Lord of the Rings Timeline

Tolkien is well known as the father of modern fantasy. See his books, their adaptations, and other stories told within Middle-earth.

What’s on the Lord of the Rings Timeline?

This is the unofficial Lord of the Rings timeline for the books, films and film tie-in material, such as video games like Shadows of Mordor.

The rights to create tie-in materials like video games for Lord of the Rings used to be rather limited. The rights for the books and films were separate, so Warner Brothers could only make games based on the films and only on the films. Thankfully, the rights were consolidated and other tie-in works can be made based on the books or pieces of the books that didn’t appear in the films.

This timeline includes the books, their primary adaptations, and a number of other tie-in materials. It might not include every adaptation ever, but we’ve got the most important ones (remember this is a curated timeline).

Where to start reading Tolkien’s work?

While it comes chronologically, the Silmarillion is definitely not the best place to start. Generally, we recommend starting with The Hobbit, and then moving on from there.

The books can be somewhat large and tough to get through for some, so pace yourself. Of course, the films are a nice way to understand what happens and build up interest in reading the books.

Of course, if you just want to read Tolkien’s work in a rough chronological order, without all the other fluff, we recommend reading them in this order:

• The Silmarillion
• The Children of Hurin
• Beren and Luthien
• The Unfinished Tales
• The Hobbit
• The Fellowship of the Ring
• The Two Towers
• Return of the King

Note: For another unique look at a Lord of the Rings timeline visit the Lord of the Rings chapter by chapter reading order.

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Chronological	Series	Buy	Title	Type	Author	Released
1	Silmarillion		The Silmarillion +	Novel	Christopher Tolkien J.R.R. Tolkien	1977-09-15
2	Silmarillion		The Children of Hurin +	Novel	Christopher Tolkien J.R.R. Tolkien	2007-04-17
3	Silmarillion		Beren and Luthien +	Novel	Christopher Tolkien J.R.R. Tolkien	2017-06-01
4	Silmarillion		Unfinished Tales +	Novel	Christopher Tolkien J.R.R. Tolkien	1980-01-01
5	Hobbit		The Hobbit +	Novel	J.R.R. Tolkien	1937-09-21
6	Hobbit		The Hobbit (audio) +	Audio Drama	J.R.R. Tolkien Michael Kilgarriff	1968-01-01
7	Hobbit		The Hobbit (animated) +	Film	Romeo Muller	1977-11-27
8	Hobbit		The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey +	Film	Fran Walsh Guillermo del Toro Peter Jackson Philippa Boyens	2012-12-14
9	Hobbit		The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug +	Film	Fran Walsh Guillermo del Toro Peter Jackson Philippa Boyens	2013-12-13
10	Hobbit		The Hobbit: Battle of Five Armies +	Film	Fran Walsh Guillermo del Toro Peter Jackson Philippa Boyens	2014-12-17
11	Shadow of Mordor		Shadow of Mordor +	Game	Christian Cantamessa	2014-09-30
12	Shadow of Mordor		Shadow of War +	Game	Tony Elias	2017-10-10
13	LOTR		The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring +	Novel	J.R.R. Tolkien	1954-07-29
14	LOTR		The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (audio) +	Audio Drama	J.R.R. Tolkien	1981-08-30
15	LOTR		The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (film) +	Film	Fran Walsh Peter Jackson Philippa Boyens	2001-12-19
16	LOTR		The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers +	Novel	J.R.R. Tolkien	1954-11-11
17	LOTR		The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (audio) +	Audio Drama	J.R.R. Tolkien	1981-08-30
18	LOTR		The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (film) +	Film	Fran Walsh Peter Jackson Philippa Boyens Stephen Sinclair	2002-12-18
19	LOTR		The Lord of the Rings (animated) +	Film	Chris Conkling Peter S. Beagle	1978-11-15
20	LOTR		The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (game) +	Game		2002-10-21
21	LOTR		The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King +	Novel	J.R.R. Tolkien	1955-10-20
22	LOTR		The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (audio) +	Audio Drama	J.R.R. Tolkien	1981-08-30
23	LOTR		The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (film) +	Film	Fran Walsh Peter Jackson Philippa Boyens	2003-12-17
24	LOTR		The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (game) +	Game		2003-11-03
25	LOTR		The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (animated) +	Film	Romeo Muller	1980-05-11
26	War in the North		Battle for Middle-Earth +	Game		2004-12-06
27	War in the North		Battle for Middle-Earth II +	Game		2006-02-28
28	War in the North		War in the North +	Game	Scott Crawford	2011-11-01
29	Post-LOTR		Aragorn’s Quest +	Game	Justin Cheadle	2010-09-14