Book excerpt: The spellbinding world of Middle-earth is full of beasts and battles, heroes and heroines, and the struggle between good and evil. In this dictionary of sources, Tolkien scholar and best-selling author David Day's four decades of research inform us about the lands, inhabitants, languages, geography and history of Middle-earth. This compelling encyclopedia on Tolkien's world also includes over 200 illustrations and an appendix. This work is unofficial and is not authorized by the Tolkien Estate or HarperCollins Publishers.