The Lost Road and Other Writings: Language and Legend Before The Lord of the Rings (History of Middle-earth Book 5) - Tolkien's Middle-earth Lore Collection for Fantasy Book Lovers & Literary Scholars

The Lost Road was an abandoned story by Tolkien, perhaps superseded by the need for him to get the anthology that formed 'The Silmarillion' ready for publication. As a result, there were a hoard of manuscripts, some in various versions all cleanly written, found by his son Christopher who set to get these annotated for both the scholar as well as the lay enthusiast. I fall well into the latter category. So when these books were published in 1987, I found I could only get my hands on half of the 12 volumes, and only now have been able to locate and buy the missing volumes, of which Volume V is one of them. So I find myself delighted finally to have these to read, and to my mature mind (I first read LOTR at 13 and I'm 56) these fill in many gaps and questions harboured over decades. I simply refused to get the paperback and kept looking for the same edition hardcover to make the shelf of these volumes look perfect. The Lhammas is a long essay found here you can't find anywhere else. But the treasure within must surely be the chapter 'Quenta Silmarillion' (page 199), this 1987 US hardcover edition. This is not the story itself but a detailed commentary by Christopher of his father's development of the Silmarillion, of its many revisions, and where on the actual manuscript there were revisions and corrections made by the author. This is fascinating to read: you can imagine yourself looking at the sheets of written or typed paper, and Christopher somewhat over your shoulder explaining, 'you see here, from this point...' What I liked most was the undistllled serve of information, unlike if you held a Tolkien Dictionary or encyclopaedia. The Appendix is spartan, containing genealogies, lists of names and a second Silmarillion Map, probably made in 1930s, and altered and added to it, which was to become the version published later on. Here he describes how these are originally four square sheets, pasted together, but the grid lines do not quite line up, and... (you will have to read this book to find out the rest, quite simply).