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Tolkien Illustrated Guides
The Hobbits of Tolkien
An entire race was born when J.R.R. Tolkien scrawled on a leaf, 'In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.' From the invention of that single word (hobbit) Tolkien became the explorer and chronicler of the character, their race and their significant role in his fantastical world, Middle-earth. Here in his latest book, Tolkien expert David Day unpicks the myriad of riddles, puns and mystical meanings in Tolkien's works; The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings .
192 pages, Paperback
First published November 7, 2019
68 people are currently reading
1178 people want to read
About the author
David Day
276 books259 followersDavid Day (b. 14 October 1947 in Victoria, British Columbia) is a Canadian author of over forty books: poetry, natural history, ecology, mythology, fantasy, and children's literature. Internationally he is most notably known for his literary criticism on J. R. R. Tolkien and his works.
After finishing high school in Victoria, British Columbia, Day worked as a logger for five years on Vancouver Island before graduating from the University of Victoria. Subsequently he has travelled widely, most frequently to Greece and Britain.
Day has published six books of poems for adults and ten illustrated children's books of fiction and poetry. His non-fiction books on natural history include The Doomsday Book of Animals, The Whale War, Eco Wars: a Layman Guide to the Environmental Movement, Noah's Choice and most recently Nevermore: A Book of Hours - Meditations on Extinction (2012).
His Doomsday Book was a Time Magazine Book of the Year and became the basis for the 100 part animated-short TV series "Lost Animals of the 20th Century".
David Days best-selling books on the life and works of JRR Tolkien include: A Tolkien Bestiary, Tolkien: the Illustrated Encyclopedia, Tolkien's Ring, The World of Tolkien and The Hobbit Companion.
Day's Tolkien's Ring was illustrated by academy award-winning artist Alan Lee, as was Castles, The Animals Within, Gothic and Quest For King Arthur.
After finishing high school in Victoria, British Columbia, Day worked as a logger for five years on Vancouver Island before graduating from the University of Victoria. Subsequently he has travelled widely, most frequently to Greece and Britain.
Day has published six books of poems for adults and ten illustrated children's books of fiction and poetry. His non-fiction books on natural history include The Doomsday Book of Animals, The Whale War, Eco Wars: a Layman Guide to the Environmental Movement, Noah's Choice and most recently Nevermore: A Book of Hours - Meditations on Extinction (2012).
His Doomsday Book was a Time Magazine Book of the Year and became the basis for the 100 part animated-short TV series "Lost Animals of the 20th Century".
David Days best-selling books on the life and works of JRR Tolkien include: A Tolkien Bestiary, Tolkien: the Illustrated Encyclopedia, Tolkien's Ring, The World of Tolkien and The Hobbit Companion.
Day's Tolkien's Ring was illustrated by academy award-winning artist Alan Lee, as was Castles, The Animals Within, Gothic and Quest For King Arthur.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 122 reviews
February 14, 2020
David Day spends a lot of time discussing the journey and etymology of certain words that Tolkien uses to create the infamous Hobbit. While this is fascinating for Tolkien fans, I was hoping for more. I would have loved more information and discussion on our favourite Hobbits and their adventures rather than a study of certain words.
April 10, 2021
Originally I got this book to learn more about Hobbits in LotRs (plus it's amazing embossed leather cover) but was extremely disappointed by it's lacklustre content.
Most of the book is about the origins (i.e. etymology) of the hobbit related terms/places/names in the real world rather than anything about the history/culture of Hobbits themselves as expected. This is not improved as most of these etymology links are very much guesswork by the author with no real references to confirm if this is what Tolkien actually meant (e.g. Took sounds like "Tuck" Shop so must refer to food and Hobbits love food!).
A large segment of the book isn't about Hobbits directly too and gets distracted talking about Dwarves, Gandalf and Dragon instead, once again about their seemingly random etymology links.
The book is also accompanied by some generic Hobbit stock-like images and in some cases what appears to be clipart items. Additionally this book doesn't even include any real maps, something that would seem essential for this style of reference book.
While there is definitely a place for this sort of etymology book, this book definitely shouldn't have been it and instead should have focused on the Hobbits themselves rather than the words.
Most of the book is about the origins (i.e. etymology) of the hobbit related terms/places/names in the real world rather than anything about the history/culture of Hobbits themselves as expected. This is not improved as most of these etymology links are very much guesswork by the author with no real references to confirm if this is what Tolkien actually meant (e.g. Took sounds like "Tuck" Shop so must refer to food and Hobbits love food!).
