MIDDLE-EARTH TIMELINE
In 1925, on a family holiday at Filey, Tolkien's young son Michael lost his favourite toy dog on the beach. To console him, Tolkien made up the story of Rover, a real dog turned into a toy by a grumpy wizard. Lost on the sand, Rover is helped by the sand sorcerer Psamathos and goes on to the Moon, where he meets the Man in the Moon, and then under the sea, before he can find the wizard and be changed back.
Tolkien offered the story to his publisher after The Hobbit, but it stayed unpublished for sixty years. Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond edited it, with Tolkien's own illustrations, for HarperCollins in 1998.
A dog turned into a toy travels to the Moon and under the sea in the story Tolkien made up for his son Michael.