A trade paperback edition of the celebrated illustrated Silmarillion. J R R Tolkien's SILMARILLION is the core work of the Middle-earth canon. It is in this dense and often neglected masterpiece that the entire cosmology for the background for THE HOBBIT and, particularly, THE LORD OF THE RINGS is documented. The volume contains fabulous tales of heroes and monsters, and the history of the Elves and of the Silmarils -- the magical jewels produced by the Children of Iluvatar, or Elves (humans being the Younger Children of Iluvatar); it tells of the creation of Middle-earth, and the coming of Men into the world; and it chronicles the early battles between good and evil, forces of light and dark, which foreshadow the great conflict with Sauron, the Dark Lord, in LORD OF THE RINGS. 2000 marks a new beginning for these tales of the First Age of Middle-earth, published posthumously in 1977. Tolkien worked on THE SILMARILLION all his life -- long before THE HOBBIT or LORD OF THE RINGS -- and his son and literary executor, Christopher Tolkien, edited the material he left behind into its current form. Now, at the start of a new millennium, THE SILMARILLION is presented afresh with 20 sumptuous illustrations by Ted Nasmith, perhaps the finest of Tolkien artists.