 | |
| Editor | Christopher Tolkien |
|---|---|
| Author | J. R. R. Tolkien |
| Language | English |
| Series | The History of Middle-earth |
Release number | 4 |
| Subject | Tolkien's legendarium |
| Genre | High fantasy Literary analysis |
| Publisher | George Allen & Unwin (UK) |
Publication date | 1986 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Print (hardback and paperback) |
| Pages | 400 (paperback) |
| ISBN | 978-0-261-10218-7 |
| Preceded by | The Lays of Beleriand |
| Followed by | The Lost Road and Other Writings |
The Shaping of Middle-earth – The Quenta, The Ambarkanta and The Annals[1] (1986) is the fourth volume ofChristopher Tolkien's 12-volume seriesThe History of Middle-earth, in which he analysed the unpublished manuscripts of his fatherJ. R. R. Tolkien.[2]
InThe Shaping of Middle-earth the gradual transition from the "primitive"legendarium ofThe Book of Lost Tales to what would becomeThe Silmarillion is described, and it contains a text which could be seen as the first "Silmarillion": the "Sketch of the Mythology".
Three other parts are theAmbarkanta or "Shape of the World", a collection ofmaps and diagrams of the world described by Tolkien; and the Annals ofValinor andBeleriand, chronological works which started out as timelines but gradually turned into full narratives.
TheAnnals of Valinor andAnnals of Beleriand show the earliest outline of the chronology of theFirst Age as envisaged in the early 1930s.
The next volume in the series,The Lost Road and Other Writings (1987), outlined revisions to both texts made c. 1937 as "The Later Annals of Valinor" and "The Later Annals of Beleriand".
There is an inscription in theFëanorian characters (Tengwar, an alphabet Tolkien has devised for High-Elves) in the first pages of everyHistory of Middle-earth volume, written by Christopher Tolkien and describing the contents of the book. The inscription in Book IV reads: "Herein are the Quenta Noldorinwa, the History of the Gnomes, the Ambarkanta or Shape of the World by Rúmil, the Annals of Valinor and the Annals of Beleriand by Pengolod, the Wise of Gondolin with maps of the world in the Elder Days and translations made byÆlfwine the Mariner of England intothe tongue of his own land".
ReviewingThe Shaping of Middle-earth inMythlore, Nancy-Lou Patterson admiredTolkien's prose and was especially impressed byTolkien's artwork, as seen in the illustrations of thecosmology of Arda in theAmbarkanta.[3]
Tom Shippey comments inThe Road to Middle-earth that the manuscripts ofShaping and the other early volumes reveal Tolkien's tendency to "[fiddle]" about, or in Tolkien's own phrase inThe Notion Club Papers "to be for everniggling [Shippey's italics], altering, refining, wavering, according to your linguistic mood and to your changes in taste". Shippey describes the effect as "at best confusing, at worst irritating".[4]
