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{{Short description|10'th volumeTenth of the 12-volume seriesvolumes of 'The History of Middle-earth'}}
{{Use British English Oxford spelling|date=DecemberFebruary 20102021}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}}
{{Infobox book
|name = Morgoth's Ring
|image = MorgothsRing.png<!--this image preferred here as visually distinctive and more likely to be recognised by readers-->
|caption =
|editor = [[Christopher Tolkien]]
|author = [[J. R. R. Tolkien]]
|country = United Kingdom
|language = English
|genre = [[High fantasy]]<br />Literary analysis
|series=''[[The History of Middle-earth]]''
|release_number= 10
|subject = [[Tolkien's legendarium]]
|publishersubject = [[GeorgeTolkien's Allen & Unwinlegendarium]] (UK)
|publisher =[[George Allen & Unwin]] (UK)
|release_date = 1993
|media_type = Print (hardback and paperback)
|pagesmedia_type =Print (hardback and = 496 (paperback)
| isbn pages =496 978-0261103009(paperback)
|isbn = 978-0261103009
| preceded_by = [[The History of The Lord of the Rings]]
| followed_by preceded_by= [[The WarHistory of The Lord of the JewelsRings]]
|followed_by=[[The War of the Jewels]]
}}
'''''Morgoth's Ring''''' (1993) is the tenth volume of [[Christopher Tolkien]]'s 12-volume series ''[[The History of Middle-earth]]'' in which he analyses the unpublished manuscripts of his father [[J. R. R. Tolkien]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Whittingham |first=Elizabeth A. |author-link=Elizabeth Whittingham |title=The Evolution of Tolkien's Mythology: A Study of the History of Middle-earth |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=22EqDwAAQBAJ |year=2017 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-1-4766-1174-7}}</ref>
 
==Contents Book ==
 
=== Contents ===
This volume, along with the subsequent ''[[The War of the Jewels]]'', provides detailed writings and editorial commentary pertaining to [[J. R. R. Tolkien's cosmology]] that eventually would become ''[[The Silmarillion]]''. This volume mentions a few characters excluded elsewhere, including Findis and Irimë, the daughters of [[Finwë]].
 
{{Tolkien's legendarium|upright=1.7|caption=Navigable diagram of [[Tolkien's legendarium]]. ''Morgoth's Ring'' presents materials related to ''Quenta Silmarillion''.}}
The title of this volume comes from a statement in one of the essays: "Just as [[Sauron]] concentrated his power in the [[One Ring]], [[Morgoth]] dispersed his power into the very matter of [[Arda (Tolkien)|Arda]], thus the whole of [[Middle-earth]] was Morgoth's Ring".<ref>{{cite book | author = J. R. R. Tolkien | author-link = J. R. R. Tolkien | editor = Christopher Tolkien | editor-link = Christopher Tolkien | year = 1993 | title = Morgoth's Ring | location = Boston & New York | publisher = [[Houghton Mifflin]] | isbn = 0-395-68092-1 | page = xi | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/morgothsringlate00tolk}}</ref>▼
 
''Morgoth's Ring'' presents source materials and editorial commentary on the following:
 
* Later (1951) revisions of ''The Silmarillion'', showing Tolkien's drastic revisiting and rewriting of his legends.
* ''The Annals of Aman'' presents— the history of the world from the entry of the [[Valar]] into [[Arda (Middle-earth)|Arda]] until the [[Valinor#The Hiding of Valinor|Hiding of Valinor]] after the revolt and exile of the [[Noldor]]. It is written in the form of year-by-year entries of varying lengths, much in the style oflike real-world [[annal]]s. [[Tolkien's frame stories|Tolkien attributes the work]] to the Noldorin lore-master and linguist Rúmil of Tirion. According to the second typescript, ''The Annals of Aman'' were remembered by the Noldorin Exiles in Middle-earth, who transmitted their knowledge to the Men of [[Númenor]], whence it eventually reached Arnor and [[Gondor]]. Tolkien wrote ''The Annals of Aman'' after the completion of ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]''. There are three extant versions of the text, including a carefully emended manuscript, a typescript and its carbon copy, each featuring different corrections and notes, and a typescript of the earlier sections of the text that deviates from the previous typescript. Christopher Tolkien surmises that the first typescript was composed in 1958. A reworking of the earlier ''[[Annals of Valinor]]'' and connected closely with the narrative of the incomplete 1937 ''[[Quenta Silmarillion]]'', ''The Annals of Aman'' moves from a compressed narrative style to a fuller accounting of the events of the chronology. ▼
* "[[Annals of Aman]]" — a detailed chronology from the creation of the world through to the end of the [[First Age]], including an explanation of time reckoning in [[Valian Years]].
* "Laws and Customs among the Eldar" — several essays and legends on the [[Eldar (Middle-earth)|Eldar]] or of the ([[Elf (Middle-earth)|Elves]]), particularly their mating and naming customs, and their conceptions of the ''fëa'' (soul) and ''hröa'' (body).{{anchor|Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth}}
* "Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth" — A discussion between two characters, [[Finrod Felagund]], an Elven king, and Andreth, a mortal woman, about the tragedynatures of [[Death and immortality in Middle-earth|death and immortality]], and the ways in which Elves and [[Edain|Men]] suffer their different sorrows;{{efn|These themes are discussed further at [[The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen#Love and death]].}} and about the healing of death by the [[Resurrection of Jesus|Resurrection]] and the [[Incarnation, which Tolkien here hints at, but later decided not to bring into his legendarium(Christianity)|Incarnation]].
* "Tale of Adanel" — the Middle-earth version of the Fall, attached to "Athrabeth".
* "Myths Transformed" — several fragments on Morgoth, Sauron, and the [[Tolkien's moral dilemma|problem of the origin of the [[Orc (Middle-earth)|Orcs]]. This section, which proposes inconsistent solutions to the problem, is frequently cited in discussions concerning theof [[Tolkien's [[legendarium]], and represents the author's later-evolved views on some central topics.
 
