More in depth Silmarillion writings, and more depth than you could ever imagine

books:


	• Morgoth's Ring: The Later Silmarillion, Part One (The History of Middle-Earth, Vol. 10) J.R.R. Tolkien Houghton Mifflin, 1993 - 488 pages average customer review:based on 15 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

this really shows a lot of important stuff

The Silmarillion was great! and this book is the first half in different versions and also the changes Tolkien had to make over the years My favorite was the Annals of Aman and the debate of Finrod and andreth they both explain things unkonwn to the reader of the silmarillion. Christopher tolkien made very good and imformative commentaries. This book includes many unpublished material! That dead guy's a genius!

Not for the casual reader

This book is for serious Tolkien scholars, not the casual Lord of The Rings fan. Christopher Tolkien's analysis can be mind numbing, so if you're not looking for that kind of depth, stick to The Silmarillion.

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Drafts of 'The Silmarillion' Part I

'Morgoth's Ring' and 'The War of the Jewels' are both collections of draft material which would become the postumously published 'The Silmarillion'. In that sense, they stand in the same relation to 'The Silmarillion' as Volumes VI through IX of 'The History of Middle Earth' stand to 'The Lord of the Rings'. The difference is that while Tolkien senior himself published LotR, 'The Silmarillion' was incomplete at the time of Tolkien's death, so these are commentaries on an imcomplete work. If, like me, you compulsively buy everything with Tolkien's name on it, this will make no differnce. But, if, like me, you find the story of the Valar and the origins of the elves in general to be the most interesting part of 'The Silmarillion, then you will find 'Morgoth's Ring' the more interesting of the two volumes. In the end, both volumes add more pieces to that great, but slightly ephemeral quality of deep historicity which makes LoTR and 'The Hobbit' stand head, shoulders, and chest above virtually every other fantasy fiction ever written.

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More in depth Silmarillion writings, and more depth than you could ever imagine

Part 1 starts out with another version of the Ainulindale. Tolkien would always be revising his stories and the reason for it could be many things. In the Ainulindale he rewrote it to make radical changes to the cosmology. It is very easy to see why most of his writings were never finished, every little change he made would throw off the entire Middle-Earth world from what it was before.

Part 2 has the Annals of Aman. Since changes were always being made, Tolkien always made new annals of his earliest stories. The problem here is that he go from making brief descriptions to giving full writings. Every time he rewrote something, it would get longer.

The biggest chunk of the book is part 3 which goes over a later version of the Silmarillion and that piece of work really started coming together at this point. It clearly had no chance of ever getting finished, but it is fun to see how many changes were made every time it was rewritten.

Part 4 is one of the writings that Tolkien seems to have written solely to help explain Middle-Earth to himself. It is a fascinating conversation between an male elf and a woman talking about where their souls go after they die. It also talks about the dark origins of man which are only briefly mentioned in all other works by Tolkien.

Part 5 is called 'Myths Transformed' and gives a good idea about how crazy Tolkien became with his work and why the Silmarillion was never finished. One of the many things he had a problem with was the trees of Valinor, and how they came to be. He thought if a fruit of the tree became the Sun, how would a whole tree not burn the land around it? It is amazing that something like this could halt him for so long. I think any Tolkien fan would be able overlook something small like the trees of Valinor if the Silmarillion could have just been completed.

Overall another book packed full of great Middle-Earth information.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

In Morgoth's Ring, the tenth volume of The History of Middle-earth and the first of two companion volumes, Christopher Tolkien describes and documents the legends of the Elder Days, as they were evolved and transformed by his father in the years before he completed The Lord of the Rings. The text of the Annals of Aman, the "Blessed Land" in the far West, is given in full. And in writings never before published, we can see the nature of the problems that J.R.R. Tolkien explored in his later years as new and radical ideas, portending upheaval in the heart of the mythology. At this time Tokien sought to redefine the old legends, and wrote of the nature and destiny of Elves, the idea of Elvish rebirth, the origins of the Orcs, and the Fall of Men. His meditation of mortality and immortality as represented in the lives of Men and Elves led to another major writing at this time, the "Debate of Finrod and Andreth," which is reproduced here in full. "Above all," Christopher Tolkien writes in his foreward, "the power and significance of Melkor-Morgoth...was enlarged to become the ground and source of the corruption of Arda." This book indeed is all about Morgoth. Incomparably greater than the power of Sauron, concentrated in the One Ring, Morgoth's power (Tolkien wrote) was dispersed into the very matter of Arda: "The whole of Middle-earth was Morgoth's Ring."

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