Foreword
     This tale grew in the telling, until it became a history of the Great
War of the Ring and included many glimpses of the yet more ancient
history that preceded it. It was begun soon after The Hobbit was
written and before its publication in 1937; but I did not go on with
this sequel, for I wished first to complete and set in order the
mythology and legends of the Elder Days, which had then been taking
shape for some years. I desired to do this for my own satisfaction,
and I had little hope that other people would be interested in this
work, especially since it was primarily linguistic in inspiration and
was begun in order to provide the necessary background of 'history'
for Elvish tongues.
     When those whose advice and opinion I sought corrected little hope to
no hope, I went back to the sequel, encouraged by requests from
readers for more information concerning hobbits and their adventures.
But the story was drawn irresistibly towards the older world, and
became an account, as it were, of its end and passing away before its
beginning and middle had been told. The process had begun in the
writing of The Hobbit, in which there were already some references to