stereotypical. The few exceptions that I remember on the top of my head (and really enjoyed) were Dark Mage of Rhudaur (involvement in the preludes of the Second Northern War) and Palantír Quest (an early 4th Age campaign that's the closest MERP had in a TOR-style adventure/campaign).
The Kin-strife is also excellent, but provides more of a background rather than being an adventure per se. It has a few adventure ideas in it though.

Cheers
Tolwen

Tolwen wrote:

Falenthal wrote:The only adventures that had a certain interest for me (and they are inferior to the ones in ToW or DoM) where The Ghost of the North

The few exceptions that I remember on the top of my head (and really enjoyed) were Dark Mage of Rhudaur

I was mixin both. I was in fact referring to Dark Mage, not Ghost of the North.

And Kin-strife had some great ideas, definetly, but sadly no good detailed adventures.