The Book of Lost Tales

Though they cover a broadly similar history, the Tales are very different from The Silmarillion. Firstly the Tales are more complex and detailed than The Silmarillion: they are written in a less formal but more archaic style and include many obsolete words and phrases. Secondly the interaction between the different Elf-races is profoundly different: the exiled Noldoli (or "gnomes", the Noldor of the later histories) suffer decisive defeat much earlier and become slaves of the enemy they had sought to punish. Thus when Thingol feels disdain for Beren it is because the latter is a gnome (not a mortal human) and therefore a thrall of Melko (an earlier name for Melkor).[Note 1]

While many of the names in the book are identical or close to those in the later versions, some of them bear almost no resemblance to their final forms. Tolkien changed names rather frequently, sometimes with several new variants (rejected in turn) written in a single manuscript. Confusingly, sometimes the name applied to one thing is later used to refer to something quite different, the original use abandoned. For example, the house of Elves called "Teleri" in The Book of Lost Tales is not the same as that of The Silmarillion (see Teleri). The original usage of "Teleri" developed until the name became "Vanyar", while the house of Elves called "Solosimpi" inherited the name "Teleri".[Note 1]

In the frame story of the book, a time-travelling mortal Man visits the Elvish Isle of Tol Eressëa where he learns the history of its inhabitants. In the earlier versions this man is named Eriol and is of some vague north European origin. In later versions he becomes Ælfwine, an Englishman of the Middle-ages.[Note 1]

There are more changes visible within the book, and it is not internally consistent, partially because even while still writing it Tolkien began rewriting earlier parts as his ideas about the world changed. The Tales were eventually abandoned, but they were resurrected in part as the "Sketch of the Mythology" which would become the Silmarillion.[Note 1]

Navigable diagram of Tolkien's legendarium. The Book of Lost Tales is among his earliest Middle-earth writings.

The following is a direct comparison between the contents of the early Book of Lost Tales and the later sketches that became The Silmarillion. Although one of the Lost Tales often corresponds to more tales from The Silmarillion, still the narrative in the Lost Tales is more extended (typically, 50% pages more). In J. R. R. Tolkien's notebooks, the fourth and fifth tales were a single one, told by the character Meril-i-Turinqi, but Christopher Tolkien decided to separate them because of their length. The same applies to the sixth and seventh tales, told by Lindo.[Note 1]

The science fiction critic Dave Langford reviewed The Book of Lost Tales II for White Dwarf #59, stating that he had mixed feelings about it, since while it provided some added depth, he was not sure that every detail was worth "annotating with such ghastly solemnity."[2]

The science fiction author Colin Greenland reviewed The Book of Lost Tales for Imagine magazine, and stated that "Those who prefer their fairy-tales sophisticated, in weighty prose with scholarly footnotes and appendices, will plunge joyously into J R R Tolkien's first Book of Lost Tales."[3]

The Tolkien scholar Vladimir Brljak, writing in Tolkien Studies, notes that Tolkien's comment on Beowulf, that it was already antiquarian when written, and is now "an echo of an echo", bringing poignant vistas of sad times long gone by, was also a defence of his own writings, where he followed the Beowulf poet in deliberately seeking to create an impression of depth. He did this in the two Books of Lost Tales by creating "an intricate metafictional structure", embedding his works in a framework of " translations of redactions of ancient works, telling of things even more ancient." Brljak argues that this framework is "both the cornerstone and crowning achievement of Tolkien's mature literary work."[4]

Part I:

• Review by Paul M. Lloyd (1984) in Fantasy Review, June 1984[5]
• Review by Darrell Schweitzer (1984) in Science Fiction Review, Fall 1984
• Review by Judith Hanna (1985) in Paperback Inferno, #55

Part II:

• Review by Brian Stableford (1984) in Fantasy Review, December 1984[6]
• Review by Andy Sawyer (1986) in Paperback Inferno, #63

• Unfinished Tales (1980)
• The Children of Húrin (2007)