Christopher Tolkien

Poems and prose, maps and chronologies, detours and diversions along the road to Middle-earth . . . Christopher Tolkien has gathered archival materials that his late father, J. R. R. Tolkien, used to create the world and the history behind his classic stories. This fourth volume of The History of Middle-earth presents early versions of those first tales, from the creation myth to the fall of Morgoth. Writings include a chronology of the events in Beleriand, the first Silmarillion map, and the only known description of the physical nature of Middle-earth's universe. Detailed annotations highlight changes ranging from the spelling of Elvish names to pivotal emendations whose effects reach even to the war of the ring. The Shaping of Middle-earth presents a solid framework by which to trace the development of the early lore of Middle-earth. It is a truly indispensable reference work for those familiar with the history of that endlessly beloved land--and fascinating reading for those just entering that world.

A beautifully designed hardcover box set containing four classic myths and legends composed or translated by J. R. R. Tolkien -- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Legend of Sigurd and Gudr n, The Fall of Arthur, and Beowulf. The fifth set in a series of affordable hardcover box sets celebrating the literary achievement of Christopher Tolkien, featuring double-sided dust jackets. Set 5 contains Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Legend of Sigurd and Gudr n, The Fall of Arthur, and Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Pearl are two poems by an unknown author written in about 1400. Sir Gawain is a romance, a fairy-tale for adults, full of life and colour; Pearl is apparently an elegy on the death of a child but, like Gawain, it is also a sophisticated and moving debate on much less tangible matters. Sir Orfeo is a slighter romance, belonging to an earlier and different tradition. It was a special favourite of Tolkien's. The three translations are here uniquely accompanied with the complete text of Tolkien's acclaimed 1953 W. P. Ker Memorial Lecture that he delivered on Sir Gawain. The Legend of Sigurd and Gudr n tells the epic story of the Norse hero, Sigurd, the dragon-slayer, during a time of gods, betrayal and fierce battles; the revenge of his wife, Gudr n; and the Fall of the Nibelungs. Told in verse composed by J. R. R. Tolkien derived from the ancient poetry of the Poetic Edda and the prose V lsunga Saga, this masterful fusion of myth and poetry is accompanied by notes and commentary by Christopher Tolkien. The Fall of Arthur tells the extraordinary story of the final days of England's legendary hero, King Arthur. It is the only venture by J. R. R. Tolkien into the legends of Arthur King of Britain, and may well be regarded as his finest and most skilful achievement in the use of the Old English alliterative metre. The long narrative poem is accompanied by significant if tantalising notes, in which can be discerned clear if mysterious associations of the Arthurian conclusion with The Silmarillion. The translation of Beowulf by J. R. R. Tolkien was completed in 1926: he returned to it later but seems never to have considered its publication. This edition is twofold, for the translation is here paired with an illuminating written commentary on the poem by the translator himself, prepared for a series of lectures given at Oxford in the 1930s. From these lectures there arises a sense of the immediacy and clarity of his vision. It is as if Tolkien entered into the imagined past: standing beside Beowulf and his men shaking out their mail-shirts as they beached their ship on the coast of Denmark, listening to the rising anger of Beowulf at the taunting of Unferth, or looking up in amazement at Grendel's terrible hand set under the roof of Heorot. These are accompanied by Sellic spell, a "marvellous tale" written by Tolkien suggesting what might have been the form and style of an Old English folk-tale of Beowulf, in which there was no association with the "historical legends" of the Northern kingdoms. Published together for the first time, these four books--all edited by the author's son and literary executor--collect a fascinating period of Christopher Tolkien's forty-year career devoted to presenting his father J. R. R. Tolkien's scholarly writings on the myths and legends of northern Europe, a unique accomplishment that celebrates the academic brilliance and storytelling genius of one of the twentieth century's finest literary pioneers.

