The purpose of the work was to seek for the scattered pieces of knowledge concerning various artifacts of Middle-Earth and to gather all the available information on each item in a single scroll. The emphasis has been made on the processes employed to make an artifact, its appearance and properties (its history in most the cases can be found elsewhere; see, for example, The Encyclopedia of Arda). This compendium could be useful for the members of M�rdain, revealing the skills and mastery of the wrigths of old, as well as for any person interested in craftsmanship.

Each scroll contains all (vide infra) quotations related to its topic from chronicles specified below each quotation. When several fragments were present close to each other in the original text, they were united in a single fragment with three dots "..." replacing the deleted text (doubled three dots were used to designate a large amount of deleted text, inconsistently). No other alterations to original text were made. In several cases a proper name was added in square brackets after a pronoun to clarify too obscure fragments. No cross references (except for the scrolls describing craftsmen) were inserted; if a fragment was related to more then one topic, it was appended to all the scrolls independently.

In order to be included, a quotation had to contain one or more of the following themes related to specific item (in the order of decreasing priority):
-description of creation/destruction of the item;
-description of the items' mode of acting and/or influence upon other items/persons; its properties;
-the appearance of the item;
-history of the item;
-any mention of the item.
Besides that, the transcription of Quenya and Sindarin names and the respective roots are also provided.

Ships - the present work does not cover them. I shall add the shipbuilding section when I shall have time.

The literature used:
The Lord of the Rings, cited as: (LoTR, number of book-number of chapter) or (LoTR, Appendix A);
Silmarillion, cited as: (Silm, number of chapter, title of chapter) or (Silm, Appendix);
Unfinished Tales, cited as (UT, title of chapter);
The History of Middle-Earth, Vol. 3, The Tales of Beleriand, cited as: (HoME III, The Lays of Beleriand, title of poem, numbers of lines);

I would appreciate any (constructive) comments, corrections and additions to this work.

Signed,