A Tolkien Bestiary

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A Tolkien Bestiary
A Tolkien Bestiary.jpg
AuthorDavid Day
PublisherMitchell Beazley
Released1979
FormatHardback
Paperback
Pages288
ISBN0517120771

A Tolkien Bestiary is an A-Z guide to the flora and fauna of Middle-earth, written by David Day and first published in 1979. The book contains monochrome and full-colour illustrations by Michael Foreman, Lidia Postma, Ian Miller, Allan Curless, Sue Porter, Victor Ambrus and John Davis.

Reception

The book has been accused of containing extrapolations and thus deviating from Tolkien's writings.[1] For example, there is a reference to "Kraken" referring to the Watcher in the Water, but the word does not appear as a species in Tolkien's works.[2]

While fans have argued that the book is less reliable as a Tolkien reference than similar works by Robert Foster and J.E.A. Tyler for the purists, many are fond of its illustrations.[3]

Editions

A number of books have been derived from A Tolkien Bestiary and have been published under many different titles:

References