The History of Middle-earth (abbreviated sometimes as HoME or THOME) is a 13-volume series of books that collects and analyses material relating to Middle-earth, twelve of which were compiled and edited by the son of J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien. The series is collectively a full study of the evolution of Tolkien's legendarium, featuring hundreds of transcripts, revisions, and poems.
Materials relating to The Hobbit are not included, but are covered instead in the separate authorized book, The History of The Hobbit: Mr Baggins and Return to Bag-End, by John D. Rateliff.
Overview[]
Most of the content consists of earlier versions of already published works by Tolkien, while other portions are completely new material. These books are exceedingly detailed, to the point of documenting scraps of paper (of J.R.R. Tolkien's) that had been erased multiple times with many footnotes. Christopher Tolkien thoroughly documents the history of the writing of the Middle-earth stories, with as much detail as his father documented the fictional history of Middle-earth itself.
The first two books introduce readers to The Book of Lost Tales, a mythology for England from which Tolkien drew ideas that eventually became the 'Silmarillion' mythology. The next three books follow the history of the emerging early mythology, usually known as The Silmarillion. The discussion of the published book is deferred until book ten. Books six through nine discuss the development of The Lord of the Rings, book nine's second half discussing the story of Númenor (the first versions of which were covered in Book Five). Book ten and eleven discuss the Annals of Beleriand and Annals of Aman, works which were developed together with the Silmarillion tradition and which also served as source material for the published Silmarillion. Book twelve discusses the development of the Appendices to The Lord of the Rings, followed by some assorted essays from Tolkien's last years of life.
Though not officially labeled as such, Unfinished Tales and The Nature of Middle-earth are often considered the unofficial thirteenth and fourteenth volumes of the series.[citation needed]
- The Book of Lost Tales Part One (1983)
- The Book of Lost Tales Part Two (1984)
- The Lays of Beleriand (1985)
- The Shaping of Middle-earth: The Quenta, The Ambarkanta, and The Annals (1986)
- The Lost Road and Other Writings (1987)
- The Return of the Shadow (1988)£
- The Treason of Isengard (1989)£
- The War of the Ring (1990)£
- Sauron Defeated (1992)£
- Morgoth's Ring (1993)
- The War of the Jewels (1994)
- The Peoples of Middle-earth (1996)
- The History of Middle-earth: Index (2002)
- £ Released as part of the four volume set, The History of The Lord of the Rings.
The official thirteenth volume, The History of Middle-earth: Index, completely integrates all indices from the other twelve books into one index.
After the twelfth volume was released, the most prominent Tolkien scholars at the time studied the series, and wrote essays on it, culminating in Tolkien's Legendarium: Essays on The History of Middle-earth, published in 2000.
Editions[]
The History of Middle-earth was first published by Houghton Mifflin Company starting in 1986, as single-colored hardcover volumes. In 2003, Del Rey Books (of Ballantine Books) published smaller mass-market paperback editions, with illustrated covers.
The collection was published as a single, three-volume set for the first time in 2002, by HarperCollins. In 2015, HarperCollins released a paperback edition of each volume, with black spines and cover-art by John Howe. In 2017, they released a special "collector's edition" of the series contained in three large, boxed volumes.