A large segment of the book isn't about Hobbits directly too and gets distracted talking about Dwarves, Gandalf and Dragon instead, once again about their seemingly random etymology links.
The book is also accompanied by some generic Hobbit stock-like images and in some cases what appears to be clipart items. Additionally this book doesn't even include any real maps, something that would seem essential for this style of reference book.
While there is definitely a place for this sort of etymology book, this book definitely shouldn't have been it and instead should have focused on the Hobbits themselves rather than the words.
July 18, 2023
I absolutely loved the art in this book and the general aesthetics and presentation of the book. It's leather bound, colourfully illustrated throughout and nicely typeset. I found the book to be a fast and easy read, and it's a lovely addition to a collection if you collect books about Tolkien's works.
I found this to be misleading. The book isn't really about hobbits; parts of it aren't about them at all. It's about etymology, the origins of words and names used in his works, with a focus on the hobbits primarily, but it also talks about the dwarves, dragons, and others. I found this vaguely interesting, but the book didn't teach me anything I didn't already know, and it definitely didn't teach me anything new about hobbits, so I don't consider this an essential companion to Tolkien's books. Some of the points the author made also felt a bit far-fetched and entirely his opinion without evidence to show that's really what Tolkien's thought processes were.
Lovely, pretty book, but the words in it didn't offer me anything.
I found this to be misleading. The book isn't really about hobbits; parts of it aren't about them at all. It's about etymology, the origins of words and names used in his works, with a focus on the hobbits primarily, but it also talks about the dwarves, dragons, and others. I found this vaguely interesting, but the book didn't teach me anything I didn't already know, and it definitely didn't teach me anything new about hobbits, so I don't consider this an essential companion to Tolkien's books. Some of the points the author made also felt a bit far-fetched and entirely his opinion without evidence to show that's really what Tolkien's thought processes were.
Lovely, pretty book, but the words in it didn't offer me anything.
December 25, 2022
My Jolabokaflod book for Christmas Eve 2023.
If you're looking for a book about hobbit culture and their ways, you'll be disappointed. The book's title is a bit misleading and it really isn't about hobbits so much as it is the literary, philological genius of Tolkien. Holy cow; everything Tolkien ever wrote had multiple layers of meaning, history, and humor. This book blew my mind from start to finish and I'd recommend it to anyone the slightest bit interested in LOTR or language!
If you're looking for a book about hobbit culture and their ways, you'll be disappointed. The book's title is a bit misleading and it really isn't about hobbits so much as it is the literary, philological genius of Tolkien. Holy cow; everything Tolkien ever wrote had multiple layers of meaning, history, and humor. This book blew my mind from start to finish and I'd recommend it to anyone the slightest bit interested in LOTR or language!
April 4, 2023
Nepochybně knížka jen pro skalní fanoušky, malých stvoření s velkýma nohama, mě i přes svoji složitost a hrátky se slovy zaujala. David Day ve svém díle člověka provede slovnímí říčkami na jméno hobit přes svět těchto tvorů samotných až po jejich velkolepé výpravy do Středozemě. Za mě je to rozhodně pěkné počtení, které mi zas o něco rozšířilo obzory.
September 13, 2023
If you wanna read book about the history of creation the hobbits, some interesting facts about them etc this book can be disappointment. Book tells us more about philological aspect of creation of hobitts, their places of live and names. It was a bit boring because I'm not a native English speaker so some things were unclear to me, but it's okay.
Once again I was convinced of Tolkien's genius. He thought everything through to such details that it is scary to think. The names of the characters often indicate the future fate of the character, the main thing is to know the correct translation and interpretation of the name lol. In general it's a great book for those who like detailed descriptions
Once again I was convinced of Tolkien's genius. He thought everything through to such details that it is scary to think. The names of the characters often indicate the future fate of the character, the main thing is to know the correct translation and interpretation of the name lol. In general it's a great book for those who like detailed descriptions
March 11, 2020
I have the whole set of these David Day Tolkien companion books, and this is the first one I’ve read. I haven’t read any of Tolkien’s letters or any of the History of Middle-earth books, so I have no way of knowing if Day did his research and was expounding on the information in the appendices of The Lord of the Rings, or if he is reading more into it than is there, as other reviewers have claimed. They, more so than I, are likely better able to judge that. But, I did enjoy this book, and found the play on words and all the puns fascinating! I enjoyed the etymology of all the different names of the Hobbits and places and other characters. I will continue to read the rest of the books in this series, and since they are such beautiful books, I will continue to add them to my collection.
