''The Shaping of Middle-earth – The Quenta, The Ambarkanta and The Annals''
(1986) is the fourth volume of
Christopher Tolkien
Christopher John Reuel Tolkien (21 November 1924 – 16 January 2020) was an English academic editor, becoming a French citizen in later life. The son of author and academic J. R. R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien edited much of his father ...
's 12-volume series ''
The History of Middle-earth
''The History of Middle-earth'' is a 12-volume series of books published between 1983 and 1996 that collect and analyse much of Tolkien's legendarium, compiled and edited by his son, Christopher Tolkien. The series shows the development over ti ...
'' in which he analysed the unpublished manuscripts of his father
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, ; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''.
From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlins ...
.
Book
Inscription
There is an inscription in the
Fëanorian characters (
Tengwar
The Tengwar script is an artificial script, one of several scripts created by J. R. R. Tolkien, the author of ''The Lord of the Rings''.
Within the fictional context of Middle-earth, the Tengwar were invented by the Elf Fëanor, and use ...
, an alphabet Tolkien has devised for High-Elves) in the first pages of every ''History of Middle-earth'' volume, written by Christopher Tolkien and describing the contents of the book. The inscription in Book IV reads: "Herein are the Quenta Noldorinwa, the History of the Gnomes, the Ambarkanta or Shape of the World by Rúmil, the Annals of Valinor and the Annals of Beleriand by Pengolod, the Wise of Gondolin with maps of the world in the Elder Days and translations made by Ælfwine the Mariner of England into
the tongue of his own land".
Contents
In ''The Shaping of Middle-earth'' the gradual transition from the "primitive"
legendaria of ''
The Book of Lost Tales
''The Book of Lost Tales'' is a collection of early stories by the English writer J. R. R. Tolkien, published as the first two volumes of Christopher Tolkien's 12-volume series '' The History of Middle-earth'', in which he presents and analys ...
'' to what would become ''
The Silmarillion
''The Silmarillion'' () is a collection of myths and stories in varying styles by the English writer J. R. R. Tolkien. It was edited and published posthumously by his son Christopher Tolkien in 1977, assisted by the fantasy author Guy Gavri ...
'' is described, and it contains a text which could be seen as the first "Silmarillion": the "Sketch of the Mythology".
Three other parts are the ''Ambarkanta'' or "Shape of the World", a collection of maps and diagrams of the world described by Tolkien; and the Annals of
Valinor
Valinor ( Quenya'': Land of the Valar'') or the Blessed Realms is a fictional location in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, the home of the immortal Valar on the continent of Aman, far to the west of Middle-earth; he used the name Aman mainly to m ...
and
Beleriand
In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional legendarium, Beleriand was a region in northwestern Middle-earth during the First Age. Events in Beleriand are described chiefly in his work ''The Silmarillion'', which tells the story of the early ages of Middle ...
, chronological works which started out as timelines but gradually turned into full narratives.
# Prose fragments following the Lost Tales — brief, uncompleted texts which continue on from ''The Book of Lost Tales''
# The earliest "Silmarillion" — also referred to as the "Sketch of the Mythology", this is the start of the Silmarillion proper
# The ''Quenta Noldorinwa'' — a further developed version of that which appears in the "Sketch", the first full narrative since the legends and the only instance where Tolkien completed them to their end. It is notable for having the latest full narrative of
the story of Tuor and the fall of the hidden Elven city of Gondolin.
# The first "Silmarillion" map — a reproduction of the first map of Beleriand
# The ''Ambarkanta'' — cosmological essays, maps, and diagrams
# The earliest ''Annals of Valinor''
# The earliest ''Annals of Beleriand''
The ''Annals of Valinor'' and ''Annals of Beleriand'' show the earliest outline of the chronology of the
First Age as envisaged in the early 1930s.
The next volume in the series, ''
The Lost Road and Other Writings
''The Lost Road and Other Writings – Language and Legend before 'The Lord of the Rings is the fifth volume of ''The History of Middle-earth'', a series of compilations of drafts and essays written by J. R. R. Tolkien in around 1936–1937. ...
'' (1987), outlined revisions to both texts made c. 1937 as "The Later Annals of Valinor" and "The Later Annals of Beleriand".
See also
*
Quenta Silmarillion
''The Silmarillion'' () is a collection of myths and stories in varying styles by the English writer J. R. R. Tolkien. It was edited and published posthumously by his son Christopher Tolkien in 1977, assisted by the fantasy author Guy Gavrie ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shaping Of Middle-earth
Middle-earth books
Fantasy books by series
*04
1986 books
Allen & Unwin books
Books published posthumously