The History of Middle-earth by Christopher & J. R. R. Tolkien: Illustrated Box Set 2

Fiction - Hardback

Second in a series of hardback boxed sets celebrating the literary achievement of Christopher Tolkien, featuring double-sided dustjackets. This set includes:

• The Lays of Beleriand
• The Shaping of Middle-earth
• The Lost Road

These works contain the early myths and legends that led to the writings of The Silmarillion. Published together for the first time, they represent a fascinating period of Christopher Tolkien’s forty-year career devoted to presenting his father J.R.R. Tolkien’s writings on Middle-earth, celebrating the greatest invented world in all of fantasy literature.

Titles in this set:

• The Lays of Beleriand
• The Shaping of Middle-earth
• The Lost Road

Description:

The Lays of Beleriand

The Lays of Beleriand provides insight into the creation of Middle-earth's mythology through alliterative verse tales of two crucial stories: those of Túrin and Beren and Lúthien. Accompanying the poems are commentaries on the evolution of the Elder Days' history, along with notable criticism of The Lay of Leithian by C.S. Lewis, who read the poem in 1929.

The Shaping of Middle-earth

The Shaping of Middle-earth presents the chronological and geographical structure of the legends of Middle-earth and Valinor. It introduces the Ambarkanta or ‘Shape of the World’, the only account of the imagined Universe's nature, accompanied by maps and diagrams of the world before and after the cataclysms of the War of the Gods and the Downfall of Númenor. This volume also includes the original ‘Silmarillion’ of 1926 and the Quenta Noldorinwa of 1930, the only completed version of the First Age myths and legends by J.R.R. Tolkien.

The Lost Road

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 Númenor's downfall, and the abandoned ‘time-travel’ story linking Númenor and Middle-earth with the legends of various times and peoples.