March 20, 2020
This book tells you everything you ever needed to know about hobbits - and you can find out a whole lot just by looking closely to their names. There's history, all the different types of hobbits as well as a lot of beautiful illustrations. I would recommend this beauty of a book to every big Tolkien fan 😍
December 7, 2025
*2.5 stars*
Tolkien was a philologist, a scholar who studies words. This book almost feels like an academic paper, filled with mythology and lore, but also with the origin of names and words in the world of Tolkien.
The illustrations were absolutely beautiful, but the text became quite boring after a while. I skimmed some parts, where the origin of names was explained so thoroughly I just flipped the page. It has huge potential, but fell flat for me. I will read The Battles of Tolkien next!
Tolkien was a philologist, a scholar who studies words. This book almost feels like an academic paper, filled with mythology and lore, but also with the origin of names and words in the world of Tolkien.
The illustrations were absolutely beautiful, but the text became quite boring after a while. I skimmed some parts, where the origin of names was explained so thoroughly I just flipped the page. It has huge potential, but fell flat for me. I will read The Battles of Tolkien next!
February 2, 2023
Overall great information accompanied with lovely images and art. Does lose the subject a bit halfway through by going on about other creatures like dwarves. Still well worth a read for Tolkien fans.
September 17, 2023
I have to admit that this had a lot more language history than I expected. Every time it started to get interesting, it went down another rabbit hole of explaining a word in depth. Maybe I should have expected this but it wasn’t quite what I was hoping for.
October 29, 2024
7/10
different from what i expected but very interesting
different from what i expected but very interesting
April 11, 2022
The illustrations are so pretty and the family trees are really nice to see laid out. However the book is more about the etymology of hobbits
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October 31, 2024Rating: blasphemous stars
I was going to rate this book somewhere around 3 stars, but that was when I still trusted the lore ofSaruman David Day. You see, somewhere between me finishing this book and starting another of the same author, (yes, I own multiple. In my defence, they were more or less gifts) I stumbled upon some rather enlightening information surrounding the accuracy of Day's Tolkien-based works. Reddit, as always, was festering with reasons for Day's outright cancellation. While I have no doubt some of those claims are absolutely valid, the damning piece of evidence for me came in the form of legitimate Tolkien scholars calling Day out on mistakes he has either not noticed or refuses to acknowledge. Let's just say there is a reason why there are no official Tolkien insignias on any of Day's work.
I could put a million articles and blog posts here, but I'm sure you don't want to waste your entire morning in the same way I have done. So for the sake of brevity, I will quote this line from David Day's page on Tolkien Gateway, which in no way am I endorsing as the most reputable of sources, but it sums it all up pretty well:
The rest of the article includes many quotes from Tolkien academics (aka people who know what they talking about) and I wouldn't be doing my due diligence if I didn't include a link to it here: https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/David...
I will now go and read some actual Tolkien to cleanse my brain.
I have decided not to rate this book out of respect for the artists who put all their hard work into creating some truly beautiful illustrations. They are not to be blamed for the unsavoury words their wonderful pictures are set opposite. I don't know if this will achieve anything, but I feel more comfortable doing so.
I was going to rate this book somewhere around 3 stars, but that was when I still trusted the lore of
I could put a million articles and blog posts here, but I'm sure you don't want to waste your entire morning in the same way I have done. So for the sake of brevity, I will quote this line from David Day's page on Tolkien Gateway, which in no way am I endorsing as the most reputable of sources, but it sums it all up pretty well:
"Day is notable for his tendency to fabricate false or inaccurate information in his writings, and his books have been repeatedly criticized by the Tolkien community.
The rest of the article includes many quotes from Tolkien academics (aka people who know what they talking about) and I wouldn't be doing my due diligence if I didn't include a link to it here: https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/David...
I will now go and read some actual Tolkien to cleanse my brain.
I have decided not to rate this book out of respect for the artists who put all their hard work into creating some truly beautiful illustrations. They are not to be blamed for the unsavoury words their wonderful pictures are set opposite. I don't know if this will achieve anything, but I feel more comfortable doing so.
