The History of The Lord of the Rings "The Lord of the Rings". J. R. R. Tolkien conceived the latter as a single volume comprising six "books" plus extensive appendices, but the original publisher split the work into three, publishing two books per volume with the appendices included in the third. The titles proposed by Tolkien for the six books were: Book I, "The First Journey" or "The Ring Sets Out"; Book II, "The Journey of the Nine Companions" or "The Ring Goes South"; Book III, "The Treason of Isengard"; Book IV, "The Journey of the Ring-Bearers" or "The Ring Goes East"; Book V, "The War of the
The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion notes on the book and jacket design of the first editions of 1954-55. The book includes some previously unpublished material by Tolkien. It also reprints part of a 1951 letter in which Tolkien explicates, at some length, his conception and vision of "The Lord of the Rings". Reprinted for the first time since 1980, and corrected and expanded, is Tolkien's "Nomenclature of The Lord of the Rings" (previously referred to as "Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings"), an index of persons, places, and things designed to aid the translator in rendering Tolkien's work into foreign languages.