===The AnnalsTitle ofand inscription Aman===
 
▲The title of this volume comes from a statement in one of theTolkien's essays: "Just as [[Sauron]] concentrated his power in the [[One Ring]], [[Morgoth]] dispersed his power into the very matter of [[Arda (Tolkien)|Arda]], thus the whole of [[Middle-earth]] was Morgoth's Ring".<ref>{{cite book | author = J. R. R. Tolkien | author-link = J. R. R. Tolkien | editor = Christopher Tolkien | editor-link = Christopher Tolkien | year = 1993 | title = Morgoth's Ring | location = Boston & New York | publisher = [[Houghton Mifflin]] | isbn = 0-395-68092-1 | page = xi | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/morgothsringlate00tolk}}</ref>
'''''The Annals of Aman''''' date to the period following the completion of ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]''. There are three extant versions of the text, including a carefully emended manuscript, a typescript and its carbon copy, each featuring different corrections and notes, and a typescript of the earlier sections of the text that deviates from the previous typescript. Christopher Tolkien surmises that the first typescript was composed in 1958.
 
{{quote|The title page of each volume of ''The History of Middle-earth'' displays an inscription in the [[Fëanorian]] characters ([[Tengwar]], an alphabet devised by Tolkien for [[High-elven]]), written by Christopher Tolkien and describing the contents of the book. The inscription in Volume X reads: "In this book are given many of the later writings of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien concerning the history of the Elder Days from the [[Music of the Ainur]] to the [[Valinor#The Hiding of Valinor|Hiding of Valinor]]; here much is told of the Sun and the Moon; of the immortal Eldar and the death of the Atani; of the beginning of the [[Orc (Middle-earth)|Orcs]] and of the evil power of [[Melkor]], the Morgoth, the Black Foe of the World.''}}"▼
A reworking of the earlier ''[[Annals of Valinor]]'' (which was the working title of the manuscript until Tolkien changed it) and connected closely with the narrative of the incomplete 1937 ''[[Quenta Silmarillion]]'', ''The Annals of Aman'' moves from a compressed narrative style to a fuller accounting of the events of the chronology.
 
== Reception ==▼
▲''The Annals of Aman'' presents the history of the world from the entry of the [[Valar]] into [[Arda (Middle-earth)|Arda]] until the [[Valinor#The Hiding of Valinor|Hiding of Valinor]] after the revolt and exile of the [[Noldor]] in the form of year-by-year entries of varying lengths, much in the style of real-world [[annal]]s. Tolkien attributes the work to the Noldorin lore-master and linguist Rúmil of Tirion. According to the second typescript, ''The Annals of Aman'' were remembered by the Noldorin Exiles in Middle-earth, who transmitted their knowledge to the Men of [[Númenor]], whence it eventually reached Arnor and [[Gondor]].
 
==Title page==
 
The title page of each volume of ''The History of Middle-earth'' displays an inscription in the [[Fëanorian]] characters ([[Tengwar]], an alphabet devised by Tolkien for [[High-elven]]), written by Christopher Tolkien and describing the contents of the book. The inscription in Volume X reads:
▲{{quote|''In this book are given many of the later writings of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien concerning the history of the Elder Days from the [[Music of the Ainur]] to the [[Valinor#The Hiding of Valinor|Hiding of Valinor]]; here much is told of the Sun and the Moon; of the immortal Eldar and the death of the Atani; of the beginning of the [[Orc (Middle-earth)|Orcs]] and of the evil power of [[Melkor]], the Morgoth, the Black Foe of the World.''}}
 
▲==Reception==
 
Reviewing the book for ''[[Mythlore]]'', [[Glen GoodKnight]] wrote that in it, Christopher Tolkien leads the reader into "new third phase of his father's concept of Middle-earth after the writing of ''The Lord of the Rings'' — his recasting and adding to the mythos." In his view, the book is a major "earthquake" bringing "astounding revelations" about Tolkien's development of Middle-earth. One is the "Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth" (The Debate of
Finrod and Andreth), meant to be the last item in ''The Silmarillion's'' appendix, Tolkien's authoritative last word on the subject.<ref>[[Glen; GoodKnight|GoodKnight,it Glen]]reveals (1994)that "Reviews",death was the product of the evil will of [[MythloreMorgoth]] Vol. 20GoodKnight :comments No.that 2the materials in the book could have radically changed ''The Silmarillion'', Articlehad 10Tolkien lived to finish it "to his satisfaction".<ref>{{Cite journal|last=GoodKnight|first=Glen|date=1994-03-15|title=A Thing Wholly Different|url=https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol20/iss2/10|journal=[[Mythlore]]: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature|volume=20|issue=2|issn=0146-9339}}</ref>
 
== See also ==
 
* [[Aman (Middle-earth)|Aman]]
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* [[History of Arda]]
 
== Notes ==
{{notelist}}
 
== References ==
{{Reflist}}
 
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