In antiquarian style, Tolkien created many non-narrative materials. These are both graphic, such as artwork, heraldry, and maps; and textual, such as appendices, footnotes, glossaries, and prefaces.
Graphic elements Artwork Tolkien's artwork was a key element of his creativity from the time when he began to write fiction. He prepared illustrations for his Middle-earth fantasy books,
facsimile artefacts such as the
Book of Mazarbul, more or less "picturesque" maps, and
calligraphy including the iconic
Black Speech inscription on the
One Ring. Some of his artworks combined several of these elements to support his fiction.
Scripts Tolkien invented
several writing systems to accompany his languages, including
Cirth,
Sarati, and
Tengwar. When
his publisher invited him to suggest ideas for the dust jackets of the three volumes, he supplied a design using the Ring inscription in Tengwar for the first book. Although this proved too expensive, a simplified version using the inscription was used for all three volumes. For the title page, he drew a top margin incorporating a Cirth script that reads 'THE LORD OF THE RINGS TRANSLATED FROM THE RED BOOK', and a bottom margin in Tengwar, which continues the sentence 'of Westmarch by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien herein is set forth the history of the War of the Ring and the return of the King as seen by the Hobbits'. to write the
One Ring's iconic inscription,
a poem in the
Black Speech of
Mordor, using the Elvish
Tengwar script, both of which he invented.
Heraldry Tolkien described
heraldic devices for many of the characters and nations of
Middle-earth. His descriptions were in simple English rather than in specific
blazon. The emblems correspond in nature to their bearers, and their diversity contributes to the richly detailed realism of his writings, lending colour to the characters' backgrounds and personalities. Scholars note that Tolkien went through different phases in his use of heraldry; his early account of the Elvish heraldry of
Gondolin in
The Book of Lost Tales corresponds broadly to heraldic tradition in the choice of emblems and colours, but that later when he wrote
The Lord of the Rings he was freer in his approach, and in the complex use of symbols for
Aragorn's sword and banner, he clearly departs from tradition to suit his storytelling. File:Escudo_Dol_Amroth.svg|Dol Amroth, a port of
Gondor File:Escudo_Harad.svg|
Harad, an enemy state File:Escudo Minas Morgul.svg|The evil city of
Minas Morgul File:Coat_of_Arms_of_the_Kingdom_of_Rohan.svg|The
riders of Rohan Maps Tolkien made maps depicting Middle-earth to help him with plot development, to guide the reader through his often complex stories, and to contribute to the
impression of depth and realistic
worldbuilding in his writings. Shippey comments that the maps contribute an "air of solidity and extent both in space and time which its successors [in 20th century fantasy] so conspicuously lack". He suggests that readers take maps and the names on them as labels with "a very close one-to-one relationship with whatever they label". That in turn makes maps "extraordinarily useful to fantasy", as they constantly assure the reader that the places depicted exist and have history and cultures behind them. Tolkien stated that he began with maps and developed his plots from them, but that he also wanted his maps to be picturesque. He painstakingly constructed his characters' intersecting movements to get each of them to the right places at the right times. He drew his maps, such as the one of Gondor and Mordor, to scale on
graph paper and plotted the protagonists' tracks, annotating these with dates to ensure that the chronology fitted exactly. with handwritten annotations, of parts of
Gondor and
Mordor and the separate routes taken by Aragorn's army from Minas Tirith to the Morannon (left), and the
Hobbits with the
One Ring to Mount Doom (right), with dates along those routes, for an enlarged map in
The Return of the King Verbal elements Chronologies The appendices to
The Lord of the Rings contain precisely worked-out chronologies of Middle-earth, supporting the narrative with background detail of many aspects of the nations and characters. Appendix A: "Annals of the Kings and Rulers" gives background to the larger world of Middle-earth, with brief overviews of the events of the first two
Ages of the world, and then more detailed histories of the nations of Men in Gondor and Rohan, as well as a history of the royal Dwarvish line of Durin during the Third Age. Appendix B: "The Tale of Years (Chronology of the Westlands)" is a timeline of events throughout
The Lord of the Rings, and ancient events affecting the narrative; in lesser detail, it gives the stories' context in the fictional chronology of the larger mythology. Tolkien used the timeline, in conjunction with his maps of Middle-earth, to align the
interlaced threads of the narrative as the different characters progress in different directions through the landscape.
