Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-earth
by Christopher Tolkien, J.R.R. Tolkien

List Price: $26.00
Our Price: $16.11
You Save: $9.89 (38%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $9.89 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions

Book Summary Information

Book Reviews of Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-earth

Book Review: Tragically Unfinished
Summary: 5 Stars

After reading The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion, many readers are amazed and stop here announcing that Tolkien is a true genius (if they even reach this point), but there are some of us who have grown to love Tolkien's work, and embrace every aspect of it with such a lust for knowledge, that we delve deeper into the works of this intricate man. His son, Christopher Tolkien, has made this possible by piecing together and editing his father's massive amounts of work and sorting it out and explaining it all to us, the readers.

Before diving into the twelve book series "The History of Middle-earth," which Christopher has so delicately and perfectly presented, I highly suggest reading this piece of literature, which explains more in depth, smaller aspects of the published writings of Tolkien.

Read Tolkien's last effort at the story of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin, a story which tragically was not finished, and can only be glimpsed at in its rough stages in Volume II of The History of Middle-earth (The Book of Lost Tales 2), and then diverge into the complete "Narn I Hín Húrin," the story of the children of Húrin: Túrin Turambar and Nienor Niniel, two of the most tragic characters in existence in the first section of Unfinished Tales which deals with the first age of the sun of Middle-earth.

The second section of Unfinished Tales is very important for it contains many accounts of events that occured in the second age of the sun, a time that is hardly written about, that is filled with much history and tragedy. Read about the Isle of Gift: Númenor, which the ancestors of Elendil were given and which they lost towards the end of the Second Age, and about it's sixth king: Tar-Aldarion, and his strong wife, Erendis, who wages a battle with the Lady of the Sea for her husband's love in one of the most awesome love stories ever written. Read also about the fate of the Elves who remained in Middle-earth and defied the might of the Dark Lord Sauron until the Last Alliance, in which a tangled history of Celeborn and Galadriel is woven with the story of Amroth and Nimrodel, and the Sindarin princes who ruled the Silvan Elves of the forests of Middle-earth after Beleriand's fall.

In section three read about aspects of the Third Age yet to be covered, like the fate of Isildur who cut the One Ring, to the history of the Riders of Rohan who befriended the failing kingdom of Gondor in their need to the meeting of Gandalf and Thorin Oakenshield in an inn within the walls of Bree, a chance meeting which would be vital in the destruction of a dragon which could have ended The Lord of the Rings very differently, while reading about the fate of Theodred, son of Theoden King of Rohan.

Finally, read rare appendices on the stunted Drúedain, the only technical and historical writings on the Palantiri (the seven seeing stones from the West), and one of the most talked about features of Tolkien's writings: the Istari, a race of the Maiar who were sent as emmisaries into Middle-earth (who also became known as "wizards") to drive Men and Elves to good deeds during the Third Age of Middle-earth.

This book is a necessary part of any Tolkien Reader's library and will most likely be read and studied again and again by readers young and old of any profession.

Summary of Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-earth

Literary Books

• Subjects > Literature & Fiction > Literary
• Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Epic