Customer Reviews

The Shaping of Middle-Earth : The Quenta, the Ambarkanta and the Annals: Together with the Earliest 'Silmarillion' and the First Map

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In the third volume in The History of Middle Earth series, Christopher Tolkien picks up where he left off with The Book Lost Tales. In this volume you will see the central themes in Middle Earth evolve a little closer to what we see in the Silmarillion. You will see the early Silmarillion and the Annals of both Valinor and Beleriand. Also incuded are maps drawn by Tolkien himself showing his early ideas for the geography of Middle Earth and Numenor. Moreover, in his attempt to make the Silmarillion seem more like a real history (which it is in some of our hearts) Tolkien has translated parts of the Annals and the Silmarillion into the native language of Elfwine, Old English. I recommend this book for anyone who loves Tolkien's works.

`The Shaping of Middle-Earth' is the fourth volume of Christopher Tolkien's exegesis of his father, J.R.R. Tolkien's unpublished writings which were done before, during, and after the writing of `The Hobbit' and `The Lord of the Rings'. It is important to realize that beginning with Volume III, `The Lays of Beleriand', these volumes are prepared according to the date on which the elder Tolkien wrote the documents. That this `real world' chronology is roughly parallel to the great ages of middle earth is simply a happy coincidence.

One little niggle I have about the emphasis of `Middle Earth' in the title of both this volume and the series as a whole is that the land, middle earth, is just one part of the whole world in which this mythology is played out. It is basically a great continent, roughly similar to Eurasia in size, surrounded by a single great ocean which is, in turn, bounded by the undying lands. This fact is eminantly clear in the crude maps by Tolkien senior presented in this volume.

What is also eminantly clear in most of these fragments is the great difference in both geography and physics between our world and the world in which middle earth is embedded. There is no sun and no stars, until the stars are created by some of the `gods', the Valar, who are in turn created by `the one', Iluvatar.

The fragments in this volume are mostly early versions of the mythology which was to become the postumously published `The Silmarillion'. As such, it deals with my very favorite character outside of `The Lord of the Rings', the elven lord Feanor who, in a rough parallel to both Adam and Prometheus, disobeys the Valar based on the promptings of the ultimate bad guy in these stories, Morgoth.

Even if one buys the unique physics, cosmology, and pantheon of gods and demigods, the hardest part of this and similar writings is how to deal with Tolkien's handling of evil. How, one wonders, are eight `good' Valar duped by the ninth evil one, who is left to subvert the Valar's most favored creations, the elves, and create all sorts of mayhem in Middle Earth. Even if one introduces the arguments about `free will', one wonders how, if you posit a very real supreme being, Iluvatar (Eru), plus eight comparably powerful beings, such beings would let Morgoth get away with being the cause of all this suffering.

On a ligher note, I find this book an amazing source of poetic inspiration, even more poetic, sometimes than the overtly poetic `The Lays of Beleriand'. There are phrases and paragraphs here and there which sound like they are straight out of a song by Donoven Leitch or The Incredible String Band.

Like almost all the twelve volumes in this series, this is much more a study of fragments than a complete work. Many of the fragments rework the same material, so you find yourself reading the same story over again, in slightly different words. And yet, the power of the created world holds up through the scholarly framework. As with other volumes, there is an excellent index of names at the end of the book and the aforementioned maps are invaluable in understanding the very odd geography of this invented world.

The Shaping of Middle-Earth concentrates some part of it to actually physically describing the layout of Arda (the World) with some interesting maps drawn by Tolkien in the middle of the book. The book also includes information behind the fall of Morgoth at the end of the First Age.

. . . continues in this, the fourth volume of "The History of Middle-Earth" series.

Christopher Tolkien, in his 12-volume "History of Middle-Earth" series presents the notes, stories, fragments, and legends of what was to eventually become "The Silmarillion" in two stages. This book is the final stage of what scholars would consider "The Early Silmarillion"; continuing on the work presented in the two volumes of "The Book of Lost Tales".

If the Tolkien fan is interested in seeing how the mind of the Master developed and progressed his stories, this volume is absolutely indispensable. It is especially interesting to compare "The Shaping of Middle-Earth" with "Morgoth's Ring" and the other volumes of what Christopher calls "The Later Silmarillion".

Once again, thanks is due to Christopher for his labor of love so that we can delve more deeply into Middle-Earth.

Christopher Tolkien's history of his father's works continues in "The Shaping of Middle-Earth." This was the most interesting of the four volumes that starts off "The History of Middle-Earth" as the history of what would become "The Silmarillion" and the geography of the created world come into focus. In this collection, we have J.R.R. Tolkien's thoughts on Middle-Earth in the 1930s--the period when he wrote "The Hobbit." The First Age comes into view here as Tolkien turns his back--thankfully--on epic poems telling the romantic story of Beren and Luthien and the dark tale of the Children of Hurin. There are also excellent notes on the physical composition of Middle-Earth and Tolkien's drafted thoughts on how it relates to our world, the heavens, etc.

The book is not for everyone to say the least. Casual readers--and even those who have completed "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings"--could be a little lost here. I'm a little baffled why these books continue to be in mass paperback form (though, of course, I do like the price). Readers who have finished "The Silmarillion" and possibly "The Children of Hurin" will find this book easier to digest.

In this tome Christopher Tolkien delves further into his father's early writings that would later become the core of the "Silmarillion". Included are early maps of Middle Earth and Numenor, an extensive glossary of terms, and some geneaologies of some of the important families mentioned in the "Silmarillion". Along with "The Book Of Lost Tales", it includes some of the earliest descriptions of Elrond, Gandalf, and Sauron from the "Lord Of The Rings" trilogy. Undoubtedly it is essential reading for Tolkien fans.

I feel like giving this a four for the maps and explaining of the shaping of the earth. I guess I didn't really care much about that cause I liked the evolution of the characters a lot more, but did always like to look at the maps just too get a quick visual to help picture the world that I love. The reason I did give it five stars is because I know most people like this aspect of the whole history, and you will get PLENTY OF INFO on how this world was created.

Now the part that I really liked was all of the globe type drawings, and even more I liked all of the early compressed writings in this. It's kind of funny to watch the evolution of these writings because tolkien would always start out very compessed, then when he rewrote it, it ALWAYS became longer. Then if he did manage to compress it, he would always add something new to the story, or make the tale go from stationery to grim. Then when he tried to add his new idea in like his third rewriting, it never got compressed. So what this means is that he could never completely finish these writings, but on the posotive side we could have anywhere from 3-8 versions of a single writing.

Once again, thank you christopher tolkien for taking the time to publish all of your father's writings, and equal thanks for taking the time to explain these and leave notes.

I purchased this for my grandaughter for her birthday, and since she is really into Tolkein, I'm very pleased with the purchase, tho I have not opened the package, and will just send it on to her. Service was good.