I am a huge fan of Tolkien’s World. Middle Earth is unique amoung fantasy worlds in that it lives and breathes. It has a history, linguisitc and mythological. The Hobbit was an introduction, The Lord of the Rings was the Poetic Edda, the culmination of years of study into a world that was growing organically inside the master’s mind.
Benjamin Harff has a similar sickness to my own. he seems to love Tolkien’s works to the point were he based his Senior project in art school on an illustrated recreation of the Silmarillion. Benjamin studied the same books that inspired Tolkien in the realm of calligraphy, and tried to produce an unrivaled volume of the Silmarillion, hand drawn calligraphy, and hand bound. The text of the book as a whole is printed but only to meet the deadline of 6 months for him to turn the work into his professors.
This is the only volume of its type in the world, and he has been unable to make contact with the Tolkien estate to work with them on a wider release. I hope that happens. Read an Interview with Benjamin Harff, upcoming Tolkien illustrator and creator of the Edel-Silmarillion for a better idea of what he was thinking during this long process and to see even more pieces.
