Contents ''Morgoth's Ring'' presents source materials and editorial commentary on the following: • Later (1951) revisions of
The Silmarillion, showing Tolkien's drastic revisiting and rewriting of his legends. • "The Annals of Aman" – the history of the world from the entry of the
Valar into
Arda until the
Hiding of Valinor after the revolt and exile of the
Noldor. It is written in the form of year-by-year entries of varying lengths, much like real-world
annals.
Tolkien attributes the work to the Noldorin lore-master and linguist Rúmil of Tirion. There are three extant versions of the text, including a carefully emended manuscript, a typescript and its carbon copy, each featuring different corrections and notes, and a typescript of the earlier sections of the text that deviates from the previous typescript. Christopher Tolkien surmises that the first typescript was composed in 1958. According to the second typescript,
The Annals of Aman were remembered by the Noldorin Exiles in Middle-earth, who transmitted their knowledge to the Men of
Númenor, whence it eventually reached Arnor and
Gondor. A reworking of the earlier "
Annals of Valinor" and connected closely with the narrative of the incomplete 1937
Quenta Silmarillion, "The Annals of Aman" moves from a compressed narrative style to a fuller accounting of the events of the chronology. • "Laws and Customs among the Eldar" – several essays and legends on the
Eldar (
Elves), particularly their mating and naming customs, and their conceptions of the
fëa (soul) and
hröa (body). • "Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth" – A discussion between two characters,
Finrod Felagund, an Elven king, and Andreth, a mortal woman, about the nature of
death and immortality, and the ways in which Elves and
Men suffer their different sorrows; and about the healing of the world and the fear of death by the hope of the
coming of
Eru Iluvatar into Middle-earth. • "Tale of Adanel" – the Middle-earth version of
the Fall, attached to "Athrabeth". • "Myths Transformed" – several fragments on Morgoth, Sauron, and the
problem of the origin of the Orcs. This section, which proposes inconsistent solutions to the problem, is frequently cited in discussions of
Tolkien's legendarium, and represents the author's later-evolved views on some central topics.
Title and inscription The title of this volume comes from a statement in one of Tolkien's essays: "Just as
Sauron concentrated his power in the
One Ring,
Morgoth dispersed his power into the very matter of
Arda, thus the whole of
Middle-earth was Morgoth's Ring". The title page of each volume of
The History of Middle-earth displays an inscription in the
Fëanorian characters (
Tengwar, an alphabet devised by Tolkien for
High-elven), written by Christopher Tolkien and describing the contents of the book. The inscription in Volume X reads: "In this book are given many of the later writings of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien concerning the history of the Elder Days from the
Music of the Ainur to the
Hiding of Valinor; here much is told of the Sun and Moon; of the immortal Eldar and the death of the Atani; of the beginning of the
Orcs and of the evil power of
Melkor, the Morgoth, the Black Foe of the World." == Reception ==