The Shaping of Middle-Earth is a continuation of the development of early myths of made up The Silmarillion. This book is mainly just a combination of passages, that further develop Tolkien’s amazing mythology. The Shaping of Middle-Earth is divided into seven sections:
1. “Prose Fragments Following the Lost Tales”
1. “The Earliest ‘Silmarillion'”
2. “The Quenta”
3. “The First ‘Silmarillion’ Map”
4. “The Ambarkanta”
5. “The Earliest Annals of Valinor”
6. “The Earliest Annals of Beleriand”

At this point, I estimate about 70% of The Silmarillion is almost at it final form, excluding the Downfall of Númenor and Of The Rings of Power and The Third Age. In this book, you’ll find some of the very first Silmarillion maps, and the history behind them. Just like the first three previous books in The History of Middle-Earth series, Christopher Tolkien does an awesome job analyzing and explaining his father’s writings in an easy to understand manner. To me, the best thing about reading The History of Middle-Earth is learning about the things that were not included the final version of The Silmarillion. For example, in this book you’ll learn more “The Final Battle” and the ending of the world, which this is only mentioned in The Silmarillion, but doesn’t go into detail. In this book, you’ll read the details (and different versions) and holyshit it’s absolutely amazing. J.R.R. Tolkien’s creation story is amazing, but wow, his story of the ending of the world is just as epic!

This is the fourth book in the twelve set volume series of The History of Middle-Earth, and I cannot stress this enough; in order to enjoy these books you really need to understand and like the stories in The Silmarillion. Reading The Shaping of Middle-Earth, felt to me like reading (albeit a differ version) The Silmarillion for the tenth time. This is not a problem for me, since I absolutely love it and it’s personally my favorite book of all time.