Editing The Lord of the Rings (section)

==The Expanded Canon==

Besides the LOTR trilogy and the Hobbit, there are a few other books about Middle Earth. Many of them were published after Tolkien's death, but were personally edited by his son to make them available to the public. While none of these books are strictly need-to-know material, they can be thought of as great fluff books full of additional stories that flesh out the setting.

*[[The Silmarillion]] - This was an abridged history of Middle Earth, from its creation to the War of the Ring. Here you'll find more information about Sauron and the creation of the One Ring, as well as epic tales of both elvish and human heroes from the First Age, the sociopathic Elf King Fëanor who played right into Melkor's (Middle-Earth's Satan and Sauron's boss) schemes, the rise and fall of <s>Atlantis</s> Numenor, the War of the Last Alliance, and other things. Many people complain about the Silmarillion being too dry and reading like a history book (which is what it is, to be fair); if you’re looking for a ''novel'' - read on.
* Children of Hurin - published after Tolkein’s death, it is also the only complete novel covering one of the First Age stories in the Silmarillion. This covers the tragic story of Turin Tarambar, Tolkein’s version of Kullervo, and how Morgoth cursed him and his family to a fate worse than death. Still an epic adventure that fits well into the Legendarium.
*Unfinished Tales - As the name implies, these are narrative scraps which Tolkien hadn't completed before his death. Christopher Tolkien published this mess of notes on his way to completing two of the Tales (which he hadn't dared, himself, at the time). This book includes longer versions of lore mentioned in the trilogy, such as Isildur's death, the origin of the Wizards, and the founding of Rohan. And draughts of those ''Hurin'' and ''Gondolin'' stories which Chris would fill in, and publish, (much) later. But not ''Beren''.
*The Adventures of Tom Bombadil - Poetry centered around Tom Bombadil, who is best described as Middle Earth's equivalent of a Monty Python sketch. He's actually in the first LOTR book but is so carefree and oblivious to the War of the Ring that he's not terribly important despite being implied to be powerful enough to kick Sauron in the balls an walk away without a scratch.
*The History of Middle Earth - A 13 volume series detailing the creation of Tolkien's mythology, includes early drafts and unused stories. Here's where ''Beren'' is first floated, as a poem; and the first (maybe best) ''Fall of Gondolin''. While the early material here isn't considered canon, some very interesting revelations appear here:
:*Originally, Tolkien wanted to claim that he only "discovered" the stories about Middle Earth from a book he translated.
:*Which book, you may ask? Why, just a copy of the [[wikipedia:Red Book of Westmarch|Red Book of Westmarch]]. Also known as that book Frodo and Bilbo were writing as the story progresses. This is because...
:*[http://www.tolkiengateway.net/wiki/The_Lost_Road Middle Earth is actually our Earth.] [[wat|From before the Ice Age]] (hey, if Robert Howard could do the "lost era of history" story for [[Kull]] and [[Conan the Barbarian]], then so can Tolkien).
:*[http://www.tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Athrabeth_Finrod_ah_Andreth And that First Age humans predicted the birth of Jesus Christ] (though not in explicit terms). Did we mention Tolkien was Catholic?