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New Tolkien Exhibition Celebrates Author’s Illustrations

A brand new exhibition has been opened at Bodleian Library to celebrate the illustrations of influential author J.R.R. Tolkien. An alumni of King Edward’s School, Tolkien is known for creating a rich universe of fantasy in his novels. He is perhaps less well known for his artistic talent which is the subject of the new exhibition in Oxford. Tolkien originally enjoyed drawing and painting for pleasure before he began drawing scenes from Middle Earth. In fact, the cover jackets for The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings were drawn by Tolkien himself. He also drew maps, landscapes and artefacts for his Lord of the Rings series to help visualise the rich fantasy world that he had created. A series of these paintings and drawings are now available to view in the “Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth” exhibition. The exhibition at Bodleian Library is open until the 28th October 2018. You can find out more about the exhibition here.