This is history of the evolution of Tolkien's writings about Middle-Earth. There are sections on the evolution of the calendar, the family trees, the stories in the Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales, all about the iterations of some of the lesser known stories of Tolkien's Middle-Earth writing. At first this was difficult to get into, as it starts with the history of the languages, calendar and family trees, but once past that, it picked up. Great reference material for any Tolkien fan. ( )

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2115697.html

The first two-thirds are about the composition of the appendices of LotR; the rest brings together some short essays, mostly unfinished. Two of these are rather interesting. "The Shibboleth of Fëanor" looks at how the original 'þ' became 's' in Quenya but remained 'þ' in Sindarin, as in the name Sindacollo, the Quenya version of Thingol; Sindarin itself is a Quenya word, the Sindarin calling themselves the Egladhrim. There is also an intriguing late set of thoughts on the true identity of Glorfindel, who appears in quite different contexts in both LotR and the fall of Gondolin; one fascinating possibility is that he actually was killed in the First Age but allowed to return from the Halls of Mandos to accompany Gandalf on his mission, which would explain why the Nazgûl are particularly perturbed by him. There is also the fragment of The New Shadow, a sequel to LotR which clearly wasn't going anywhere; it is a story of boyhood orchard-robbing near Minas Tirith which didn't quite come together. ( )