The first publication of a previously unknown narrative poem by J.R.R. Tolkien, which tells the extraordinary story of the final days of England's legendary hero, King Arthur. Tolkien's only venture into the legends of Arthur, this may well be regarded as his finest and most skillful achievement in the use of Old English alliterative meter, where he brings to his transforming perceptions of the old narratives a pervasive sense of the grave and fateful...

This story is set in the great country that lay beyond the Grey Havens in the West: lands where Treebeard once walked but were drowned in the great cataclysm that ended the First Age of the World.

Contains the Tales of Valinor followed by a commentary, associated poems and information on the Elvish languages.

Follows The Book of Lost Tales, parts 1 & 2, and precedes The Shaping of Middle-earth.

Tolkien's version of the great legend of Northern antiquity. In the first part, we follow the adventures of Sigurd, the slayer of Fafnir, and his betrothal to the Valkyrie Brynhild. In the second, the tragedy mounts to its end in the murder of Sigurd at the hands of his blood-brothers, the suicide of Brynhild, and the despair of Gudrún.

From the publisher. In The War of the Ring Christopher Tolkien takes up the story of the writing of The Lord of the Rings with the Battle of Helm's Deep and the drowning of Isengard by the Ents. This is followed by an account of how Frodo, Sam and Gollum were finally brought to the Pass of Kirith Ungol, at which point J.R.R. Tolkien wrote at the time: "I have got the hero into such a fix that not even an author will be able to extricate him without...

What Tolkien's many admirer's suspect, but have so far been unable to confirm, is that he was as complicated and rewarding in his personal life as he was in his masterful literary fantasies. By turns thoughtful, impish, scholarly, impassioned, playful, vigorous, and gentle, Tolkien was an indefatigable letter writer who poured his heart and mind into a great stream of correspondence to intimate friends and unknown admirers all over the world.

Collected by Tolkien's son, these tales further exlore the legendary Middle-earth, including its languages, legends, politics, and kings, and ranging temporally from the Elder Days through the War of the Rings.