Th History of Middle Earth is a series I have been meaning to read through. And having read this, which include the first five books, I can certainly say that it is an intriguing read. Each book has it's own story to tell going, diving into the early ages. The origins of characters and races are interesting and Christopher Tolkien's commentary section is a great place to get some insight into J.R.R. Tolkien's process when writing.

Volume One is a great read and I will be hopping into the second volume soon.

It was inevitable to afford a copy of this capitally edition, nevertheless I have all XII tomes as individual editions. These are my overall impressions about each of these five books, written one by one as I finished each of volumes:

n  I The Book of Lost Tales Part Onen

5/5 In one sentence - I'm fascinated. This book is real gem and beacon to all blurred and unclear parts in the final version of The Silmarillion. This book is missing link to onset of Tolkien's creation of his own mythology. It's all about Valar and their deeds in creation of Arda. Also, Valar and their traits are much more developed than in The Silmarillion (but many details from The Silmarillion are unmentioned or were unknown then). Special part is devoted to Sun and Moon creation, after darkening of the Valinor, and of its hiding. From those tales, I finally found the origin and learnt about creation of the Door of Night, and Gates of Morn. Also, I recognized many Tolkien's inspirations from Norse mythology that he wove into this tales (e.g. when Orome created rainbow-bridge, or when Vanna cut off her hair for Gods to weave sails and ropes for the boat of Sun etc.).

n  II The Book of Lost Tales Part Twon

5/5 If part one of The Book of Lost Tales was dedicated to Valar and to the World creation concepts, second part is dedicated to 6 pivotal stories for The Silmarillion substance. I enjoyed in the first version of the story of Beren and Luthien, where Sauron is mentioned for the first time, but in form of demon Tevildo - prince of cats. Also, tale about Turin is slightly different than the one in final version. The story about the fall of Gondolin is narrated in all its majesty and details. Also, full version of the creation of the Nauglafring (i.e. Nauglamir) is present in this book, as well as slaying of king Tinwelint (Thingol), that is different than the one in final version, and more logical and consecutive.

n  III The Lays of Beleriandn

5/5 Immense talent and genius of professor Tolkien emerged, once again, among this pages. This time in form of epic poems. Great, long and unfinished poem "Lay of Leithian", written in octosyllabic couplets, so many times mentioned both in official version of "The Silmarillion", as well as in "The Book of Lost Tales part 1&2" bursts of beautiful literary expressions and reveals how the story of Beren and Luthien was step-by-step developed and how the plot and characters were shifted in the long period of time in which it was written. Another great poem listed in this volume is "The Lay of the Children of Hurin" - an early Tolkien's work, written in his beloved alliterative stanzas. And the most biggest surprise for me is "Noldolante" i.e. "The Flight of the Noldoli" - a poem that is mentioned in official version of "The Silmarillion" in chapter 9., which is but lament for the doom of Noldoli because of Fëanor's dreadful oath. For all that enjoy in old English epic poems, this volume should be on high position on the reading list :)

n  IV The Shaping of Middle-Earthn

5/5 The first part of the book describes, in the scrap-book fashion form, sketches of the phases of the birth of the mythology; i.e. explanations and annotations are organized as re-told text of previous versions of the stories that are published in official version of "The Silmarillion", along with some versions from "The Book of Lost Tales 1&2". The second part was real chocolate muffin for me. I literally devoured those pages. And in the passages that are part of "The Ambarkanta" much is told about the shaping and re-modeling of Arda (that, of course, official version of "The Silmarillion" is lacking of) along with explanations about the Circles of the World and with six by Tolkien's hand drawn draft maps. Also, first and emended versions about creation and purpose of the Walls of the World and The Door of the Night are presented, and now perplexity (due to lack of logical explanations and links in previous versions) about this structures that tormented me is finally solved. The third part are early annals of Valinor and Beleriand - useful and interesting data that explain the same events but from different Valar/Elves time counting manner.

n  V The Lost Road and Other Writingsn

5/5 Precisely - 4.5 stars, for great deal of this 455 pages long manuscript is about creation and derivation of Elvish languages (Lhammas), their etymologies and genealogies, that I do not fancy much. But, the early version of the Númenorian annals where Valar were much involved in the plot (contrariwise to both official version of "The Silmarillion" and "Unfinished Tales"), along with Sauron's impact on story-line as well as Aelfwinas's song written in the old English poem "Pearl" fashion I fancied much. The second part is dedicated to later annals of Valinor and Beleriand, and gives insight in step-by-step development of the stories from The Silmarillion, but I found it somewhat tedious and redundant.

The Lost Road and Other Writings (The History of Middle-Earth, Vol. 5) by J.R.R. Tolkien (1996)

If you're a die hard fan and want to know about the creation of Middle-earth then have a go.

If you're not and like myself wanting to know more about Tolkien don't bother reading the 3-5 most of those are just repetitive and somewhat dull to read.

□ read Tolkien's The Histories of Middle Earth before kicking the bucket.

I wholly understand that not everyone is even into The Lord of the Rings series, much less what amounts to the related ephemera. However, if you are, as I am, a deeply unashamed Tolkien dork, then these are a must-have. These are the first five, which deal with the creation and cosmology of Middle Earth itself, and not the actual writing of the books. Perfect for the sort of nutbar like myself who would really like to convince themselves that the world could exist. You know.

Standouts are The Fall of Gondolin in Lost Tales Vol. 2, the whole of the Lays of Beleriand, and the etymologies in The Lost Road, for students of that kind of thing.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/black...

Not an easy reading. Basically for hardcore fans. But once one has completed the Silmarillion, enjoyed it and wants more, the history is a fabulous adventure inside the creation of the Tolkien universe.

Also a great act of love by a son for the work of his father.

I'm not anywhere near finished reading this series (on book 2) but I'm really enjoying them. They provide a concise account of the events related in the Silmarillion and even before that time.
Cool stuff.
PMZ

I read and reviewed each of the five volumes collected here separately, so this is really just for my own records. The rating for the collection is the average of the individual ratings - everything got three stars, apart from The Lost Road (also the last read) which got two. It dropped down to two stars because I was, frankly, sick to fucking death of all the repetition. It's long been a reading goal of mine to work through the histories of Middle-earth, because The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit are some of my favourite books of all time, but talk about sucking all the joy out of things...

I would like to credit Christopher Tolkien with all the work he's done on this series - and it's been a lot, credit where credit's due - but my goodness are his endless notes pendantic, dull, and deeply, deeply repetitive. By the time the reader has waded through these five volumes, plus The Silmarillion, they've had to read through same stories multiple times. With only very minor differences in each volume. (I never liked goddamn Turin but I fucking HATE him now. Frankly I'm siding with the dragon.)

The original material is genuinely interesting. But it becomes ever more apparent, as the histories go on, that they are as much a money-making exercise as anything else, because the sheer weight of repetition that readers are expected to both buy and swallow as these volumes go on is just plain exploitative. It's so bad I've actually taken a break from reading the histories because I'm so fed up with the same damn thing all over again.