The History of Middle-earth: Difference between revisions

* [[Shoo Out the Clowns]]: in ''The Book of Lost Tales'', Sauron is a giant cat (who tests Beren's skills as a trapper by having him catch three mice, because his castle is positively ''overrun'' with them), Morgoth has a wife and kids, an Elvish defector invents tanks, the sun and moon are ships that sail in the upper atmosphere, and, in one version of the story, Morgoth is banished from the world when he climbs up a gigantic pine-tree to escape the Valar and the Valar cut it down after him. As early as the 1930s, though, [[The Silmarillion]] is closer to its modern form.

* [[Shoot the Messenger]]: In ''The Book of Lost Tales, Part 1'', Melkor attempts to persuade the Valar to allow him and his companions to leave Valinor, but the messenger he sends to announce his demands is denounced as a "rogue" and a "traitor", and promptly executed. This actually made the Dark Lord upset, considering he had just Averted this trope earlier, when an Eagle was sent by the Valar to deliver a message to ''him'', and [[What the Hell, Hero?|would have expected his own messengers to be treated in kind by the Gods]].

* [[Time Abyss]]: The earlier drafts of ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' offer a few more details about [[Inexplicably Awesome|Tom Bombadil]]:

{{quote| '''Frodo:''' Who are you, Master?<br />