Those familiar with the work have most commonly only read the 1977 publication, which does not represent the totality of Tolkien's mythology, but is only one editorial compilation of a portion of the wider corpus composed over the course of two thirds of Tolkien's life. Tolkien died in 1973, leaving his epic unfinished and in the following years, his third son and literary executor, Christopher, assembled five key texts into a coherent narrative based on a number of earlier and later drafts.
The result was an amalgam of the two cosmogonies Ainulindalë and Valaquenta. The 1950s, late Quenta Silmarillion, which formed the central part of the heroic history of the first stage. Akallaneth - A later version of the fall of Numenor, the story of the Atlantis like kingdom of mortal men that was destroyed by a great wave. And finally, the intermediary text Of the Rings of Power and the third age that chronicles the events of the second and third ages.
Forming a part of the immediate prehistory of the Lord of the Rings. Over the years, the Silmarillion has been regarded with some wariness. Was it a true authorial creation or an editorial composition that did not reflect the intent of the original author? The early concerns immediately after publication continued to be echoed many decades later. More recent assessments of the Silmarillion have characterised it as a collaborative effort between Tolkien and his third son. And as a mediated text.
Douglas Kane in his monograph, Arda Reconstructed, which is dedicated to the detective work of how the 1977 Silmarillion was assembled. Observes that the work pushes the limits of editorial intervention. And amongst other things, Kane complains about reductions made from the source drafts. Anxieties over the extent of Christopher Tolkien's editorial intervention stirred critical debates over the canonicity of the 1977 publication.
Verlyn Flieger feels that the 1977 text gives a misleading impression of coherence and finality, as if it were a definitive canonical text, whereas the mass of material from which that volume was taken is a jumble of overlapping and often competing stories. Annals and Lexicons. Despite such assertions, Allan Turner observes that the book stands as the canonical work.
The standard against which all variations are measured. By virtue of its status as the first and most unified form of the mythology. Niels Ivar Agoy goes as far as to say that for most readers, the 1977 Silmarillion is the standard authoritative source of information about the elder days. For a number of scholars, the shadow of the editor loomed large over this long awaited, yet controversial product, which was only a small piece of Tolkien's life work on the project.
In the introduction to the Book of Lost Tales, an earlier version of the mythology, Christopher Tolkien regretted, as he put it. Leaving no suggestion of what it - the 1977 Silmarillion - is. And how within the imagined world it came to be. Christopher Tolkien responded directly to such concerns by publishing a few of the earlier drafts of individual stories in The Unfinished Tales published in 1980 and shown here in the bottom right hand corner.
The rest appeared in the 12 volume History of Middle Earth series. Over half of which was dedicated to Silmarillion material. David Bratman explains in his overview of the collection how the history in the title, The History of Middle Earth, refers to both the internal history of the secondary world of the legendarium and the external history of the author Writing about it. It provides the reader with options to use the drafts either as a resource and encyclopaedia.
Or as a narrative. The title Silmarillion in quotation marks is the scholarly designation for the textual variants preserved in these volumes which trace the development of an unfinished opus. The Silmarillion corpus was composed in first intense and then sporadic fits over the course of 60 years. Tolkien began writing in earnest during the winter of 1916 and 17, although a collection of lyrics featuring figures or places from the mythology were composed as early as 1914.
And some of these are preserved in the Book of Lost Tales. Elizabeth Whittingham in her book The Evolution of Tolkien's Mythology, identifies six stages of composition for the developing corpus and the substrata of this complex textual tradition are preserved in the posthumously published volumes edited from often palaeo- graphically difficult manuscripts. In his forward to the 1977 Silmarillion.
Christopher explains how the same legends came to be retold in longer and shorter forms and in different styles. My father came to conceive of the Silmarillion as a compilation, a compendious narrative made long afterwards from sources of great diversity poems and annals and oral tales that had survived an age long tradition.
Christopher also describes this corpus as a vast repository and labyrinth of story, poetry, a philosophy and a philology with everything from forays into heroic verse in the ancient English alliterative metre. To exercises in severe historical analysis of his own extremely difficult languages.
