Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Certainly the impression I get from the relevant bits of HME is that Of The Rings of Power, like Akallabeth, was a work that Tolkien Pere had completed to his satisfaction and CRT did nothing more than touch it up. CT also points out, in the foreword to the 1977 Silmarillion, that both works were included in that volume "according to my father's explicit intention," which certainly argues that the Professor had written both works.

(The reason that Akallabeth and its antecedents receive substantial space in HME is that the legend of Numenor evolved over many drafts, and was intimately bound up with Tolkien's changing conception of his legendarium, whereas RPTA was, apparently, written off at a stroke, like most of Appendix A was (and quite possibly at about the same time, 1949-50 or so))