Arda Kompendium

The Book of Lost Tales

HoME 1-2 — the original legendarium of the 1910s: the Cottage of Lost Play and the first Tales

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Nature

The earliest continuous narrative of the legendarium, written from 1916-1920 and published by Christopher Tolkien as The History of Middle-earth volumes 1-2. An English mariner, Eriol (later Ælfwine), reaches the western isle of Tol Eressëa and is told the “Tales” in the Cottage of Lost Play by the Eldar. These tellings are the first prose forms of what would become the Silmarillion — the gods already the Valar, Melko their adversary, and the whole cast of the elder world — but the names, the order, and the atmosphere differ widely from the published form.

Contents

Part One — The Book of Lost Tales I:

  • The Cottage of Lost Play ()
  • The Music of the Ainur ()
  • The Coming of the Valar and the Building of Valinor
  • The Chaining of Melko
  • The Coming of the Elves and the Making of Kôr
  • The Theft of Melko and the Darkening of Valinor
  • The Flight of the Noldoli
  • The Tale of the Sun and Moon
  • The Hiding of Valinor ()

Part Two — The Book of Lost Tales II:

  • The Tale of Tinúviel ()
  • Turambar and the Foalókë (The Tale of Turambar)
  • The Fall of Gondolin (The Tale of the Fall of Gondolin)
  • The Nauglafring — the Necklace of the Dwarves
  • The Tale of Eärendel
  • The History of Eriol or Ælfwine and the End of the Tales

The great tales of Tinúviel, Turambar and Eärendil appear here in their first, romantic form — Elves as Noldoli and Solosimpi, the rebellion told as the Flight of the Noldoli, Tuor’s journey the fullest early version.

Composition

The tales were written in exercise-books during and just after the First World War; Christopher Tolkien transcribed them with linking commentary, showing the young mythology pouring out at speed and then being reworked for the next twenty years. His role as editor — restoring Eriol, disentangling the “Cottage of Lost Play” frame, and recording the differences from the 1977 Silmarillion — is exactly what makes the volumes the vault’s record of the oldest stratum.

Verknüpfte Seiten

The Tale of TurambarThe Tale of the Fall of GondolinThe Music of the AinurThe Hiding of ValinorThe Tale of TuorNarn i Chîn HúrinLay of LeithianThe Fall of Gondolin (book)Beren and Lúthien (book)The Great TalesTol EressëaQuenta SilmarillionThe Silmarillion (the book)Concordance — A to ZThe Tale of TinúvielThe Cottage of Lost PlayThe History of Middle-earthThe Book of Lost Tales Part TwoEriol
Werke: die Quellen sind seitenübergreifend die Bücher von J.R.R. und Christopher Tolkien (Silmarillion, Hobbit, Herr der Ringe, Unfinished Tales, History of Middle-earth, Nature of Middle-earth u. a.) — eigene Zusammenfassung. Siehe die Concordance und den README der Quelle für die Einzelbelege.
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