John D. Rateliff (born 9 December 1958^[1]) is an American independent scholar of fantasy literature and author of roleplaying games. He specializes in the study of the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, particularly his Middle-earth writings,^[2] and wrote and edited the 2007 book The History of the Hobbit.

John D. Rateliff was raised in Magnolia, Arkansas.^[3] He moved to Wisconsin in 1981 to study Tolkien's manuscripts at Marquette University.^[4] Rateliff is an expert in Tolkien studies,^[5] and he earned a Ph.D in 20th-century British literature from Marquette.^[6][7]

Rateliff has helped organize several major conferences on Tolkien.^[8] He contributed essays to Tolkien's Legendarium: Essays on The History of Middle-earth (2000) and to a volume marking the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of The Lord of the Rings, and edited The History of The Hobbit, containing drafts of Tolkien's The Hobbit with extensive commentary.^[8] Having written his dissertation on Lord Dunsany, Rateliff likes to describe his degree as "a Ph.D in fantasy."^[8]

He worked for the game companies TSR, Wizards of the Coast, and Hasbro, contributing to a large number of products in the Dungeons & Dragons line.^[9][10] In addition he worked as a freelancer for companies including Decipher Inc., Green Ronin, White Wolf, Guardians of Order, and Chaosium.^[3]

Rateliff was the co-editor of the third edition D&D Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide (the original d20 System game rules), and worked on such titles as Mark of Amber, Night Below, Return to the Tomb of Horrors, the Eberron core rulebook, and Decipher's Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game.^[8] He is the author of the adventures The Standing Stone and Return to the Keep on the Borderlands, and co-editor of and contributor to d20 Cthulhu.^[8]

• Egypt (Children of the World) (with Valerie Weber and Julie Brown; Gareth Stevens Publishing) (1992)

• Player's Survival Kit/Book, Adventurer's Log, and Cards Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 2nd Edition (1995)
• Return to the Keep on the Borderlands Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (1999)
• Reverse Dungeon Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (2000)
• Hero Builder's Guidebook Dungeons & Dragons (co-author) (2000)
• The Standing Stone: An Adventure for 7th-Level Characters Dungeons & Dragons Adventure (2001)
• The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game Decipher (co-author) (2002)
• EverQuest Player's Handbook (2002)
• Fushigi Yûgi: Ultimate Fan Guide #1 (2002)

• "Early Versions of Farmer Giles of Ham" in Leaves from the Tree: J. R. R. Tolkien's Shorter Fiction, The Tolkien Society (1991)
• "Rhetorical Strategies in Charles William's Prose Play" in The Rhetoric of Vision: Essays on Charles Williams edited by Charles A. Huttar and Peter J. Schakel (1996)
• "'The Lost Road', 'The Dark Tower', and 'The Notion Club Papers': Tolkien and Lewis's Time Travel Triad" in Tolkien's Legendarium: Essays on The History of Middle-earth edited by Verlyn Flieger and Carl F. Hostetter (2000)
• The History of The Hobbit (2007)^[11]

• Official Website
• "Interview with John Rateliff". Archived from the original on December 23, 2008.
• "A Talk With John D. Rateliff". Archived from the original on February 10, 2009.
• Tolkien Gateway Interview of John D. Rateliff
• Audio interview with John D. Rateliff. National Review.

