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Morgoth's Ring

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Morgoth's Ring
EditorChristopher Tolkien
AuthorJ. R. R. Tolkien
LanguageEnglish
SeriesThe History of Middle-earth
Release number
10
SubjectTolkien's legendarium
GenreHigh fantasy
Literary analysis
PublisherGeorge Allen & Unwin (UK)
Publication date
1993
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Media typePrint (hardback and paperback)
Pages496 (paperback)
ISBN978-0261103009
Preceded byThe History of The Lord of the Rings 
Followed byThe War of the Jewels 

Morgoth's Ring (1993) is the tenth volume of Christopher Tolkien's 12-volume series The History of Middle-earth in which he analyses the unpublished manuscripts of his father J. R. R. Tolkien.[1]

Reviewers welcomed the volume, noting that it reveals Tolkien exploring hard questions about his mythology, and struggling to reconcile them, to the extent that he unsuccessfully attempts a destructive reworking of the entire cosmology of Arda.

Book

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Contents

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Diagram of the documents comprising Tolkien's Legendarium, as interpreted very strictly, strictly, or more broadlyThe HobbitThe Lord of the RingsThe SilmarillionUnfinished TalesThe Annotated HobbitThe History of The HobbitThe History of The Lord of the RingsThe Lost Road and Other WritingsThe Notion Club PapersJ. R. R. Tolkien's explorations of time travelThe Book of Lost TalesThe Lays of BeleriandThe Shaping of Middle-earthThe Shaping of Middle-earthMorgoth's RingThe War of the JewelsThe History of Middle-earthNon-narrative elements in The Lord of the RingsLanguages constructed by J. R. R. TolkienTolkien's artworkTolkien's scriptsPoetry in The Lord of the Ringscommons:File:Tolkien's Legendarium.svg
Navigable diagram of Tolkien's legendarium. Morgoth's Ring presents materials related to Quenta Silmarillion.

Morgoth's Ring presents source materials and editorial commentary on the following:

  • Later (1951) revisions of The Silmarillion, showing Tolkien's drastic revisiting and rewriting of his legends.
  • The Annals of Aman — the history of the world from the entry of the Valar into Arda until the Hiding of Valinor after the revolt and exile of the Noldor. It is written in the form of year-by-year entries of varying lengths, much like real-world annals. Tolkien attributes the work to the Noldorin lore-master and linguist Rúmil of Tirion. According to the second typescript, The Annals of Aman were remembered by the Noldorin Exiles in Middle-earth, who transmitted their knowledge to the Men of Númenor, whence it eventually reached Arnor and Gondor. Tolkien wrote The Annals of Aman after the completion of The Lord of the Rings. There are three extant versions of the text, including a carefully emended manuscript, a typescript and its carbon copy, each featuring different corrections and notes, and a typescript of the earlier sections of the text that deviates from the previous typescript. Christopher Tolkien surmises that the first typescript was composed in 1958. A reworking of the earlier Annals of Valinor and connected closely with the narrative of the incomplete 1937 Quenta Silmarillion, The Annals of Aman moves from a compressed narrative style to a fuller accounting of the events of the chronology.
  • "Laws and Customs among the Eldar" — several essays and legends on the Eldar (Elves), particularly their mating and naming customs, and their conceptions of the fëa (soul) and hröa (body).
  • "Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth" — A discussion between two characters, Finrod Felagund, an Elven king, and Andreth, a mortal woman, about the natures of death and immortality, and the ways in which Elves and Men suffer their different sorrows;[a] and about the healing of death by the Resurrection and the Incarnation.
  • "Tale of Adanel" — the Middle-earth version of the Fall, attached to "Athrabeth".
  • "Myths Transformed" — several fragments on Morgoth, Sauron, and the problem of the origin of the Orcs. This section, which proposes inconsistent solutions to the problem, is frequently cited in discussions of Tolkien's legendarium, and represents the author's later-evolved views on some central topics.

Title and inscription

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The title of this volume comes from a statement in one of Tolkien's essays: "Just as Sauron concentrated his power in the One Ring, Morgoth dispersed his power into the very matter of Arda, thus the whole of Middle-earth was Morgoth's Ring".[2]

The title page of each volume of The History of Middle-earth displays an inscription in the Fëanorian characters (Tengwar, an alphabet devised by Tolkien for High-elven), written by Christopher Tolkien and describing the contents of the book. The inscription in Volume X reads: "In this book are given many of the later writings of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien concerning the history of the Elder Days from the Music of the Ainur to the Hiding of Valinor; here much is told of the Sun and Moon; of the immortal Eldar and the death of the Atani; of the beginning of the Orcs and of the evil power of Melkor, the Morgoth, the Black Foe of the World."

Reception

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Reviewing the book for Mythlore, Glen GoodKnight wrote that in it, Christopher Tolkien leads the reader into "new third phase of his father's concept of Middle-earth after the writing of The Lord of the Rings — his recasting and adding to the mythos." In his view, the book is a major "earthquake" bringing "astounding revelations" about Tolkien's development of Middle-earth.[3] One is the "Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth" (The Debate of Finrod and Andreth), meant to be the last item in The Silmarillion's appendix; it presents opinions of death held by Men and Elves. Andreth complains of how unfair Man's short life is, with death imposed by Morgoth, while Finrod emphasises hope.[3] Tolkien comments on the passage that "Finrod has already guessed that the redemptive function was originally specially assigned to Men", leading GoodKnight to observe that Tolkien here aligns "his mythology very closely to his faith and theological belief in the primary world."[3] GoodKnight writes that the materials in the book could have radically changed The Silmarillion, had Tolkien lived to finish it "to his satisfaction".[3]

Charles Noad, reviewing Morgoth's Ring in Mallorn, writes that the volume "contains extraordinary things", including Tolkien's attempts to answer many "hard" questions. He was also, Noad writes, "virtually attempting a [destructive] reinvention of his mythology", including Arda's cosmology, "Elvish reincarnation, the origins of Orcs, and the powers of Morgoth."[4] Noad comments that the attempt to rework the cosmology was an "alarming and destructive débâcle" that would effectively had demythologised his whole mythology, but that Tolkien broadly succeeded in his other attempted problem resolutions. Noad approves of Tolkien's intention to give his planned The Silmarillion shape with the Athrabeth at the end, while the "Great Tales" would have been printed in full as appendices to the text. He praises Christopher Tolkien for his "clarity of exposition ... clothed in expressive grace".[4]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ These themes are discussed further at The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen#Love and death.

References

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  1. ^ Whittingham, Elizabeth A. (2017). The Evolution of Tolkien's Mythology: A Study of the History of Middle-earth. McFarland. ISBN 978-1-4766-1174-7.
  2. ^ J. R. R. Tolkien (1993). Christopher Tolkien (ed.). Morgoth's Ring. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin. p. xi. ISBN 0-395-68092-1.
  3. ^ a b c d GoodKnight, Glen (15 March 1994). "A Thing Wholly Different". Mythlore. 20 (2). article 10.
  4. ^ a b Noad, Charles (September 1993). "[Review of Morgoth's Ring]". Mallorn (30): 33–42, 49. JSTOR 45320367.