Originally composed as a Piano Rondo by composer Paul Corfield Godfrey.
Although the Akallabêth uses a number of musical themes already composed for the other works in Godfrey's Epic Scenes from The Silmarillion after the mythology of J. R. R. Tolkien, it was always designed as a totally independent and original work.
The piano version was commissioned in 1982 by James Meaker both as a display piece and as a symphonic poem in rondo form based on one of the concluding chapters in J R R Tolkien’s The Silmarillion. As such some of the material later found its way into other parts of the cycle.
It was subsequently orchestrated and modified as Akallabêth (for orchestra), Op. 42a. The orchestral version of the score follows the outline of the piano original, except that the pastoral interlude and succeeding material is omitted. Sections of this work were used in the score for The War of Wrath, Op. 71 (Opera).