The history of Middle-Earth ;

Besteht aus den Bänden: - [Das Buch der verschollenen Geschichten, Teil 1](/works/OL15331146W) - [Das Buch der verschollenen Geschichten, Teil 2](/works/OL15331147W)

The stories continues from "Part I", and begins with Eriol, having spent spent many days at the 'Cottage of Lost Play', a house he arrived at while traveling. It is owned by Lindo and Vairë. There he has listened to stories by the family that had taken him in. The first story in this book that he hears is "The Tale of Tinúviel". "The Tale of Tinúviel" tells the story of Beren a human male who falls in love with Lúthien Tinúviel a female elf. He wishes to marry her but is given a seemingly impossible task to get a Silmaril jewel from the crown of a evil being. He succeeds in getting the jewel but loses his hand in the attempt, and after their marriage he dies, and she also dies from heartbreak, and they are returned to life for second chance. Eriol himself tells the next story, that of "Turambar and the Foalókë". "Turambar and the Foalókë" is the story of a warrior that is imprissioned by the evil being and set on a mountain top to watch his family suffer while he watches with the curse of special sight. The story then changes to his son, Túrin, who also fights but is betrayed by his men and cursed, after losing a battle with a dragon he changes his name. His sister and mother look for him but are captured and their memories erased by the dragon. He later meets his sister, now strangers to each other, they become married. He finally defeats the dragon, but with that her memory returns. Realizing he's her brother she jumps off a cliff, he kills himself, and the mother goes screaming into the woods. The father then is released by the evil being and he goes and kills the men that betrayed his son. Then goes looking for his wife in the woods. The story ends with the family reunited and dwelling with the spirits.

The Return of the Shadow is the first volume of the The History of The Lord of the Rings and the sixth volume of The History of Middle-earth. It is a history of the creation of The Lord of the Rings, a fascinating study of Tolkien's great masterpiece, from its inception to the end of the first volume, The Fellowship of the Ring. In The Return of the Shadow (the abandoned title of the first volume of The Lord of the Rings) Christopher Tolkien describes, with full citation of the earliest notes, outline plans, and narrative drafts, the intricate evolution of The Fellowship of the Ring and the gradual emergence of the conceptions that transformed what J.R.R. Tolkien for long believed would be a far shorter book, 'a sequel to The Hobbit'. The enlargement of Bilbo's 'magic ring' into the supremely potent and dangerous Ruling Ring of the Dark Lord is traced and the precise moment is seen when, in an astonishing and unforeseen leap in the earliest narrative, a Black Rider first rode into the Shire, his significance still unknown. The character of the hobbit called Trotter (afterwards Strider or Aragorn) is developed while his indentity remains an absolute puzzle, and the suspicion only very slowly becomes certainty that he must after all be a Man. The hobbits, Frodo's companions, undergo intricate permutations of name and personality, and other major figures appear in strange modes: a sinister Treebeard, in league with the Enemy, a ferocious and malevolent Farmer Maggot. The story in this book ends at the point where J.R.R. Tolkien halted in the story for a long time, as the Company of the Ring, still lacking Legolas and Gimli, stood before the tomb of Balin in the Mines of Moria. The Return of the Shadow is illustrated with reproductions of the first maps and notable pages from the earliest manuscripts.

The story begins with a man named Eriol, as he lands on the 'Lonely Island' mythical prehistory England. While traveling he stops at the "Cottage of Lost Play" a house owned by Lindo and Vairë elves. They tell him how they came to be there, and of a place called the 'Cottage of Children', a place where Children that had gotten lost in the woods could stay. Its caretaker left and the cottage was rediscovered by Lindo's father, and he took the children to this island, with him, and now Lindo looks after them. The next day Eriol walks in the garden and meets the door man, and is told the story of "The Music of the Ainur". A creation myth where the creator sings into being immortal spirits, that with their help sing into being the world. One of these spirits becomes evil, and begins to dislike the two races that are placed within the world, Elves and Men. Some of the spirits decided to be caretakers for the world and broke up into two groups the Valor, care takers and the Maia, servants to them. That night he asks to hear more stories, and is told "The Coming of Valor and the Building of Valinor". the care takers have their own parts of the world, but eventually get together and create a can all live in the world. They placed it on the war West of the world and they call it Valinor, all but the evil one decided to live there, he made his home in the mountains of the north. Eriol soon wishes to stay on the island, but must get the queen's permission, but she tells him he must learn more about them first. She then tells him of "The Chaining of Melko". It tells how the evil one tried to destroy that which the other Valor created and how subdued him and put him on trial for his crimes. Eriol then asks about the elves and is told "The Coming of the Elves and the Making of Kôr." Near the end of the evil ones imprisonment the Elves came into being, and seeing them, the Valor requested to talk with them, but only three came to Valinor, of these three the original three tribes of Elves grew, of these many returned and built the city Kôr near Valinor. Here the magic Silmarillion jewels. The queen ends her story, and Eriol returns to Lindo's house, where at story time Lindo tells "The Theft of Melko and the Darkening of Valinor" This tells how the evil one causes distrust between the elves and the Valor, then while the elves are at Valinor the three Silmarils. He hides in a cave and meets a spider woman that offers to help him, and together they go to Valinor, and destroy the two Trees of Light, they are almost caught but manage to escape, with the help of the spider woman's power to cause darkness. The story continues without a break, but with a new title "The Flight of the Noldoli". One of the groups of elves gets restless after helping hunt for the evil one, they feel ill used and steal boats from another group, they become exiles and escape to the East and to the continent. Some time later a guest arrives and Lindo tells "The Tale of the Sun and Moon". It tells that after Valinor was darkened, they cried over the trees which made bloom one last fruit, it shined brightly and they placed it in the sky. One of the valor sing to the other tree and then touch it as it brings a blossom of a fruit but it is dropped and the fruit doesn't shine as brightly, they place it in the sky also, where they will now be the moon and sun. Lindo asks his wife to tell the next story which is, "The Hiding of Valinor" This tells how the valor feared evil would return so they destroy all roads leading to Valinor, and the only way for the elves to reach there is by a bridge rainbow, that is really the hair of a Valor. Then three strangers come to Valinor and they asked to take hold of the sun, and moon, and with a cord they bind them together, and create the days, months and years. They then introduce themselves as the sons of time. Time passes and the new guest to the cottage is asked to tell a story, he then tells, "Gilfanon's Tale: The Travail of the Noldoli and the Coming of Mankind". The story starts with elves that did not go to Valinor but stayed where they awakened, they were taught forbidden things by a wizard. They found men sleeping in caves and woke them up. At first they were friends by the evil one sent messengers to make men and elves hate, a war broke out, and men where beaten and driven away. They get together with the Noldoli who left Valinor, and try to fight the evil one but lose and some are turned into slaves while the two groups of elves learn to distrust each other. The new guest's story ends and he leaves, while Eriol remains at Lindo's for a while longer. The story continues in "The Book of Lost Tales: Part II".

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."