La série des History of Middle-earth a été publiée en douze livres par les soins de Christopher Tolkien. A la fois publication d'inédits de son père, de différentes versions d'un même évènement, d'analyse par Christopher ; les HoMe sont un travail majeur de sauvegarde de l'oeuvre de Tolkien. Mis à part les contes perdus, ces livres n'ont pas été traduits en français. Voici les 4ème de couverture des HoMe, quand vous aurez compris les trésors que ces livres recèlent il ne vous restera plus qu'à faire un petit tour en Grande-Bretagne...) (A noter toutefois que chaque livre vaut (environ) la modique somme de 15 euros :(

Vous pouvez remercier la FEE car voici plus d'explications sur les HoMe. Pour chaque tome est fait un résumé, dit ce que vous y trouverez précisément, ce que telle lecture vous apportera etc. tout cela dans la langue de Molière !

1. The Book of Lost Tales 1
2. The Book of Lost Tales 2
3. The Lays of Beleriand
4. The Shapping of Middle-Earth
5. The Loast Road
6. The Return of the Shadow
7. The Treason of Isengard
8. The War of the Ring
9. Sauron Defeated
10. Morgoth's Ring
11. The War of the Jewels
12. The People of Middle-Earth

1. The Book of Lost Tales 1

The Book of Lost Tales stands at the beginning of the entire conception of Middle-earth and Valinor, for the Tales were the first form of the myths and legends that came to be called The Silmarillion. Embedded in English legend and English asssociation, they are set in the narrative frame of a great westward voyage over the Ocean by a mariner named Eriol (or Ælfwine) to Tol Eressëa, the Lonely Isle, where Elves dwelt; from them he learned their true history, the Lost Tales of Elfinesse. In the Tales are found the earliest accounts and original ideas of Gods and Elves, Dwarves, Balrogs and Orcs of the Silmarils and the Two Trees of Valinor; of Nargothrond and Gondolin ; of the geography and cosmology of the invented world.

Le Livre des Contes Perdus

Rem : Ceci n'est pas une traduction mais la quatrième de couverture de la version française de l'édition pocket

Voici l'histoire des Temps rêvés par le Premier Être avant le commencement des Âges, des Temps créés par le Premier Être à partir de l'Eveil des Dieux et des 37000 années qui s'ensuivirent. Un voyageur venu d'Orient navigua jusqu'à l'Ile Solitaire où les Elfes lui contèrent ces contes ; la tradition s'en est maintenu à nos jours, ou peu s'en faut. Comment les Valar chantèrent le monde ; comment s'éveillèrent les Nains, puis les Elfes, puis les Hommes ; comment furent allumées les Lampes, les deux Arbres, les trois Silmarils et finalement le Soleil et la Lune, lumière des Trois Âges ; comment le traître cosmique, Melke -dit Melkor, dit Morgoth- se rebella, et les liens qui l'enchaînèrent ; comment Valinor fut construit par l'action des Valar, puis assombri ; comment s'enfuirent les Noldoli, qu'on appela depuis les Noldor ; toutes ces histoires, et beaucoup d'autres, ont été couchées sur le manuscrit. Ouvrez-le avec précaution ; soufflez d'une haleine légère toute la poussière amassée sur les pages ; mettez votre jeune doigt sur ces vielles lettres et lisez.

2. The Book of Lost Tales 2

This second part of The Book of Lost Tales includes the tales of Beren and Lúthien, Túrin and the Dragon, and the only full narratives of the Necklace of the Dwarves and the Fall of Gondolin. Each tale is followed by a commentary in the form of a short essay, together with the text of associated poems, and contains extensive information on names and vocabulary in the earliest Elvish languages.

3. The Lays of Beleriand

This, the third volume of The History of Middle-earth, gives us a privileged insight into the creation of the mythology of Middle-earth, through the alliterative verse tales of two of the most crucial stories in Tolkien's world -those of Túrin and Lúthien. The first of the poems is the unpublished Lay of the Children of Húrin, narrating on a grand scale the tragedy of Túrin Turambar. The second is the moving Lay of Leithian, the chief source of the tale of Beren and Lúthien in The Silmarillion, telling of the Quest of the Silmaril and the encounter with Morgoth in his subterrnean fortress. Accompanying the poems are commentaries on the evolution of the history of the Elder Days. Also included is the notable criticism of The Lay of Leithian by C.S. Lewis, who read the poem in 1929.

