John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (January 3, 1892 - September 2, 1973) was a writer, poet, philologist, and professor at Oxford University, the founder of modern fantasy. 'The Hobbit' was written in 1937, and in the mid-1950s, the three books of 'The Lord of the Rings' were published. They tell the story of Middle-earth, a world inhabited by representatives of magical races with a complex culture, history, and mythology. In subsequent years, these novels were translated into all the world's languages, adapted for film, animation, theater, computer games, comics, and gave rise to a host of imitations and parodies.

There are over a dozen translations of the trilogy into Russian. This edition includes the translation by V. Muravyov and A. Kistyakovsky.