The Complete History of Middle-earth

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The first two books introduce readers to The Book of Lost Tales, a mythology for England from which Tolkien drew ideas that eventually became the 'Silmarillion' mythology. The next three books follow the history of the emerging early mythology usually known as The Silmarillion. The discussion of the published book is deferred until book ten. Books six through nine discuss the development of The Lord of the Rings, book nine's second half discussing the story of Númenor (the first versions of which were covered in Book Five). Book ten and eleven discuss the Annals of Beleriand and Annals of Aman, works which were developed together with the Silmarillion tradition and which also served as source material for the published Silmarillion. Book twelve discusses the development of the Appendices to The Lord of the Rings, followed by some assorted essays from Tolkien's last years of life.

A thirteenth volume was published in 2002, The History of Middle-earth Index. This book has completely integrated all the indices from the set in one large index. Honestly, the whole conception on is interesting, but mostly so perhaps where it starts: The Book of Lost Tales seems like a completely different story altogether. And it has come a long way since, but the early stage still has a lot of good stuff, some of which I was sad to see go. The development of Orodreth/Celegorm is a very interesting journey with a great twist. I won't spoil it, but be on the look out for the tale of Nargothrond!The Nature of Middle-earth [2021] • The Fall of Númenor and Other Tales from the Second Age of Middle-earth [2022] After the twelfth volume was released, the most prominent Tolkien scholars at the time studied the series, and wrote essays on it culminating in Tolkien's Legendarium: Essays on The History of Middle-earth, published in 2000. J.R.R. Tolkien; Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien (eds.), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 246, (dated September 1963)

In one sentence - I'm fascinated. This book is real gem and beacon to all blurred and unclear parts in the final version of The Silmarillion. This book is missing link to onset of Tolkien's creation of his own mythology. It's all about Valar and their deeds in creation of Arda. Also, Valar and their traits are much more developed than in The Silmarillion (but many details from The Silmarillion are unmentioned or were unknown then). Special part is devoted to Sun and Moon creation, after darkening of the Valinor, and of its hiding. From those tales, I finally found the origin and learnt about creation of the Door of Night, and Gates of Morn. Also, I recognized many Tolkien's inspirations from Norse mythology that he wove into this tales (e.g. when Orome created rainbow-bridge, or when Vanna cut off her hair for Gods to weave sails and ropes for the boat of Sun etc.).Alas also to my favourite cut Dwarf Burin son of Balin. I still hope he existed in Moria, but was just never mentioned in the Book of Mazarbul. I have revised my opinion of who might enjoy this book - if you've read LOTR more than four times and wish there were more, I recommend at least reading the three volumes that deal with the writing of The Hobbit and LOTR. However, if you love the Silmarillion, you simply can't afford to pass this collection up. Tar-Aldarion: Foster speculates that the tragic relations with his father and wife were because he left no male heirs. The later published text Aldarion and Erendis gives a detailed account on their relationship, mostly owing to Aldarion's obsession with the Sea.