Customer Reviews

The Lost Road and Other Writings (The History of Middle-Earth, Vol. 5)

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This book contains the Etymologies of the Elvish languages. This is the prime source of all current vocabulary in Quenya, Sindarin, Telerin and all other Elvish tongues.

I HIGHLY recommend that any serious student of Tolkien's languages buy this book.

The Lost Road, the fifth book in the History of Middle Earth series, publishes for the first time the background material on Middle Earth J.R.R. Tolkien created for his own use as he wrote Lord of the Rings. Some of this draft material was edited and published posthumously in The Silmarillion. The Lost Road includes much of the material found in The Silmarillion in its previous incarnations, all with commentary from JRRT's son, Christopher Tolkien. Included as well is The Lost Road, a time-travel story Tolkien wrote at the behest of his good friend, C.S. Lewis (who was to work on a space-travel story). The Lost Road was never completed; Tolkien abandoned the idea midway.

Especially of interest to Tolkienian linguists are the Lhammas, or book of tongues, which outlines Tolkien's former conception of the dividing and multiplying of the Elvish languages. While this scenario is extremely out of sync with Tolkien's final conception, it is still of interest historically and important in order to understand the section that follows, the Etymologies.

The Etymologies are a /must/ for any Tolkienian linguist. They were and remain the greatest source of vocabulary in all the Elvish languages, and almost the only source for Primitive Elvish stems. While confusing to the non-technical reader, the Etymologies are still the main reference used by Tolkienian linguists. Allthough some of the material in the Etymologies is out of sync with what Tolkien imagined his languages to be as when he wrote Lord of the Rings, the changes necessary to bring Etymologies-style languages to 'modern' languages are mostly well documented.

In short, if you're just someone who enjoys Tolkien's works, this would be a fun read. If you're a serious Tolkienian linguist, this is a requirement.

In the fifth volume of The History of Middle Earth, Christopher Tolkien brings to light even more of his father's great stories. What started as a competition between Inkling members J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis almost became what looks to be a very good story (it ends after only two chapters), and was the foreshadowing of an even greater story--the Fall of Numenor. Tolkien also includes the later Annals of both Valinor and Beleriand, not to mention an early version of the Ainulindale. He also teases die hard fans with the Llamas and the Etymologies, which give new insight on Elvish languages. Also included is Tolkien's second Silmarillion map which shows how his understanding of Middle Earth's geography evolved. I recommend this book to any die hard Tolkien fan and to those who are casually strolling through this beautiful world of Middle Earth.

The Lost Road, the fifth book in the History of Middle Earth series, publishes for the first time the background material on Middle Earth J.R.R. Tolkien created for his own use as he wrote Lord of the Rings. Some of this draft material was edited and published posthumously in The Silmarillion. The Lost Road includes much of the material found in The Silmarillion in its previous incarnations, all with commentary from JRRT's son, Christopher Tolkien. Included as well is The Lost Road, a time-travel story Tolkien wrote at the behest of his good friend, C.S. Lewis (who was to work on a space-travel story). The Lost Road was never completed; Tolkien abandoned the idea midway.

Especially of interest to Tolkienian linguists are the Lhammas, or book of tongues, which outlines Tolkien's former conception of the dividing and multiplying of the Elvish languages. While this scenario is extremely out of sync with Tolkien's final conception, it is still of interest historically and important in order to understand the section that follows, the Etymologies.

The Etymologies are a /must/ for any Tolkienian linguist. They were and remain the greatest source of vocabulary in all the Elvish languages, and almost the only source for Primitive Elvish stems. While confusing to the non-technical reader, the Etymologies are still the main reference used by Tolkienian linguists. Allthough some of the material in the Etymologies is out of sync with what Tolkien imagined his languages to be as when he wrote Lord of the Rings, the changes necessary to bring Etymologies-style languages to 'modern' languages are mostly well documented.

In short, if you're just someone who enjoys Tolkien's works, this would be a fun read. If you're a serious Tolkienian linguist, this is a requirement.

If you're a Tolkien scholar, you already know how good this book is. It provides insight into the process of creating many important stories in the Silmarillion, most notably the Downfall of Numenor. Most critically, if you are studying Tolkien languages (Quenya or Sindarin = elvish), you need this book, which includes Etymologies, an important reference. I'm studying Quenya, so this is pretty much mandatory reading.