Volumes one through five and nine through 12 of the history of Middle-earth consist of verse and prose redactions in various states of completion of Tolkien's mythology spanning the 1910s and twenties and thirties and later the 1950s and 1960s. Volume six through nine are predominantly concerned with alternate draughts of The Lord of the Rings, with the exception of one Silmarillion related text, The Notion Club papers, which appears in Volume nine.
The unfinished tales of Numenor and Middle-earth already briefly mentioned, were not part of the 12 volume series serves the same function as the Silmarillion focussed volumes of the history of Middle-earth. Two texts relate directly to the Silmarillion, the tale of the Children of Húrin, which is the longest prose account of the story of Turin. Also of Tuor and is coming to Gondolin a fragmentary later version of the Tale of the Fall of Gondolin.
The unfinished tales also feature stories from the second and third ages covering materials pertaining to the Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings. The introduction to the volume presents Christopher's earliest responses to critiques on his editorial practise. He explains how he produced the 1977 publication in order to be of the same order as the writings published by my father himself. A completed and cohesive entity rather than a complex of divergent texts interlinked by commentary.
This last description characterises the nature of the then forthcoming publications. The Book of Lost Tales Volumes one and two, composed between 1916 and 1920, is a collection of prose tales that represents a considerable but not yet complete account of the first stage legendarium.
Tolkien's tales are organised within a semi-historicized frame narrative in which the mortal wanderer Eriol, or one who dreams alone, also called Angel a name, which, according to Tolkien's early notes, relates to the Angeln in southern Denmark. Finds a hidden civilisation of ancient fairies or elves. The island of Tol Erresa, originally conceived as ancient England. In a later reconceived frame narrative Eriol is transformed into the Anglo-Saxon traveller Ælfwine.
His name is old English for Elf-friend. The inhabitants of a grand magical cottage on Tol Eressëa to recount stories of their glorious past before mortals dominated the world. This collection was never finished. Trailing off with a variety of fragmentary tales, some of which appear in the next volume, along with outlines and notes. These two volumes represent what Elizabeth Wittingham identifies as Tolkien's first of six stages of Silmarillion composition.
The serialised format and framing story of the Book of Lost Tales recalls the format of such classics as Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Boccacio's Decameron and more contemporary for Tolkienn, William Morris's 1868 romance Earthly Paradise, a collection of tales told by a group of travellers gathered on an island. The work was given as a gift by another officer, while Tolkien was on the Somme.
The Lost Tales contains all three of the great tales that would recur and verse and prose redactions throughout the Silmarillion Corpus. The Love Story of the Elf later a mortal Beren and Elf Princess Lúthien in the tale of Tinúviel. The tragedy of the ill fated mortal warrior Turin Turambar. The account of the fall of the renowned Elven city of Gondolin in the tale of the Fall of Gondolin, as well as early versions of the surrounding history.
With the exception of the frame story, The cottage of lost play, these three tales are also the oldest in the collection, all composed during or in the immediate aftermath of the First World War.
There is arguably a case to be made regarding the earliest mythological poems and prose drafts as war literature based on the time of their composition, especially the 1917 war themed narrative, The Tale of the Fall of Gondolin which recounts the demise of the greatest of the Elf City states through treason and invasion.
In his biographical study, Tolkien and the Great War, John Garth notes the kinship between the magical mechanical dragons that assail the city walls and the tanks that began to appear on the Western Front during the year Tolkien was composing his epic narrative. The earliest locales for Tolkien's composition of early languages, notes and possible summaries were various military venues in England and France.
In letters addressed to Christopher during his service in the Second World War, Tolkien explained how he first began to write the history of the Gnome's meaning the Silmarillion or the Lost Tales, in army huts crowded, filled with the noise of gramophones. In another letter from the same year, he outlined the various unlikely locations for jotting down the earliest concepts and excerpts for his developing history. These include grimy canteen's, lectures and cold fogs.
Gell Tents and even some in dugouts under shell fire. He continues to reinforce these origins many years later, citing camps and hospitals between 1915 and 1918 as places of literary invention. His 1917 tale of the Fall of Gondolin was a product of his medical leave taken after the Battle of the Somme. After abandoning the Book of Lost Tales around 1920, Tolkien embarked on the lengthy project of developing what he called the vast backcloths of his ancient history/mythology.
