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Second in a series of hardback boxed sets celebrating the literary achievement of Christopher Tolkien, featuring double-sided dustjackets. Includes THE LAYS OF BELERIAND, THE SHAPING OF MIDDLE-EARTH and THE LOST ROAD, which contain the early myths and legends that led to the writings of THE SILMARILLION.

Published together for the first time, these three books comprise a fascinating period of Christopher Tolkien’s forty-year career devoted to presenting his father J.R.R. Tolkien’s writings on Middle-earth, itself a unique accomplishment that celebrates the greatest invented world in all of fantasy literature.

Titles in this set:

1. The Lays of Beleriand
2. The Shaping of Middle-earth
3. The Lost Road

Description:

The Lays of Beleriand
The Lays of Beleriand gives us a privileged insight into the creation of the mythology of Middle-earth through the alliterative verse tales of two of the most crucial stories in Tolkien’s world – those of Trin and of Beren and Lthien. Accompanying the poems are commentaries on the evolution of the history of the Elder Days, together with the notable criticism of The Lay of Leithian by C.S. Lewis, who read the poem in 1929.

The Shaping of Middle-earth
In The Shaping of Middle-earth the chronological and geographical structure of the legends of Middle-earth and Valinor is spread before us. We are introduced to the hitherto unknown Ambarkanta or Shape of the World’, the only account ever given of the nature of the imagined Universe, accompanied by maps and diagrams of the world before and after the cataclysms of the War of the Gods and the Downfall of Nmenor. Also included are the original Silmarillion’ of 1926, and the Quenta Noldorinwa of 1930 – the only version of the myths and legends of the First Age that J.R.R. Tolkien completed to their end.

The Lost Road
The Lost Road completes the examination of Tolkien’s writing completes the examination of Tolkien’s writing before he began The Lord of the Rings, presenting later forms of the annals of Valinor and Beleriand, the legend of the downfall of Nmenor, and the abandoned time-travel’ story The Lost Road, linking the world of Nmenor and Middle-earth with the legends of many other times and peoples.