Although J.R.R. Tolkien wrote many works of fiction, which would go on to achieve great popularity, he was first and foremost an academic with a particular interest in philology, the study of the relation of languages and their history. This interest led him to the literature of northern Europe, and out of this he wrote two closely connected poems that his son, Christopher, edited for publication as The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún. Tolkien also wrote translations of early English poems and these were published as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Finn and Hengest. One of Tolkien’s most famous essays, ‘On Fairy-stories’, which brilliantly explains why fantasy is not just for children, was collected with the story ‘Leaf by Niggle’ and published as Tree and Leaf. Tolkien’s fiction even inspired others to set it to music, and some of the poems and songs from The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion can be found, with sheet music and a CD of recordings, in The Road Goes Ever On.