I would like to share a novel called An Encyclopedia of Tolkien: The History and Mythology That Inspired Tolkien’s World (Leather-bound Classics). An Encyclopedia of Tolkien is published by David Day.
Charlie and I will be using An Encyclopedia of Tolkien in our Homeschooling class when we study the Midle-Earth during Science class. As well as Art class because we will be able to draw the creatures we learn about in An Encyclopedia of Tolkien .
We will be able to learn about different centuries and tie them into our Unit Studies/ Lesson Plans for Geology and Social Studies. Charlie even said An Encyclopedia of Tolkien can be used when we are studying Genealogy.
A comprehensive, illustrated guide to the history, lands, and inhabitants of Middle-earth.
The fantasy world of J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth contains a rich assortment of people, cities, and creatures—as well as a deep, intertwined history that spans thousands of years. In this beautifully illustrated, leather-bound volume, best-selling author and Tolkien scholar David Day presents four decades of research and writing on the lands and inhabitants Middle-earth.
Sections of this A-to-Z dictionary are devoted to discussion of the battles, history, beasts, and heroes of Tolkien’s stories, and are accompanied by black-and-white illustrations.
This comprehensive volume on Tolkien’s world also includes an appendix of three primary legends that served as sources for Tolkien’s creations—the Volsunga Saga, the Nibelungenlied, and Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle—and more than 200 black-and-white illustrations
This work is unofficial and is not authorized by the Tolkien Estate or HarperCollins Publishers
About David Day
David Day was born and raised in Victoria, British Columbia. He is a poet and author who has published over 40 books of poetry, ecology, history, fantasy, mythology and fiction. David Day’s books – for both adults and children – have sold over 4 million copies worldwide and were translated into twenty languages.
After high school, Day divided the next decade between work in logging camps and study at universities. His first book of poems, The Cowichan (based on his timber camp journals) was published in 1975, and he graduated from the Department of Creative Writing at the University of Victoria the following year.
He was writer in residence at the Aegean School of Fine Arts in Paros, Greece, and worked for the Canadian Publishers McClelland Stewart in Toronto. He has subsequently travelled extensively, and lived in England, Greece, Spain and Canada. He currently lives in Toronto, Canada.
In 1978, he published A Tolkien Bestiary, the first of his six best selling books on the works of J R R Tolkien. In 1981, his Doomsday Book of Animals was a ‘Book of the Year’ selection for Time Magazine, New Scientist, Los Angeles Times and The Observer. And in 1984, Day wrote Castles, the first of five books in collaboration with the Academy Award winning artist, Alan Lee.
In 1986, The Emperor’s Panda was runner-up for the Governor General’s Award and the National Library Award, and was adapted for stage by the Toronto Young People’s Theatre. That year, his poems were prize winners in the CBC National Poetry Competition.
Through the 1980’s and 1990’s, Day was also an environmental columnist for Britain’s Daily Mail, Evening Standard, Sunday Times and Punch magazine.
After the 1996 publication of his Quest For King Arthur, David Day was commissioned by the Birmingham Royal Ballet as dramaturge for the epic two-part ballet, Arthur I and Arthur II (2000).
David Day has also written for theatre and television. His 100 part Lost Animals TV series (narrated by Greta Scacchi) was commissioned by the Knowledge Network in US, Channel 4 in UK and NHK in Japan – and later translated into 18 languages. He has worked as creative adviser for Toronto’s Hall Train Studios’ multi-media museum exhibitions.
More recently, 2012-15 has seen the publication of Nevermore: A Book of Hours – Meditations on Extinction and Tolkien: A Dictionary, as well as new editions of his six other Tolkien books and his Emperor’s Panda. Also, he is the subject (with artist John Howe) of the French- German ARTE TV network production of ‘Tolkien and the Nibelungenlied’.
His most recent publications in 2015 are his study of Lewis Carroll, entitled ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Decoded’ (Penguin Random House Doubleday) and Tolkien: An Atlas (Cassell Bounty Octopus-Thunder Bay).
A ten minute video of the secrets of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Decoded is available on
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
