History of Middle-Earth, Part 2 – The First Five Volumes: Early Myths & Lost Tales

Setting the Stage
If Part 1 was about Tolkien’s beginnings and the seeds of his imagination, then the first five volumes of The History of Middle-Earth show us how those seeds took root. These early works—drafted between 1915 and the late 1930s—are where Middle-Earth first took shape. They contain the raw myths, poems, and chronicles that would, much later, be reshaped into The Silmarillion.

Christopher Tolkien gathered these fragments into five volumes: The Book of Lost Tales Parts I & II, The Lays of Beleriand, The Shaping of Middle-Earth, and The Lost Road and Other Writings. Together, they form a portrait of Tolkien as a young writer, experimenting boldly and laying down the foundations of his legendarium.

Volume 1: The Book of Lost Tales, Part I (1983)
The journey begins with The Cottage of Lost Play, a whimsical frame story in which a mariner finds his way to a hidden isle where Elves tell ancient tales. Though Tolkien later abandoned this framing device, it reveals his initial intent: to create a mythology preserved and passed down by storytellers.

This first volume introduces several themes and stories that echo throughout the legendarium. We find the Music of the Ainur—the great song of creation sung by Ilúvatar and the Ainur, which becomes the foundation of all existence. We encounter the Tale of the Sun and Moon, exploring how the heavenly lights came to be, and the Hiding of Valinor, which sets up the separation of the Blessed Realm from Middle-Earth.

These stories feel both familiar and alien to readers of The Silmarillion. They are recognizably Tolkien, but in an earlier, more experimental register.

Volume 2: The Book of Lost Tales, Part II (1984)
The second part of The Book of Lost Tales dives into the grand sagas of Beleriand, the land that will dominate much of the First Age. Here, Tolkien tells the Tale of Tinúviel, which would later evolve into the story of Beren and Lúthien—perhaps the most beloved tale in all his writings. We also find Turambar and the Foalókë, the earliest version of the tragic saga of Túrin Turambar, cursed hero of the House of Hador.

The volume also contains The Fall of Gondolin, Tolkien’s very first major legend, describing the rise and ruin of the hidden Elven city. Written during his convalescence after the Battle of the Somme, it resonates with the imagery of war and destruction he knew firsthand. Finally, we encounter the Tale of Eärendel, the great mariner destined to sail into the heavens.

If Volume I focused on cosmology, Volume II brings us into the heroic age—tragedy, love, betrayal, and doom.

Volume 3: The Lays of Beleriand (1985)
Tolkien’s love of language shines most brightly in The Lays of Beleriand. Instead of prose tales, here we find long narrative poems. The two most important are:

• The Lay of the Children of Húrin – an alliterative poem recounting Túrin’s tragic story.
• The Lay of Leithian – a rhyming poem chronicling the romance and trials of Beren and Lúthien.

Though unfinished, these poems show Tolkien testing the limits of his invented languages and poetic forms. Reading them is like discovering an Anglo-Saxon bard retelling Elvish myths. They are challenging but also reveal how deeply Tolkien’s identity as a philologist influenced his storytelling.

Volume 4: The Shaping of Middle-Earth (1986)
By the mid-1930s, Tolkien was moving toward a more structured mythology. The Shaping of Middle-Earth presents the first organized versions of The Silmarillion. Here, we encounter the Quenta Noldorinwa, an early narrative of the Noldor Elves, alongside maps, cosmological essays like the Ambarkanta (“Shape of the World”), and the first Annals of Valinor and Annals of Beleriand.

This was the material Tolkien hoped to publish after the success of The Hobbit. Though publishers asked for “more hobbits,” Tolkien offered them instead a dense, mythic history. They declined. Yet these writings mark a turning point: his world was no longer just a collection of myths, but a coherent, evolving history.

Volume 5: The Lost Road and Other Writings (1987)
Perhaps the most surprising of the early volumes, The Lost Road introduces the story of Númenor—Tolkien’s “Atlantis” legend. Conceived initially as part of a time-travel tale, it was soon woven into his larger mythology. Alongside this, we find new versions of the Ainulindalë (the Music of the Ainur), the Quenta Silmarillion, and the later Annals.

The Lost Road represents Tolkien’s willingness to experiment. He was not just inventing myths but connecting them to human prehistory and broader themes of loss, exile, and downfall. Númenor, with its rise and catastrophic fall, would become one of the great pillars of the legendarium, later echoing through The Lord of the Rings.

The Emerging Patterns
Taken together, these first five volumes reveal Tolkien’s restless creativity. He was never content with a single version of a story. Instead, he wrote, rewrote, abandoned, and returned. Characters shifted identities; cosmologies were redrawn; tales once framed as fairy stories grew into epic tragedies.

Christopher Tolkien’s editing allows us to see this process in motion. For modern readers, it can feel overwhelming—layer upon layer of unfinished drafts—but it is also exhilarating. We witness a young scholar-turned-soldier trying to wrestle with themes of beauty, loss, mortality, and hope through story.

Looking Ahead
These early works are the bedrock of Tolkien’s imagination. In them, we glimpse the raw power of creation, but also the instability of beginnings. They are messy, brilliant, and utterly captivating.

In Part 3, we will look more closely at how Tolkien refined these myths into more coherent narratives—particularly the shaping of The Silmarillion and the introduction of Númenor as a central theme. The raw myths begin to harden into history, and Middle-Earth takes on the contours we recognize today.

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Bibliography

1. History of Middle Earth, Vol. 1: The Book of Lost Tales, Part I  Kindle Paperback
2. History of Middle Earth, Vol. 2: The Book of Lost Tales, Part II Kindle Paperback
3. History of Middle Earth, Vol. 3: The Lays of Beleriand Kindle Paperback
4. History of Middle Earth, Vol. 4: The Shaping of Middle-earth Kindle Paperback
5. History of Middle Earth, Vol. 5: The Lost Road and Other Writings Kindle Paperback
6. History of Middle Earth, Vol. 6: The Return of the Shadow Kindle Paperback
7. History of Middle Earth, Vol. 7: The Treason of Isengard Kindle Paperback
8. History of Middle Earth, Vol. 8: The War of the Ring Kindle Paperback
9. History of Middle Earth, Vol. 9: Sauron Defeated Kindle Paperback
10. History of Middle Earth, Vol. 10: Morgoth’s Ring Kindle Paperback
11. History of Middle Earth, Vol. 11: The War of the Jewels Kindle Paperback
12. History of Middle Earth, Vol. 12: The Peoples of Middle-earth Kindle Paperback
13. History of Middle-Earth Index Paperback
14. The Complete History of Middle-Earth Box Set Hardcover
15. History of Middle-Earth Box Set#1 Hardcover
16. History of Middle-Earth Box Set#2 Hardcover
17. History of Middle-Earth Box Set#3 Hardcover
18. History of Middle-Earth Box Set#4 Hardcover
19. The Nature of Middle-Earth Kindle Paperback Hardcover

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