Smaug certainly looked fast asleep, almost dead and dark, with scarcely a snore more than a whiff of unseen steam, when Bilbo peeped once more from the entrance. He was just about to step out on to the floor when he caught a sudden thin and piercing ray of red from under the drooping lid of Smaug's left eye. He was only pretending to sleep! He was watching the tunnel entrance! Whisked away from his comfortable, unambitious life in his hobbit-hole...

The epic conclusion the adventures of Bilbo Baggins. Having reclaimed their homeland from the Dragon Smaug, the Company has unwittingly unleashed a deadly force into the world. Enraged, Smaug rains his fiery wrath down upon the defenseless men, women and children of Lake-town. Obsessed above all else with his reclaimed treasure, Thorin sacrifices friendship and honor to hoard it as Bilbo's frantic attempts to make him see reason drive the Hobbit towards...

Unfinished Tales is a collection of narratives ranging in time from the Elder Days of Middle-earth to the end of the War of the Ring, and provides those who have read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings with a whole collection of background and new stories. The book concentrates on the realm of Middle-earth and comprises such elements as The Quest of Erebor, Gandalf's lively account of how it was that he came to send the Dwarves to the celebrated...

A one-volume edition of the trilogy which tells of the quest undertaken by the hobbit Frodo and his companions to journey across Middle-earth and cast the evil One Ring, into the Cracks of Doom. Includes fifty specially commissioned paintings by Alan Lee. "In this one volume the three parts of The Lord of the rings, The Fellowship of the ring, The two towers, and The Return of the Ring [King], are enhanced by the work of a dedicated artist whose...

"A stunning look at the creative process behind The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies--the third and final installment of one of the world's biggest motion picture franchises from Academy Award-winning filmmaker Peter Jackson. Working closely with the film's production staff, the award-winning team at WETA brings together more than 240 pages of spectacular four-color visuals, including hundreds of images of concept artwork, photographs, development...

A response to our fractured political discourse, Hobbit Virtues speaks to the importance of "virtue ethics" by examining the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien--with particular attention to his hobbits. Tolkien's works resonate with so many readers in part because Bilbo, Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin demonstrate Classical, Judeo-Christian, Medieval, and even Hindu and Confucian virtues. Tolkien ennobles the small, the humble, and the marginalized in his...