The Shaping of Middle-earth

The Shaping of Middle-earth: The Quenta, The Ambarkanta, and The Annals is the fourth volume of Christopher Tolkien's twelve-volume series The History of Middle-earth, in which he analyzes the unpublished manuscripts of his father J.R.R. Tolkien. It was published in 1986.

In it is described the gradual transition from the "primitive" legendarium of The Book of Lost Tales (also published in two parts) to what would become The Silmarillion, and it contains a text which could be seen as the first "Silmarillion": the "Sketch of the Mythology".

Other notable parts are the Ambarkanta or "Shape of the World", a collection of maps and diagrams of the world described by Tolkien, and the Annals of Valinor and Beleriand, chronological works that began as timelines but became full narrative.

Contents[]

1. Prose fragments following the Lost Tales' brief, uncompleted texts which continue on from The Book of Lost Tales
2. The Quenta, a further developed version of the "Sketch", the first full narrative since the Tales
3. The first "Silmarillion" map - a reproduction of the first map of Beleriand
4. The Ambarkanta cosmological essays, maps, and diagrams
5. The earliest Annals of Valinor
6. The earliest Annals of Beleriand

Translations[]