Genealogies Family trees contribute to the
impression of depth and realism in the stories set in his fantasy world by showing that each character is rooted in history with a rich network of relationships. Tolkien included multiple
family trees in the appendices to
The Lord of the Rings; they are variously for
Elves,
Dwarves,
Hobbits, and
Men. The family trees gave Tolkien a way of exploring and developing the etymologies of characters' names, and their genealogical relationships. They imply, too, the fascination of his Hobbit characters with their family history. A further function was to show how
aspects of character derive from ancestry. 's and
Frodo's ancestry analysed by geography of
the Shire and
Hobbit family character. Bilbo inherits bourgeois Baggins and adventurous Took, suiting him both for life in the Shire and for the adventure described in
The Hobbit. Frodo inherits bourgeois Baggins and outlandish Buckland, suiting him for
the quest of
The Lord of the Rings, but leaving him ultimately unsettled.
Languages Tolkien was fascinated by language in his childhood, and professionally interested in it as a philologist.
Philology strongly influenced his Middle-earth fantasy world. He
constructed languages throughout his life, starting in his teens, describing this as "
A Secret Vice". The most developed of his glossopoeic projects was his family of
Elvish languages including
Quenya and
Sindarin. He stated that "I am a philologist and all my work is philological"; he explained to his American publisher
Houghton Mifflin that this was meant to imply that his work was "all of a piece, and
fundamentally linguistic [sic] in inspiration. ... The
invention of languages is the foundation. The 'stories' were made rather to provide a world for the languages than the reverse. To me a name comes first and the story follows." Tolkien made "daring" use of untranslated Elvish, as when the Hobbits reach
Elrond's house at
Rivendell and hear the poem
A Elbereth Gilthoniel sung in full:
A Elbereth Gilthoniel / silivren penna míriel / o menel aglar elenath! ... The Tolkien scholar
Tom Shippey comments that readers were not expected to know the song's literal meaning, but were meant to make something of it: it was clearly something from an unfamiliar language, and it announced that "there is more to Middle-earth than can immediately be communicated". As well as invented languages, there are untranslated greetings in
Old English, such as "'Westu Théoden hál!' cried Éomer". This is a scholarly joke: a
dialectal form of ''
Beowulf's'' ("Be thou well,
Hrothgar!") i.e.
Éomer shouts "Long Live King
Theoden!" in the accent of ancient
Mercia, the part of England where Tolkien grew up.
Poetry The poetry in
The Lord of the Rings consists of poems and songs interspersed with the novel's prose. The book contains over 60 pieces of verse of many kinds, including for
wandering,
marching to war,
drinking, and having a bath; narrating ancient myths,
riddles,
prophecies, and magical incantations; of praise and lament (
elegy). Some of these forms were found in
Old English poetry. Tolkien stated that all his poems and songs were dramatic in function, not seeking to express the poet's emotions, but throwing light on the characters, such as
Bilbo Baggins,
Sam Gamgee, and
Aragorn, who sing or recite them. Commentators have noted that Tolkien's verse has long been overlooked, and almost never emulated by other fantasy writers; but that since the 1990s it has received scholarly attention. The verse includes light-hearted songs and apparent nonsense, as with those of
Tom Bombadil; the poetry of
the Shire, which has been said to convey a sense of "mythic timelessness"; and the laments of the
Riders of Rohan, which echo the oral tradition of Old English poetry. Scholarly analysis of Tolkien's verse shows that it is both varied and of high technical skill, making use of different
metres and rarely used poetic devices to achieve its effects.
Proverbs Tolkien uses many proverbs in
The Lord of the Rings to create a feeling that the world of
Middle-earth is both familiar and solid, and to give a sense of the different cultures of the
Hobbits,
Men,
Elves, and
Dwarves who populate it. Scholars have commented that the proverbs are sometimes used directly to portray characters such as
Barliman Butterbur, who never has time to collect his thoughts. Further, the proverbs help to convey Tolkien's underlying message about
providence; while he keeps
his Christianity hidden, readers can see that what appears as luck to the protagonists reflects a higher purpose throughout Tolkien's narrative. == Editorial framing ==