The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide is a comprehensive handbook to one of the most popular authors of the twentieth century. One of two volumes comprising this definitive work, the Reader's Guide is an indispensable introduction to J. R. R. Tolkien's life, writings, and art. It includes histories and discussions of his works; analyses of the components of his vast 'Silmarillion' mythology; brief biographies of persons important in his life; accounts of places he knew; essays on topics such as Tolkien's interests and attitudes towards contemporary issues, ideas found in his works, adaptations, and invented languages; and checklists of his published works, his poetry, his pictorial art, and translations of his writings.