The book contains over 1100 words and is intended to be a quick reference guide for the reader of The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings, where old, uncommon and archaic words can be quickly looked up and their meaning made clear. Draught for example occurs 35 times in the text with at least 5 different meanings. It means current of air in one sentence, drinking, or a drink or potion in another, one who is drafted into service in another, to draw or to pull in another and finally the depth a vessel sinks in the water. One needs to know all of the meanings in order to fully understand the text. The words in the first section of each book are arranged in order of appearance in the books. In the last section, the words are arranged alphabetically for ease of finding a particular word without regard to where it is used. Also included is the sentence where the word is used to provide the reader with the contextual setting of the word in the sentence it is used in as an aid to understand the meaning.

Arranged in a handy A-Z format, A Dictionary of Tolkien explores and explains the creatures, plants, events and places that make up these strange and wonderful lands. It is essential reading for anyone who loves Tolkien's works and wants to learn more about them. This book is unofficial and is not authorised by the Tolkien Estate or HarperCollins Publishers.

Tolkien's first job, on returning home from World War I, was as an assistant on the staff of the Oxford English Dictionary. He later said that he had "learned more in those two years than in any other equal part of his life." The Ring of Words reveals how his professional work on the OED influenced Tolkien's creative use of language in his fictional world. Here three senior editors of the OED offer an intriguing exploration of Tolkien's career as a lexicographer and illuminate his creativity as a word user and word creator. The centerpiece of the book is a wonderful collection of "word studies" which will delight the heart of Ring fans and word lovers everywhere. The editors look at the origin of such Tolkienesque words as "hobbit," "mithril, "Smeagol," "Ent," "halfling," and "worm" (meaning "dragon"). Readers discover that a word such as "mathom" (anything a hobbit had no immediate use for, but was unwilling to throw away) was actually common in Old English, but that "mithril," on the other hand, is a complete invention (and the first "Elven" word to have an entry in the OED). And fans of Harry Potter will be surprised to find that "Dumbledore" (the name of Hogwart's headmaster) was a word used by Tolkien and many others (it is a dialect word meaning "bumblebee"). Few novelists have found so much of their creative inspiration in the shapes and histories of words. Presenting archival material not found anywhere else, The Ring of Words offers a fresh and unexplored angle on the literary achievements of one of the world's most famous and best-loved writers.

This is the book on all of Tolkien's invented languages, spoken by hobbits, elves, and men of Middle-earth -- a dicitonary of fourteen languages, an English-Elvish glossary, all the runes and alphabets, and material on Tolkien the linguist.

A serious linguistic analysis of Tolkien's Sindarin language. Includes the grammar, morphology, and history of the language.