Originally published to celebrate the 100-year anniversary of J. R. R. Tolkien's birth this illustrated edition of the classic fantasy epic contains 50 full-color paintings by celebrated artist Alan Lee. Alan Lee was one of the principal set designers for Peter Jackson's film adaptation of THE LORD OF THE RINGS and readers will clearly note many similarities between the book art and the look of the three films. In fact Peter Jackson actually posed several scenes to match the illustrations used in this book.