Christopher Tolkien

J.R.R. Tolkien

The world first publication of a previously unknown work by J.R.R. Tolkien, which tells the extraordinary story of the final days of England s legendary hero, King Arthur. The Fall of Arthur, the only venture by J.R.R. Tolkien into the legends of Arthur King of Britain, may well be regarded as his finest and most skilful achievement in the use of the Old English alliterative metre, in which he brought to his transforming perceptions of the old narratives a pervasive sense of the grave and fateful nature of all that is told: of Arthur s expedition overseas into distant heathen lands, of Guinevere s flight from Camelot, of the great sea-battle on Arthur s return to Britain, in the portrait of the traitor Mordred, in the tormented doubts of Lancelot in his French castle. Unhappily, The Fall of Arthur was one of several long narrative poems that he abandoned in that period. In this case he evidently began it in the earlier nineteen-thirties, and it was sufficiently advanced for him to send it to a very perceptive friend who read it with great enthusiasm at the end of 1934 and urgently pressed him You simply must finish it! But in vain: he abandoned it, at some date unknown, though there is some evidence that it may have been in 1937, the year of the publication of The Hobbit and the first stirrings of The Lord of the Rings. Years later, in a letter of 1955, he said that he hoped to finish a long poem on The Fall of Arthur; but that day never came. Associated with the text of the poem, however, are many manuscript pages: a great quantity of drafting and experimentation in verse, in which the strange evolution of the poem s structure is revealed, together with narrative synopses and very significant if tantalising notes. In these latter can be discerned clear if mysterious associations of the Arthurian conclusion with The Silmarillion, and the bitter ending of the love of Lancelot and Guinevere, which was never written."

The Fall of Arthur

In this sixth volume of The History of Middle-earth the story reaches The Lord of the Rings. In The Return of the Shadow (an abandoned title for the first volume) Christopher Tolkien describes, with full citation of the earliest notes, outline plans, and narrative drafts, the intricate evolution of The Fellowship of the Ring and the gradual emergence of the conceptions that transformed what J.R.R. Tolkien for long believed would be a far shorter book, 'a sequel to The Hobbit'. The enlargement of Bilbo's 'magic ring' into the supremely potent and dangerous Ruling Ring of the Dark Lord is traced and the precise moment is seen when, in an astonishing and unforeseen leap in the earliest narrative, a Black Rider first rode into the Shire, his significance still unknown. The character of the hobbit called Trotter (afterwards Strider or Aragorn) is developed while his indentity remains an absolute puzzle, and the suspicion only very slowly becomes certainty that he must after all be a Man. The hobbits, Frodo's companions, undergo intricate permutations of name and personality, and other major figures appear in strange modes: a sinister Treebeard, in league with the Enemy, a ferocious and malevolent Farmer Maggot. The story in this book ends at the point where J.R.R. Tolkien halted in the story for a long time, as the Company of the Ring, still lacking Legolas and Gimli, stood before the tomb of Balin in the Mines of Moria. The Return of the Shadow is illustrated with reproductions of the first maps and notable pages from the earliest manuscripts.

The History of The Lord of the Rings, Part One

The Return of the Shadow

Recounts the writing of the central section of the Lord of the Rings, and shows how Tolkien developed his maps of Middle Earth

The History of the Lord of the Rings, Part Two

The Treason of Isengard

The Quenta, the Ambarkanta and the Annals : Together with the Earliest 'Silmarillion' and the First Map

The Shaping of Middle-Earth

The main selections in this third volume of Tolkien's previously unpublished writings are "The Lay of the Children of Hurin," written in the alliterative style of Anglo-Saxon verse, and "The Lay of Leithian," written in iambic pentameter couplets

The Lays of Beleriand

Alan Lee

Beren and Lúthien

Silmarillion

Three epic poems from 14th century England speak of life during the age of chivalry. Translated from medieval English.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, and Sir Orfeo

Every index from each of the 12 volumes of 'The History Of Middle-Earth' is published together in this single volume - to create an index charting the writing of Tolkien's masterpieces 'The Lord of The Rings' and 'The Silmarillion'.

The History of Middle-Earth Index

A collection of three medieval English poems translated by Tolkien for the modern-day reader and edited by his son, Christopher Tolkien, containing romance, tragedy, love, sex, and honor, with exclusive features.

Reproductions of forty-eight paintings and drawings prepared as illustrations for Tolkien's works are accompanied by extant prestudies, black-and-white versions, and notes on preparation and publication

Pictures by J.R.R. Tolkien

The End of the Third Age is comprised of the first section of the hardcover volume published as Sauron Defeated, the ninth volume of The History of Middle-earth. It completes Christopher Tolkien's account of the creation of The Lord of the Rings begun in the earlier volumes, The Return of the Shadow, The Treason of Isengard, and The War of the Ring. The End of the Third Age begins with Sam's rescue of Frodo from the Tower of Kirith Ungol, and giving a very different account of the Scouring of the Shire, this part ends with versions of the hitherto unpublished Epilogue, in which, years after the departure of Bilbo and Frodo from the Grey Havens, Sam attempts to answer his children's questions. The book is illustrated with changing conceptions of Kirith Ungol and Mount Doom, as well as previously unpublished drawings of Orthanc and Dunharrow.

