''Tom was here before the river and the trees.... He made paths before the Big People and saw the little People arriving. He was here before the Kings and the graves and the Barrow-wights. When the Elves passed westward, Tom was here already...'' One of the most intriguing characters in The Lord of the Rings , the amusing and enigmatic Tom Bombadil also appears in verses said to have been written by Hobbits and preserved in the ''Red Book'' with stories of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins and their friends. The Adventures of Tom Bombadil collects these and other poems, mainly concerned with legends and jests of the Shire at the end of the Third Age. This special edition has also been expanded to include earlier versions of some poems, a fragment of a prose story with Tom Bombadil, and comprehensive notes by acclaimed Tolkien scholars Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond.

Autorentext

J.R.R.Tolkien (1892-1973) was a distinguished academic, though he is best known for writing The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, plus other stories and essays. His books have been translated into over 80 languages and have sold many millions of copies worldwide.

CHRISTINA SCULL is the former Librarian of Sir John Soane's Museum, London, and editor of The Tolkien Collector. With Wayne Hammond, they have written multiple Tolkien works, including J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator, The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion, the three-volume J.R.R. Tolkien Companion & Guide, and produced editions of Farmer Giles of Ham and The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien.

WAYNE G. HAMMOND is the Chapin Librarian emeritus at Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts, and the author of standard bibliographies of J.R.R. Tolkien and Arthur Ransome.

Pauline Baynes was a British illustrator renowned for her work on C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia. J.R.R. Tolkien admired her work so much that she was invited to illustrate first his Farmer Giles of Ham and then The Adventures of Tom Bombadil. Her work spanned 60 years, and in 1968 she won the Kate Greenaway Medal. In 1999 she drew a map of the Little Kingdom for the 50th anniversary edition of Farmer Giles of Ham. Pauline Baynes died in 2008.

Klappentext

This revised and expanded edition of Tolkien's own Hobbit-inspired poetry includes previously unpublished poems and notes, and is beautifully illustrated by Narnia artist Pauline Baynes.

'Tom was here before the river and the trees.... He made paths before the Big People and saw the little People arriving. He was here before the Kings and the graves and the Barrow-wights. When the Elves passed westward, Tom was here already...'

One of the most intriguing characters in The Lord of the Rings, the amusing and enigmatic Tom Bombadil also appears in verses said to have been written by Hobbits and preserved in the 'Red Book' with stories of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins and their friends.

The Adventures of Tom Bombadil collects these and other poems, mainly concerned with legends and jests of the Shire at the end of the Third Age. This special edition has also been expanded to include earlier versions of some poems, a fragment of a prose story with Tom Bombadil, and comprehensive notes by acclaimed Tolkien scholars Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond.