Customer Reviews
Overview of The History of Middle-earth Series - By: Michael W. Perry, 06 Dec 2008 
Collections of an author's work are often confusing, particularly when what the author has created is as complex as Tolkien's writings. Here's an overview of the twelve-volume History of Middle-earth, which was edited by his son Christopher Tolkien. Hopefully, it will help you select which book or books to buy.
Keep somethingin mind. In the U.S. Houghton Mifflin publishes Tolkien's authorized worksin hardback & trade paperback editions, while Ballantine Books publishes them as cheaper mass-market paperbacks. For some reason, Ballantine doesn't always make it clear that some of their titles are part of the same History of Middle-earth series as those published by Houghton Mifflin. If the title is the same, the content is the same. Which you buy depends on your tastein books & finances. I have copies of both.
GROUP ONE, VOLUMES I - V, EARLY TALES
These five volumes deal primarily with Tolkien's writings before the publication of The Hobbit (1937) & The Lord of the Rings (1954-55). In them, Tolkien was struggling as a still unknown author to create his first history of Middle-earth.
Vol 1 & 2, The Book of Lost Tales Part 1 ( 1983) & 2 (1984). The Book of Lost Tales was written during the 1910s & 1920s. Wikipedia describes it this way: "The framework for the book is that a mortal Man visits the Isle of Tol Eressëa where the Elves live. In the earlier versions of the `Lost Tales' this man is named Eriol, of some vague north European origin, butin later versions he becomes Ælfwine, an Englishman of the Middle-ages."
Vol. 3, The Lays of Beleriand (1985). These are collections of poems, many of them incomplete, written between the 1920s & the late 1940s.
Vol 4, The Shaping of Middle-earth (1986). As you might guess by the title,in this book Christopher describes how his father shaped his vision of Middle-earth from the primitive The Book of Lost Tales to early versions of The Silmarillion. This theme is taken up againin volumes 10 & 11.
Vol 5. The Lost Road & Other Writings (1987). Along with other writings this volume includes Tolkien's drafts of a tale about time travel. Wikipedia describes it this way: "The Lost Road itself is a fragmentary beginning of a tale, including a rough structure & several intiguing chunks of narrative, including four entire chapters dealing with modern England & Numenor, from which the entire story as it should have been can be glimpsed. The scheme was of time-travel by means of 'vision' or being mentally inserted into what had been, so as to actually re-experience that which had happened. In this way the tale links first to Saxon England of Alfred the Great, then to the Lombard Alboin of St. Benedict's time, the Baltic Seain Old Norse days, Ireland at the time of the Tuatha's coming (600 years after the Flood), prehistoric Northin the Ice Age, a 'Galdor story' of Third-Age Middle-Earth, & finally the Fall of Gil-Galad, before recounting the prime legend of the Downfall of Numenor/Atlantis & the Bending of the World. It harps on the theme of a 'straight road' into the West, now onlyin memory because the world is round."
GROUP TWO, VOLUMES VI - IX, LORD OF THE RINGS
If you or the friend you're buying for is primarily interestedin the LOTR, then these four volumes are the books to have. Just keepin mind that you'll findin them many unfinished plots that may or may not fit well into LOTR. Tolkien was a perfectionist, always trying to improve plots & fillin details. These are his drafts.
Vol. 6, The Return of the Shadow (The History of The Lord of the Rings v. 1, 1988). Describes the initial stages of writing LOTR & covers the first three-fourths of The Fellowship of the Ring (until the Mines of Moria).
Vol. 7, The Treason of Isengard (The History of The Lord of the Rings, v. 2, 1989). Covers from the Mines of Moria until Gandalf meets Théoden about one-fourth of the way into The Two Towers.
Vol. 8, The War of the Ring (The History of The Lord of the Rings, v. 3, 1990). Continues the tale up to the opening of the Black Gate not quite three-quarters of the way through The Two Towers.
Vol. 9, Sauron Defeated (The History of The Lord of the Rings, v. 4, 1992). Completes the tale & includes an alternate endingin which Sam answers questions from his children. There is also a much shortened version of Vol. 9 called The End of the Third Age, which leaves out material that isn't related to LOTR.
GROUP THREE, VOLUMES X - XI, THE SILMARILLION
Just as The Hobbit created a public demand for more tales about hobbits, The Lord of the Rings created a demand for more tales about Middle-earth. To meet that demand, Tolkien struggled to reconcile & adapt many of his earlier tales to the historical framework made well-known by his two published works. He never completed those labors, so it was left after his death to his son Christopher to do soin The Silmarillion (1977). If you or a friend is interestedin knowing more about The Silmarillion, these two volumes may be of interest.