Gallery[]
Translations[]
| Foreign Language | Translated name |
| Afrikaans | Die Geskiedenis van Middelste-aarde |
| Albanian | Historia e Tokës së Mesme |
| Amharic | መካከለኛ-የምድር ታሪክ |
| Arabic | تاريخ الأرض الوسطى |
| Azerbaijani | Orta Yerin Tarixi |
| Belarusian Cyrillic | Гісторыя Міжзем'е |
| Bengali | মধ্যম পৃথিবীর ইতিহাস |
| Bosnian | Povijest Međuzemlja |
| Bulgarian Cyrillic | Историята на средната земя |
| Burmese | အလယ်အလတ်မြေ၏သမိုင်း |
| Cambodian | ប្រវត្តិសាស្រ្តនៃផែនដីពាក់កណ្តាល |
| Catalan | La Història de la Terra Mitjana |
| Cebuano | Ang Kasaysayan sa mga tunga-tunga-yuta |
| Chinese | 中土世界的歷史 |
| Corsican | A Storia di a Terra Media |
| Croatian | Povijest Međuzemlja |
| Czech | Historie Středozemě |
| Danish | Historien om Midgård |
| Dutch | De Geschiedenis van Midden-aarde |
| Esperanto | La Historio de Mezo-tero |
| Estonian | Keskmaa Ajalugu |
| Finnish | Keski-maan Historia |
| French | L'Histoire de la Terre du Milieu |
| Frisian | De Skiednis fan midden-ierde |
| Galician | A Historia da Terra-media |
| Georgian | შუახმელეთის ისტორია |
| German | Die Geschichte Mittelerdes |
| Greek | Η Ιστορία της Μέσης Γης |
| Gujarati | મધ્યમ પૃથ્વી ઇતિહાસ |
| Hausa | Tarihin Tsakiyar duniya |
| Hebrew | ההיסטוריה של הארץ התיכונה |
| Hindi | मध्य पृथ्वी के इतिहास |
| Hmong | Lub keeb kwm ntawm nruab nrab-lub ntiaj teb |
| Hungarian | Középfölde Históriája |
| Icelandic | Saga af Miðgarði |
| Indonesian | Sejarah Tengah-bumi |
| Irish Gaelic | Stair na lár-domhain |
| Italian | La Storia della Terra di mezzo |
| Japanese | 中つ国の歴史 |
| Javanese | Sajarah Tengah-bumi |
| Kannada | ಇತಿಹಾಸ ಮಧ್ಯಮ ಭೂಮಿಯ |
| Kazakh | Орта-жер тарихы (Cyrillic) Orta-jer tarïxı (Latin) |
| Korean | 가운데땅의 역사 |
| Kurdish | Li ser Dîroka Navîn-erd (Kurmanji) |
| Kyrgyz Cyrillic | Орто жер Тарыхы |
| Laotian | ປະຫວັດສາດຂອງພາກກາງ, ແຜ່ນດິນໂລກi |
| Latvian | Vēsture Vidējā-zemes |
| Lithuanian | Viduržemio istorija |
| Luxembourgish | D'Geschicht vun Mëtt Äerd |
| Macedonian Cyrillic | историјата на Блискиот Земјата |
| Malaysian | Sejarah pertengahan bumi |
| Marathi | मध्य-पृथ्वी इतिहास |
| Maltese | L-istorja ta ' l-ert tan-nofs |
| Mongolian Cyrillic | дунд-дэлхий Түүхийн |
| Nepalese | मध्य-पृथ्वीको इतिहास |
| Norwegian | Historien om Midgard |
| Occitan | l’Istòria de la Tèrra Mejana |
| Pashto | د منځني ځمکه د تاريخ |
| Persian | تاریخ از میانه زمین |
| Polish | Historia Śródziemia |
| Portuguese | A História da Terra-média |
| Punjabi | ਮੱਧ-ਧਰਤੀ ਦੇ ਇਤਿਹਾਸ ਨੂੰ |
| Romanian | Istoria Pământului de Mijloc |
| Russian | История Средиземья |
| Samoan | Le Talafaasolopito o le Lalolagi-ogatotonu |
| Scottish Gaelic | Eachdraidh de Meadhan-talamh |
| Serbian | Повијест Међуземља (Cyrillic) Povijest Međuzemlja (Latin) |
| Sindhi | وچ ۾ زمين جي تاريخ |
| Sinhalese | මැද-පෘථිවිය ඉතිහාසය |
| Spanish | La historia de la Tierra Media |
| Sundanese | Nu Sajarah Tengah-bumi |
| Swahili | Historia ya Dunia-atikati |
| Swedish | Historia Midgård |
| Tajik Cyrillic | Таърихи Миёна-замин |
| Tamil | மத்திய-புவி வரலாறு |
| Tatar | Урта җир тарихы |
| Telugu | మధ్య భూమి యొక్క చరిత్ర |
| Thai | ประวัติศาสตร์มิดเดิลเอิร์ธ |
| Turkish | Orta Dünya Tarihi |
| Turkmen | Orta Ýer Taryhy |
| Ukrainian Cyrillic | Iсторія Середзем'я |
| Urdu | مڈل-زمین کی تاریخ |
| Uzbek | Ўрта жаҳон тарихи (Cyrillic) O'rta jahon tarixi (Latin) |
| Welsh | Hanes Daear Ganol |
| Xhosa | Yeembali KuMbindi-emhlabeni |
| Yiddish | די געשיכטע פון מיטל-ערד |