We’re back to our Lesser-trod Histories series! This month, we are looking at the History of Middle-earth Volume 4, The Shaping of Middle-earth. Jude and Stef chat about the Dagor Dagorath (a.k.a. the Last Battle, or the Second Prophecy of Mandos) from its earliest stages in the Sketch of the Mythology through to the most recent version in The War of the Jewels. We discuss why a questionable Man is involved in slaying Arda’s baddest baddie, and we discuss whether this story should have been included in the published Silmarillion. 

Citations

Histories Volume 4

Tolkien, J. R. R. The Shaping of Middle-earth. Ed. Christopher Tolkien. The History of Middle-earth: Vol. 4. George Allen and Unwin, London, 1986. 

Histories Volume 10

Tolkien, J. R. R. Morgoth’s Ring. Ed. Christopher Tolkien. The History of Middle-earth: Vol. 10. HarperCollins, London, 1993. 

Histories Volume 11

Tolkien, J. R. R. War of the Jewels. Ed. Christopher Tolkien. The History of Middle-earth: Vol. 11. HarperCollins, London, 1994. 

Histories Volume 12

Tolkien, J. R. R. The Peoples of Middle-earth. Ed. Christopher Tolkien. The History of Middle-earth: Vol. 12. HarperCollins, London, 1996. 

The Silmarillion:

Tolkien, J. R. R. The Silmarillion. Edited by Christopher Tolkien. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Apple Books edition.  (March 4, 2025)

Tolkien And The Great War: The Threshold of Middle-earth

Garth, John. Tolkien And The Great War: The Threshold of Middle-earth. First Mariner Books edition 2005. eISBN 978-0-544-26372-7. V2.0519. (Accessed February 15, 2025)

Upcoming events

March 25, 2025: The Carrock Northern California Smail inaugural meeting is on Zoom on March 25 (Tolkien Reading Day) from 8:00–9:00 PM Pacific time. 

Find us on Bluesky: thecarrocksmial.bsky.social or Instagram: thecarrocksmial 

Link for our Google Sign-up form: https://tinyurl.com/TheCarrockSignUpForm

Join the Carrock Discord server: https://discord.gg/8DxzAhvPVn

May 9-11, 2025: Tolkien Society: Westmoot 2025

Join Jude and Stef in Kansas City, Missouri, at the National WWI Museum and Memorial. 

https://www.tolkiensociety.org/events/westmoot-2025/ (Accessed March 4, 2025)

July 5-6, 2025: Tolkien Society: Seminar 2025 – ‘Arda’s Entangled Bodies and Environments’

Run by Will Sherwood, Clare Moore and Journee Cotton

https://www.tolkiensociety.org/events/seminar-2025/ (Accessed March 4, 2025)

August 2-3, 2025: The Mythopoeic Society- Online MidSummer Seminar 2025: “More Perilous and Fair: Women and Gender in Mythopoeic Fantasy”: https://www.mythsoc.org/oms/oms-04.htm (Accessed Feb 23, 2025)

September 4-7, 2025: Tolkien Society: Oxonmoot

Join Jude and Stef at St. Anne’s College, Oxford and online! 

https://www.tolkiensociety.org/events/oxonmoot-2025/ (Accessed March 4, 2025)