The Silmarillion/Tolkien J.R.R.

Designed to take fans of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings deeper into the myths
and legends of Middle-earth 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 Numenor 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.
This pivotal work features the revised, corrected text and includes, 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.