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The History of Middle Earth
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Featured November 10 , 2005
Sorting out the 12-volume History of Middle Earth series, with its sub-divisions and separate volume numberings. The books take you through early poems and drafts of what would become the Silmarillion, the Lord of the Rings, Unfinished Tales, and some that Prof. Tolkien never did finish.
There are twelve volumes total. It took me a while to figure out the names and order of the various volumes, b/c different groups of the 12 were reprinted and packaged separately, and each subgroup (usually) has its own title and numbering. Here are all 12, in order, of the History of Middle Earth (HoME) series: Vol. 1: The Book of Lost Tales I Vol. 6: The Return of the Shadow (also History of LOTR, part 1) Vol. 10: Morgoth's Ring (also Later Silmarillion, part 1) The second group (vols. 6-9) deals with drafts and developments in the writing of LOTR. The other two groups are about the early (vols. 1-5) and later (10-12) developments in Tolkien's development of the rest of Middle Earth history, from early stuff he abandoned to drafts much closer to the Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales as they were published. All 12 HoME volumes were published in hardcover from 1985 to 1996--an amazing turnout of work by Tolkien's son Christopher, working through his father's notes and putting them in order for publication. More recent publications HoME vols. 1-5 have been reprinted in paperback, and can be bought separately (links above) or in a box set called, very logically, The History of Middle Earth, vols. 1-5. The hardcover versions are now out of print, or at least they were; they seem to be getting reprinted now, too. HoME vols. 6-9, dealing with the LOTR material, have also been published in paperback, with the older hardcover versions now out of print. I haven't seen them in their own box set, but as you'll notice from the links above, this group DOES have its own title and numbering as the 4-volume History of the Lord of the Rings set. (Thus, The War of the Ring is vol. 8 of the HoME series, but part 3 of the History of LOTR set. Very confusing, I know.) HoME vols. 10-12 continue to be printed in their hardcover forms, but also have their own group title: The Later Silmarillion (HoME vols. 1-5 were about earlier material). So Morgoth's Ring is vol. 10 in the HoME series, but part 1 of the "Later Silmarillion". I have also seen HOME vols. 1-5 and 10-12 together in what seem to be one huge volume each, under the titles of The Complete History of Middle Earth, vol. 1 and The Complete History of Middle Earth, vol. 3. I haven't seen a "Complete History of ME, vol. 2", comprised of HoME vols. 6-9 above but I suppose it's out there somewhere. Finally, there is a whole separate paperback volume serving as an Index to the Twelve: The History of Middle-Earth: Index. |
Boc-hord
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