Vol 10, Morgoth's Ring (The Later Silmarillion, v. 1, 1993). Contains material from earlier (1951 & later) drafts of The Silmarillion. Wikipedia notes that: "The title of this volume comes from a statement from one of the essays: 'Just as Sauron concentrated his powerin the One Ring, Morgoth dispersed his power into the very matter of Arda, thus the whole of Middle-earth was Morgoth's Ring.'"
Vol. 11, The War of the Jewels (The Later Silmarillion v. 2, 1994). Addition material about the earlier drafts of The Silmarillion. Includes information about the origin of the Ents & Great Eagles.
GROUP FOUR, VOLUME XII AND INDEX, WRAP-UP
Vol. 12, The People's of Middle-earth (1996). Contains material that did not fit into the other volumes. The most interesting include additional appendices like those at the back of LOTR, essays on the races of Middle-earth, & about 30 pages of a sequel to the LOTR called The New Shadow. It was set a century after the LOTR. Tolkien abandoned the tale as too "sinister & depressing."
The History of Middle-earth Index (2002) is an index of all twelve volumes.
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Keepin mind that booksin The History of Middle-earth are nothing like reading The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings. What J. R. R. Tolkien wrote is often fragmentary & unpolished rough drafts, while what Christopher wrote is literary scholarship, concerned more with sources & texts than plots. If you or the friend you are buying for is more interestedin understanding LOTR better, you might be happier with a reference works such as:
Karen Fonstad's The Atlas of Middle-Earth (Revised Edition)
Robert Foster's The Complete Guide to Middle-Earth
Or my own detailed, day-by-day chronology Untangling Tolkien: A Chronology & Commentary for The Lord of the Rings
All three will give you a richer, deeper understanding of LOTR.
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If you're interestedin reading books with the same flavor as Tolkien, you might consider reading William Morris, a once well-known writer who influenced Tolkien. For tales like the warriors of Rohan, see his The House of the Wolfings & The Roots of the Mountains. For arduous quest journeys much like Frodo & Sam's quest to be rid of the Ring, read his The Wood Beyond the World & The Well at the World's End. The four tales have been collected into two inexpensive volumes:
More to William Morris: Two Books that Inspired J. R. R. Tolkien-The House of the Wolfings & The Roots of the Mountains
On the Lines of Morris' Romances: Two Books That Inspired J. R. R. Tolkien-The Wood Beyond the World & the Well at the World's End
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I hope this helps you to select wisely based on your own interests. You can save some money by buying collections of The History of Middle-earthin multi-volume sets. You can also save by buying the Ballantine mass-market paperback instead of the Houghton Mifflin trade paperback edition, although the former may have smaller type & you may need to use both hands to keep it open while you read.
A GOOD BOOK!!!!!!! - By: , 28 Jan 2005 
This book is about the land of Numenor & the later annals of the Valar & of Beleriand. Butin my opinion the most interesting part of this book are the Lhammas. This is the perfect book you must read before reading The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings.
GO ON BUY IT!
A glimpse into Tolkiens mind. - By: , 08 Nov 2001 The Lost Road is the 5th volume of Christopher Tolkiens 12-volume "History of Middle-Earth". It contains the works of J.R.R. Tolkien immediately before starting "The Lord of the Rings". It is edited carefully by his son Christopher, who uses all his knowledge of editing ancient texts (he edited severalin his working life as an Oxford scholar)in working with his father's pseudo-ancient text.
The present volume contains a relatively finished version of Tolkien's mythology of the Elder Days, mainlyin annalistic form or as comparatively short resumes of the mythology. These are interesting enoughin their own right as the give an overview of the very complex mythology at the end of the 1930'ies.
But the part that makes the book valuable even to the less scholarly interested Tolkien-fans is the title-story "The Lost Road". There's not much of it; only four short chapters, but they show the beginning of what might have been another Tolkien-novel.
It is linked thematically with the initial story, a short telling of the fall of Númenor. This is the first version of Tolkiens Atlantis-legend, familiar to readers of the Silmarillion. The story of the greatness & fall of the Númenorean empire ends with the changing of the world. The formerly flat world becomes rounded & the blessed realm of the Valar is placed outside the sphere of Arda, the Earth.
This is the background for the unfinished story of "The Lost Road" which basically is about the longing for a road back to the earthly paradise, the blessed realm, which is beyond the reach of mortal humans. The characters are a father & a son, both with a remarkable likeness to Tolkien himself. Through linguistic & historical riddles we get a dreamlike travel to other times & places. Or rather we get the beginning of such travels, for the fragment ends to soon for the plot to develop.
The fascinating element is not only how the story could have developed, but also the insight it gives into the workings of Tolkiens mind. The key elementsin the characters travels backwards & beyond the present-day realities are philology & a vision of images. There can be little doubt that Tolkien's stories were written the same way.
This is the main reason that I would give the book five stars, even though it certainly does not live up standard novelistic criteria. The central concepts of philology & imagination are relevant for all who wish to understand Tolkien's work, including of course "The Lord of the Rings".
