The Shaping of Middle-earth
From Tolkien Gateway
| The Shaping of Middle-earth | |
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| Author: J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien | |
| Publication information: | |
| Publisher: Houghton Mifflin | |
| Released: November 1986 | |
| Format: Hardcover | |
| Pages: 400 | |
| ISBN 0395425018 | |
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The Shaping of Middle-earth is the fourth volume of The History of Middle-earth. In this book, the shaping of 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 Númenor. The first map of Beleriand is also reproduced and discussed. In The Annals of Valinor and The Annals of Beleriand we are shown how the chronology of the First Age was moulded; and the tale is told of Aelfwine, the Englishman who voyaged into the True West and came to Tol Eressëa, the Lonely Isle, where he learned the ancient history of Elves and Men. 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.
