this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2023
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A Tolkien Bestiary - David Day - 1949 (lemmy.world)
submitted 10 months ago by arotrios@lemmy.world to c/books@lemmy.ml
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cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/13thFloor/t/468547

David Day's A TOLKIEN BESTIARY is a scholarly, definitive and enchantingly beautiful explanation of all the imaginary beasts, monsters, races, nations,deities, fauna and flora of J.R.R- Tolkien's fantasy worlds of Middle-earth and the Undying Lands.

David Day has identified, analyzed and described 129 separate races. Each is lucidly explained in terms of its physical appearance, language, behavior and culture. A TOLKIEN BESTIARY does not retell their stories: its purpose is to make Tolkien’s own books more accessible by identifying his living creatures and explaining their roles in his epic world.

While not the most accurate of the Tolkien Bestiaries, this one was the first, and the one with the best artwork.

Downloads for the novels:

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[–] mo_ztt@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago (3 children)

I miss how unique and unpolished the art in old school speculative fiction used to be allowed to be. I love the angle-dragon and I feel like nothing like him would be allowed to exist on the cover a non-self-published book nowadays.

[–] Senex@reddthat.com 1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

This whole paragraph is giving me deja vu. I know I've read it before. Update: I remember! It was a dream I had last year about an "angle-dragon" that lived in the angles of reality. I had just finished reading China Mieville's The Scar which contains a character that moves through the angles of reality. Weird!

[–] lyam23@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

The artist who drew the dragon also illustrated a version of Michael Creighton's Eaters of the Dead which was just amazing. I can't remember his name off the top of my head. His first name is Ian I believe

[–] Bebo@literature.cafe 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

If you're talking of the angle dragon seen on this image, then I must say that's definitely not unpolished IMO and I love it. I definitely prefer this over the generic dragons we get on book covers.

[–] mo_ztt@lemmy.world 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I wasn't saying it as a bad thing, just saying it looks a lot more raw and unfiltered than your standard DND sourcebook.

[–] Bebo@literature.cafe 1 points 9 months ago

I guess it's just a different style.

[–] Andjhostet@kbin.social 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Nothing David Day writes should be given any credibility. He made stuff up, like, all the time. Treat it as fan fiction.

[–] arotrios@lemmy.world 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

That's one of the reasons I posted the source material as available (free) downloads as well - Day has come under criticism before by Tolkien scholars. I personally found most of his mistakes and liberties in this work to be minor, but I'm not a Tolkien scholar. Nonetheless, the work has a unique artistic touch that regardless of its accuracy, brings the novels to life in a way that surpasses later catalogues, and it was responsible for getting young readers of my generation interested in reading them.

[–] Andjhostet@kbin.social 2 points 10 months ago

Yeah I realize now that my comment was a tad more aggressive than it was meant to be. I think there's some value in Day's stuff. He gives some interesting perspective and analysis on Tolkien. You just need to remember to take nothing of his as fact.

[–] pg_jglr@sh.itjust.works 3 points 10 months ago

Thanks for posting, I had forgotten about these books. My parents had a copy.

[–] exuberantlime@lemmy.ml 2 points 10 months ago

I always loved Tolkien growing up and still have my physical copy of this. Found it in a used book store and it feels magical. The art work is beautiful and imaginative.

Back when I was in middle school, my town flooded and my family lost a lot of their possessions. This is one of the books that survived, so I'll always remember going over it to distract me from everything else going on.