A collection of early stories and original ideas by J.R.R. Tolkien, presented and analyzed by his son Christopher Tolkien. Each tale is accompanied by notes and commentary.

The Book of Lost Tales was the first major work of imagination by J.R.R. Tolkien, begun in 1916-17 when he was twenty-five years old and left incomplete several years later. It stands at the beginning of the entire conception of Middle-earth and Valinor, for these tales were the first form of the myths and legends that came to be called The Silmarillion.

The Lost Road includes an account of the fall of Numenor and its effects on Middle-earth leading up to the Third Age.

The first of two companion volumes which documents the later writing of The Silmarillion, Tolkien's epic tale of war. After The Lord of the Rings was at last achieved, J. R. R. Tolkien turned his attention once again to "the Matter of the Elder Days." The text of the Annals of Aman, the "Blessed Land" in the far West, is given in full; while in writings hitherto unknown is seen the nature of the problems that Tolkien explored in his later years, as...