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J. R. R. TOLKIEN
The Shaping of Middle-earth
THE QUENTA, THE AMBARKANTA AND THE ANNALS
together with the earliest ‘Silmarillion’ and the first Map
Christopher Tolkien
HarperCollinsPublishers
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 1986
Copyright © The Tolkien Estate Limited and C.R. Tolkien 1986
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Source ISBN: 9780261102187
Ebook Edition © DECEMBER 2018 ISBN: 9780007348213
Version: 2019-10-21
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CONTENTS
I PROSE FRAGMENTS FOLLOWING THE LOST TALES
II THE EARLIEST ‘SILMARILLION’
Commentary
Appendix 1: Ælfwine’s translation of the Quenta into Old English; Old English equivalents of Elvish names
Appendix 2: The Horns of Ylmir
IV THE FIRST ‘SILMARILLION’ MAP
V THE AMBARKANTA
Commentary
VI THE EARLIEST ANNALS OF VALINOR
Commentary
Appendix: Ælfwine’s translations of the Annals of Valinor into Old English
VII THE EARLIEST ANNALS OF BELERIAND
Commentary
Second version of the earliest Annals
Commentary
Appendix: Ælfwine’s translation of the Annals of Beleriand into Old English
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This book brings the ‘History of Middle-earth’ to some time in the 1930s: the cosmographical work Ambarkanta and the earliest Annals of Valinor and Annals of Beleriand, while later than the Quenta Noldorinwa – the ‘Silmarillion’ version that was written, as I believe, in 1930 – cannot themselves be more precisely dated.
This is the stage at which my father had arrived when The Hobbit was written. Comparison of the Quenta with the published Silmarillion will show that the essential character of the work was now fully in being; in the shape and fall of sentences, even of whole passages, the one is constantly echoed in the other; and yet the published Silmarillion is between three and four times as long.