This beautiful edition celebrating Tolkien's 125th birthday on January 3, 2017, contains fifty illustrations by Alan Lee, the artist whose imagination aligns remarkably with Tolkien's. Alan Lee's images have significantly shaped the aesthetic of the Lord of the Rings films. "One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them." In ancient times, the Rings of Power were created by the Elves, and Sauron, the Dark Lord, secretly forged the One Ring and filled it with his power so that he could dominate all others. But the One Ring was taken from him, and no matter how much he searched for it throughout Middle-earth, it remained lost to him. Many ages later, the Ring falls into the hands of the Hobbit Bilbo Baggins... and thus begins the greatest and most dangerous adventure in fantasy literature.