A long-running Reddit debate about whether or not dwarf women had beards may finally be settled in a collection of previously unpublished works by British author JRR Tolkien that will be released next year. Titled The Nature of Middle-earth, the collection will explore the world of Middle-earth, tackling topics ranging from Elvish immortality and reincarnation to the geography of where Tolkien’s most famous epic fantasies were set.
Tolkien is best known for his novels The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, published in 1954-1955 and 1937, respectively. His works became international best-sellers and were translated into more than 70 languages. He continued to write about Middle-earth in the following decades until his death in 1973.
In a statement by Deb Brody, vice president of American publishing house Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Brody explains that for Tolkien, “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.” Carl F Hostetter, one of the world’s leading Tolkien experts and respected head of the Elvish Linguistic Fellowship, has been tasked with editing The Nature of Middle-earth. The book is to set for launch next summer on June 24, 2021 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in North America and HarperCollins in the UK.
