At the end of 1937 J. R. R. Tolkien reluctantly set aside his now greatly elaborated work on the myths and heroic legends of Valinor and Middle-earth and began The Lord of the Rings. This fifth volume of The History of Middle-earth, edited by Christopher Tolkien, completes the presentation of the whole compass of his writing on those themes up to that time. Later forms of the Annals of Valinor and the Annals of Beleriand had been composed, The Silmarillion was nearing completion in a greatly amplified version, and a new Map had been made; the myth of the Music of Ainur had become a separate work; and the legend of the Downfall of Numenor had already entered in a primitive form, introducing the cardinal ideas of the World Made Round and the Straight Path into the vanished West. Closely associated with this was the abandoned 'time-travel' story The Lost Road, which was to link the world of Numenor and Middle-earth with the legends of many other times and people. A long essay (The Lhammas) had been written on the ever more complex relations of the languages and dialects of Middle-earth; and an 'etymological dictionary' had been undertaken, in which a great number of words and names in the Elvish languages were registered and their formation explained - thus providing by far the most extensive account of their vocabularies that has appeared. Grafton. An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers. 77 - 85 Fulham Palace Road, Hammersmith, London W6 8JB. Published by Grafton 1992 98765432 First published in Great Britain by Unwin Hyman 1987 (C) Unwin Hyman Ltd 1987 TM @ 1990 Frank Richard Williamson and Christopher Reuel Tolkien, executors of the estate of the late John Ronald Reuel Tolkien. ISBN 0 261 10225 7. Printed in Great Britain by HarperCollinsManufacturing Glasgow. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.