January 25, 2023
Wow where to start. This book is inaccurate. Day writes that Feonor saved Maedhros from Thangorodrim…it was Fingon. Day writes that Gandalf stalled for time with the trolls setting an example of cleverness for Bilbo to follow later on…Bilbo stalled for time & Gandalf appeared to save him & the dwarves. I could go on. The tone & approach David Day takes in this book is of one who knows what Tolkien was thinking. There’s no source citation or any proof that the linguistic connections he personally makes were the ones that inspired Tolkien’s stories. As a philologist he was sure to have made some of these connections, but the length Day takes them to and the blatantly wrong sections/inaccuracies to the stories themselves give me zero confidence that anything he postulates in this book is true.
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April 29, 2023A good insight as to Tolkien's mindset and inspirations for the Hobbit and the Lord of the Ring series. I have yet to read any of Tolkien's other works so I felt best to start here and see how I get on. I would have liked a bit more insight as to some of the other main characters, their backgrounds ect. That being said I did find it a fascinating and enjoyable read. I would recommend it to anyone looking for more insight as to what inspired Tolkien eg some of the place names origins within different languages, cultures and how they all come to together perfectly and work so well.
January 4, 2025
Day ripercorre la creazione di persone e luoghi da parte di Tolkien attraverso lo sviluppo dei loro nomi e dei loro strati di significato in varie lingue: antiche, moderne, reali e inventate. L'analisi della parola "hobbit" è un'intuizione particolarmente illuminante sui livelli di significato nascosti dietro molti dei nomi di Tolkien, compresi giochi di parole e forme di parole basate sulle lingue da lui inventate.
June 3, 2025
2-2.5 ⭐️
Was this informative? Yes.
Boring? Also yes.
This reads like a high school English textbook. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a bigger word nerd than most people - even among a lot of readers - but this was just some next level geek out stuff. Like this sounds more like a thesis essay than an actual book to read.
The cute page designs and layout gives it bonus points, and the gorgeous faux leather cover does a lot of heavy lifting as always in making me like this series.
Was this informative? Yes.
Boring? Also yes.
This reads like a high school English textbook. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a bigger word nerd than most people - even among a lot of readers - but this was just some next level geek out stuff. Like this sounds more like a thesis essay than an actual book to read.
The cute page designs and layout gives it bonus points, and the gorgeous faux leather cover does a lot of heavy lifting as always in making me like this series.
April 5, 2023
I mostly bought this because I loved the yellow leather-bound cover, and wanted to keep it on a shelf with my other LOTR books. I felt like this read like a dictionary, as it focused mainly on etymology rather than actual stories or facts regarding Hobbits. Major snooze fest. The illustrations were a nice addition, though, and helped this to be a fast read, as many pages have pictures.
April 1, 2024
This book offers some interesting thoughts and connections between what words mean and how they influences the plot of the story, but I would have liked to have more facts and information about the characters. It would also have been good to have a foreword or something, where we find out where the book is getting its information (is it just from all of Tolkien’s work?!)
September 5, 2022
It was more about the etymology of the names than about the hobbits. There were some interesting facts though. In general we could say that every name in this world has its meaning and it is not random at all. Professor Tolkien thought about every tiny detail.
June 1, 2023
Are you seriously and super into the supposed etymology of all the words relating to all hobbit references in The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings? If so, this book is for you.
If you’re expecting a backstory and history into Hobbit lore and information on the Shire, it is not. It is disappointingly not.
I was hugely disappointed because the brief information available makes it seem as though this is going to go through things like famous hobbit families, relationships, locations etc but actually it was largely guesses at what Tolkien MAY have meant when he chose certain words to describe things and how that MAY have related to the character creation of some things in his stories.
Only bonus point: it’s very pretty with its embossed faux leather cover.
If you’re expecting a backstory and history into Hobbit lore and information on the Shire, it is not. It is disappointingly not.
I was hugely disappointed because the brief information available makes it seem as though this is going to go through things like famous hobbit families, relationships, locations etc but actually it was largely guesses at what Tolkien MAY have meant when he chose certain words to describe things and how that MAY have related to the character creation of some things in his stories.
Only bonus point: it’s very pretty with its embossed faux leather cover.