The History of the Lord of the Rings, Part Four

The End of the Third Age

Džon Ronald Rejel Tolkin

Silmarilion

The first form of the myths and legends in Tolkien's conception of the Middle Kingdom features the adventures of Eriol, and the tales of Beren and Luthien, Turin and the dragon, the necklace of the dwarves, and the fall of Gondolin.

The Book of Lost Tales

The complete 12-book History of Middle-earth, printed in three volumes and set in a matching box. J.R.R. Tolkien is famous the world over for his unique literary creation, exemplified in The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion. What is less well known, however, is that he also produced a vast amount of further material that greatly expands upon the mythology and numerous stories of Middle-earth, and which gives added life to the thousand-year war between the Elves and the evil spirit Morgoth, and his terrifying lieutenant, Sauron. It was to this enormous task of literary construction that his Tolkien's youngest son and literary heir, Christopher, applied himself to produce the monumental and endlessly fascinating series of twelve books, The History of Middle-earth. This very special collector's edition brings together all twelve books into three hardback volumes -- over 5,000 pages of fascinating Tolkien material -- and places them in one matching box.

The Complete History of Middle-Earth

The #1 New York Times Bestseller

The Silmarillion is the core of J.R.R. Tolkien's imaginative writing, a work whose origins stretch back to a time long before The Hobbit. This mythopoetic masterpiece is a must-read before you watch The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power on Prime Video.

The story of the creation of the world and of the First Age, this is the ancient drama to which the characters in The Lord of the Rings look back and in whose events some of them, such as Elrond and Galadriel, took part. The three Silmarils were jewels created by Fëanor, most gifted of the Elves. Within them was imprisoned the Light of the Two Trees of Valinor before the Trees themselves were destroyed by Morgoth, the first Dark Lord. Thereafter, the unsullied Light of Valinor lived on only in the Silmarils, but they were seized by Morgoth and set in his crown, which was guarded in the impenetrable fortress of Angband in the north of Middle-earth.

The Silmarillion is the history of the rebellion of Fëanor and his kindred against the gods, their exile from Valinor and return to Middle-earth, and their war, hopeless despite all their heroism, against the great Enemy.

“Majestic! ... Readers of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings will find in The Silmarillion a cosmology to call their own, medieval romances, fierce fairy tales, and fiercer wars that ring with heraldic fury... It overwhelms the reader.”—Time

The Silmarillion

Many years ago, J.R.R. Tolkien composed his own version, now published for the first time, of the great legend of Northern antiquity, in two closely related poems to which he gave the titles The New Lay of the Völsungs and The New Lay of Gudrún.In the Lay of the Völsungs is told the ancestry of the great hero Sigurd, the slayer of Fáfnir most celebrated of dragons, whose treasure he took for his own; of his awakening of the Valkyrie Brynhild who slept surrounded by a wall of fire; and of his coming to the court of the great princes who were named the Niflungs (or Nibelungs), with whom he entered into blood-brotherhood. In that court there sprang great love but also great hate, brought about by the power of the enchantress, mother of the Niflungs, skilled in the arts of magic, of shape-changing and potions of forgetfulness.In scenes of dramatic intensity, of confusion of identity, thwarted passion, jealousy and bitter strife, the tragedy of Sigurd and Brynhild, and Gudrún his sister, mounts to its end in the murder of Sigurd at the hands of his blood-brothers, the suicide of Brynhild, and the despair of Gudrún. In the Lay of Gudrún her fate after the death of Sigurd is told, her marriage against her will to the mighty Atli, ruler of the Huns (the Attila of history), his murder of her brothers, and her hideous revenge.Deriving his version primarily from his close study of the ancient poetry of Norway and Iceland known as the Poetic Edda (and from the later prose work the Völsunga Saga), Tolkien employed a verse-form whose lines embody in English the exacting alliterative rhythms and the concentrated energy of the poems of the Edda.This ancient poetry remained a deep force in Tolkien's life's work. Here, at last, is presented the source of the wellspring that would lead to The Hobbit and The Children of Húrin. It is the first full flourishing of a rich narrative style and powerful, dramatic storytelling that was destined to become famous throughout the world.

The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún

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J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, now firmly acknowledged as one of the most popular books of the twentieth century, has captivated generations of readers with its completely convincing fantasy. In The History of The Lord of the Rings, the author's son & literary heir, Christopher Tolkien, examines the creation of that epic from its inception to its finished form. At the core of these books are many early drafts & unpublished passages by Tolkien, which add greatly to a thorough understanding of his masterpiece. Combining his father's unique vision with his own privileged insight & editorial commentary, Christopher Tolkien's The History of The Lord of the Rings is a set of four volumes -- including one unique to this collection -- that no fan of The Lord of the Rings can afford to overlook. "One marvels anew at the depth, breadth, & persistence of J.R.R. Tolkien's labor. No one sympathetic to his aims, the invention of a secondary universe, will want to miss this chance to be present at the creation." -- Publishers Weekly.

Christopher Tolkien

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