Before The Silmarillion, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, the earliest myths and legends of Middle-earth and Valinor were laid down in The Book of Lost Tales, written by J.R.R. Tolkien between 1916 and 1920, and compiled by Christopher Tolkien for publication in 1983.

'The Book of Lost Tales' stands at the beginning of the entire conception of Middle-earth and Valinor for the 'Tales' were the first form of the myths and legends that came to be called 'The Silmarillion'. Embedded in English legend and English association, they are set in the narrative frame of a great westward voyage over the Ocean by a mariner named Eriol (or Aelfwine) to Tol Eressëa, the Lonely Isle, where Elves dwelt; from them he learned their true history, the 'Lost Tales of Elfinesse'. In the 'Tales' are found the earliest accounts and original ideas of Gods and Elves, Dwarves, Balrogs and Orcs; of the Silmarils and the Two Trees of Valinor; of Nargothrond and Gondolin; of the geography and cosmology of the invented world.

"In these 'Lost Tales' we have the scholar joyously gambolling in the thickets of his imagination?a Commentary and Notes greatly enrich the quest."
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

"affords us an almost over the shoulder view into the evolving creative process and genius of J.R.R. Tolkien in a new, exciting aspect?the superb, sensitive and extremely helpful commentary and editing done by Christopher Tolkien makes all this possible."
MYTHLORE