The History of Middle-earth 5 Edited by Christopher Tolkien INKLINGS OF GREATNESS . . . J.R.R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis were friends and fellow members of the literary circle known as The Inklings. It is hardly surprising that, at one point, these talented gentlemen embarked on a challenge: Lewis was to write on "space-travel" and Tolkien on "time-travel." Lewis' novel, Out of the Silent Planet, became the first book of a science fiction trilogy. Tolkien's unfinished story, The Lost Road, chronicles the original destruction of Numenor, a pivotal event of the Second Age of Middle- earth. In this fifth volume of The History of Middle-earth, Christopher Tolkien brings Middle-earth to its state at the writing of The Lord of the Rings.