{{Short description|Reference book for Tolkien's fictional setting}} {{Infobox book | name = The Complete Guide to Middle-earth | image = Complete Guide to Middle-earth Hildebrandt.jpg | caption = Dust jacket of 1978 edition | author = Robert Foster | illustrator = | cover_artist = The [[Brothers Hildebrandt]] | country = United States | language = English | subject = [[Tolkien's legendarium]] | genre = [[Reference]] | publisher = [[Ballantine Books]] | release_date = 1978 | media_type = Print ([[Hardcover|Hardback]] & [[Paperback]]) | pages = 573 pp | isbn = 0-345-44976-2 | isbn_note = (2001 edition) | oclc = 48541956 | preceded_by = [[A Guide to Middle-earth]], Mirage Press, 1971 | followed_by = }}
'''''The Complete Guide to Middle-earth: from ''The Hobbit'' to ''The Silmarillion''' is a reference book for [[J. R. R. Tolkien]]'s fictional universe of [[Middle-earth]], compiled and edited by Robert Foster. It was first published in 1971 under the title '''''A Guide to Middle-earth'''''. A revised and enlarged edition under the title '''''The Complete Guide to Middle-earth''''' was published in 1978. It received a third edition in 2001.
== Author ==
Robert Foster (b. 1949, [[Brooklyn, New York|Brooklyn]]) earned a Ph.D. in English and Medieval Studies at the [[University of Pennsylvania]], and taught subsequently in the English Department at [[Rutgers University]].<ref name="alibris">{{cite web |url=http://www.alibris.com/search/books/author/Foster,%20Robert/aid/1661010# |title=Robert Foster |publisher=Alibris |accessdate=15 January 2013}}</ref><ref name="loc">{{cite book |url=http://catalog2.loc.gov/vwebv/holdingsInfo?searchId=8872&recCount=100&recPointer=0&bibId=13442830 |title=Robert Foster Complete Guide to Middle Earth |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |year=2003 |publisher=[[Library of Congress]] |isbn=978-0-3454-6529-0 | accessdate=15 January 2013}}</ref> Foster begun work on this in the late sixties, consulting Tolkien works and letters.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Nelson |first=Charles W. |date=2002 |title=Review of The Complete Guide to Middle-earth, from The Hobbit through The Lord of The Rings and Beyond |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43308582 |journal=[[Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts]] |volume=13 |issue=2 (50) |pages=190–192 |jstor=43308582}}</ref>
== ''A Guide to Middle-earth'' ==
The 1971 ''A Guide to Middle-earth'' was the first published [[encyclopedia|encyclopedic]] reference book for the [[fictional universe]] of [[J. R. R. Tolkien]]'s [[Middle-earth]], compiled and edited by Robert Foster.<ref name=":0"/> The book was published in 1971 by [[Mirage Press]], a specialist [[science fiction]] and [[fantasy]] publisher, in a limited edition.<ref name=":0"/> A paperback edition was issued by [[Ballantine Books]] in 1974.{{sfn|Drout|2006|pp=655-656}}
The author profile in the first edition describes Robert Foster as the then-"[[Tengwar]] Consultant" to the [[Tolkien fandom|Tolkien Society of America]].<ref>''Complete Guide'', author profile</ref> The book incorporates material previously published in the [[science fiction fanzine]] ''[[Niekas]]''.<ref name=":0"/>
== ''The Complete Guide to Middle-earth'' ==
{{Quote box | quote = AINUR (Q.: 'holy ones') Angelic spirits, offspring of the thought of Ilúvatar. Most of the Ainur dwell with Ilúvatar, but some, the Valar and Maiar (qq.v.), have come to Eä to fulfill the Ainulindalë. ... | source = Part of the entry for "[[Ainur in Middle-earth|Ainur]]", ''The Complete Guide to Middle-earth''<ref>{{cite book |last1=Foster |first1=Robert |last2=Nasmith |first2=Ted (illus.) |title=The Complete Guide to Middle-earth: The Definitive Guide to the World of J.R.R. Tolkien |date=2022 |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |isbn=978-0-0085-3781-4 |edition=Illustrated |quote=[alt. subtitle] From ''The Silmarillion'' to ''The Lord of the Rings''}}</ref> | width = 40% | align = right }}
