MIDDLE-EARTH TIMELINE
Niggle is a painter who has a long journey ahead of him, but he keeps putting it off to work on a huge painting of a tree, fussing over each leaf, while his neighbour Parish keeps asking for his help. When the journey can no longer wait, the picture is unfinished, yet what follows is not what he expected.
The story was first published in January 1945 in The Dublin Review, and many readers see in it Tolkien's own worries about finishing The Lord of the Rings. This 2016 HarperCollins edition is the first time it was published on its own, with an afterword by Tom Shippey.
A painter fusses over a picture of a single tree while a long journey awaits him: Tolkien's most personal short story.