book of lost tales 1; book of lost tales 2; lays of Beleriand; lost road and other writings; shaping of Middle Earth
Tells the beginning of the conception of Middle Earth; two epic poems, The Lay of Leithian and The Lay of the Children of Hurin; the history of Middle Earth to the environment readers recognize from The Lord of the Rings; and a chronology of the events in Beleriand, the first Silmarillion map, and the only known description of the physical nature of Middle Earth's universe.