View source for The Shaping of Middle-earth

{{Short description|Fourth of the 12 volumes of 'The History of Middle-earth'}}
{{Use British English Oxford spelling|date=December 2010}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}}
{{Infobox book
 |name = The Shaping of Middle-earth
 |image = ShapingMiddleEarth.png<!--this image preferred here as visually distinctive and more likely to be recognised by readers-->
 |caption = 
 |editor = [[Christopher Tolkien]]
 |author=J. R. R. Tolkien
 |country = United Kingdom
 |language = English
 |genre = [[High fantasy]]<br />Literary analysis
 |subject = [[Tolkien's legendarium]]
 |publisher=[[George Allen & Unwin]] (UK)
 |release_date = 1986
 |media_type = Print (hardback and paperback)
 |pages = 400 (paperback)
 |isbn = 978-0-261-10218-7
 |preceded_by = [[The Lays of Beleriand]]
 |followed_by = [[The Lost Road and Other Writings]]
 |series=''[[The History of Middle-earth]]''
 |release_number= 4
}}
'''''The Shaping of Middle-earth – The Quenta, The Ambarkanta and The Annals'''''<ref name="FullTitle">{{cite book |first=J. R. R. |last=Tolkien |author-link=J. R. R. Tolkien |editor=Christopher Tolkien |editor-link=Christopher Tolkien |title=[[The History of Middle-earth]] |volume=4: The Shaping of Middle-earth: The Quenta, The Ambarkanta and The Annals |year=2002 |orig-year=1986 |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |location=London |isbn=0-261-10218-4 |pages=71–72<!--Quenta-->, 88–89<!--Annals-->, 111<!--Ambarkanta-->}}</ref> (1986) is the fourth volume of [[Christopher Tolkien]]'s 12-volume series ''[[The History of Middle-earth]]'', in which he analysed the unpublished manuscripts of his father [[J. R. R. Tolkien]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Whittingham |first=Elizabeth A. |author-link=Elizabeth Whittingham |title=The Evolution of Tolkien's Mythology: A Study of the History of Middle-earth |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=22EqDwAAQBAJ |year=2017 |publisher=[[McFarland & Company|McFarland]] |isbn=978-1-4766-1174-7}}</ref>

== Book ==

=== Contents ===

{{Tolkien's legendarium|upright=1.7|caption=Navigable diagram of [[Tolkien's legendarium]]. Volume IV, ''The Shaping of Middle-earth'', sketches out his mythology and contains the more developed account, ''Quenta Noldorinwa''.}}

In ''The Shaping of Middle-earth'' the gradual transition from the "primitive" [[legendarium]] of ''[[The Book of Lost Tales]]'' to what would become ''[[The Silmarillion]]'' is described, and it contains a text which could be seen as the first "Silmarillion": the "Sketch of the Mythology".

Three other parts are the ''Ambarkanta'' or "Shape of the World", a collection of [[Tolkien's maps|maps and diagrams of the world described by Tolkien]]; and the Annals of [[Valinor]] and [[Beleriand]], chronological works which started out as timelines but gradually turned into full narratives.

# Prose fragments following the Lost Tales — brief, uncompleted texts which continue on from ''The Book of Lost Tales''
# The earliest "Silmarillion" — also referred to as the "Sketch of the Mythology", this is the start of the Silmarillion proper
# The ''Quenta Noldorinwa'' — a further developed version of the "Sketch", the first full narrative since the legends and the only instance where Tolkien completed it. It is notable for having the latest full narrative of [[The Fall of Gondolin|the story of Tuor and the fall of the hidden Elven city of Gondolin]].
# The first "Silmarillion" map — a reproduction of the first map of Beleriand
# The ''Ambarkanta'' — [[Cosmology of Tolkien's legendarium|cosmological essays]], maps, and diagrams
# The earliest ''Annals of Valinor''
# The earliest ''Annals of Beleriand''

The ''Annals of Valinor'' and ''Annals of Beleriand'' show the earliest outline of the chronology of the [[First Age]] as envisaged in the early 1930s.

The next volume in the series, ''[[The Lost Road and Other Writings]]'' (1987), outlined revisions to both texts made c. 1937 as "The Later Annals of Valinor" and "The Later Annals of Beleriand".

=== Inscription ===

There is an inscription in the [[Fëanorian]] characters ([[Tengwar]], an alphabet Tolkien has devised for High-Elves) in the first pages of every ''History of Middle-earth'' volume, written by Christopher Tolkien and describing the contents of the book. The inscription in Book IV reads: "Herein are the Quenta Noldorinwa, the History of the Gnomes, the Ambarkanta or Shape of the World by Rúmil, the Annals of Valinor and the Annals of Beleriand by Pengolod, the Wise of Gondolin with maps of the world in the Elder Days and translations made by [[Ælfwine (Tolkien)|Ælfwine the Mariner]] of England into [[Old English|the tongue of his own land]]".

== Reception ==

Reviewing ''The Shaping of Middle-earth'' in ''[[Mythlore]]'', Nancy-Lou Patterson admired [[Tolkien's prose style|Tolkien's prose]] and was especially impressed by [[Tolkien's artwork]], as seen in the illustrations of the [[Cosmology of Tolkien's legendarium|cosmology of Arda]] in the ''Ambarkanta''.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bratman |first1=David |author1-link=David Bratman |date=2023 |title=Review: Nancy-Lou Patterson Reviews Books by and About Dorothy L. Sayers, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, and Others by Nancy-Lou Patterson, edited by Emily E. Auger and Janet Brennan Croft |url=https://dc.swosu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3179&context=mythlore |journal=[[Mythlore]] |volume=41 |issue=2 |page=267}}</ref>

[[Tom Shippey]] comments in ''[[The Road to Middle-earth]]'' that the manuscripts of ''Shaping'' and the other early volumes reveal Tolkien's tendency to "[fiddle]" about, or in Tolkien's own phrase in ''The Notion Club Papers'' "to be for ever ''niggling'' [Shippey's italics], altering, refining, wavering, according to your linguistic mood and to your changes in taste". Shippey describes the effect as "at best confusing, at worst irritating".{{sfn|Shippey|2005|pp=332–333}}

== See also ==

* [[Quenta Silmarillion]]

== References ==

{{reflist}}

== Sources ==

* {{ME-ref|ROAD}} <!--Shippey 2005-->

{{J. R. R. Tolkien}}
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[[Category:Middle-earth books]]
[[Category:Fantasy books by series]]
[[Category:The History of Middle-earth|*04]]
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