The History of Middle-earth
From Free net encyclopedia
The History of Middle-earth is a 12-volume series of books that collect and analyse material relating to the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, compiled and edited by his son, Christopher Tolkien. Some of the content consists of earlier versions of already published works, while other portions are new material. These books are extremely detailed, to the point of documenting scraps of paper that have been erased multiple times with many footnotes. Christopher Tolkien has documented the history of the writing of the Middle-earth stories in as much detail as his father documented the fictional history of Middle-earth itself.
The first five books track the early history of The Silmarillion and related texts. Books six through nine discuss the development of The Lord of the Rings; book nine also discusses the Númenor story in the form of The Notion Club Papers. Books ten and eleven return to the Silmarillion material, including the Annals of Beleriand and Annals of Aman. Book twelve discusses the development of the Appendices to The Lord of the Rings and assorted writings from the last years of Tolkien's life.
- The Book of Lost Tales 1 (1983)
- The Book of Lost Tales 2 (1984)
- The Lays of Beleriand (1985)
- The Shaping of Middle-earth (1986)
- The Lost Road and Other Writings (1987)
- The Return of the Shadow (The History of The Lord of the Rings v.1) (1988)
- The Treason of Isengard (The History of The Lord of the Rings v.2) (1989)
- The War of the Ring (The History of The Lord of the Rings v.3) (1990)
- Sauron Defeated (includes The History of The Lord of the Rings v.4) (1992)
- Morgoth's Ring (The Later Silmarillion v.1) (1993)
- The War of the Jewels (The Later Silmarillion v.2) (1994)
- The Peoples of Middle-earth (1996)
A thirteenth volume was published in 2002, The History of Middle-earth: Index. This book has completely integrated all the indices from the books in one large index.
External links
| J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium | |
| Published during his lifetime: | The Hobbit | The Lord of the Rings | The Adventures of Tom Bombadil | The Road Goes Ever On |
|---|---|
| Posthumous publications: | The Silmarillion | Unfinished Tales | The History of Middle-earth (12 volumes) | Bilbo's Last Song |
| List of articles: | by category | by name | writings | characters | peoples | rivers | realms | ages |