Second in a series of hardcover box sets celebrating the literary achievement of Christopher Tolkien, featuring double-sided dust jackets--one side featuring artwork by John Howe, and the original graphic treatment on the other. Set 2 contains The Lays of Beleriand, The Shaping of Middle-earth, and The Lost Road (Books 3-5 of The History of Middle-earth). The Lays of Beleriand gives us a privileged insight into the creation of the mythology of Middle-earth, through the alliterative verse tales of two of the most crucial stories in Tolkien's world--those of Turin and Luthien. Accompanying the poems are commentaries on the evolution of the history of the Elder Days. Also included is the notable criticism of The Lay of Leithian by C. S. Lewis, who read the poem in 1929. In The Shaping of Middle-earth, the chronological and geographical structure of the legends of Middle-earth and Valinor is spread before us. We are introduced to the hitherto unknown Ambarkanta or "Shape of the World," the only account ever given of the nature of the imagined Universe, accompanied by maps and diagrams of the world before and after the cataclysms of The War of the Gods and the Downfall of Numenor. The Lost Road completes the examination of Tolkien's writing before he began The Lord of the Rings, presenting later forms of the annals of Valinor and Beleriand, the legend of the downfall of Numenor, and the abandoned "time-travel" story "The Lost Road," linking the world of Numenor and Middle-earth with the legends of many other times and peoples. Published together for the first time, these three books collect a fascinating period of Christopher Tolkien's forty-year career devoted to presenting his father J. R. R. Tolkien's writings on Middle-earth, a unique accomplishment that celebrates the greatest invented world in all of fantasy literature.

First in a series of hardcover box sets celebrating the literary achievement of Christopher Tolkien, featuring double-sided dustjackets--one side featuring artwork by John Howe, and the original graphic treatment on the other. Set 1 contains special editions of The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales reproducing the first edition text, together with the two volumes of The Book of Lost Tales. The Silmarillion is an account of the Elder Days, of the First Age of Tolkien's World. It 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 tales of The Silmarillion are set in an age when Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, dwelt in Middle-Earth, and the High Elves made war upon him for the recovery of the Silmarils, the jewels containing the pure light of Valinor. Unfinished Tales is a collection of narratives ranging in time from the Elder Days of Middle-earth and the rise of N menor in the Second Age to the end of the War of the Ring, and provides those who have read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings with a whole collection of background and new stories from the twentieth century's most acclaimed popular author. The Book of Lost Tales stands at the beginning of the entire conception of Middle-earth and Valinor for the Tales were the first form of the myths and legends that came to be called The Silmarillion. Embedded in English legend and English association, they are set in the narrative frame of a great westward voyage over the Ocean by a mariner named Eriol to the lonely Isle where the Elves dwelt; from them he learned their true history, the Lost Tales of Elfinesse. In the two volumes of the Tales are found the earliest accounts of Gods and Elves, Dwarves, Balrogs and Orcs; of the Silmarils and the Two Trees of Valinor; of the geography and cosmology of Tolkien's invented world. Published together for the first time, these four books collect the beginning of Christopher Tolkien's forty-year career devoted to presenting his father J. R. R. Tolkien's writings on Middle-earth, a unique accomplishment that celebrates the greatest invented world in all of fantasy literature.

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 skillful achievement in the use of Old English alliterative meter, 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 Tolkien abandoned. He evidently began it in the 1930s, 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 unknown date, though there is evidence that it may have been in 1937, the year of 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 significant tantalizing notes. In these notes 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.

Christopher Tolkien’s masterly translation of the Icelandic Heidrek’s Saga, including the dramatic Battle of the Goths and the Huns, the lyrical Waking of Angantyr, and the unique riddle-contest between King Heidrek and the god Odin. Heidrek’s Saga is a medieval entertainment – a ‘romance’, but a romance that derives little of its matter from the literature of France or Germany. It is an example of a kind of story-telling that was flourishing in Iceland by the beginning of the twelfth century, and which (in contrast to the more celebrated ‘Sagas of the Icelanders’) told of legendary figures whose origins lie far back in time beyond the settlement of the country. The elements of the story, diverse in age and atmosphere, are unified in the theme of a possession bearing an ancestral curse, as it passes down the generations; but the saga’s peculiar value lies in the older poems which the unknown author set into the framework of his narrative, including The Battle of the Goths and the Huns, perhaps the oldest of all the Northern heroic lays, The Waking of Angantyr, source of many eighteenth-century ‘Gothic Odes’, and the unique riddle-contest between King Heidrek and the god Odin in disguise. Translated from the Icelandic with Introduction, Notes and Appendices by Christopher Tolkien, then Lecturer in Old English at New College, Oxford, The Saga of King Heidrek the Wise was first published in 1960 in Nelson’s Icelandic Texts series. Marking Christopher Tolkien's centenary, this first ever paperback edition also includes his original essay 'The Battle of the Goths and the Huns' as a bonus chapter.