But if you're reading this review, you're probably a Tolkien fan just browsing. In that case, my message to you is this. Read Lord of the Rings. Then, read the Hobbit and the Silmarillion. If you love the Silmarillion, and want a sense of how it developed over the decades, then get The Lost Road. Otherwise, it will probably be too dry an academic for you.

What started as a simple challenge between Tolkien and C.S. Lewis evolved into the greatest story ever written by a man. This book, an analysis of Tolkien's earliest writings, explain how the Numenor story began. Although the story "The Lost Road" itself ends after 2 chapters, you get the feeling that Tolkien was on the verge of something great. You will also wish that you were Auboin or his son and could have the dreams they've had. This book also includes an etymology dictionary so that you can compare the various roots of Tolkien's rich Middle-Earth languages. A very good read.

Once more Christopher Tolkien has provided an essential tome which is a history of his father's early Middle-earth writings as well as a splendid etymology of the Elvish languages. The book includes "The Lost Road", an early look at Numenor told as a time travel saga that starts in early 20th Century England as well as an early version of the Quenta Silmarillion. This is absolutely required reading for Tolkien fans.

I agree with most of the reviews written below, but wanted to highlight the extreme utility of this book to the study of Tolkien's Elvish languages. This book contains "The Etymologies," which traces numerous words in these languages to their primordial roots. Written in the 1930s, some two decades before the completion of the Lord of the Rings, "The Etymologies" document the relationship between Quenya and Noldorin (among a number of other, less well attested Elvish languages), two languages which would (as later Quenya and Sindarin) reappear in a somewhat altered form in the Lord of the Rings.

So, in addition to being an integral part of the 12-volume HoME series, this book also stands out as a key reference for students of Tolkien's invented languages.

`The Lost Road' is the fifth volume in Christopher Tolkien's editions of his father, J. R. R. Tolkien's unpublished works, dedicated mostly to the history of the three ages which preceded the events chronicled in `The Hobbit' and `The Lord of the Rings', which marked the end of the Third Age of Middle Earth. In some ways, `The Lost Road' represents a rise in the amount of `interesting' material, after the relatively dry material, especially the poetry in `The Lays of Beleriand' and `The Shaping of Middle Earth'.

This is especially true in that it wraps up the material on what I consider the most interesting events in the Middle Earth `prehistory', the story of Numenor and its fall, plus some excellent notes on the languages of Middle Earth.

We read here that the story of Numenor was, as it is probably obvious to most, a recreation of the Atlantis myth. It always struck me as odd that while Numenor was so obviously an echo of a Greek myth that the Numenorean names and language is so clearly patterned after Arabic. Note the prominence of the `Ar-` prefix, later changed to `Tar-`, so similar to the Arabic article, `Al-` seen in so many Spanish names such as the Alhambra and Alcatraz.

The story of Numenor began in an agreement with Tolkien's Oxford pal, C. S. Lewis for each to write a science fiction story. Lewis' result is his `Out of a Silent Planet' trilogy. Tolkien's effort became subsumed into his history of Middle Earth as the most important event in the First Age.

If you are an avid fan of Tolkien's linguistics, then this volume is a `must have', as it includes Tolkien's own dictionary of his various linguistic constructions. If your love of Tolkien lies more with the mythology, this book is slightly less interesting, as the central `The Lost Road' tale is actually a weak `time travel' story', since Lewis chose space travel as his theme, Tolkien was left with the other great Sci Fi theme.

Of course, if you must have every volume, you can feel satisfied that the next four volumes are probably the most interesting of all, as they represent early drafts of Tolkien's greatest work, `The Lord of the Rings'.

Any one of the volumes of HoME (History of Middle Earth) is intended for those who are interested in having a glimpse of Tolkien's creative process and how his characters and the world he created developed and evolved. They are not really intended for those casual readers that perhaps loved the Lord of the Rings but were not really thrilled by the Silmarillion.
That being said, I am a Tolkien lover and I love these books. I even bought two editions of each HoME volume, the hardbound for keeps and the paperback mass market edition to read and make notes. They are well worth the money!