The Silmarillion, now published four years after the death of its author, is an account of the ElderDays, or the First Age of the World. In The Lord of the Rings were narrated the great events at theend of the Third Age; but the tales of The Silmarillion are legends deriving from a much deeperpast, when Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, dwelt in Middle-earth, and the High Elves made war uponhim for the recovery of the Silmarils.Not only, however, does The Silmarillion relate the events of a far earlier time than those ofThe Lord of the Rings; it is also, in all the essentials of its conception, far the earlier work. Indeed,although it was not then called The Silmarillion, it was already in being half a century ago; and inbattered notebooks extending back to 1917 can still be read the earliest versions, often hastily...