Fourth in a series of hardcover boxed sets celebrating the literary achievement of Christopher Tolkien, featuring double-sided dustjackets. Set 4 contains Morgoth's Ring, The War of the Jewels, The Peoples of Middle-earth and The History of Middle-earth Index. Morgoth's Ring is the first of two companion volumes documenting the later writing of The Silmarillion. The text of the Annals of Aman, the ‘Blessed Land’ in the far West, is given in full; while further writings reveal the nature of the problems that Tolkien explored in his later years, as new and radical ideas, portending upheaval in the old narratives, emerged at the heart of the mythology. The War of the Jewels continues the account of the later history of The Silmarillion, as the story returns to Middle-earth, and the ruinous conflict of the High Elves and the Men who were their allies with the power of the Dark Lord. The Peoples of Middle-earth is this capstone to Tolkien's history of Middle-earth, presenting a chronology of the later Ages, the Hobbit genealogies, and the Western language or Common Speech. Here too are valuable writings from Tolkien's last years: "The New Shadow," in Gondor of the Fourth Age, and" Tal-elmar," the tale of the coming of the Númenórean ships. The History of Middle-earth Index This companion edition to the twelve-volume History now brings together all of the indexes in one place, and provides the reader with an invaluable sourcebook to all the peoples, places and other significant entries from The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings which appear in The History of Middle-earth. Published together for the first time, these four books collect a fascinating period of Christopher Tolkien’s forty-year career devoted to presenting his father J. R. R. Tolkien’s writings on Middle-earth, a unique accomplishment that celebrates the greatest invented world in all of fantasy literature.

Third in a series of hardcover boxed sets celebrating the literary achievement of Christopher Tolkien, featuring double-sided dustjackets. Set 3 contains The Return of the Shadow, The Treason of Isengard, The War of the Ring, and Sauron Defeated (Books 6-9 of The History of Middle-earth). The Return of the Shadow is the story of the first part of the history of the creation of The Lord of the Rings, a fascinating study of Tolkien’s great masterpiece, from its inception to the end of the first volume, The Fellowship of the Ring. The Treason of Isengard continues the account of the creation of The Lord of the Rings started in the earlier volume, tracing the great expansion of the tale into new lands and peoples south and east of the Misty Mountains: the emergence of Lothlorien, of Ents, of the Riders of Rohan, and of Saruman the White in the fortress of Isengard. The War of the Ringtakes up the story with the Battle of Helm’s Deep and the drowning of Isengard by the Ents, continues with the journey of Frodo, Sam and Gollum to the Pass of Cirith Ungol, describes the war in Gondor, and ends with the parley between Gandalf and the ambassador of the Dark Lord before the Black Gate of Mordor. Sauron Defeated completes Christopher Tolkien's fascinating study of The Lord of the Rings, beginning with Sam’s rescue of Frodo from the Tower of Cirith Ungol, and giving a very different account of the Scouring of the Shire, with many additional scenes and the unpublished Epilogue in its entirety. Published together for the first time, these four books collect a fascinating period of Christopher Tolkien’s forty-year career devoted to presenting his father J. R. R. Tolkien’s writings on Middle-earth, a unique accomplishment that celebrates the greatest invented world in all of fantasy literature.

