He called his collection of nascent stories The Book of Lost Tales. This became the name for the first two volumes of The History of Middle-earth, which include these early texts. The stories employ the narrative device of a mariner named Eriol (in later versions, an Anglo-Saxon named Ælfwine) who finds the island of Tol Eressëa, where the Elves live; and the Elves tell him their history. However, Tolkien never completed The Book of Lost Tales; he left it to compose the poems The Lay of Leithian and The Lay of the Children of Húrin.