The War of the Jewels

This article is about the 1994 publication. For the War of the First Age, see Battles of Beleriand.

The War of the Jewels
Author	J.R.R. Tolkien
Editor	Christopher Tolkien
Publisher	HarperCollins (UK) Houghton Mifflin (US)
Released	20 October 1994 (UK) 6 December 1994 (US)
Format	Hardback
Pages	488
ISBN	0395710413
Series	The History of Middle-earth
Preceded by	Morgoth's Ring
Followed by	The Peoples of Middle-earth

The War of the Jewels is the eleventh volume of The History of Middle-earth, and the second of two volumes on the later development of The Silmarillion.

It is the second volume—Morgoth's Ring being the first—to explore the later 1951 The Silmarillion drafts (those written after the completion of The Lord of the Rings.)

This volume includes:

• The second part of the 1951 Silmarillion drafts
• An expanded account of "The Grey Annals" — the history of Beleriand after the coming of the Elves.
• Additional narratives involving Húrin and the tragedy of his children (see Narn i Chîn Húrin). "The Wanderings of Húrin" is the conclusion to the "Narn". This was not included in the final Silmarillion because Christopher Tolkien feared that the heavy compression which would have been necessary to make it a stylistic match with the rest of the book would have been too difficult and would have made the story overly complex and difficult to read.
• Christopher Tolkien's explanation of how he, with the collaboration of fantasy author Guy Gavriel Kay, constructed Chapter 22 of The Silmarillion, since none of the texts left by Tolkien for this purpose were up-to-date enough to serve the purpose. In particular, the old texts all have Thingol portrayed as a miserly swindler who cheats the Dwarves out of their payment, and the portrayal of the Girdle of Melian in the older stories is much weaker than the impenetrable barrier of the post-Lord of the Rings writings.
• "Quendi and Eldar" which discusses in greater detail the origin of the Elves and their sunderings.
• Tolkien's exploration of the origins of the Ents and the great Eagles

From the publisher

The second of two companion volumes which documents the later writing of The Silmarillion, Tolkien’s epic tale of war.In The War of the Jewels Christopher Tolkien takes up his account of the later history of The Silmarillion from the point where it was left in Morgoth’s Ring. The story now returns to Middle-earth, and the ruinous conflict of the High Elves and the Men who were their allies with the power fothe Dark Lord. With the publication in this book of all J.R.R. Tolkien’s later narrative writing concerned with the last centuries of the First Age, the long history of The Silmarillion, from its beginning in The Book of Lost Tales, is completed; and the enigmatic state of the work at his death can be understood.This book contains the full text of the Grey Annals, the primary record of The War of the Jewels, and a major story of Middle-earth now published for the first time: the tale of the disaster that overtook the forest people of Brethil when Hurin the Steadfast came among them after his release from long years of captivity in Angband, the fortress of Morgoth.

Contents

Part One. The Grey Annals

Part Two. The Later Quenta Silmarillion

• 9. "Of Men"
• 10. "Of the Siege of Angband"
• 11. "Of Beleriand its Realms"
• 12. "Of Turgon and the Building of Gondolin"
• 13. "Concerning the Dwarves"
• 14. "Of the Coming of Men into the West"
• 15. "Of the Ruin of Beleriand and the Fall of Fingolfin"
• "The Last Chapters of the Quenta Silmarillion"

Part Three. The Wanderings of Húrin and Other Writings not forming part of the Quenta Silmarillion

• I. "The Wanderings of Húrin"
• II. "Ælfwine and Dírhaval"
• III. "Maeglin"
• IV. "Of the Ents and the Eagles"
• V. "The Tale of Years"

Part Four. "Quendi and Eldar"

• "A. The principal linguistic elements concerned"
• "B. Meanings and use of the various terms applied to the Elves and their varieties in Quenya, Telerin, and Sindarin"
• "C. The Clan-names, with notes on other names for divisions of the Eldar"
• "Appendix A. Elvish names for Men"
• "Appendix B. Elvish names for the Dwarves"
• "Appendix C. Elvish names for the Orcs"
• "Appendix D. *Kwen, Quenya, and the Elvish (especially Ñoldorin) words for 'Language'"
  • "Note on the 'Language of the Valar'"
• "Author's Notes to Quendi and Eldar"
• "Editorial Notes [to Quendi and Eldar]"
• "Appendix: The legend of the Awaking of the Quendi (Cuivienyarna)"

Publication history and gallery

UK Editions

1994 hardcover   1995 paperback   2002 paperback 2002 paperback   2010 hardcover

• HarperCollins hardcover (1994), pp. 470. ISBN 0261103148
• HarperCollins paperback (1995), ISBN 0261103245 (cover art by John Howe)
• HarperCollins paperback (2002), ISBN 0261103245
• HarperCollins hardcover (2010), ISBN 0007365357