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; paperback
Pages	470
ISBN	0261103148
Preceded by	Morgoth's Ring (1993)
Followed by	The Peoples of Middle-earth (1996)

The War of the Jewels, published in 1994, is the eleventh volume of Christopher Tolkien's 12-volume book series, The History of Middle-earth, in which he analyzes the unpublished manuscripts of J.R.R. Tolkien.

Continuing from the previous Morgoth's Ring, this volume provides detailed writings and editorial commentary pertaining to Tolkien's cosmology that eventually would become the published The Silmarillion.

Contents

• Foreword

Part One: The Grey Annals

Part Two: The Later Quenta Silmarillion (continued)

• IX. "Of Men"
• X. "Of the Siege of Angband"
• XI. "Of Beleriand and Its Realms"
• XII. "Of Turgon and the Building of Gondolin"
• XIII. "Concerning the Dwarves"
• XIV. "Of the Coming of Men into the West"
• XV. "Of the Ruin of Beleriand and the Fall of Fingolfin"
• "The Last Chapters"

Part Three: The Wanderings of Húrin and Other Writings

• 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
• Appendix: The legend of the Awaking of the Quendi (Cuivienyarna)

Inscriptions

There is an inscription in the Tengwar characters in the first pages of every History of Middle-earth volume, written by Christopher Tolkien and describing the contents of the book. The inscription in Book XI reads:

"In this book are recorded the last writings of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien concerning the wars of Beleriand, here also is told the story of how Húrin Thali[o]n brought ruin to the Men of Brethil, with much else concerning the Edain and Dwarves and the names of many peoples in the speech of the Elves."

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 of the 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.

Publication history and gallery

UK Editions

1994 hardcover   1995 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