The Complete History of Middle-earth

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Tolkien’s most popular works, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are set in Middle-earth, an imagined world with strangely familiar settings inhabited by ancient and extraordinary peoples. Through this secondary world Tolkien writes perceptively of universal human concerns – love and loss, courage and betrayal, humility and pride – giving his books a wide and enduring appeal. The History of Middle-earth is a 12-volume series of books published between 1983 and 1996 that collect and analyse much of Tolkien's legendarium, compiled and edited by his son, Christopher Tolkien. The series shows the development over time of Tolkien's conception of Middle-earth as a fictional place with its own peoples, languages, and history, from his earliest notions of a "mythology for England" through to the development of the stories that make up The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings. It is not a " history of Middle-earth" in the sense of being a chronicle of events in Middle-earth written from an in-universe perspective; it is instead an out-of-universe history of Tolkien's creative process. In 2000, the twelve volumes were republished in three limited edition omnibus volumes. Non-deluxe editions of the three volumes were published in 2002. [1] Contents [ edit ]

Nelson, Charles W. Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, vol. 13, no. 2 (50), 2002, pp. 190–92. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43308582. (Accessed 19 July 2022) Navigable diagram of Tolkien's legendarium. Most of it is in The History of Middle-earth, though that includes 4 volumes on The History of The Lord of the Rings. The Tale of Luthien and Beren in verse form is a thing apart. How I wished it was finished in full. Star of Elendil: The royal symbol Elendilmir, and the Star of the Dúnedain given by Aragorn to Samwise Gamgee, are considered to be the same. This was not agreed by Christopher Tolkien. [10] year. That's how much it cost me to finish this bad boy. 12 months, 1 part a month. And boy, was it a journey. A truly marvelous and epic journey through Tolkien's work and his own insights. Which I will try to summarize in some highlights.Dolmed: Foster suggests that the mountain was perhaps destroyed at the end of the First Age when the Gulf of Lune, broke through the Blue Mountains; while this may be true, the text does not mention anything about it. [12] Introduction: It is explained that death dates of those who sailed to the West are not given in their characters' entries because "they may live still". While this can be true for Gandalf and the Elves, this is also implied for Bilbo, Frodo, Sam and Gimli. This may contradict Tolkien's concept that the Undying Lands do not grant immortality. [8] [9] Pictures by J.R.R. Tolkien · J.R.R. Tolkien: Life and Legend · J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator · Though not officially labeled as such, Unfinished Tales and The Nature of Middle-earth are often considered the unofficial thirteenth and fourteenth volumes of the series. [ citation needed]

Gwaihir: Foster reproduces the fan conception merging the character of the Great Eagle of The Hobbit to that of Gwaihir, whereas nowhere is it implied in The Lord of the Rings that Gwaihir is Lord of the Eagles. In theory, I could produce a lot of books out of the History, and there are many possibilities and combinations of possibilities. For example, I could do " Beren", with the original Lost Tale, The Lay of Leithian, and an essay on the development of the legend. My preference, if it came to anything so positive, would probably be for the treating of one legend as a developing entity, rather than to give all the Lost Tales at one go; but the difficulties of exposition in detail would in such a case be great, because one would have to explain so often what was happening elsewhere, in other unpublished writings. Publication history and gallery [ edit | edit source ] Here is given the publication history and gallery of the three-volume set. For the details of each book see its respective article. After the twelfth volume was released, the most prominent Tolkien scholars at the time studied the series, and wrote essays on it culminating in Tolkien's Legendarium: Essays on The History of Middle-earth, published in 2000.This is not an easy read and should not be the first book to read if you're new to Tolkien, in fact, it should probably be last, after you've read The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, then The Silmarillion and probably Unfinished Tales.

The Complete Guide to Middle-earth, published by Ballantine Books. This is the revised and expanded edition, incorporating content from The Silmarillion (1977). The book length is almost doubled, extending the number of entries from 2276 to 3257. However, as it does not include information on post- Silmarillion material (i.e. Unfinished Tales and The History of Middle-earth), this edition contains some statements contradicted by later publications.further revised, including "further entries and information based on Christopher Tolkien's efforts". [5] Published by Ballantine Books.