"CONTENTS" - читать интересную книгу автора (vol11)

In volumes 10 and 11 of The History of Middle-earth
Christopher Tolkien recounts from the original texts
the evolution of his father's work on The Silmarillion,
the legendary history of the Elder Days or First Age,
from the completion of The Lord of the Rings in 1949
until his death. In Volume 10, Morgoth's Ring, the nar-
rative was taken only so far as the natural dividing-
point in the whole, when Morgoth destroyed the Trees
of Light and fled from Valinor bearing the stolen
Silmarils. In The War of the Jewels the story returns to
Middle-earth, and the ruinous conflict of the High
Elves and the Men who were their allies with the
power of the Dark Lord. With the publication in this
book of all J.R.R. Tolkien's later narrative writing con-
cerned with the last centuries of the First Age, the long
history of The Silmarillion, from its beginnings in The
Book of Lost Tales, is completed; and the enigmatic
state of the work at his death can be understood.

A chief element in The War of the Jewels is a major
story of Middle-earth now published for the first time,
a continuation of the great 'saga' of Turin Turambar
and his sister Nienor, the children of Hurin the
Steadfast: this is the tale of the disaster that overtook
the forest people of Brethil when Hurin came among
them after his release from long years of captivity in
Angband, the fortress of Morgoth. The uncompleted
text of the Grey Annals, the primary record of the War
of the Jewels, is given in full; the geography of
Beleriand is studied in detail, with redrawings of the
final state of the map; and a long essay on the names
and relations of all the peoples shows more clearly then
any writing published hitherto the closeness of the con-
nection between language and history in Tolkien's
world, and provides much new information, including
some knowledge of the language of the divine powers,
the Valar.



J.R.R. TOLKIEN.

THE WAR OF THE JEWELS.

The Later Silmarillion.
Part Two.
The Legends of Beleriand.

Edited by Christopher Tolkien.