January 13, 2021
the beginning of 2021 found me a tolkien nerd + the books in this collection are absolutely gorgeous, i love the illustrations + i love etymology. it's just one of my niche interests. so this was fun
June 5, 2021
Echt een boek voor fans!
December 17, 2024
Book #1000, it was definitely a good choice, enjoyed all the illustrations and little tidbits that explain how hobbits came to be
December 21, 2024
The closer look at the philology behind the names was fascinating. Reading these back to back can get a little repetitive though as a lot of info crosses over from one to the other 😅
June 2, 2023
Some pretty interesting things discussed in there. Love learning more about hobbits, their origin and where inspiration has been drawn from. Absolutely love all the illustrations in there. They are so stunning!
November 13, 2025
This little short book, I just couldn't resist picking it up. And it's so interesting. I love like the illustrations and the amount of detail that has been put into this book. It's a lot about the etymology and Tolkien's likely intention as well as really interesting links. So Proto-European wasn't understood as much when Tolkien was writing, but there are still, of course, links there, and it's really interesting to see them.
It was also really enjoyable to have these moments pointed out to me. It's something that theoretically I could discover on my own, but I don't know enough about etymology. And I have only read the books once each other than the first book. So, I really enjoyed this and I am looking forward to delving in to the rest of the collection.
It was also really enjoyable to have these moments pointed out to me. It's something that theoretically I could discover on my own, but I don't know enough about etymology. And I have only read the books once each other than the first book. So, I really enjoyed this and I am looking forward to delving in to the rest of the collection.
May 1, 2022
Como dije, sentimientos encontrados con este libro.
Sobra decir que la edición es preciosa desde la tapa, las ilustraciones, el diseño de las páginas...
Pero me ha desconcertado mucho (por no decir jod*d*) eso de las erratas, que no son ni una, ni dos, ni tres... ¡me ha parecido increíble!
Tiene muchos datos curiosos, pero básicamente se basa gran parte del libro en desgranar orígenes de palabras y relacionarlas (presumiblemente, Tolkien lo hizo al revés) con las cualidades de cada personaje (bien el nombre de la raza como sus mismos nombres propios y apellidos, si los hay).
La pasión de Tolkien por las palabras y por los "acertijos" o juegos de palabras, o bromas filológicas es explicada aquí.
El concepto de "dar nombre es, en la esencia, un acto mágico... Principio chamánico compartido por todas las culturas tribales y se basa en la observación de que no se puede controlar lo que no se conoce".
Cuenta que al principio fue la palabra. A raíz de ellas, el autor se inspiraba y iba "excavando" para desenterrar a los personajes o ideas bajo ellas.
Me han resultado curioso muchos datos, románticos otros, pero en general, hay partes que se repite y no lo considero una lectura indispensable. Sí como frikada y objeto de colección.
Hay que decir que este libro no es oficial de la "marca" The Tolkien Estate y no está autorizado por ellos.
Sobra decir que la edición es preciosa desde la tapa, las ilustraciones, el diseño de las páginas...
Pero me ha desconcertado mucho (por no decir jod*d*) eso de las erratas, que no son ni una, ni dos, ni tres... ¡me ha parecido increíble!
Tiene muchos datos curiosos, pero básicamente se basa gran parte del libro en desgranar orígenes de palabras y relacionarlas (presumiblemente, Tolkien lo hizo al revés) con las cualidades de cada personaje (bien el nombre de la raza como sus mismos nombres propios y apellidos, si los hay).
La pasión de Tolkien por las palabras y por los "acertijos" o juegos de palabras, o bromas filológicas es explicada aquí.
El concepto de "dar nombre es, en la esencia, un acto mágico... Principio chamánico compartido por todas las culturas tribales y se basa en la observación de que no se puede controlar lo que no se conoce".
Cuenta que al principio fue la palabra. A raíz de ellas, el autor se inspiraba y iba "excavando" para desenterrar a los personajes o ideas bajo ellas.
Me han resultado curioso muchos datos, románticos otros, pero en general, hay partes que se repite y no lo considero una lectura indispensable. Sí como frikada y objeto de colección.
Hay que decir que este libro no es oficial de la "marca" The Tolkien Estate y no está autorizado por ellos.
February 19, 2025
All of David Day’s books on Tolkien are insightful to the intricacies of his exact choice of words when writing his books, but they’re all incredibly regurgitative and mostly just retell the plot of each book
Displaying 1 - 30 of 122 reviews