Second in a series of hardback boxed sets celebrating the literary achievement of Christopher Tolkien, featuring double-sided dustjackets. Includes THE LAYS OF BELERIAND, THE SHAPING OF MIDDLE-EARTH and THE LOST ROAD, which contain the early myths and legends that led to the writings of THE SILMARILLION. The Lays of Beleriand gives us a privileged insight into the creation of the mythology of Middle-earth through the alliterative verse tales of two of the most crucial stories in Tolkien’s world – those of Túrin and of Beren and Lúthien. Accompanying the poems are commentaries on the evolution of the history of the Elder Days, together with the notable criticism of The Lay of Leithian by C. S. Lewis, who read the poem in 1929. InThe Shaping of Middle-earththe chronological and geographical structure of the legends of Middle-earth and Valinor is spread before us. We are introduced to the hitherto unknown Ambarkanta or ‘Shape of the World’, the only account ever given of the nature of the imagined Universe, accompanied by maps and diagrams of the world before and after the cataclysms of the War of the Gods and the Downfall of Númenor. Also included are the original ‘Silmarillion’ of 1926, and the Quenta Noldorinwa of 1930 – the only version of the myths and legends of the First Age that J. R. R. Tolkien completed to their end. The Lost Road completes the examination of Tolkien’s writing completes the examination of Tolkien's writing before he began The Lord of the Rings, presenting later forms of the annals of Valinor and Beleriand, the legend of the downfall of Númenor, and the abandoned ‘time-travel’ story The Lost Road, linking the world of Númenor and Middle-earth with the legends of many other times and peoples. Published together for the first time, these three books comprise a fascinating period of Christopher Tolkien’s forty-year career devoted to presenting his father J. R. R. Tolkien’s writings on Middle-earth, itself a unique accomplishment that celebrates the greatest invented world in all of fantasy literature.

First in a series of hardback boxed sets celebrating the literary achievement of Christopher Tolkien, featuring double-sided dustjackets. Set 1 contains special editions of THE SILMARILLION and UNFINISHED TALES reproducing the first edition text, together with the two volumes of THE BOOK OF LOST TALES. The Silmarillion is an account of the Elder Days, of the First Age of Tolkien’s World. It 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 tales of The Silmarillion are set in an age when Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, dwelt in Middle-Earth, and the High Elves made war upon him for the recovery of the Silmarils, the jewels containing the pure light of Valinor. Unfinished Tales is a collection of narratives ranging in time from the Elder Days of Middle-earth and the rise of Númenor in the Second Age to the end of the War of the Ring, and provides those who have read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings with a whole collection of background and new stories from the twentieth century’s most acclaimed popular author. The Book of Lost Tales stands at the beginning of the entire conception of Middle-earth and Valinor for the Tales were the first form of the myths and legends that came to be called The Silmarillion. Embedded in English legend and English association, they are set in the narrative frame of a great westward voyage over the Ocean by a mariner named Eriol to the lonely Isle where the Elves dwelt; from them he learned their true history, the Lost Tales of Elfinesse. In the two volumes of the Tales are found the earliest accounts of Gods and Elves, Dwarves, Balrogs and Orcs; of the Silmarils and the Two Trees of Valinor; of the geography and cosmology of Tolkien’s invented world. Published together for the first time, these four books collect the beginning of Christopher Tolkien’s forty-year career devoted to presenting his father J. R. R. Tolkien’s writings on Middle-earth, a unique accomplishment that celebrates the greatest invented world in all of fantasy literature.

SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT, PEARL, AND SIR ORFEO THREE MEDIEVAL ENGLISH POEMS, WITH TRANSLATION AND COMMENTARY BY J. R. R. TOLKIEN It's Christmas at Camelot and King Arthur won't begin to feast until he has witnessed a marvel of chivalry. A mysterious knight, green from head to toe, rides in and brings the court's wait to an end with an implausible challenge to the Round Table: he will allow any of the knights to strike him once, with a battle-axe no less, on the condition that he is allowed to return the blow a year hence. Arthur's brave favorite for the challenge is Sir Gawain... Accompanying Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in this book are Sir Orfeo, a medieval version of the story of Orpheus and Euridice, a love so strong that it overcame death, and Pearl, the moving tale of a man in a graveyard mourning his baby daughter, lost like a pearl that slipped through his fingers. Worn out by grief, he falls asleep and dreams of meeting her in a bejewelled fantasy world. Interpreted in a form designed to appeal to the general reader, J. R. R. Tolkien's vivid translations of these classic poems represent the complete rhyme and alliterative schemes of the originals. This beautifully decorated text includes as a bonus the complete text of Tolkien's acclaimed lecture on Sir Gawain.

