The Lost Road and Other Writings

"The Lost Road and Other Writings" is the fifth volume of "The History of Middle-earth", a series of compilations of drafts and essays written by J. R. R. Tolkien. It was edited and published posthumously in 1987 by Christopher Tolkien.

It contains the following pieces:

# "The Early History of the Legend" — an introduction to the following two pieces, detailing how Tolkien's correspondence with C. S. Lewis led to the writing of "The Lost Road".
# "The Fall of Númenor" — an early draft of the "Akallabêth"
# "The Lost Road" — a story that connects Tolkien's other tales to the present
# The later "Annals of Beleriand"
# The later "Annals of Valinor"
# The "Ainulindalë" — an early version of "The Music of the Ainur"
# "The Lhammas" ("Account of Tongues") — an overview of the various languages of the Elves
# "Quenta Silmarillion" — a draft of "The Silmarillion"
# The "Etymologies" — a long list of words and roots, the best source on Elvish languages
# The second Silmarillion map

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 V reads: "Herein are collected the oldest Tale of the Downfall of Númenor, the story of the Lost Road into the West, the Annals of Valinor and the Annals of Beleriand in a later form, the Ainulindalë, or the Music of the Ainur, the Lhammas, or Account of tongues, the Quenta Silmarillion or History of the Silmarils and the history of many words and names.".

External links

* [http://www.tolkien-online.com/the-lost-road.html More in-depth information on The Lost Road by JRR Tolkien]