An Atlas of Tolkien is a very, very pretty book. It's got a lovely cover, and some absolutely stunning illustrations. It's a great look at some very different interpretations of the stories; you won't find anything from the films in here. But the material is also of the highest quality. The author clearly has a very deep understanding of the source material and has put an amazing amount of effort to present it in the cleanest way possible. Every chapter represents an age in the world of Arda and includes a map, general chronology overview and concise texts explaining key topics, e.g. places of interest, characters, beasts, events. An absolute stunner of a book. You'd be forgiven for thinking that this book is purely full of illustrations and snippets of info about Middle Earth and the greater land of Arda, but it is so much more.

David Day (b. 14 October 1947 in Victoria, British Columbia) is a Canadian author of over forty books: poetry, natural history, ecology, mythology, fantasy, and children's literature. Internationally he is most notably known for his literary criticism on J. R. R. Tolkien and his works. If you only know the movies, you will still encounter many facts and retellings of events you already know or are aware of. The title of this book is somewhat misleading. I think a more appropriate title would be: An Illustrated Guide to the History of Tolkien's Mythology: With an Emphasis on Noteworthy Locations and Events. There are some maps, but they are generally more artistic than informative. Not a complete story, of course, but definitely a good read. I certainly learned something of the origins of Middle-Earth by reading it. Day has published six books of poems for adults and ten illustrated children's books of fiction and poetry. His non-fiction books on natural history include The Doomsday Book of Animals, The Whale War, Eco Wars: a Layman Guide to the Environmental Movement, Noah's Choice and most recently Nevermore: A Book of Hours - Meditations on Extinction (2012).Die Entstehungsgeschichte von Arda ist sehr interessant und anschaulich geschildert und wird gerade denjenigen eine Hilfe sein, die sich bisher noch nicht an "Das Silmarillion" herangetraut haben. Gleichzeitig bieten diese Übersichten aber auch für das Verständnis der "Herr der Ringe" Filme und Bücher einen erweiterten, informativen Hintergrund. What could have saved the book for me, but failed to do so, are the illustrations. To be blunt, I thought the majority of the illustrations were at best boring and I found many of them to be downright ugly. I simply didn't like the style of many of the pieces. They were too stylistic and impressionist for my taste. The best illustration in the book is that of Minas Tirith, by Melvin Grant.. Another flaw with the illustrations was that they depicted aspects of Tolkien's world which I think are best left to the reader's imagination. Seeing someone's crude interpretation of Morgoth, Gothmog the Balrog, and Sauron, for instance, ruins the impression of these monstrous creatures that Tolkien's words create in the reader's mind. It takes a lot of talent, such as that possessed by Ted Nasmith and Alan Lee, to provide accompanying illustrations which enhance the narrative rather than to detract from it. Unfortunately, the quality of illustrations in this book don't come close to that of Nasmith and Lee. Day spricht bewusst an, dass dieser "Atlas" sowohl für diejenigen gedacht ist, die die Filme und Bücher bereits kennen, aber auch für die, die bisher nur die Filme gesehen haben oder vielleicht noch gar nicht groß mit dem Tolkienuniversum in Berührung gekommen sind.

In many ways, this book is an abridged version of Tolkien's mythos. It works very well as a companion book, raising questions that can then be more thoroughly explored through the reading of more of Tolkien's works. His Doomsday Book was a Time Magazine Book of the Year and became the basis for the 100 part animated-short TV series "Lost Animals of the 20th Century". Tolkien created a whole Cosmology and dedicated the myths to his beloved England, which includes the creation of a flat world and the subsequent rounding of this world in to an Earth-like world, which, after the events found in his novels, did indeed turn in to Earth as we know.

Table of Contents

Das Werk enthält viele Zeichnungen und Bilder, welche die Vielschichtigkeit und Varietät von Tolkiens Welt schön veranschaulichen. Es stehen auch einige Tabellen und Stammbäume über die Herkunft und Abstammung der Menschenvölker, der Elben und der Tiere zur Verfügung. After finishing high school in Victoria, British Columbia, Day worked as a logger for five years on Vancouver Island before graduating from the University of Victoria. Subsequently he has travelled widely, most frequently to Greece and Britain.

Nel complesso sono soddisfattissimo del mio acquisto, e do 5 stelle, il massimo. Ne avrei date 4 soltanto perché il libro mi è arrivato un po' ammaccato, e con un bruttissimo adesivo sul retro della copertina che una volta rimosso mi ha lasciato una simpatica "macchia" di colla appiccicaticcia in bella vista. Ad ogni modo, non è certo colpa di David Day.

Customer reviews

David Days best-selling books on the life and works of JRR Tolkien include: A Tolkien Bestiary, Tolkien: the Illustrated Encyclopedia, Tolkien's Ring, The World of Tolkien and The Hobbit Companion. Molte persone si sono lamentate del fatto che non sia un vero atlante, con mappe super dettagliate, in scala e tutto il resto. Beh, riconosco che forse il nome può essere fuorviante, e sebbene queste possano essere ritenute delle gravi mancanze da qualcuno, io mi sento di "perdonare" l'autore, poiché in compenso offre un lavoro cronologico-geografico dettagliato il giusto, accompagnando il tutto con descrizioni soddisfacenti e tavole a colori. Sì: tavole, più che mappe. The work is divided into six chapters which thematically cover the entire history of Middle-Earth, from the origin of Arda to the destruction of the One Ring. However, it is at times repetitive. Sometimes I felt that I had read a piece of information two or three times, and occasionally I would read this information a second time and it would contradict (or seem to contradict) something that was said earlier. I've read most of the original published work in the universe, and it's not easy to get an overview of things from it. Tolkien's characters assume mythology and history of the world, and don't really go into deep and out-of-place explanations. In this book David Day provides a way into gaining this assumed knowledge.