At the end of 1937 J.R.R Tolkien reluctantly set aside his work on the myths and heroic
legends of Valinor and Middle-earth and began The Lord of the Rings. This fifth volume of The
History of Middle-earth completes the examination of his writing up to that time. Later forms
of The Annals of Valinor and The Annals of Beleriand had been composed The Silmarillion was
nearing completion in a greatly amplified form and a new Map had been made. The legend of the
Downfall of Numenor had entered the work including those central ideas: the World Made Round
and the Straight Path into the vanished West. Closely associated with this was the abandoned
'time-travel' story The Lost Road linking the world of Numenor and Middle-earth with the
legends of many other times and peoples. Also included in this volume is The Lhammas as essay
on the complex languages and dialects of Middle-earth and an 'etymological dictionary'
containing an extensive account of Elvish vocabularies.
