The Peoples of Middle-earth

By Christopher Tolkien and J.R.R. Tolkien

The concluding volume of The History of Middle-earth series, which examines the Appendices to The Lord of the Rings.

The Peoples of Middle-earth traces the evolution of the Appendices to The Lord of The Rings, which provide a comprehensive historical structure of the Second and Third Ages, including Calendars, Hobbit genealogies and the Westron language. The book concludes with two unique abandoned stories: The New Shadow, set in Gondor during the Fourth Age, and the tale of Tal-elmar, in which the coming of the dreaded Numenorean ships is seen through the eyes of men of Middle-earth in the Dark Years.

With the publication of this book, the long history of J.R.R. Tolkien’s creation is completed and the enigmatic state of his work can be understood.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins UK
• Release date: Dec 25, 2022
• ISBN: 9780007348299

Christopher Tolkien

Christopher Tolkien (1924–2020) was the third son of J.R.R. Tolkien. Appointed by Tolkien to be his literary executor, he devoted himself to the editing and publication of unpublished writings, notably The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, and The History of Middle-earth.

Reviews for The Peoples of Middle-earth

[karlstar_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is history of the evolution of Tolkien's writings about Middle-Earth. There are sections on the evolution of the calendar, the family trees, the stories in the Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales, all about the iterations of some of the lesser known stories of Tolkien's Middle-Earth writing. At first this was difficult to get into, as it starts with the history of the languages, calendar and family trees, but once past that, it picked up. Great reference material for any Tolkien fan.