The hobbit Bilbo Baggins bids farewell to his friends and to the world of Middle-earth as he sets forth on his last journey.

For over fifty years, J.R.R. Tolkien's peerless fantasy has accumulated worldwide acclaim as the greatest adventure tale ever written. No other writer has created a world as distinct as Middle-earth, complete with its own geography, history, languages, and legends. And no one has created characters as endearing as Tolkien's large-hearted, hairy-footed hobbits. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings continues to seize the imaginations of readers of all ages,...

Of historic note, these selections from The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings are based on a tape recording Tolkien made in 1952, which inspired him to continue his own quest to see his vision in print. Also included is a never-published poem, "The mirror of Galadriel," originally intended for inclusion in the trilogy, yet edited out. And, finally, Tolkien's son, Christopher reads selections from his father's The Silmarillion, the epic foundation upon...

' ... If you wanted to go on from the end of The Hobbit I think the ring would be your inevitable choice as the link. If then you wanted a large tale, the Ring would at once acquire a capital letter; and the Dark Lord would immediately appear. As he did, unasked, on the hearth at Bag End as soon as I came to that point. So the essential Quest started at once. But I met a lot of things along the way that astonished me. Tom Bombadil I knew already;...