The book includes a satirical rhyming “A-Z” of deaths in Tolkien’s works, as drawn by artist Tom Racine. Tom originally drew these for Inktober in 2024, and now HarperCollins have collected these into a short book.
J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings meets Edward Gorey’s The Gashlycrumb Tinies in this darkly satirical illustrated parody of the Tolkien universe: ‘A is for Arwen broken by sorrows; B is for Boromir punctured by arrows. C is for Celebrimbor hung out to dry; D is for Denethor…‘
‘Stories – frankly, human stories are always about one thing – death. The inevitability of death.’ J.R.R. TOLKIEN
A distinguished linguist and scholar, J.R.R. Tolkien is celebrated as the father of the fantasy genre, drawing on his knowledge of legends and folklore to create a new mythology and write the ultimate epic novel. He populated his books with Hobbits, Orcs, Elves, Dragons and Dwarves, but as in all epic tales, there can be only one fate for Mortal Men…
Doomed to Die is a uniquely irreverent glance at the world of Tolkien. It started life as an innocent Inktober 2024 project, but somehow grew in the telling to become a book.
Doomed to Die is published by HarperCollins in the UK and released on 23 October 2025. In the USA, the book is published by William Morrow and released on 11 November 2025.
For those interested in learning more about the book, Tom is speaking at the Society’s Oxonmoot event in September 2025. His talk will be available to both those in Oxford and those joining the event online.
