Christopher Tolkien's Unpublished “The History of the Silmarillion”

Douglas Charles Kane's Arda Reconstructed (Lehigh University Press, 2009) drew some strong criticism following its publication in 2009. On THE HALL OF FIRE discussion forum (HOF)—which I believe Kane himself co-founded, around 2001—one gem of information, courtesy of Carl Hostetter, stood out amongst all the noise. Not that the back and forth discussion of Kane's book wasn't interesting in itself, but this was gold dust. 

Christopher Tolkien, in his role as literary executor, had responded to Kane in 2006—indirectly, via the TOLKIEN ESTATE—highlighting some issues he had with Kane's projected book, as it then stood. A copy of the report Christopher ‘wrote for the Estate’ was quoted, as part of a wider discussion of Kane's entire approach, by ‘Aelfwine’ [Carl Hostetter], with Christopher's express permission. The original 2009 thread and various posts can still be read here.

This comment by Christopher Tolkien is of particular interest:

 

A further, but quite distinct, consideration in this connection lies in the relation of The History of Middle-earth to the original writings. In my Foreword to The Peoples of Middle-earth, pp.ix-x, I referred to the forerunner of the History as 'an entirely "private" study, without thought or purpose of publication: an exhaustive investigation and analysis of all the materials concerned with what came to be called the Elder Days, from the earliest beginnings, omitting no detail of name-form or textual variation.' This work, which I called The History of the Silmarillion, and which I began after the publication of my 'constructed' text, runs to more than 2600 very closely typed pages, and it does not even touch on the Second and Third Ages. When the possibility arose of publishing at least part of this work, in some form, it was obvious that it would have to be heavily reduced and curtailed, and the part of The History of Middle-earth dealing with the Elder Days is indeed a new presentation of The History of the Silmarillion, and a severe contraction of it, especially in respect of the sheer quantity of variant manuscript material reproduced in full.

 

Twenty-six hundred pages. Closely typed. Tantalising, is it not? Most of us can be forgiven for having missed (I did) the full significance of Christopher's remarks (in his Peoples Foreword) in regard to the publication—undertaken by Rayner Unwin—of his “work on the history of ‘The Silmarillion’”. He doesn't explicitly name this work as The History of the Silmarillion; there is no hint of the existence (to a reader in 1996) of a single physical artefact. But we now know it exists. 

 

Bibliophile dreams are made of stuff like this.