This elegant slipcased edition presents for collectors the first ever publication of J.R.R. Tolkiens final writings on Middle-earth, covering a wide range of subjects. Stamped in gold foil, and printed on heavyweight acid-free paper, it includes a ribbon marker and is housed in a custom-built matching slipcase.It is well known that J.R.R. Tolkien published The Hobbit in 1937 and The Lord of the Rings in 19545. What may be less known is that he continued to write about Middle-earth in the decades that followed, right up until the years before his death in 1973.For him, Middle-earth was part of an entire world to be explored, and the writings in The Nature of Middle-earth reveal the journeys that he took as he sought to better understand his unique creation. From sweeping themes as complex and profound as the metaphysics of Elvish immortality and reincarnation, and the Powers of the Valar, to the more earth-bound subjects of the lands and beasts of Númenor, the geography of the River