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Throughout this vast and intricate mythology, says Publishers Weekly, "one marvels anew at the depth, breadth, and 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." In this capstone to that creation, we find the chronology of Middle-earth's later Ages, the Hobbit genealogies, and the Western language or Common Speech. These early essays show that Tolkien's fertile imagination was at work on Middle-earth's Second and Third Ages long before he explored them in the Appendices to The Lord of the Rings . 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 Nsmen-rean ships.
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When J.R.R. Tolkien laid aside The Silmarillion in 1937 the extension of the original 'mythology' into later Ages of the world had scarcely emerged, if it had emerged at all; as he himself recorded, he knew nothing of the peoples and history of these Ages until he 'met them on the way': 'The Mines of Moria had been a mere name; and of Lothlorien no word had reached my mortal ears until I came there. Fangorn Forest was an unforeseen adventure. I had never heard of the House of Eorl nor of the Stewards of Gondor. Saruman had never been revealed to me.' It was in the Appendices to The Lord of the Rings that there emerged a comprehensive historical structure and chronology of the Second and Third Ages, embracing all the diverse strands that came together in the War of the Ring. The difficulty bordering on despair that he found in providing these Appendices, leading to delay in the publication of The Return of the King, is well known; but in The Peoples of Middle-earth Christopher Tolkien shows that the work had in fact been achieved years before, in essays and records differing greatly from the published forms. In these early texts is seen the evolution of the chronology of the later Ages, the Calendars, the Hobbit genealogies (with those of families that were printed but not published), and the Westron language or Common Speech (from which many words and names are recorded that were afterwards lost). Following the account of the Appendices a number of other writings by J.R.R. Tolkien are included in this book, chiefly deriving from his last years, when new insights and new constructions still freely arose as he pondered the history that he had created. This final volume of The History of Middle-earth concludes with two soon-abandoned stories, both unique in the setting of time or place: The New Shadow in Gondor of the Fourth Age, and the tale of Tal-elmar, in which the coming of the dreaded Numenorean ships is seen through the eyes of men of Middle-earth in the Dark Years. J.R.R. TOLKIEN.
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THE PEOPLES OF MIDDLE-EARTH. Edited by Christopher Tolkien. Harper CollinsPablishers. To Baillie Tolkien. CONTENTS. Foreword.
page vii. PART ONE.
THE PROLOGUE AND APPENDICES TO THE LORD OF THE RINGS. I. The Prologue. 3. II. The Appendix on Languages. 19. III. The Family Trees. 85. IV. The Calendars. 119. V. The History of the Akallabeth. 140. VI. The Tale of Years of the Second Age. 166. VII. The Heirs of Elendil. 188. VIII. The Tale of Years of the Third Age. 225. IX. The Making of Appendix A. (i) The Realms in Exile. 253. (ii) The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen. 262. (iii) The House of Eorl. 270. (iv) Durin's Folk. 274