''The Complete Guide to Middle-earth'', published in 1978 was a major expansion of ''A Guide to Middle-earth'', at almost twice its length, with coverage of ''[[The Silmarillion]]'', which came out in 1977.{{sfn|Tolkien|1977}} However, as it does not include information on post-''Silmarillion'' material (i.e. ''[[Unfinished Tales]]'' and the history of composition series ''[[The History of Middle-earth]]''), the 1978 edition contains some assertions supported by later publications, and some that are contradicted. For example, the Star of [[Elendil]] jewel (the Elendilmir) is identified with the Star of the [[Dúnedain]] given to [[Samwise Gamgee]], something refuted by [[Christopher Tolkien]].{{sfn|Tolkien|1980|loc=Footnote 8 in 'Many Roads Lead Eastward (1)', p. 309}} On the other hand, Foster proposes that [[Gandalf]] and [[Olórin]] are one and the same; this is stated directly by Gandalf in ''The Two Towers''.{{sfn|Tolkien|1954|loc=Book 4, ch. 5 "The Window on the West", where Gandalf states: "Many are my names in many countries, he said. Mithrandir among the Elves, Tharkûn to the Dwarves; Olórin I was in my youth in the West that is forgotten, in the South Incánus, in the North Gandalf; to the East I go not."}}
A revised edition ({{ISBN|0-345-44976-2}}) was published in 2001, in time for [[Peter Jackson]]'s [[The Lord of the Rings (film series)|''The Lord of the Rings'' film trilogy]].<ref name=":0"/>
A new [[Illustrating Tolkien|hardback edition illustrated]] by [[Ted Nasmith]], including standard and slipcased versions, was released in September 2022.<ref>{{cite web |title=Robert Foster, The Complete Guide to Middle-earth 2022 |url=https://www.tolkienguide.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?post_id=38243 |date=18 March 2022 |website=Tolkien Collector's Guide}}</ref><ref name="Roberts 2022">{{cite news |title=The Complete Guide to Middle-earth by Robert Foster review — avoid this encyclopaedia disappointica |url=https://www.thetimes.com/culture/books/article/the-complete-guide-to-middle-earth-by-robert-foster-review-x3gk2szz7 |url-access=subscription |newspaper=[[The Times]] |first=Adam |last=Roberts |date=1 September 2022}}</ref>
== Reception ==
Early editions of ''The Complete Guide to Middle-earth'' have been widely recognised as providing an excellent reference on Middle-earth.{{sfn|Drout|2006|p=xxix (editor's introduction, which refers to the book by the title of the 1971 edition}} [[Lester del Rey]] praised the 1971 version for covering "literally everything you wanted to know about Middle Earth and were unable to discover before."<ref>{{cite journal |last=del Rey |first=Lester |year=1974 |title=Reading Room |journal=[[If (magazine)|If]] |issue=September 1974 |page=132 |authorlink=Lester del Rey}}</ref> [[Christopher Tolkien]] commended it in 1980 as an "admirable work of reference".{{sfn|Tolkien|1980|p=6 (editor's introduction) "If I have been inadequate in explanation or unintentionally obscure, Mr Robert Foster's ''Complete Guide to Middle-earth'' supplies, as I have found through frequent use, an admirable work of reference."}} in 2002, Charles W. Nelson, author of ''A Tolkien Bestiary'', wrote that the guide was helpful for Tolkien students and enthusiasts, each new edition being a noticeable improvement over its predecessors in terms of comprehensiveness.<ref name=":0"/>
Dissenting, Adam Roberts, writing in ''[[The Times]]'' in 2022, calls the revised edition disappointing and "woefully outdated" in the face of the wealth of information on Tolkien now available on the Internet.<ref name="Roberts 2022"/>
== Translations ==
A Polish edition, ''Encyklopedia Śródziemia'', was published in 1998, and reprinted in 2002, 2003 and 2012.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Encyklopedia Śródziemia – encyklopediafantastyki.pl |url=http://www.encyklopediafantastyki.pl/index.php?title=Encyklopedia_%C5%9Ar%C3%B3dziemia |access-date=2021-10-02 |website=www.encyklopediafantastyki.pl}}</ref> A German edition, ''Das Große Mittelerde-Lexikon'', revised and translated by [[Helmut W. Pesch]], was published in 2002.{{sfn|Drout|2006|p=240}}
== References == {{reflist|30em}}
== Sources ==
* {{cite book |first=Michael |last=Drout |authorlink=Michael D. C. Drout |year=2006 |title=[[J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia]] |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=0-415-96942-5}} * {{ME-ref|TT}} * {{ME-ref|Silm}} * {{ME-ref|UT}}
{{Authority control}} {{Middle-earth}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Complete Guide To Middle-Earth}} [[Category:1978 non-fiction books]] [[Category:Books about Middle-earth]] [[Category:Encyclopedias of fictional worlds|Middle-Earth, The Complete Guide To]] [[Category:Ballantine Books books]]