The Silmarillion is the heart of Middle-Earth. This is the book that J.R.R. Tolkien spent his entire life writing. The Lord of the Rings was written as a sequel to the Silmarillion. You cannot fully experience Middle-Earth until you have read this wonderful book. However, this is not a novel. The Silmarillion is a collection of many legends, telling the tragic early history of Middle-Earth.

Houghton Mifflin and Harper Collins are the best publishers for this book. Try to get the hardcover or "trade" paperback if you can, because the mass-market paperbacks have very small, poor, illegible reproductions of the original maps.

Contains additional material that was not included in The Silmarillion, including more detailed versions of some of the stories.

A longer, more detailed version of the story of Turin Turambar from The Silmarillion.

Most, but not all, of J.R.R.T.'s illustrations of Middle-Earth are in this book.

Letters includes several responses which J.R.R. Tolkien wrote to fans who asked him questions about Middle-Earth.

Contains the Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings.

The first version of what became The Silmarillion. Part One.

Epic poems of the First Age of Middle-Earth. The stories are in earlier versions than what J.R.R.T. later wrote, but he never re-wrote these particular poems.

The first version of the Lord of the Rings.

Earlier versions of the Lord of the Rings.