{"product_id":"switzerland-in-tolkien-s-middle-earth-book-martin-s-monsch-9783907323021","title":"Switzerland in Tolkien's Middle-Earth","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA journey in search of Middle-earth\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 1911, at the age of nineteen, J. R. R. Tolkien embarked on an adventurous journey through the Swiss Alps; with a heavy pack, he hiked over many high passes. More than fifty years later, he mentioned in a letter to his son Michael that this trip had deeply affected him. Bilbo's journey in \u003cem\u003eThe Hobbit\u003c\/em\u003e from Rivendell to the other side of the Misty Mountains, he said, was based on his own adventures in 1911.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTolkien himself named a few specific sources of inspiration, most explicitly the Silberhorn (Silverhorn). So I wondered: Was this perhaps only the tip of the iceberg? Following in Tolkien's footsteps, I myself set out into the spectacular mountain world with its stories, myths, and legends, in search of his sources of inspiration; and little by little, a vivid and mysterious world revealed itself to me: a world that helped shape Middle-earth.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMore than 100 color images accompany the author's research and discovery journey, along with 11 hiking and 3 road trip suggestions that allow readers to recreate Tolkien's experience with all its impressions themselves in the Swiss mountains.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThis book is above all else an invitation to step into Tolkien's hiking shoes, shoulder his pack, and step back a century into a world which is as far from today as Middle-earth is from our world; a guidebook of impressions, a walking tour of the nature of imagination and the imagination of nature. - \u003cem\u003eJohn Howe\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49533483647249,"sku":"GOR013499023","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51065095422225,"sku":"NIN9783907323021","price":32.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/3907323025.jpg?v=1750807196","url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/products\/switzerland-in-tolkien-s-middle-earth-book-martin-s-monsch-9783907323021","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}