The Silmarillion - Hardcover

‘How, given little over half a century of work, did one man become the creative equivalent of a people?’
The Guardian

‘Demanding to be compared with English mythologies... at times rises to the greatness of true myth’
Financial Times

‘A creation of singular beauty... magnificent in its best moments’
Washington Post

‘A grim, tragic, brooding and beautiful book, shot through with heroism and hope... its power is almost that of mysticism’
Toronto Globe & Mail

The first publication of a deluxe edition of The Silmarillion, featuring the revised, reset text, bound in cloth and leather and set in a protective slipcase.

The Silmarillion is an account of the Elder Days, of the First Age of Tolkien’s world. It is the ancient drama to which the characters in The Lord of the Rings look back, and in whose events some of them such as Elrond and Galadriel took part. The tales of The Silmarillion are set in an age when Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, dwelt in Middle-Earth, and the High Elves made war upon him for the recovery of the Silmarils, the jewels containing the pure light of Valinor.

Included in the book are several shorter works. The Ainulindale is a myth of the Creation and in the Valaquenta the nature and powers of each of the gods is described. The Akallabeth recounts the downfall of the great island kingdom of Númenor at the end of the Second Age and Of the Rings of Power tells of the great events at the end of the Third Age, as narrated in The Lord of the Rings.

For the first time, we are publishing a de luxe edition of this pivotal work, featuring the revised, corrected text and including, by way of an introduction, a fascinating letter written by Tolkien in 1951 in which he gives a full explanation of how he conceived the early Ages of Middle-earth. Bound in cloth and leather, and set in a protective slipcase, this attractive edition will prove a fine addition to any Tolkien collection.