In the 1920s and 1930s, he alternately resorted to poetry and prose summaries, The Lays of Beleriand, volume three represents along with the next volume in the series, The second stage of Tolkien's work on the mythology. It contains two narrative poems. The Lay of Leithean, composed between 1925 and 1931. A verse version of the story of Beren and Lúthien as first told in the Tale of Tinuviel and the lay of the Children of Hurin abandoned in nineteen twenty five.
The story of Turin Turambar told in verse. This volume also features shorter verse relating to the mythology as listed here. And most of these are unfinished or fragmentary pieces. Volume four The shaping of Middle-earth is a continuation of the second stage of the textual corpus and begins with prose fragments continuing the Book of Lost Tales. More significant are the two prose versions of the mythology which dispense with the mediator figure of Eriol and the frame narrative.
The first, the sketch of the mythology from 1926 is just that a sketch or prose outline of the key events of the first stage, in highly condensed form. It was originally intended to provide background for poetic recastings of the tale of Tinúviel and Turambar and the foalókë, For assessment by Tolkien's former tutor from King Edward's School. Although the original intent was not to rewrite the Book of Lost Tales.
This reformulation of the old legendarium material inspired a permanent restructuring based on its model. The sketch is followed by a longer, more formal prose text. The Quenta Noldorinwa from nineteen thirty, which expands considerably on its predecessor. Volume four also includes the earliest annals of Valinor and the earliest annals of Beleriand from the early 1930s. And both are formatted as chronicles, listing highly abbreviated accounts of historical events by Date.
In the manner of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and other similar analysts histories from the Middle Ages. Within Tolkien's world, these works were supposed to be histories composed by chroniclers, living in either Valinor or Beleriand.
Volume five, The Lost Road and other writings, is home to texts written during the composition of The Hobbit and before the lengthy and all consuming project of The Lord of the Rings, which very nearly suspended all activity relating to the early mythology for many years. This book features the first version of the Atlantis influenced narrative, the fall of Numenor from the 1930s.
And the unfinished modern time travel story, The Lost Road, which formed a frame around another version of the Numenorean material. Additionally, there is a fourth prose version of Tolkien's mythology, the unfinished Quenta Silmarillion, from the mid to late 1930s, whose composition coincided with that of The Hobbit. And in fact, Tolkien unsuccessfully attempted to publish the incomplete Quenta Silmarillion, along with other related texts.
In 1937. More Chronicle style material is present from the late 1930s, along with the Ainulindalë, the cosmological myth that was to function like a prologue in the 1977 Silmarillion and replaced the earlier Cosmography found in the Book of Lost Tales there called The Music of the Ainur.
The 10th and 11th volumes of the series Morgoth's Ring and the War of the Jewels each include portions of the later Quenta Silmarillion, a rewrite of the nineteen thirties text of the same name, a Tolkien refurbished and expanded in stages, but left unfinished. This late version was the base text for the 1977 publication. Morgoth's Ring contains two phases of later Quenta material. Phase one from the early 1950s and phase two from around 1958.
It also preserves another version of the Ainulindalë, The annals of Amman from the early 1950s, and some miscellaneous material relating to the mythology. The War of the Jewels, in addition to further later Quenta chapters, also features the Grey Annals from the late 1950s, which consisted of two closely related works and was also used extensively in the 1977 Silmarillion.
It also has the Wanderings of Húrin, which follows the post captivity exile Turin Turambar's father, but was not included in the 1977 Silmarillion. The final volume in the series, The Peoples of Middle Earth, contains Tolkien's latest writings mainly from the 1960s, along with some from the last few months of his life. These include the remainder of the late Quenta texts, some linguistic essays as listed here, A work purported to be by an Elvish scribe, chronicler of Gondolin Pengoloð.