This new hardcover edition brings together the final three volumes of The History of Middle-earth--Morgoth's Ring, The War of the Jewels, and The Peoples of Middle-earth. 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 Tolkien's youngest son and literary heir, Christopher, applied himself to produce the monumental and endlessly fascinating series of twelve volumes, The History of Middle-earth.

This new hardcover edition brings together the first five volumes of The History of Middle-earth--The Book of Lost Tales, Parts 1 and 2, The Lays of Beleriand, The Shaping of Middle-earth, and The Lost Road--into one volume. 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 Tolkien's youngest son and literary heir, Christopher, applied himself to produce the monumental and endlessly fascinating series of twelve volumes, The History of Middle-earth.

This very special collector's edition brings together all twelve books into three hardcover volumes--more than 5,000 pages of fascinating Tolkien material--and places them in one matching box. The History Of Middle-Earth Boxed Set is a treasured boxed set for every Tolkien fan. 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 Tolkien's youngest son and literary heir, Christopher, applied himself to produce the monumental and endlessly fascinating series of twelve volumes, The History of Middle-earth.

This new hardcover edition brings together volumes VI-IX of The History of Middle-earth--The Return of the Shadow, The Treason of Isengard, The War of the Ring, and Sauron Defeated--into one volume. Together these books give a fascinating and complete account of the writing of The Lord of the Rings, and provide the reader with numerous additional scenes, together with rare maps and illustrations, which never made it into the final book, including the epilogue in its entirety. 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 Tolkien's youngest son and literary heir, Christopher, applied himself to produce the monumental and endlessly fascinating series of twelve volumes, The History of Middle-earth.

The Great Tales of Middle-earth is a beautiful box set of the three final novels of Middle-earth: Children of H rin, Beren and L thien, and The Fall of Gondolin, packaged together and ready for gifting. Completing Christopher Tolkien's lifelong achievement as the editor and curator of his father J. R. R. Tolkien's manuscripts, The Great Tales features handsome color plates and maps by famed illustrator Alan Lee. The Children of H rin was the first complete book by J. R. R. Tolkien since the 1977 publication of The Silmarillion. Six thousand years before the One Ring is destroyed, Middle-earth lies under the shadow of the Dark Lord Morgoth. The greatest warriors among elves and men have perished, and all is in darkness and despair. But a deadly new leader rises, T rin, son of H rin, and with his grim band of outlaws begins to turn the tide in the war for Middle-earth--awaiting the day he confronts his destiny and the deadly curse laid upon him. Beren and L thien was, or became, an essential element in the evolution of The Silmarillion, the myths and legends of the First Age of the World conceived by J. R. R. Tolkien. Essential to the story, and never changed, is the fate that shadowed the love of Beren and L thien: for Beren was a mortal man, but L thien was an immortal elf. Her father, a great elvish lord, in deep opposition to Beren, imposed on him an impossible task that he must perform before he might wed L thien. This is the kernel of the legend; and it leads to the supremely heroic attempt of Beren and L thien together to rob the greatest of all evil beings, Melkor, called Morgoth, the Black Enemy, of a Silmaril. The Fall of Gondolin completes the set and tells the story of the destruction of the legendary city of Gondolin at the hands of evil Morgoth in retaliation against Ulmo, the Lord of the Waters, who favors man. At core is the tale of Tuor, cousin of T rin, his wife, Idril, daughter of Turgon, king of Gondolin, and their child, E rendel, who became great in Gondolin, but had to flee the blazing wreckage of his home when Morgoth attacked. Each hardcover volume includes color plates and black and white maps by award-winning illustrator Alan Lee.