What was the name of J.R.R. Tolkien’s first Middle-earth story collection, begun around 1917?

The Book of Lost Tales was J.R.R. Tolkien’s first major collection of Middle-earth stories, begun around 1917.

Tolkien started writing these tales during and after the First World War. They were framed as ancient stories told to a human mariner named Eriol, and they included early versions of material that would later become part of The Silmarillion.

The Book of Lost Tales was not published during Tolkien’s lifetime as a finished book. Christopher Tolkien edited the manuscripts and published them in two volumes in 1983 and 1984 as the first parts of The History of Middle-earth.

Names, characters, and relationships changed substantially between these early drafts and later versions. For example, Tolkien revised the mythology’s structure, terminology, and framing devices repeatedly. The collection is therefore valuable not only for its stories but also for showing how Middle-earth developed over decades.