MIDDLE-EARTH TIMELINE
Interrupted Music: The Making of Tolkien's Mythology is a study by Verlyn Flieger, published by Kent State University Press in 2005.
Flieger looks at how Tolkien tried to build a mythology for England that would read like a real tradition. She studies the framing devices of his work: the mariner Ælfwine who hears the old tales, the Red Book of Westmarch as the supposed source of The Lord of the Rings, and the many versions of the same stories. She also compares his project with models such as the Finnish Kalevala and the Arthurian and Celtic legends. The title comes from the Music of the Ainur, Tolkien's own unfinished song.
Verlyn Flieger on how Tolkien built his mythology to read like a real tradition, from Ælfwine to the Red Book of Westmarch.