v t e J. R. R. Tolkien
Bibliography Letters
Poetry and songs	Songs for the Philologists (1936) "Bagme Bloma" The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son (1953) "A Walking Song" (1954) The Adventures of Tom Bombadil (1962) "Errantry" "Fastitocalon" "The Sea-Bell" "The Man in the Moon Stayed Up Too Late" The Road Goes Ever On (1967) Bilbo's Last Song (1974) List of Tolkien's alliterative verse
Fiction	The Hobbit (1937) "Leaf by Niggle" (1947) The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun (1945) Farmer Giles of Ham (1949) The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (1954) The Two Towers (1954) The Return of the King (1955) Tree and Leaf (1964) The Tolkien Reader (1966) Smith of Wootton Major (1967)
Posthumous fiction	The Father Christmas Letters (1976) The Silmarillion (1977) Unfinished Tales (1980) Mr. Bliss (1982) The History of Middle-earth (1983–1996) The Book of Lost Tales The Lays of Beleriand The Shaping of Middle-earth The Lost Road and Other Writings The History of The Lord of the Rings Morgoth's Ring The War of the Jewels The Peoples of Middle-earth Roverandom (1998) The Children of Húrin (2007) The History of The Hobbit (2007) The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún (2009) The Fall of Arthur (2013) The Story of Kullervo (2015) Beren and Lúthien (2017) The Fall of Gondolin (2018) The Nature of Middle-earth (2021) The Fall of Númenor (2022)
Academic works	Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Middle English text, 1925) "The Devil's Coach Horses" (1925) "Ancrene Wisse and Hali Meiðhad" (1929) "Sigelwara Land" (1932–34) "Chaucer as a Philologist: The Reeve's Tale" (1934) "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics" (1936) "On Fairy-Stories" (1939) "On Translating Beowulf" (1940) Sir Orfeo (1944) Ancrene Wisse (1962) "English and Welsh" (1963) Jerusalem Bible (as translator and lexicographer, 1966)
Posthumous academic	Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, and Sir Orfeo (translations, 1975) Exodus (1981) Finn and Hengest (1982) The Monsters and the Critics, and Other Essays (1983) Beowulf and the Critics (2002) Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary with "Sellic Spell" (2014) A Secret Vice (2016)
Scholars	Writers Biographers Humphrey Carpenter John Garth Catherine McIlwaine Charles Moseley Popular authors Lin Carter Robert Foster Glen GoodKnight Michael Martinez J. E. A. Tyler Christian Stratford Caldecott Matthew T. Dickerson Colin Duriez Peter Kreeft Holly Ordway Joseph Pearce Fleming Rutledge Ralph C. Wood Literary critics Douglas A. Anderson Nicholas Birns Bradley J. Birzer David Bratman Janet Brennan Croft Patrick Curry Bradford Lee Eden Dimitra Fimi Jason Fisher Verlyn Flieger Michael Foster Nick Groom Wayne G. Hammond Randel Helms Thomas Honegger Charles A. Huttar Paul H. Kocher Stuart D. Lee Jared Lobdell Charles Noad John D. Rateliff Robin Anne Reid Christina Scull Amy H. Sturgis Anna Vaninskaya Richard C. West Elizabeth Whittingham Linguists Anthony Appleyard Helge Fauskanger Carl F. Hostetter Tom Loback David Salo Arden R. Smith Allan Turner Medievalists Marjorie Burns Jane Chance Michael D. C. Drout Jonathan Evans Vincent Ferré Gergely Nagy Tom Shippey Elizabeth Solopova Sandra Ballif Straubhaar
Related	A Tolkien Compass Family Francis Xavier Morgan Influences Artwork J. R. R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator Languages constructed by Tolkien The Inklings The Keys of Middle-earth Mythlore Mythopoeic Society Elvish Linguistic Fellowship Picturing Tolkien Tolkien and the Classical World Tolkien's impact on fantasy Tolkien and the modernists Tolkien Estate Tolkien fandom The Tolkien Society Awards Tolkien Reading Day Tolkien Studies Memorials Reception Tolkien research Works inspired by Tolkien J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography (1977, authorized biography) The J. R. R. Tolkien Companion and Guide J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia Master of Middle-Earth Perilous Realms Tolkien and the Great War The Worlds of J. R. R. Tolkien Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth Tolkien: A Cultural Phenomenon Tolkien, Race and Cultural History Tolkien's Art: 'A Mythology for England' Tolkien (biographical film) Poems and Songs of Middle Earth (album) Language and Human Nature The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary Understanding The Lord of the Rings

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