Given the fact that there are perhaps 400 billion stars in our Galaxy alone, and perhaps 400 billion galaxies in the Universe, it stands to reason that somewhere out there, in the 14-billion-year-old cosmos, there is or once was a civilization at lea...

A wordless picturebook can be a disconcerting object. There are no words on the pages and readers, who are used to the presence of a text that leads them by the hand, may feel rather lost (a bit like when we get to a beach and look for the best place...

Come face to face with Smaug the Magnificent, the most realistic, breathtaking and destructive dragon ever to appear on screen, in this gallery of exclusive images that tell the story of how he was created. Smaug is possibly the most memorable charac...

At what stage in J.R.R. Tolkien's reading of other literatures and mythologies did he conceive of the fantastic mythology of Middle-earth that has become so deeply entrenched in contemporary culture? At what point did medieval epic and legend spark T...

Reptiles and amphibians ruled the world for nearly 200 million years and today there are still over 12,500 of them. Some are huge, the deadliest creatures on earth. Some are tiny, among the strangest to be found anywhere. Together, they not only outn...

Tolkien's first job, on returning home from World War I, was as an assistant on the staff of the OED. He later said that he had "learned more in those two years than in any other equal part of his life." The Ring of Words reveals how his professional...