The Earliest Annals

The last two sections of The Shaping of Middle-earth show Tolkien's first (of many) attempts at creating a cohesive chronology for his mythology. I must admit this is perhaps the most excited part of this book to me. I love seeing how the Professor envisioned events to happen and interweave through history. In fact, I love it so much it was the impetus for starting my blog. I sought to read Tolkien's works in chronological order and, in order to help cement events in my mind (as best I could) I blogged them (see 2013 on this blog to see how that transpired).

Christopher Tolkien entitles the last two sections as The Earliest Annals of Valinor and The Earliest Annals of Beleriand. He calls them the earliest for they were the first written attempts at such a chronology written in the 1930's. A several versions followed; particularly after the Lord of the Rings was completed. And for good measure, for example, being the philologist that Tolkien is there are examples of some of the early annals also written in Old English. After all--why not?

Although the concept of Valian Year's are intriguing I will not be wading through year by year of each annal. I will simply end The Shaping of Middle-earth by encouraging you to look into it yourself. Perhaps you too will be struck by the authenticity of this feigned history by the reading of the Annals.