The Silmarillion

First published in 1977 after being constructed from J.R.R. Tolkien's notes by his son Christopher, The Silmarillion contains much of the history of Middle-Earth before the events of the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. It is perhaps best thought of in terms of a modern history book constructed from several contradictory sources penned by people with agendas and bad filings systems; containing conjecture, racial stereotypes, claims of religious superiority, a lot of things ending in -ism, and the idea that Fingon was Gil-Galad's father.

Excluding the foreword, index of names and appendix, the book is divided into five main segments; Ainulindalë, Valaquenta, Quenta Silmarillion, Akallabêth, and Of The Rings Of Power And The Third Age.

Warning: contains conlangs and tears unnumbered.

While reading The Silmarillion people often cry themselves to sleep over the deaths of their favourite characters.

the history of middle-earth

The History of Middle-earth (commonly referred to as HoME) is, like the better known Silmarillion, a compilation of the work of J.R.R. Tolkien put together and published by his son Christopher after his death. If your thought the Lord of the Rings was a brick you ain't seen nothing yet – HoME is comprised of twelve volumes of coffee table adorning glory (not including the index which gets its own book).

HoME is comprised of older versions of stories found elsewhere and material that didn't make it into the Lord of the Rings or the Silmarillion.

Met by cries “but this contradicts the canon!” HoME is frequently perused by hardcore Tolkien fans trying to figure out just how biased the imaginary in-universe authors of the texts really are and who the hell Tom Bombadil is anyway.

In addition to being an interesting read The History of Middle-earth can also be used to press laundry and kill cockroaches.