4. The Shaping of Middle-Earth

In this fourth volume of The History of Middle-earth, the shaping of the chronological and geographical structure of the legends of Middle-earth and Valinor is spread before us. We are introduced to the hitherto unknown Ambarkanta or 'Shape of the World', the only account ever given on the nature of the imagined Universe, accompanied by maps and diagrams of the world before and after the cataclysms of The War of the Gods and the Downfall of Númenor. The first map of Beleriand is also reproduced and discussed. In The Annals of Valinor and The Annals of Beleriand we are shown how the chronology of the First Age was moulded ; and the tale is told Ælfwine, the Englishman who voyaged into the True West and came to Tol Eressea, the Lonely Isle, where he learned the ancient history of Elves and Men. Also included are the original 'Silmarillion' of 1926, and the Quenta Noldorinva of 1930 -the only version of the myths and legends of the First Age that JRR Tolkien completed to their end.

5. The Loast Road and other writings

At the end of 1937, JRR Tolkien reluctantly set aside his word on the myths and heroic legends of Valinor and Middle-earth and began The Lord of the Rings. The Fifth volume of The History of Middle-earth completes the examination of his writing 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 form, and a new Map had been made. The legend of those central idaes : the World Made Round and the Straight abandoned 'time-travel' story The Lost Road , linking the world of Númenor and Middle-earth with legends of many other times and peoples. Also included in this volume is The Lhammas, an essay on the complex languages and dialects of Middle-earth, and an 'etymological dictionary' containing an extensive account of Elvish vocabularies.

6. The Return of the Shadow

The Return of the Shadow is the first part of the history of the creation of The Lord of the Rings, a fascinating study of Tolkien's great masterpiece, from its inception to the end of the first volume, The Fellowship of the Ring. In The Return of the Shadow (the abandoned title of the first part of The Lord of the Rings) we see how Bilbo's 'magic' ring evovlved inte the supremely dangerous Ruling Ring of the Dard Lord; and the precise, and astonishing unforeseen, moment when a Black Rider first rode into the Shire. The character of the hobbit called Trotter (afterwards Strider or Aragorn) is developed, though his true identity seems to be an insoluble problem. Frodo's companions undergo many changes of name and personality ; and other major figures appear in unfamiliar guises : a sinister Treebeard, in the league with the Enemy, and a ferocious, malevolent Farmer Maggot. The book comes complete with reproduction of the first maps and facsimile pages from the earliest manuscripts.

7. The Treason of Isengard

The Treason of Isengard continues the account of the creation of The Lord of the Rings started in the earlier volume, The Return of the Shadow. It traces the great expansion of the tale into new lands and new peoples south and east of the Misty Mountains : the emergence of Lothlórien, of Ents, of the Riders of Rohan, and of Saruman the White in the fortress of Isengard. In brief outlines and pencilled drafts dashed down on scraps of paper are seen the first entry of Galadriel, the earliest ideas of the history of Gondor, and the original meeting of Aragorn and Eowyn, its significance destined to be wholly transformed. The book also contains a full account of the original map which was to be the basis of the emerging geography of Middle-earth ; and an appendix examines the Runic alphabets, with illustrations of the forms and an analysis of the Runes used in the Book of Mazarbul foud beside Balin's tomb in Moria.

8. The War of the Ring

The War of the Ring takes up the story of The Lord of the Rings with the Battle of Helm's Deep and the drowning of Isengard by the Ents, continues with the journey of Frodo, Sam and Gollum to the pass of Cirith Ungol, describes the war in Gondor, and ends with the parley between Gandalf and the ambassador of the Dark Lord before the Black Gate of Mordor. Unforeseen developments that would become central to the narrative are seen at the moment of their emergence : the palantír bursting into fragments on the stairs of Orthanc, its nature as unknown to the author as to those who saw it fall, or the entry of Faramir into the story ('I am sure I did not invent him, I did not even want him, though I like him, but there he came walking through the woods of Ithilien'). The book is illustrated with plans and drawings of the changing conceptions of Orthanc, Dunharrow, Minas Tirith and the tunnels of Shelob's Lair.

