About the Author

J.R.R. TOLKIEN (1892-1973) is the creator of Middle-earth and the author of such classic and extraordinary works of fiction as The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.

VERLYN FLIEGER, PhD, is retired from the University of Maryland as professor emerita in the Department of English, where her specialties were the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and comparative mythology.