Second volume in a series of hard boxes celebrating Christopher Tolkien's literary achievement, with double-sided covers. It includes the works The Lays of Beleriand, The Shaping of Middle-earth, and The Lost Road, which contain the early myths and legends that led to the writings of The Silmarillion.

The Lays of Beleriand offer us a privileged glimpse into the creation of Middle-earth's mythology through stories in alliterative poetry, significant in Tolkien's world – those of Turin and Beren and Luthien. Accompanied by commentary on the development of the story of the Elder Days, it also includes C.S. Lewis's significant critique of The Lay of Leithian, who read the poem in 1929.

In The Shaping of Middle-earth, the chronological and geographical structure of the legends of Middle-earth and Valinor is analyzed. We discover the hitherto unknown Ambarkanta or ‘Shape of the World’, the unique description of the nature of the fictional 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. It also includes the original 1926 edition of The Silmarillion and the Quenta Noldorinwa of 1930, the only complete version of the myths and legends of the First Age by J.R.R. Tolkien.

The Lost Road completes the examination of Tolkien's writing before the beginning of The Lord of the Rings, presenting later forms of the annals of Valinor and Beleriand, the legend of the Downfall of Númenor, and the abandoned ‘time travel’ story The Lost Road, which connects the world of Númenor and Middle-earth with the legends of many other ages and peoples.

Published together for the first time, these three books cover an exciting period of forty years in Christopher Tolkien's career, dedicated to presenting the works of his father, J.R.R. Tolkien, on Middle-earth, a unique achievement celebrating the greatest invented world in fantasy literature. Pages: 1200, Dimensions: 14.9x14.9cm