MIDDLE-EARTH TIMELINE
A Tolkien Compass is a collection of essays edited by the American scholar Jared Lobdell and published by Open Court in 1975. It was one of the first books of Tolkien criticism, written before The Silmarillion came out, and most essays came from conferences organised by fans.
The essays cover Gollum's change of character in The Hobbit, Bilbo's psychological journey, the interlace structure of The Lord of the Rings, fairy-tale morality and the corruption of power. The first edition also printed Tolkien's own Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings, written for translators. Ballantine reissued the book in 1980, and a second edition followed in 2003 without Tolkien's Guide.
One of the first books of Tolkien criticism: a collection of essays, first published with Tolkien's own Guide to the Names.