MIDDLE-EARTH TIMELINE
The Keys of Middle-earth: Discovering Medieval Literature Through the Fiction of J.R.R. Tolkien was written by Stuart D. Lee and Elizabeth Solopova, two Oxford medievalists. It was first published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2005, and a second, expanded edition followed in 2015.
The book places episodes of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings next to the medieval texts that lie behind them, in Old English, Old Norse and Middle English, each given in the original with a new facing translation and a short essay. It is meant as a way into medieval literature for Tolkien readers. The second edition adds the Kalevala for Túrin, Crist for Eärendil, more Old English riddles and the Getica for the Pelennor Fields.
Medieval poems and sagas set side by side with the passages of Tolkien they inspired, in the original and in translation.