Who is also the attributed author of The Annals of Beleriand and and co-author of The Annals of Aman. It also features more incomplete stories. Christopher Tolkan passed away on January 16th, 2020, and he leaves behind a remarkable legacy of dedicated editorial scholarship that which readers and scholars would have a much more limited perspective of JRR Tolkien's,
writings. During the last decade of his life, Christopher assembled textual variants of the three great tales of the mythology in order to enable those interested in the development of the narratives concerning Turin. Been, Lúthien, and Tour to have a clear understanding of what was gained, lost and modified over time in the different versions.
While most of the texts provided had been previously published in the history of Middle-earth Series, Christopher thought it best to produce volumes that allowed for comparative analysis of the development, in particular of the tales of Beren and Lúthien and the fall of Gondolin. An exception to the rule here is the Children of Húrin. Which only contains the longest prose version of that tale and omits the other poetic and prose versions.
These three volumes provide a chance to experience the three great tales outside the context of the mythology, as in the manner of old Norse sagas or medieval romances. HarperCollins will be releasing a new volume of unpublished material The Nature of Middle Earth scheduled for release June 24th, 2021.
The forthcoming book is going to be based on photocopied materials sent by Christopher Tolkien before his passing to Tolkien linguist Carl Hostetter and will reproduce Tolkien's essays on his legendarium from the years 1959 through 1973 about the nature of Middle-earth. Both in the metaphysical and natural historical census. Some of these will relate to the Silmarillion and the unfinished tales and will be a useful resource to read alongside the wider Simarillion
Corpus. Here I've listed the key texts for the legendarily. If you were interested in reading the whole history, the best place to start is the 1977 Silmarillion. Anyone wishing to delve further could then read the rest of the versions in the order of production. The Book of Lost Tales, the first two volumes of the series, the sketch in the Shaping of Middle-earth, the two 1930s Quentas. The earlier one in the Shaping of Middle Earth. And the slightly later won in the Lost Road.
And finally, the late Quenta, which is spread across Morgoth's Ring and the War of the Jewels. While the last work may seem redundant with the 1977 text. It does contain extended passages and bits of dialogue that were reduced or excised for the Silmarillion and can be useful for textual comparison or character study. This is only a limited sampling of the secondary literature dealing with the Silmarillion mythology.
The work's listed here are ones that deal with either the textual history or the creative development of the legendarily. Verlyn Flieger;s book, interrupted music traces not only the development of a key literary influences on Tolkien's legendarium, and is noteworthy for being one of a limited number of book length literary studies exclusively dedicated to the Silmarillion.
Worthy of special mention are the books by John Garth His biographical study, Tolkien and the Great War, traces the earliest developments of the mythology during the First World War and the impact of Tolkien's early school friends from the TCBS on his writing. Garth's other book, The Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien, features illuminating details relating to the early mythology and its links with real locations in England and Europe.
It has much to say about places that inspired character and place names in the Silmarillion Corpus as well as in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. And these are accompanied by beautiful illustrations and photographs. So how far did Tolkien succeed in his original goal of creating a native mythology?
I'll leave you with some of the literary assessments featured in periodicals from around the world that were quoted on the back cover of the 2008 HarperCollins paperback edition of The Silmarillion. The Financial Times says that The Silmarillion at times rises to the greatness of true myth. The Toronto Globe and Mail calls it a grim, tragic, brooding and beautiful book shot through with heroism and hope.
Most tellingly, The Guardian asks how given little over half a century, did one man become the creative equivalent of a people? So it seems, at least in the view of one writer at The Guardian, Tolkien achieved his early goal of creating a mythology for his own country.
The cover shown here is not the 2008 addition, but another showing, Ted Naismith's beautiful portrayal of Maegler, the last surviving son of Fëanor, who, after briefly recapturing one of the Silmarils casts it away into the sea as his moral failings have now made him unworthy of the holy Jewels made by his own father.
I hope this lecture has intrigued you enough to pursue Tolkien's earliest literary creations, which are striking counterparts to his more famous works and are well deserving of both scholarly attention and general interest. The collective corpus is more than a mere ancient backdrop to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. It is of great literary value in its own right and has been gaining greater recognition over the past few decades.
Thanks to Christopher Tolkien's tireless and dedicated scholarship, the Silmarillion Corpus will continue to provide a more expansive view of Tolkien's imagination and inspirations. Thank you all for listening.