Middle Earth: The Secret History: Volumes 1 - 3

Middle Earth: The Secret History #1-3

by Richard Warren

This is an omnibus volume, with Volumes 1 - 3 incorporated. This is better value than buying the individual volumes.

Welcome to "Middle Earth: The Secret History."

Middle Earth! - the very name is evocative of a time beyond memory, when a super-continent dominated the Earth. A mythical time of Men and Ælves, goblins and demi-gods, when Heroes and Heroines bestrode the land, and battled for supremacy with evil forces, sometimes winning a temporary victory, sometimes winning a Pyhrric victory, and sometimes losing utterly. It was in this landscape that a young Hero, Ædwe, arose and challenged the Evil rooted in the North. The Secret History is an account of his exploits. Judge for yourself whether he succeeded or failed...

In Volume One, the first of fourteen, Ædwe grows up in Pandæmonium, the abode of The Enemy, Dunfiendsceatha. As a boy, he explores the warrens, as they are called, and discovers a secret of The Enemy; The Chamber of Strategies. Meanwhile, he does what he can to disrupt the logistical system of Dunfiendsceatha. He gradually comes to realise the importance of what he has seen in the Chamber of Strategies, and eventually decides to escape from the warrens, to the outside world; he then travels south to the Kingdom of Albion, leaving behind his boyhood friend, Cenewine, but they will meet again.
Volume One is some 10,200 words long.
Edition two has some minor changes, but no change to the plot.

In Volume Two, Ædwe walks South to The Village, in the Kingdom of Albion, where he stays for a few seasons, learning the ways of the people. He befriends various villagers, and meets the mysterious Æthelthryth, but remains apart from them all, before moving on; but unbeknownst to him, his stay will have major repercussions for the future.


In Volume Three, Ædwe walks South to the City of the King of Men, as a recruit to the army. After some training, he is involved in skirmishes, and advances his career. He meets a maiden in the forest, and instinctively feels an attraction to her, and later finds that she is well connected; an advantage, but also a pitfall. Eventually, he is forced to leave Albion, for the neighbouring Ælvish kingdom, where the Mountain King holds sway.

Available on Amazon.

85 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 3, 2015

About the author

Married with a young son, I am a Brit living in the U.S.
I enjoy writing, and write to please myself; if others enjoy this, then that is a bonus. As a writer, I find myself blessed - or should that be cursed? - with an active imagination; there is no way of turning it off; writing is one form of expressing that imagination.

As a single man I enjoyed reading, country walks, weight-training - which I still do, dancing - women love being held, and led around the dance-floor - you can learn a lot about a woman's character by dancing with her; try close-hold tango. I also did a bit of sailing in the English Channel - you should hear the radio traffic - self-inflicted emergencies. Hmmmm, there is material for a story there.

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I am currently writing a series of 15/16 volumes forming "Middle Earth: The Secret History." This is intended to be 'High Fantasy', with a theme of good versus evil.

Volumes 1 - 11 are published, amounting to some 120,000 words so far. The complete tale should amount to about 172,000 words or more, initially; it is on this basis that the work is described as 'epic'..

Volume 12 exists as a 12,000 word draft. In total, I have written over 26,000 words of volumes 12 - 15. The intention is to complete all four remaining volumes, before publishing.

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If you want to read a novel in which total eclipses play a central role role, then try this one.

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There is an omnibus volume of volumes 1 - 3, giving a better price than buying the individual volumes.
There is also an omnibus volume of volumes 4 - 6, likewise.

All published volumes are available from Amazon as e-books; you do not need a Kindle to read them. If you are not satisfied, just return the book to Amazon; they will give a full refund, I believe, but check the t's and c's first..

There are reviews on www.Amazon.com, but also on www.Goodreads.com; search by author or book name.

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Ideas can occur to me at any time, plus, when writing, they just occur on the fly. The story almost seems to write itself, with my acting as an amanuensis. Characters just seem to appear, and are as much of a surprise to me as they are to the reader.

A data-dictionary is used to keep track of characters names, place names etc. The names used are based on Anglo-Saxon roots. The Bosworth-Toller dictionary is used as the main source, aided by the Oxford English Dictionary. I will add the data-dictionary to the final volume.

Further volumes planned are as follows:

Vol 12 The Final Battle - Crystal Horse / Total Eclipse (12,000 word draft)
Vol 13 The Final Battle - Arrow-storm ( 5,000 word partial draft)
Vol 14 The Final Battle - Dark Abyss (6,000 word partial draft)
Vol 15 The End of Days (3,000 word partial draft.)

Volumes 12 - 14 cover the Final Battle, originally planned to be just one volume, but now expected to amount to 32,000+ words. Volume 15 includes some half-dozen puzzles for the Hero to solve, but they are also presented as puzzles to the reader; solutions will appear in an appendix to the second edition. Volumes 12 - 15 pull together various threads from the preceding volumes, and present more of a challenge to the writer than preceding volumes, and must not be rushed into print.

It has also emerged that there is a missing Volume 8 - part 2; this completes the description of the journey from the West to the East; this will probably create additional threads, picked up in the final volumes. The 16 volumes are likely to amount to 172,000 words or more, but there is scope for further expansion...