A collection of linked myths and legends that form the ancient history of Tolkien's world, edited and published after his death by his son Christopher. It begins with the creation of the world in music and follows the long struggles of gods, elves and men in the First Age, centring on the making of the Silmarils, jewels of great beauty, and the ruinous oaths and quarrels they provoke. It ends with events leading toward the time of The Lord of the Rings. Its style is formal and elevated, closer to ancient chronicle than to a novel, and it gives depth and background to Tolkien's other works.
Quotes
And the Valar drew unto them many companions, some less, some well nigh as great as themselves, and they laboured together in the ordering of the Earth and the curbing of its tumults.
There was Eru, the One, who in Arda is called Ilúvatar; and he made first the Ainur, the Holy Ones, that were the offspring of his thought, and they were with him before aught else was made. And he spoke to them, propounding to them themes of music; and they sang before him, and he was glad.
Now the Children of Ilúvatar are Elves and Men, the Firstborn and the Followers. And amid all the splendours of the World, its vast halls and spaces, and its wheeling fires, Ilúvatar chose a place for their habitation in the Deeps of Time and in the midst of the innumerable stars.
It is said by the Eldar that in water there lives yet the echo of the Music of the Ainur more than in any substance else that is in this Earth; and many of the Children of Ilúvatar hearken still unsated to the voices of the Sea, and yet know not for what they listen.