9. Sauron Defeated

In the first section of Sauron Defeated Christopher Tolkien completes his fascinating study of The Lord of the Rings. Beginning with Sam's rescue of Frodo from the Tower of Cirith Ungol, and giving a very different account of the Scouring of the Shire, this section ends with versions of the hitherto unpublished Epilogue, in which, years after the departure of Bilbo and Frodo from the Grey Havens, Sam attempts to answer his children's questions. The second section is an edition of The Notion Club Papers, now published for the first time. These mysterious papers, discoverd in the early years of the twenty-first century, report the discussions of an Oxford club in the years 1986-7, in which, after a number of topics, the centre of interest turns to the legend of Atlantis, the strange communications received by other members of the club from the past, and the violent irruption of the legend into the North-west Europe. Closely associated with the Papers is a new version of the Drowning of Anadûnê, which constitutes the third part of the book. At this time the language of the Men of the West, Adûnaic, was first provided by Arundel Lowdham, a member of the Notion Club, who learned it in his dreams.

10. Morgoth's Ring

In Morgoth's Ring, the first of two companion volumes, Christopher Tolkien describes and documents the later history of The Silmarillion, from the time when his father turned again to 'the Matter of the Elder Days' after The Lord of the Rings was at last achieved. The text of the Annals of Aman, the 'Blessed Land' in the far West, is given in full ; while in writings hitherto unknown is seen the nature of the problems that J.R.R. Tolkien explored in his later years, as new and radical ideas, portending upheaval in the old narratives emerged at the heart of the mythology, and as the destinies of Men and Elves, mortals and immortals, became of central significance, together with a vastly enlarged perception of the evil of Melkor, the Shadow upon Arda. The second part of this history of the later Silmarillion is concerned with the developments in the legends of Beleriand after the completion of The Lord of the Rings.

11. The War of the Jewels

In The War of the Jewels Christopher Tolkien takes up his account of the later history of The Silmarillion from the point where it was left in Morgoth's Ring. The story now returns to Middle-earth, and the ruinous conflict of the High Elves and the Men who were their allies with the power of the Dard Lord. With the publication in this book of all J.R.R. Tolkien's later narrative writing concerned with the las centuries of the First Age, the long history of The Silmarillion, from its beginning in The Book of Lost Tales, is completed ; and the enigmatic state of the word at his death can be understood. The book contains the full text of the Grey Annals, the primary record of The War of the Jewels, and a major story of Middle-earth now published for the first time : the tale of the disaster that overtook the forest people of Brethil when Húrin the Steadfast came among them after his release from long years of captivité in Angband, the fortress of Morgoth.

12 The People of Middle-Earth

When J.R.R. Tolkien laid aside The Silmarillion in 1937 the extension of the original 'mythology' into later Ages of the world had scarcely begun. It was in the Appendices of The Lord of the Rings that there emerged a comprehensive historical structure and chronology of the Second and Third Ages, embracing all the diverse strands that came together on the War of the Ring. The difficulty he found in providing these Appendices, leading to delay in the publication of the Return of the King, is well known ; but in The Peoples of Middle-earth Christopher Tolkien shows that early forms of these words already existed years before, in essays and records, differing greatly from the published forms. He traces the evolution of the Calendars, the Hobbit genealogies, the Westron language or Common Speech (from which may words and names are recorded thar were afterwards lost), and the chronological structure of the later Ages. Other writings by J.R.R. Tolkien are included in this final volume of The History of Middle-earth, chiefly deriving from his last years, when new insights and new constructions still freely arose as he pondered the history that he created. The book concludes with two soon-abandoned stories, both unique in the setting of time and place : The New Shadow in Gondor of the Fourth Age, and the tale of Tal-elmar, in which the coming of the dreaded Númenóran ships is seen through the eyes of men of Middle-earth in the Dark Years.