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Book Home  Books Information War of the Jewels
War of the Jewels
The War of the Jewels is the 11th volume of Christopher
Tolkien's series The History of Middle-earth, analysing the unpublished
manuscripts of his father J. R. R. Tolkien.
It is the second volume — Morgoth's Ring being
the first — to explore the later 1951 Silmarillion drafts (those
written after the completion of The Lord of the Rings.)
This volume includes:
The second part of the 1951 Silmarillion drafts
An expanded account of the "Grey Annals" — the history
of Beleriand after the coming of the Elves.
Additional narratives involving Húrin and the tragedy of his
children (see Narn i Chîn Húrin). "The Wanderings
of Húrin" is the conclusion to the "Narn". This
was not included in the final Silmarillion because Christopher Tolkien
feared that the heavy compression which would have been necessary
to make it a stylistic match with the rest of the book would have
been too difficult and would have made the story overly complex and
difficult to read.
Christopher Tolkien's explanation of how he, with the collaboration
of fantasy author Guy Gavriel Kay, constructed Chapter 22 of the Silmarillion,
since none of the texts left by Tolkien for this purpose were up-to-date
enough to serve the purpose. In particular, the old texts all have
Thingol portrayed as a miserly swindler who cheats the Dwarves out
of their payment, and the portrayal of the Girdle of Melian in the
older stories is much weaker than the impenetrable barrier of the
post-LotR writings.
"Quendi and Eldar" which discusses in greater detail the
origin of the Elves and their sunderings.
Tolkien's exploration of the origins of the Ents and the great Eagles
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