Book – The Shaping of Middle-Earth

Book – The Shaping of Middle-Earth

(= History of Middle-Earth 4/12) 

Author: J.R.R Tolkien, edited and commented by Christopher Tolkien 

Score: 10/10
Year: 1986 (original) ; 2015 (this paperback edition) 

Publisher: HarperCollins 

ISBN 978-0-261-10218-7

Pages 400*

Language: English (and Old English) 

Each volume of this series presents stories in the Middle-Earth Legendarium, written by JRR Tolkien, edited and commented by his son Christopher. In this fourth one, we read the evolution of the stories presented in the three previous volumes and which I already reviewed : The books of Lost Tales 1, and 2, and The Lays of Beleriand, slowly 
becoming the '1930 Silimarillion', and a precursor to the final, much longer version of it, published in 1977, several years after JRR's passing. 


Indeed, the bulk of this current volume either continues the stories of the three previous ones, occasionally refering back to them in lines such as "and the story of...is told in the tale of...", but also expands the Legendarium to a more coherent form with proper continuation, albeit not in its final stages. 

Let's see the table of contents, showing page numbers where these chapters start (and where their commentaries do) 

Preface, 1
I. Prose fragments following the Lost Tales, 3
II. The Sketch of the Mythology starting the earliest ''Silmarillion'', 11 (41)
III. The Quenta , 76 (166)
IV. The first "Silmarillion" map, 219 
V. The Ambrakanta, 235 (241)
VI. The earliest Annals of Valinor, 262 (274) 
VII. The earliest Annals of Beleriand, 294 ( 313) 

I. The prose fragments are very brief and uncompleted texts 
II. The earliest "Silmarillion" is a 30 pages-long sketch of the Mythology, serving almost as a bullet-point listing of the various elements that were planned to be incorporated into the Quenta, and aren't stories per-se. They are guidelines. 

On the other hand, III, The Quenta has a full narrative structure, further developping the Sketch as well as the legends already read in Lost Tales and Lays of Beleriand, completed to their end. At that point, it presented the fullest narrative of the story of Tuor and Gondolin. I recognized many elements from the previous volumes in the History of, and also from the final, 1977 Silmarillion, but also differences in conceptions and names (of places and characters alike). 

After its customary commentary by C.Tolkien, this chapter adds 2 appendices : Aelfwine's translation of the Quenta into Old English (205) and Old English equivalents of Elvish names (208-213). I wasn't able to read the Old English translation, but the list of names and the commenteries were very helpful, as they include the names of the Valar with their attributes, albeit at that particular conception. 

IV. The first Silmarillion map, or rather maps, which are mostly illegible, at least to me, but commented by C.T as always. Here we learn of the earliest conceptions JRR had of the geographical setup of Middle-Earth, at various stages of its History. 

V. The Ambrakanta is much shorter than the Quenta. Through cosmological essay, maps and diagrams, we see a version of a creation myth, how the gods in JRR's legendarium created and fashioned the world, the stars, sun and moon, in stages. 

VI. The earliest Annals of Valinor and VII and those of Beleriand offer date-lists of the major events. 

VI. In this conception, those of Valinor, from the moment that Illuvatar, the "allfather" created "all things" including the Valar and Spirits, until the "Darkening of Valinor". 
It is specified that "time was counted before the Sun and Moon by the Valar according to ages, that each Valian age has 100 Valian years, and which are as 10 years of "now". Hence, the 3000 Valian years correspond to a history of 30000 "Sun Years". 

After the notes (p. 270-272) and before the commentary , C.T adds a table and a new version of some of those dates, especially towards the "Darkening" as JRR re-conceived certain aspects and blended the end of (what would be later known) the First Age to the Second, and the arrival of Men (=the human race). 

On (p.281) and (p.285) there are two versions of these annals in Old English, which I wasn't able to read, once again, but their notes and commentaries explain very well their content and relation to the other annals. 

VII. The annals of Beleriand summarizes the events from Illuvatar's creation, and dives straight into the Years of The Sun, or the Second Age as it shall come to be known. At this point, JRR conceived it as a very short age, with only 250 years, presented in two versions ( p.295-310) and (p. 328-332), followed by notes and comments, as well as another Old English (p.338-340) shorter version. 
Yet, through the comments, we learn that JRR eventually lengthened this Age already by making the Siege of Angband much longer, delaying subsequent events.

The annals aren't the easiest nor most fluid to read. Indeed, at various stages of compostion, JRR changed tenses, which is the least problematic aspect. The more difficult one is that they present some contradictions, but as C.T says in comments, it is possible that some dates were mere slips in his father's memory during composition phases, or that, since some of the sheets of paper were separate, is it conceivable that JRR had planned to change/emend them to solve these contradictions. 

Either way, some of their elements were to endure all the way to the 1977 Silmarillion, but either with name changes, and/or dates and precise orders, especially for some characters that are here in close relationship (parent and child for instance, becoming later Great-grand parent of the same name...), thus making some of the reading more complex and further extends the time between certain events. 

I found the overall reading of the Quenta and Ambrakana very fluid and much easier than my first reading of the 1977 Silmarillion but this can be attributed to two factors :  the fact that at the time, I had only read the Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, with wholy different narrative styles, whereas now, I am much more familiar with the Legendarium and the various narrative styles and stories that JRR told through the tales and poems in the three previous volumes in History of, additionally to the Silmarillion, Hobbit & Lotr, and that I've been helped by C.T throughout my various readings with his insightful notes and comments, but also due to the fact that the prose presented in The Shaping of is in fact much more fluid and easier to read, as well as more chronologically laid out - even though the Ambrakana's events take place before most of those of the Quenta, with the exception of the Quenta's first few sections, which shares common elements with the Ambrakana. 

The stories here were composed mostly between 1926-1930, thus owing the name "Silmarillion 1930'' to the Quenta, Ambrakana & Annals here presented, but some may have been composed slightly after that period as explained by C.T, especially the emendations and notes that modified some of the details, names or dates. 

It would be sadly far too long and tedious to detail all the stories told in the 19 sections of the Quenta, which include those of the creation of the World (and Middle-Earth), various battles between either Valar or Elves and the evil Morgoth, the stories of Hùrin and his children as well as, off course, those of the Silmarils, their creators and all the strife that they caused... I highly recommend that if you cannot read the rest of the series, to at least familiarise yourself with the stories here offered in a fluid narrative style, easier to read than their counterpart of the "regular" 1977 Silmarillion, although you would miss out on all the evolution in JRR's conceptions and stories if you don't read the rest of the series nor the final versions in that latter 1977 published form.

An absolutely must-read to Tolkien and Middle-Earth fans (at least those who don't mind this elaborate story that includes a creation myth).