The 5,440-page complete history of Middle-Earth drops to the best price of the year

The world of Middle-earth is much more extensive than the stories of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. While Frodo, Gandalf, Samwise, Bilbo and Gollum may be the most familiar faces to Middle-earth fans, JRR Tolkien masterfully built his fantasy world with a stunning level of detail and lore – all of which you can discover in The History from the Middle-Earth series. Compiled and edited from Tolkien’s manuscripts and notes by his son Christopher Tolkien, The History of Middle-earth was originally published in the 1980s and 1990s. The most famous entry in the series is The Silmarillion, one of the source materials for Prime Video’s The Rings of Power. Like all Tolkien books, it has had several reissues, including beautiful new editions from 2024 and a stunningly large three-book set containing all 12 volumes.

If you want to read The complete history of Middle-earththe best option right now is the 2020 hardcover set. Originally $250, the heavy collection is on sale for $111.62 as part of Amazon’s early Prime Big Deal Days sale. This understated set, shown below, will likely be the largest box set in your home library. The three premium hardcovers total 5,440 pages, an average of 1,813 pages per book. For comparison: The Lord of the Rings Deluxe Editionwhich is for sale at a 50% discount, has “only” 1,216 pages.

If the prospect of reading an 1,800-page book sounds a little too unwieldy, but you’d still like hardcovers, the 2024 editions are also on sale. The design of the new editions, spread across four box sets, takes exactly the opposite approach, trading the ‘serious’ look for beautifully illustrated cover art that really stands out compared to many of the minimalist editions of Tolkien’s work. For this set, publisher William Morrow has divided the series into 15 parts.

Although all four sets are discounted, the first two are significantly cheaper than the more recent third and fourth sets, which were released in August and September. As you can see in the image below, each book has a reversible dust jacket if you prefer a more uniform look.

The History of Middle-Earth Box Sets (2024)

The History of Middle-earth Box Set 1 contains The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, Book of Lost Tales Part One and Book of Lost Tales Part Two. All told, that’s over 1,500 pages of Tolkien goodness. The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales may be of particular interest to Tolkien enthusiasts, as these new special editions contain the text of the first edition of the original printing of each book.

The History of Middle-earth Box Set 2 contains The Lays of Beleriand, The Shaping of Middle-earth and The Lost Road. Amazon has marked this book down to a new all-time low price of just $50, but because there are only three books included, the price per book is comparable to the first set.

The third box set contains four books: The Return of the Shadow, The Treason of Isengard, The Tar of the Ring and Sauron Defeated. The fourth and final set contains Morgoth’s Ring, The War of the Jewels, The Peoples of Middle-earth, and The History of Middle-earth Index. The Index is an invaluable reference work covering the entire series. If you decide to read the entire series, it’s a good idea to keep it close. The history of Middle-earth is a time-consuming undertaking with an incredibly ambitious scope and many different types of writing.

The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit are considered timeless classics of the fantasy genre for several reasons, including Tolkien’s brilliant world-building. And these books show fans how Middle-earth came to be.

As mentioned, The Silmarillion is the best-known and first part in the series. If you’d rather buy The Silmarillion on its own before investing in a box set, you have plenty of great options, including the budget-friendly hardcover Collector’s Edition published in August.

The Silmarillion Collector’s Edition retails for $24.50 (down from $35) ahead of Prime Big Deal Days. It is the cheapest of the five new Tolkien Collector’s Editions. Matching hardcover volumes of The Hobbit, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King are also available at discounted prices. These hardcover editions have stained edges and foil-stamped covers – they look more expensive than they cost.

Side note: The Lord of the Rings Deluxe Illustrated Box Set was released on October 1 and Amazon has dropped the price to $245 (from $325). For more details about this beautiful three-piece set, read our story here.

New editions of The Silmarillion, The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit

The Silmarillion – Tolkien illustrated series

In recent years, unique new editions of Tolkien’s three most popular books have been added to the ever-growing list of options for Tolkien fans. The Tolkien Illustrated Series contains the illustrations that Tolkien drew while writing The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and The Silmarillion.

It’s worth mentioning that one of Amazon’s other Prime Big Deal Days book box set deals offers a cheap way to read The History of Middle-earth. Tolkien Fantasy Tales Box Set is a set of four books that includes The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and The Tolkien Reader. Only The Silmarillion is part of the twelve-part series, but this is a great sampler platter of Tolkien’s works not called The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit. You can get the four-book set for just $15.33. It’s so cheap that the discount would cover the entire cost The Lord of the Rings Deluxe Edition or the set of four books with LOTR and The Hobbit (both are also discounted).

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