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Works, letters & canon tiers

What appeared in his lifetime, what Christopher Tolkien edited, what stayed a draft: the state of the sources is itself a subject of this reference work. Every citation on this site depends on it.

published in his lifetime2 entries · The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings

posthumously edited8 entries · Ainulindalë, Beren and Lúthien, The Children of Húrin

draft, contradictory12 entries · The Book of Lost Tales, Part One, The Book of Lost Tales, Part Two, The Lays of Beleriand

adaptationno entries yet

The works

First edition · canon tier · German edition

The Hobbit1937Scherf 1957 · Krege 1997

The Lord of the Rings1954–1955Carroux 1969–1970 · Krege 2000 · Krege 2012

The Silmarillion1977Krege 1978

Unfinished Tales19801983

The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien1981Krege 1991

The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays19831987

The History of Middle-earth I–XII1983–960 of 12 with German edition

IThe Book of Lost Tales, Part One1983—

IIThe Book of Lost Tales, Part Two1984—

IIIThe Lays of Beleriand1985—

IVThe Shaping of Middle-earth1986—

VThe Lost Road and Other Writings1987—

VIThe Return of the Shadow1988—

VIIThe Treason of Isengard1989—

VIIIThe War of the Ring1990—

IXSauron Defeated1992—

XMorgoth's Ring1993—

XIThe War of the Jewels1994—

XIIThe Peoples of Middle-earth1996—

The Children of Húrin20072007

Beren and Lúthien2017Möhring 2017

The Fall of Gondolin2018Pesch 2018

Ainulindalë—no German edition recorded

marks the house standard for German names (Carroux). Publication years are checked against Wikidata and library catalogues; German editions against the German National Library.